Slow Cooker Chili and Fresh Baked Bread

Cold, rainy fall days call for some good old comfort food. My husband has been asking me to make Chili for a while now so yesterday I whipped up a quick batch in my beloved slow cooker. If you're a new mom or a stay at home parent you will know that slow cookers come in handy when you don't want to be bothered to make dinner in the evening, or if you just don't have the time. 

I never really follow a recipe when I make my Chili, usually I just through a bunch of stuff in and go. Yesterday my Chili consisted of:

1 Package Old el Paso Chili seasoning. (You can make your own with spices and herbs but I just happened to have a package handy)

2lbs browned Lean Ground Beef with 4 garlic cloves

1 can (28floz) Crushed Tomatoes

28oz Tomato Sauce (I use Presidents Choice Original tomato sauce)

1 Onion diced

1 very large Carrot diced

1 Large Can Red Kidney Beans (drained and rinsed)

1 Large Can Black Beans (drained and rinsed)

A generous squirt of Sriracha Sauce

Sea Salt and Fresh Gound Black Pepper to taste

Place in Slow Cooker for 6 Hours on High or 8 Hours on Low

Now you don't have to use these exact ingredient, everyone likes different flavors and textures in their Chili. I happened to use 4 gloves of garlic because I love garlic, crush tomatoes because my husband hates tomato chunks and I used a carrot because I had no peppers and it needed some sort of vegetable. 

Next time I might ad a little more heat, I think the Sriracha sauce mustve cooked down a bit and my husband loves spicy food. So next time I might experiment with paprika, cayenne paper and other hot sauces. 

For the fresh baked bread I used my handy dandy Black & Decker Bread Maker. My favorite bread to do in that is just a simple White Bread recipe (we're super unhealthy - sugar and gluten! OH MY!) But my husband loves him some white bread. He always comments that theres nothing better than freshly baked bread, and I have been instructed to make it weekly so we don't have to buy a loaf of bread every week. 

The white bread recipe I pulled from google. 

Place ingredients in bread machine in the following order:

1 1/2C Water

2 Tbsp Powdered Milk

2 Tbsp Shortening

3 Tbsp White Sugar

1 tsp Salt

4C All Purpose Flour

2 tsp yeast

Select desired cooking time on bread machine

So there you have it, a quick and easy meal which will cook away as you go about your day, and it leaves the house smelling delicious.

Post below if you have a specific chili or bread recipe you love!

See you next time!