The Best Fall/Winter Meal ever (well in my opinion)

Tonight was Chili and Grilled Cheese night at our house. Wee-one does not like Chili (tried numerous times to offer it to him but have finally given up...ha) so I made him a can of Campbell's Chunky Chicken and Dumpling Soup. I figure it has chicken and vegetables (green beans, peas, carrots and celery) all cleverly disguised in a creamy soup base and there's dumplings...SCORE :)! Wee-one slurps that soup up like there is no tomorrow, however tonight he decided to take a few bites and then he was DONE! Grilled cheese is usually another win, win with Wee-one. I think he would live off Grilled Cheese if I'd let him! Yeah and of course tonight he only ate one little triangle of it (I cut it into four triangles). Hubs and I enjoyed our Chili and our grilled cheese sandwich's. Mighty tasty!

I'm come to the conclusion that if Wee-one eats well for lunch at daycare he doesn't eat so good at supper. Well sometimes anyway. Again I've stopped trying to figure him out...LOL! He had a bologna and cheese sandwich and corn chips at Daycare today and ate all of it from what I heard. I suppose giving him a pudding cup and some chocolate chips at 4:30 today while I was making supper might have had something to do with him not eating so well either. You think I would have learned by now....geez! Sometimes you gotta do things like that so you can get supper made...ok so now my secret is out :)! I also let Wee-one try the Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake I made tonight too. I figured why not...it's not like I do that everynight. Nothing wrong with a little dessert now and again :)! Yup...I am officially not going to win any Mother of the Year rewards but I bet I scored a few points with Wee-one (even though he called me a Dumb, Dumb at bedtime). Again I'm just going to chalk the whole Dumb, Dumb thing up to the fact that he didn't want to go to bed tonight and leave it at that :)! I try not to take things personal...but sometimes it's kinda hard. Like yesterday when he was mad for me laying him down for a nap he told me he didn't love me. Broke my heart but I know he doesn't know the impact of his words and really what they mean. He was just saying it...at least I don't think he knows what they mean. I know he'll say that a lot in the next few years. I gotta grow a thicker skin....

Sorry for the rant there folks. Here is my homemade Chili recipe :). I have adapted this some so I can use my canned stewed tomato's that I so lovingly preserved this summer. I have listed what the recipe originally calls for if you don't have canned stewed tomato's. It still tastes just as good...trust me. I made this Chili recipe all last Fall/Winter the way the original directions read because I didn't put up any tomato's. So here it is:


Homemade Chili:

1 lb. ground beef
1 sm. onion, chopped
1 sm. green pepper, chopped
salt and pepper
2 cans of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups of tomato juice (I use a quart of my stewed tomatoes)
Chili powder

Brown ground beef, onion and green pepper in a skillet. Add salt and pepper (to your liking...I use a lot). Drain and rinse ground beef mixture. Put into a large saucepan. Add drained kidney beans and 3 cups of tomato juice. Sprinkle on chili powder (the original recipe called for 2 Tbsp. I just sprinkle it on until I think there is enough on there..ha). Stir all together. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer.

Tastes really good with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. Also if you have any left over spaghetti sauce you can dump that in there. I have done that before too with excellent results. I have also been known to use some whole tomato's in my chili too. I froze a whole bunch of whole tomato's from my garden and run them under hot water to skin them. Then I throw them into the pot (whole) and let the heat of the Chili defrost them. Chili is pretty versatile so you can pretty much tweak any recipe to fit your families tastes :)! Enjoy experimenting with your recipes. I have the most fun when I just mess around with a recipe...it's like a science experiment sometimes but it sure is fun :)!

I won't give the recipe on how to make Grilled Cheeses because that is pretty easy to do and I figure everyone and their Uncle knows how to make a Grilled Cheese (if you don't feel free to let me know and I'll help you out :)!!)

Tomorrow night is going to be another Sneaky Chef recipe. We usually have Breakfast for Supper on Wednesday nights at our house so tomorrow night will be breakfast. I'm excited to try the French Toast Rollers and hope Wee-one is excited by them too. We shall see...again every day is different around here. Never a dull moment that's for sure.

So that's it for tonight. Stay tuned for more delicious recipes :)! Good night.