It was Two Chili on Saturday!
This past Saturday I worked at my local Fresh Market doing a demo for White Bean Turkey Chili. As always I see monthly visitors that always come by and chat with me about food. Fresh Market has an on-line program to send out notices about the cooking demo and certain featured food items. For those of you who live close to one you really should get on their E mail list.

This past Saturday it was my pleasure to demo White Bean Turkey Chili. As smart as I think I am, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I stand in one spot behind a table cook and hand out free samples to the featured recipe. I am there 3 hours and sometimes it’s very hectic, hence no photo. Take my word for it, the chili was well received and it smells so fragrant. Below you will find the recipe.

While I love turkey, later that night I was really in the mood for beef. After cooking the demo item, I did not want to go home and make it again. So I decided on Cheater Chili. Now, this is not a recipe as recipes go but it’s easy and hits the spot every time. I made the chili recipe along with some Jiffy Corn Muffins. The process is really simple if you only follow the instructions off the back of the bag, but you know me! I needed some veggies in my chili so I cut up one whole green pepper and two small onions. I put a little canola oil, maybe a few tablespoons, then I sautéed the pepper and onion and added the ground beef. From there I followed the back of the bag. I did add the small packet of cayenne despite my husband’s hesitation. I like my food to have good flavor but not heat enough to suffer over. You know what I mean? I don’t understand crying or sweating while eating my food.

Here is my Cheater Chili fixins’

This is the Carroll Shelby's Original Texas Brand Chili Kit. The kit is enough to make chili with 2 pounds of meat. If I were in Texas I would have used "chili meat". "Chili meat" is a coarse grind of beef. Don't ask what's in there or you might cringe. It's not a Weight Watcher's friendly kind of meat. I did try to keep this on the healthy side by using the 93% lean ground meat.

Inside the bag is four packets. Two packets are optional; the salt packet and the cayenne pepper packet. The two larger bags are necessary! The first packet is the Spice packet. It contains ground chili peppers, masa flour, cumin, oregano, garlic, onion, paprika and salt. The second packet is more Masa flour. I like thick chili rather than thin and watery so for me that packet is necessary.

Here are the directions from the back of the bag that I used.
Brown 2 pounds of beef in a skillet (I used a dutch oven) or saucepan. Drain fat. Dump in one 8 oz. can tomato sauce (of course I didn't have any so I used one 15 can of diced tomatoes and didn't drain them) and 2 8 oz cans of water (again I just used my best judgement for the water since I like thicker chili). Add large Spice packet and salt to your likin'. If you want it hot, dump in some cayenne pepper (Small Red Packet) but go easy unless you're real brave. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. For thickier chili, mix Masa Flour (White packet) with 1/3 cup of water, stir in and let simmer for 5 more minutes. Makes 6 1 cup servings.