Beef & Beer Chili with Quesadillas and Salad

Yet another recipe from my Cooking Light 2008 cookbook! I opted to cook this chili in the crockpot while we were out watching the Superbowl, rather than cooking it on the stove for 15 minutes. Seriously, can flavors REALLY mingle in 15 minutes? I think not. Anyhow, the house smelled SO good when we got home after the game! I cooked mine without the meat so that our veggie roommate could have a bowl. I took out a bowl's worth for him, and then added seasoned meat and let it cook for another hour or so. This chili was EXCELLENT!!! And the quesadillas rocked, but I'm pretty partial to quesadillas. I never met one I didn't like!

Here's me about to partake in a delightfully tasty meal.
And here's Mike...completely satisfied after finishing his bowl of chili.


Beef & Beer Chili

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups chopped red onion (about 1 medium)
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (about 1 small) (I left this out because we don't really like bell pepper)
8 ounces extralean ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 (19-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (14-ounce) can low-sodium beef broth
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer (such as Budweiser) (I used Stone Levitation Ale...a local IPA)
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (I forgot this at the end...I'm sure it would have been excellent though)

Preparation

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. (I just put all the ingredients directly into the crockpot and skipped all this next stuff.) Cook 5 minutes or until beef is browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in chili powder, cumin, sugar, and salt; cook 1 minute. Add oregano and next 4 ingredients (through beer) to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in cornmeal; cook 5 minutes. Stir in juice. My chili was still pretty runny, so I mixed some cornstarch in a cup with the chili broth and then added it to the pot. It thickened instantly. We like it hot, so I added some cayenne, several shots of Tampico hot sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, and more salt and pepper.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 261(20% from fat); FAT 5.7g (sat 2.1g,mono 2g,poly 0.2g); PROTEIN 18.3g; CHOLESTEROL 30mg; CALCIUM 74mg; SODIUM 799mg; FIBER 8.3g; IRON 3.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 30.3g

Jackie Mills, M.S., R.D. , Cooking Light, SEPTEMBER 2007



Quesadillas

I sprayed each tortilla with cooking spray, and set them sprayed side down on a baking sheet. I topped half of each tortilla with Monterey Jack cheese, chopped roasted red peppers, and cilantro. I folded each one in half, and put them in the oven at 350 for 5 minutes. Yum!

Troy made us a salad, and we topped it with Cilantro Caesar dressing.