Our Little American Life: Chili on a hot summer night

So tonight I may have picked the wrong recipe for the wrong night. While planning our meals I didn't factor in the heat that the oven produces, it sure heats up the house. I guess you have to deal with that in order to eat on a budget.

Tonight I made Chili and Cornbread.

Ingredients:

Cornbread
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup shortening

Chili

2 lbs. of ground turkey
2 cans of kidney beans
1 15oz. can of diced tomatos
3 or 4 roma tomatos (im pretty sure any tomato will do)
2 packets of Chili seasoning (we use Lawry's ready made packets)
6oz can on tomato sauce

First I made the Cornbread. Now this recipe isn't a sweet cornbread recipe. But some people like that ... people like my husband. Next time im going to pick up some honey or apple butter for it, then we will both be satisfied.

Step 1: preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Step 2: Mix all your dry ingredients together
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 cup cornmeal
-1/4 cup sugar
-4 teaspoons baking powder
-3/4 teaspoon salt

Step 3: Mix all your wet ingredients together

-1 cup milk
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup shortening

Step 4: Mixed until it looked like it was mixed enough : )

Step 5: Poor mixture into a greased 9in square pan

Step 6: cook for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown

I got this recipe off of ehow. It's crazy how easy it was to make!

While the cornbread was cooking it gave me time to start working on my Chili. Ryan and I started making chili in the beginning of our relationship, so we have had 3 years to perfect this recipe. We always make double the recipe because it's a good solid meal that we can eat for a few nights in a row. So I guess you could cut the recipe in half if you wanted and only use 1 lbs. of ground turkey but I ask you one question "why?".

Step 1: Brown your 2 lbs of Ground Turkey. Make sure thats it's cooked all the way before you start to add other ingredients. I also like to drain out any liquid from the pan after it's done browning.

Step 2: Rinse off 2 cans of Kidney beans. I like to rinse them off to get ride of any excess salt

Step 3: Add all of your ingredients

-2 cans of kidney beans
-1 15oz. can of diced tomatos
-3 or 4 roma tomatos (im pretty sure any tomato will do)
-2 packets of Chili seasoning (we use Lawry's ready made packets)
-6oz can on tomato sauce
- 1 cup of water
- Green Onions (optional) about a 1/2 cup
- Chili powder (optional) to taste
- Pepper (optional) to taste