better homes and gardens

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Smoky Weeknight Chili – BHG Recipe

I subscribed to the Better Homes & Gardens magazine. It brings me so much joy when it shows up in the mailbox each month. If you follow them elsewhere (Facebook, Instagram), then you’ll find even more inspiration. I thought that I would challenge myself this year with making one of the recipes that comes each month in the magazine. I…decided to do this starting last week, so I hadn’t made anything from the January or February editions. So, here you are, the Smoky Weeknight Chili, featured on page 101 of the BHG February edition. (I’m going to have to do something hunting for the January magazine…I can’t seem to find it anywhere…)

Now I’ve never made chili before. This looked like a fairly straightforward recipe, so I figured it would be a good one to start with. Plus, there is cocoa powder, and when you grow up in Cincinnati, you know that cocoa powder can make the chili. This recipe makes 4 servings of 1 1/2 cups each. I also added ground beef, because I cannot serve a meal to the Huz without meat…and I prefer meat in my chili as well.

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Prep Time: 10 mins (unless you’re like me and prep while you cook)
Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium green sweet pepper, chopped (3/4 cup)
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 15-16 oz can chickpeas (Garbanzo), rinsed and drained
1 15-16 oz can great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp chili powder (more or less for taste)
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 14 1/2 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
*1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 tbsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder
*1 tsp cinnamon (optional for more of the Cincinnati variety)

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add sweet pepper and onion. For great tip on how to cut bell peppers, which I did not do, click here. Cook and stir 4-5 minutes, or until tender. This took a bit longer for me, maybe 10 minutes. I think I had my heat turned down though.

2. Add beans and chili powder. Cook and stir 2 minutes.

3. Stir in tomato sauce, undrained tomatoes, ground beef, brown sugar, and cocoa powder and cinnamon, if desired. Bring to boiling and reduce heat. Cover and simmer 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Serving style: Optional toppings of sour cream, green onions, and chili powder. I shredded a bar of my Tillamook cheddar cheese and we used that as topping. It was so yummy!

Health details available (sans ground beef) at the original recipe link above. I revised the recipe format a little. They had steps 1-3 all compiled into one step, and that makes too much reading through while I’m cooking, so I separated it for you.

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did! Have any chili recipes that YOU love? Care to share them?

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Recipe: Savory Autumn Scramble

While I was sitting at the car shop getting my oil changed, I perused through the Better Homes & Gardens magazine. There are usually some great recipes in there and the October issue did not disappoint. I quickly snapped pictures of each one and am determined to try them out throughout the season. The first attempt was the Savory Egg and Sweet Potato Scramble. The original recipe is here, but if you’re anything like me and my husband, you need a bit more meat to make a dinner meal. I decided to add some good ole Bob Evans sausage, because nothing is more Ohio than Bob Evans. Yum.

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Here’s the updated recipe:

Start to Finish: 35 mins

Ingredients:

8 eggs
1 lb package of sausage
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp butter
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and thinly sliced
2 green onions, sliced
2 cups baby spinach
bottled hot pepper sauce (optional)

Directions:

1.  Cook and crumble sausage in a skillet for 10-15 minutes until thoroughly cooked. Set aside.

2.  In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, milk, cumin, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

3.  Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Toss in sweet potato and green onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are almost tender, about 8 minutes.  Add spinach. Cook until slightly wilted, about 1 minute.

It is amazing how big spinach is until it’s cooked for a while. Unreal!

4.  Mix sausage into the skillet. Pour egg mixture over potatoes. Let the egg cook and seep down to the bottom of the pan. At this point, I raised the heat to medium-high because the egg just wasn’t cooking fast enough. After the initial cook, begin mixing the cooked egg portion into the rest of the scramble, letting the uncooked part go to the bottom and cook. Continue this method until all egg is thoroughly cooked but still moist. This will take about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve right away. Makes 4-5 servings. Add hot sauce if desired. This will reheat (like for lunch the next day) but I wouldn’t recommend more than three days.

And there you are. It was a pretty easy meal. We really liked it with the sausage added in. Hope you enjoy it as well!