Kitchen Stewardship

It's Sunshine Awareness Week at Kitchen Stewardship! I'm burned on half my body as a result of testing natural sunscreens...be sure to check all this week's posts for the scoop on what works, what doesn't, and when (if?) we need sunblock at all, along with over $400 in sun protection giveaways. Check out the natural sunblock review for the scoop.

Make sure you don't miss a thing by subscribing via RSS or email.

Chili is a great winter comfort food.  It’s warm, hearty, and of course it includes beans!  Good, healthy, yummy stuff.  Unfortunately, a lot of recipes, like my husband’s old favorite, contain a lot of canned ingredients – canned tomatoes, canned “chili” beans, and more.  So what is a whole-foods-eating-girl to do?

I’ve made over my husband’s favorite chili recipe to make it a bit healthier and, I think, a bit tastier. 

Original Recipe:

1 -  1 ½  lb. Ground beef
1 64 oz. can tomato juice
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 16 oz. cans “Brooks” chili beans

Directions: Brown the ground beef.  Add all ingredients to a Crockpot and cook on low for 8 – 10 hours, or high for 4 – 5 hours.

To make over this recipe, we need to get rid of the canned beans and canned tomato juice.  Canned tomatoes are acidic and that acid can pull the BPA off the can lining.  We’ve all heard by now that BPA is not good for us.  So, here is my version:

Healthy Upgrade:

½ lb. kidney beans, soaked overnight
1 – 1.5 lb. grass-fed ground beef
2 tbsp. olive oil
½ small onion, chopped
2 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. sea salt
6 c. organic tomato juice (in a BPA-free plastic or glass bottle)

My new, healthier ingredients (most of them)

Directions:

Cook beef and onion in a frying pan with olive oil over medium heat until beef is no longer pink and onions are soft.  Put meat mix into a Crockpot.  Add beans (drained).  Add all spices, vinegar, and tomato juice.  Cook on low 6 – 8 hours, or high 3 – 4 hours.  Serves 3 – 4.

This recipe uses grass-fed beef, has more fat, and more flavor in general.  It’s also a bit thicker and richer than the original, with more meat and less juice.  The canned beans are gone, replaced by dried beans and extra spices to make up for the lack of the “chili sauce” the canned ones had.  The tomato juice comes from a (hopefully BPA-free) plastic bottle instead of a can (or glass, if that’s available).  Even better would be fresh tomatoes from the garden, blanched, peeled, de-seeded, and blended until smooth.  But, you do what you can.

Feel free to make some changes to this recipe.  Add some chopped, fresh green pepper (cook with beef and onions), fresh chopped tomato, a bit of fresh jalapeno, etc.  My husband doesn’t happen to like these things so I can’t get away with it (too bad, because I like it!).  Serve it with crackers or organic corn chips and top with cheese, onions, or your other favorites.

Do you enjoy chili in the winter months?  Dish out your secret spices, if you dare!

**Note from Katie – Mark your calendars for Feb 15 and March 1 to visit Kate’s blog,  Modern Alternative Mama.  She’s hosting a 30-Day Eat More Fat Challenge and will explain it and launch it on those days.  Super fun stuff!!

Kate of Modern Alternative Mama is a young mother of two (Bekah, 2 and Daniel, 6 months) who lives in Ohio. She posts on mothering, debt-free living, medical information and natural health, recipes and whole foods, and more. She loves to help women with breastfeeding and child-related issues and hopes to be a breastfeeding counselor and childbirth educator someday. She posts new blog entries daily on a variety of different topics and plans to expand the blog and add a meal planning feature and more natural health articles in the upcoming weeks.

See more reverse engineered recipes and a great guide on how to makeover your family’s favorites to get rid of the processed ingredients here.

———————————————

I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

I’m always happy to join up with Real Food Wednesday!

Hungry for more? Related posts:

1. Recipe Connection: Homemade Refried Beans
2. Recipe Connection: Veggie Bean Burritos
3. Recipe Connection: Mexican Beans and Rice
4. Recipe Connection: Sausage Spinach Pasta Toss
5. Recipe Connection: Pepper Steak (a Real Food Rendition of Hubby’s Favorite Meal)