Chili

So I have been kind of obsessed lately with making chili and homemade cornbread. I've made it three times in the past month. It seems like a good meal for when it's cold outside and it's really delicious too. I also have come up with an updated chili recipe. Nick likes really spicy food and my chili isn't toooooo spicy for me but he doesn't put pepper flakes in it so it's spicy enough for him. It's also pretty cheap. And we can eat it for two or three more days for lunch!

It's pretty healthy too. Peppers have more vitamin C than oranges and ground beef is a pretty good source of another antioxidant, Zinc.

So, here's my chili recipe! If you don't like it as spicy, don't use the whole Serrano and Anaheim pepper and put in less hot sauce. Also make sure to scoop the seeds out of both of those - with a spoon. I used my thumb once and it got under my nails. Needless to say my fingers were on fire for the rest of the night.

CHILI!

Ground Beef - Amount depends on how meaty you want it on how much to add. I just add one ziplock from my freezer.

Brown the ground beef. When there's not much pink left, I cut up & add as I go:

2 green peppers, 1 Anaheim pepper, 1 Serrano pepper, 1/4-1/2 Onion

Add about 2 T of oil (olive or veg) - enough to let the peppers simmer in and get slightly soft.

I let it simmer about 10 minutes, stirring here and there. Then I stir in

1 Can Chili Beans (not the kind with meat in it)

1 can Black Beans

2 Cans Diced tomatoes - if you want extra flavor, for one of the cans you can get the diced tomatoes with chilis in it

The last little bit to add for flavor is:

2 dashes Vinegar

2 dashes Worchestershire Sauce

4-5 dashes hot sauce

Spices: Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Chili Powder, Salt (if it needs it)

That's it! It appears to be thick at first, but it will thin out more than you think. Put a lid on & keep the heat at a medium low and cook it for about 10 more minutes.

As for the cornbread, I kind of just wing it so I don't have a recipe really just an ingredients list. Cornmeal, flour, eggs, oil, sugar, baking powder, water, and a dash of salt. I bake it at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

My Birthday!

22 years old that is! Yep! It was a really fun day. Nick's cousin invited us to go with him and his wife dog sledding. We went camping with them back in October and Zoe and I found out that our birthday was the same day, I'm just a year older. So anyway, DOG SLEDDING! Any of you who have known me since I was little know that I used to pretend I was a dog and run around the house barking. Instead of boy band posters, in 4th grade I ordered an AKC (American Kennel Club) Official Dog Breed Poster that had every breed of dog on it. Instead of playing house, most of the time my friends and I would run around our backyards pretending we were dogs (sometimes horses or other random animals). I would see dogs while we were in the car and list off what breed it was. I watched Animal Planet ER Vet and dog training shows. People gave me dog books for my birthday. I knew EVERYTHING about dogs. So dog sledding was something I've always wanted to do since I was little. It brought back a lot of memories of my elementary school years and plus it was a fun!

We had two sleds. Spencer and Zoe went on the first and Nick and I went on the other. We each had a musher with us too as we rode. On the way back our musher was trying to run with the dogs to get them to go up a little hill and so I got to drive and then she said I could keep driving with her until I didn't want to so I rode with her on the back the rest of the way. It was a really cool experience. Nick posted a video of me sledding on his facebook page but I'll post some of the pictures on here.

So when they first got to our meeting spot they had to set up the sleds and get the dogs in their harnesses and some of the bigger ones out of the kennels on the trailer. Okay, look at that dog next to me, and look at that box with the paw print on it. This wasn't even the biggest dog but all of them fit in the same sized kennel thing. There were 8 of those kennels on one side and 8 on the other.

The two dogs that are right next to each other in this picture were fighting the whole time. Any time we stopped the one on the left would growl and snap at the one on the right. Our musher said those two would fight sometimes like brother and sister. The one on the right was being mean to the other one the day before so she thought that he was just getting back at her. Our musher finally switched one of the dogs in the front with one of the middle dogs halfway through so they would stop bickering. It was kind of funny though because as soon as we would start moving they wouldn't fight at all.

And this is me getting ready to drive the sled.

The Future of Food

Lately while Nick is in classes after I get done with work I've been watching documentaries on Netflix. I have watched one on the science of dreams, on the science of dying, and today I watched one called "The Future of Food" which was a really good one. So good that I really encourage everyone to watch it! It talks about genetically engineered food and how it started and what the future looks like for it. It talks about the effects this has on farming, food variety and why it really is making world hunger WORSE despite what the companies claim. It was really eye opening. I had heard of genetically engineered food before but not in this depth.

If you don't have netflix, you can watch it at www.thefutureoffood.com. Click on the link on the first page and it takes you to the video.

I want to know what you all think of it. I found it fascinating being a nutrition junkie myself.