Mr. Mom Returns to the Kitchen

Background

Last Saturday, Allah subhaanahu wa ta'aala blessed our family with our latest addition to the family, our daughter Taymiyyah.  I'm home this week to help my wife with her chores while she adapts and recovers and among the duties I've shouldered is cooking.  Flipping through my healthy eating books, I found this amazing recipe for chili.  I made it yesterday, and it came out really well, so for anyone that wants to make 10 servings of chili and not cook again for 3 – 4 days, try the recipe below.

Required Tools

1. Extremely huge pot, or two large pots.
2. Knife for chopping veggies
3. Blender
4. Stirring spoons
5. 3 or 4 medium sized tupperware containers to store chopped veggies
6. 1 TableSpoon and 1 Teaspoon
7. Your scrubbiest clothes, you will likely smell like an onion after this is done.

Ingredients

1. 4 lbs Extra Lean Ground Beef
2. 4 Cans of Kidney beans (15.5 oz per can) – make sure to drain and rinse thoroughly
3. 2 large onions, chopped (prepare to cry)
4. 2 large tomatoes, chopped
5. 1 lb of carrots, peeled and sliced into smaller pieces
6. 4 bell peppers, any combination of colors will do (green, red, yellow, orange)
7. 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
8. Two 46 fl oz bottles V8 Vegetable Juice, Spicy Hot
9. 1/2 lb Cashews
10. Spices
    • 4 tbsp Chili Powder
    • 1 tsp Cumin
    • 2 tsp Paprika
    • 1 tsp Celery Seed
    • 1 tsp Fresh Ground Peppper

Directions

1. Combine 1 lb ground beef, the onions, and the minced garlic and brown the beef on high heat.  When this is complete, continue adding 1 lb of beef, browning it, and keep doing so until all the beef is added and browned.
2. Now add all the spices and continue frying the beef while stirring for 3 minutes
3. Add the kidney beans, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, and V8 Juice.  Stir it all up, and keep the heat high until it's boiling.  If it becomes too much, lower the temperature slightly, but let it keep going.
4. While the meat cooks, blend the cashews in short bursts (not all at once, don't want it to become butter, just grainy) – this is how you make the cashew meal.  Add this to your chili and stir.
5. Keep the chili cooking until the carrots are soft (could be between 30 – 60 min).  Once the carrots are soft, your chili is good to go.

Lessons Learned

1. Cutting onions makes you cry and your clothes stink.  Don't wear nice clothes when cutting them.
2. V8 is a weird ingredient, but it really works.  Trust the process.
3. If the portion proposed is too big, cut all the ingredients needed in half and go from there.
4. Anyone can make an amazing chili, even a kitchen dunce like myself.  I wish I had this recipe in college.

Let me know if you try it out, I'll be happy to answer any questions if you do.  If you decide to use this recipe, tell me how it works out, insha'Allah.