Dry Bean Slow Cooker Chili

Much like the Brother Green Eats (I finally subscribed to a new youtube channel) I whole heartedly prefer starting with dry beans vs canned. Sure canned beans are more convenient, but, they have all that slimly stuff on them you have to rinse off and you get so much more bang for your buck with dry beans and the texture of beans you cook yourself is just straight up better. 

So anyways, this is the first time I just didn't use a recipe at all to make chili and it came out pretty damn good. I started with two cups of dry beans into the slow cooker. Now I used six cups of water, which in theory is the correct ratio of water to dry beans, but I ended up having to cook off a fair amount of liquid at the end, so next time I'll only use five to five and a half cups. 

Then I put the seasonings in. I started with one table spoon cumin, two of chili powder and one of salt, and then seasoned it a little more to taste after it had cooked.

A can of tomatoes, a little can of green chilis. A bag of frozen peppers, an onion (chopped), and two cloves of garlic (crushed).

A package of ground meat, I used turkey. Side note, raw it totally looks a bit like brains:

I set the slow cooker to low and let it cook allllllll day.

At the end I added half a bar of baking chocolate and a bag of frozen corn. I topped each portion with some shredded Mexican Cheese and Sarah and I had chili every day for lunch last week. While it may look gross (like seriously) it was tasty. See you next Tuesday!

Popsicles

So I don't know about where all you are, but here in New England we've had some fucking hot weeks this summer. Which has led to the perpetual making of popsicles in our freezer. We like to use Goya fruit nectars for a couple of reasons. A) One can is the exact correct amount to make our set of monster pops (though it comes up a little short with our other pop mold, but we just throw a little something random into that last pop). B) It's super cheap. 50 cents a can, which makes 4 popsicles cheap. And nothing is more delightful than a fruit ice pop on a hot summers day...well as far as eating goes I suppose. Enjoy these pictures of the adorable monster pops (and the clutter of our freezer) and I'll see you next Tuesday!

Red Lentils

I can't tell you why, but for some reason I've been craving lentils lately, which is weird, cause the only time I've ever really had lentils, was when I was studying abroad they were easy to get and cook, cheap and delicious, but I haven't had them much (or at all?) since then. So when I was at the grocery store this weekend I decided to pick some up. But I couldn't find any with the dry beans (which is where I assume they're kept?). So I checked over in the organic section with loose stuff that you bag yourself and get to print a little price tag for (clearly the highlight of this venture) and they were all out of green lentils. But, they did have red ones. Having never seen, or even knew red lentils existed, I decided, why not, let's give it a go! 

The dispenser they came from said to use 3 cups water to one cup lentils, and cook them for 30 - 45 minutes. So clearly I followed this advice. But I think I must've missed something, because it definitely didn't take that long, and even then they came out a bit mushy. And I ended up having to add a little more water, but I feel like that's pretty normal. 

I use an advanced method to mix my spices before throwing them into the pot. The only thing not pictured that I did end up adding was a little salt. I used mostly curry and garlic powder, with only a little cumin, and a teensy bit of ginger. 

I also added some onion and a big spoonful of plain greek yogurt.

See, mushy. But it did come out tasting pretty good :) I ended up eating it for lunch, but I'd say given the way I made it, it would be better suited as a side dish. Maybe I should invest some time into looking for recipes involving lentils. Any suggestions?

See you next Tuesday everyone!