Dinner & Meal Ideas

On the busiest of weeknights you need a simple dinner that practically cooks itself! Enter the slow cooker. This little workhorse of a kitchen appliance is worth every bit of the counter or storage space it consumes by taking over hands-on cooking when you need it most. For this flavorful chili, take fifteen minutes to chop an onion and brown a pound of ground beef, then add it along with the three remaining ingredients to the slow cooker and let it finish the job. Dinner, done!

Ingredients For In-Your-Sleep-Chili

Round up five basic ingredients to make this cozy chili.

• Ground Beef: for the most flavor use a ground beef with an 80:20 ratio of protein to fat for this chili. If you are watching calories or cholesterol, you can use a beef with a higher protein ratio or try ground turkey.
• Onion: one large onion measures about 1 1/2 cups chopped onions. Yellow or white onions both work in this chili. Use what you have on hand.
• Chili Beans in Chili Gravy: the variety of bean in this product varies among brands. Red kidney beans, pinto beans, or basic red beans are all available in chili sauce. Do not drain off the flavorful chili sauce.
• Diced tomatoes and green chiles: this ingredient contributes to the traditional tomato-based chili but also adds a bit of heat from the green chiles (most often jalapeño peppers). This item is readily available in the grocery store but you could also use a regular can of diced tomatoes and chop up a fresh jalapeño pepper, if you like.
• Hot-style vegetable juice: we like the layers of flavor a spicy vegetable juice adds to this chili but you can purchase whatever style your family loves. If they don't appreciate the heat, purchase regular vegetable juice and stir in a tablespoon of mild chili powder instead.
  

Ingredients

1. Brown Ground Beef

   In a large skillet, cook ground beef and onion until meat is brown; drain off fat.

2. Add Ingredients to Slow Cooker

   In a 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker, combine ground beef mixture, beans, undrained tomatoes and green chiles, and vegetable juice.

3. Slow Cook

   Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 4 to 6 hours on on high-heat setting for 2 to 3 hours. If desired, top each serving with green onions, sour cream, and/or cheddar cheese.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)