MISSION: Crock pot chili

Another busy day, another need for an easy meal that I can have cooking while I go about my daily tasks.  For some people, fall means football season, but for our family it is ballet season as our daughter prepares for her parts in our studios Nutcracker production.  This means spending about 4 hours at the studio and doesn't give me a lot of time to spend in the kitchen preparing meals.  Today's dinner mission was to put together a crock pot meal for lunch that could cook while I once again shuttled my daughter off to early morning ballet class.   Usually I make this on the stove top, but today I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to cook lunch so I decided to see how my chili would turn out in the crock pot.  

Here's what you'll need.

Chili
2 lbs ground beef
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 28 oz can of tomato sauce
2 14.5 oz cans kidney beans
2 14.5 oz cans pinto beans
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
2 cups water

---

Place your ground beef in a large skillet and cook on medium high heat.

---

While your beef is browning, dice your vegetables.

---

Once the beef is browned, set aside.

---

In your crock pot, add tomato sauce and seasonings.  Stir to mix well so the spices will be distributed evenly throughout the chili.

---

Add beans and diced tomatoes to sauce.

---

Once the beef is browned, add it and the diced vegetables to the crock pot.  Cook 3 to 4 hours on low.  The beef is already cooked, so the goal is to heat the remaining ingredients.  This is one of those recipes that gets better the longer is cooks.  This chili is even better if served a few days after you cook it when the seasonings have had time to become more vivid in flavor.

---

Serve with your favorite toppings (i.e. sour cream, cheese, scallions) and crackers or corn bread.

---

MISSION: SUCCESSFUL!