Hi, friends!
One of my favorite things about Whole30 is that it really gets me cooking…I love to cook, but I usually make excuses about not having enough time to put in. On Whole30 you can’t just swing by Wawa and grab a hoagie bowl, so I’ve been spending a lot more time meal planning/prepping/executing.
There are only two of us, but we both work long-enough days that on Whole30, I prefer to make a week’s worth of lunches at a time. A few weeks ago I made a steak stew in the slow-cooker (brown the steak, throw in whatever veggies you want, add vegetable stock, cook 6-8 hours on low) and it was bangin’, but I really wanted some kick last week, so I made a chili!
I never ate chili growing up because I hated kidney beans with a fiery burning passion (minus the past tense… I still think they’re super-gross). Luckily for me, Whole30 is legume-less (and so is most of my keto intake) so chili is a perfect option. I’m also a big, big fan of using the slow-cooker all winter long, especially when I’m also spending my Sunday prepping a week’s worth of breakfast, two of the five dinners for the week, and trying to cram in as many episodes of Gilmore Girls that one Sunday will allow. Here’s what I came up with for our perfect Whole30 Slow Cooker Chili that serves two people five lunches each (in Rubbermaid LunchBox Sandwich Kit, Food Storage Container, Green (1806231), that I love!):
Ingredients:
- 2 1.75 lb packages of organic ground beef (here’s looking at you, Kirkland)
- 2 cans of organic tomatoes and green chiles (our local grocery store has organic no-name-brand Ro*tel, basically)
- 1 can of organic tomato sauce
- 2 cans of organic diced tomatoes without added salt
- 2 stalks of celery, diced (I hate raw celery, but it’s really good in this recipe!)
- 4 medium zuchinni, diced (I halve them, cut them into strips, then dice)
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped and pressed for maximum flavor
- 2-3 bell peppers of varying color, seeded and diced
- Optional: 1 seeded, diced jalapeno pepper
- Spices! I added a tablespoon-ish of the following: chili powder, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste, though I always end up adding salt and pepper after I heat it up for lunch, too
Directions:
- Brown the ground beef in a sautee pan, drain the excess fat, and add it to your slow-cooker. Turn the slow cooker onto low.
- Add in literally everything else. In regard to the spices–use your best judgement. I’m not a fan of measuring in general, but especially with spices. I dump and stir, and periodically taste to make sure it’s as bangin’ as it can be.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring periodically. Wipe up the tears you cried when you diced the onion/watched Season 5 Episode 22 of Gilmore Girls.
That’s it! You made chili! Eat it every day! 🙂
**I made this before I went back to my long-lost-love LoseIt and started counting calories, so I don’t know about the caloric content. You can definitely add all of this to a Recipe, though, and divide by ten to get a good idea of calories/serving.