Mid-Week Ingredient Prep – Quick Chili

I had a better week than I’ve had in a while, so I made these energy balls, which I found here on Fannetastic Foods. I didn’t have walnuts, so I used raw cashews, and I added some cocoa powder because we like chocolate. My son liked them, too. What made these different than the recipes I usually see is that they are made with raisins instead of dates. I rarely have dates around, so raisins worked for me! In fact, I had some home-dehydrated raisins left from this summer, when I had some grapes that weren’t being eaten. I was able to use everything up, including a half-eaten box of raisins that wasn’t going anywhere. Kiddo asked for these in his lunch, and I had them at work each day this week. I actually bought more raisins so I could make more of these.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I made the chili from the small red beans I cooked last weekend. My “cheater chili” is popular around here (ok, just in my house), and (again as I previously mentioned), I made it in under a five minutes. It went as follows:

• Empty a jar of marinara sauce into the crockpot. 
• Add 1 tsp. chili powder.
• Put in some frozen corn.
• Put in some pre-prepped raw bell peppers I got over the summer and froze in Foodsaver-vacuumed bags.
• Throw in a few frozen angus beef meatballs for my son’s chili and a some Gardein veggie balls for me.
• Put in the crock pot for 5 hours on low (I use mini crock pots because we have a small family).
• Add shredded cheese before serving. 

I think we ate this with bread or something, but I don’t remember that far back…

I had some leftovers and I ate mine for lunch. The meat chili went into the freezer for some other day when Kiddo is in the mood for chili again.

Deli containers are the bomb for various reasons:

• They stack in small spaces.
• The lids almost always are interchangeable.
• They’re mostly leak-proof.
• They’re dishwasher safe.

I know plastic isn’t always the best, but when you live in a miniature house, mason jars quickly overtake the house.

I still use glass for my dehydrated, shelf-stable foods, but much of my food is now stored in deli containers.