Kids Cook Monday- Chili Night!

Us Pennsylvania folks had our first little glimpse of Fall this past weekend. The lows were in the high 50's (this is totally unheard of where we came from in Florida!) This inspired me to break out the crock pot and try my mom's meatless chili recipe. It wasn't exactly cold outside today, but I will take any excuse to eat chili and it makes the house smell so yummy!

This recipe calls for 3 different types of beans. Basically, you can use whatever type of bean you have on hand or are in the mood for. I used kidney, pinto and black beans. You can change the amount of beans depending on how thick you like it. I actually never make meaty chili (I'm not a fan of ground beef) so this is my go-to chili recipe and it just sort of worked out for Meatless Monday. I let it all simmer in the crockpot on high for about 4 hours, but you could definitely do it on low for 8 hours. I normally do it the slower and lower method, but I didn't get a chance to get started until the afternoon.

Here's the recipe, but you don't have to follow it exactly. I like to wing it in the kitchen!

3 Bean Chili

15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 can tomato soup
2-14 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies
2- 15 oz. can chili beans
15 oz. can red beans
15 oz. can black beans
3 Tb. dried chopped onion
1 Tb. sugar
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

*cook with crock pot lid slightly propped, season to taste

Cooking with the lid propped is important in helping the chili thicken up. It smelled delicious in our house!

So here's a mistake I made with this chili. If you make this chili for your kids you can either learn from my mistake or try my trick for "fixing" it. I'm so used to making this for Chris and I and we like a little kick with our chili. I should have used a little less chili powder and regular tomatoes to make it more kid friendly. When I tested it, the chili tasted great to me, but I knew it would be too spicy for Brady, so I had to cool it down for him. Chris always likes plain Greek yogurt (instead of sour cream) on his chili so I decided to make Brady's version a more creamy chili. It really worked well to tone down the spice. I just used about half Greek yogurt and half chili and it was the perfect creamy chili sauce for a 14 month old!

I have always liked chili on pasta. We called it a 3-Way when I was growing up...chili, pasta and cheese. I mix it up on what kind of pasta I use just based on what I have on hand. Today I had a pasta called "Pipette" which was similar to a macaroni but a little thicker tube (just thick enough for chili beans to get inside- yum!!) Here's our 3 finished products.

Chris's, Brady's, and mine.

Brady testing out his creamy chili pasta.

All in all, this meal was a hit. And the best part is that we have TONS of leftovers. It's enough to have lunch tomorrow and freeze some for whenever we get another cool spell. Or, as Chris reminded me, we could also throw it in with some Velveeta cheese and have nachos for football this weekend!