What do you do when you do not have a freezer meal thawing, nothing in the crock pot, it is 5 pm and the kiddos are getting restless? If you are like most you probably have a well stocked pantry. So you plan a meal on the fly with just your pantry items. A tasty and quick meal to prepare is chili. Grab a salad, corn chips or veggies for side dishes and shred some cheeses for a garnish.
Kathi’s Chili
A less-spicy version that even kids will like. Most of the ingredients are straight from the pantry. Plus, if you already have some fried ground beef with onions and garlic stashed in the freezer (one of the staples of our deep freeze) the meal practically makes itself.
3/4 lb Ground turkey or beef
1 c. Chopped onions
1 clove Garlic, minced
1-16 oz can Stewed tomatoes
1-16 oz can Kidney beans, drained
1-16 oz can Tomato sauce
3 tsp Chili powder
1/2 tsp Basil
1-6 oz can Tomato paste
In a large saucepan, cook ground turkey, onions, and garlic until the onions are translucent and the meat is brown. Drain. Stir in un-drained tomatoes, drained kidney beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
Servings: 4
When my son was little, we had a surprise snowstorm and couldn’t get out for the usual milk, bread, eggs, etc. We created “Stewp” from the pantry.
1 can sliced potatoes
1 can green beans
1 can sliced carrots
1 can cream of chicken soup
whatever leftover meat was in the fridge, usually chicken, but have used diced sausage links or hotdogs.
Saute the potatoes, add the meat, drain if necessary–and add the drained vegetables.
Stewp-too runny for stew, too thick for soup.
Yumm! As a matter of fact, I made some very similar chili just this week! I like to keep stewed tomatoes in the pantry for chili. Since I have trouble seasoning my chili properly, a can or two of mild chili beans usually does the trick for me instead of plain beans. Mmm …
Those are always tough evenings when dinner just hits you! Oops! By the grace of God we usually pull something together. My best friends on those nights are cream of chicken or mushroom soup and jiffy cornbread! 🙂 not the healthiest, but everybody loves it in a pinch. The recipes you can make from cream of ckn/mush is endless!