First day of eating the menu plan-and Mama's Easy Chili Recipe

So chili night went off without a hitch. Yum-O! Took me forever to figure out a chili recipe that didn't taste like tomato soup with beans...lol. If you are interested, here it is. **Note: It is bean heavy.

2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans chili beans
1 can kidney beans (dark or light, your preference)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 lbs ground beef
1 pkge McCormick mild chili seasonings
1 pkge McCormick Tex Mex chili seasoning
1/4-1/2 cup salsa (your preference on kind and flavor)
a little amount of water

Combine sauce and beans in large pot and set to cook on med/low. Brown ground beef and drain almost all of the grease off..leave about 1 tsp in skillet. Add salsa and cook on med for 2 to 3 minutes. Add seasoning packets to the meat. This is important..this is how it gets it flavor. Add the water. I don't know how much because it really depends. You want the meat mixture to be wet, but not sopping. It should turn a dark brownish color and should hold together pretty well when there is enough water in it. Like I said, you don't want it dripping wet, but you don't want it dry either. Cook the seasonings into the meat for 2-3 minutes, then slowly add into tomato mixture. Add by serving spoonful, stirring the mixture well after each. Your tomato mixture will turn a dark reddish, brown color. Bring to a rolling boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until seasonings are mixed in well. Make sure to stir often.

Note: It does have some kick to it, but its not real overwhelming. My 4 year old ate it with no problem. If you like extra kick add some green chiles to it. My husband loves it, even with it being as simple as it is. I am seasoning challenged..lol, so thats why I use the McCormick packets.

Now..the cornbread...lol...taste like Jiffy...lol

• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
  
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 milk, plus a little extra if its too thick

Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl, mix well. Whisk in vegetable oil and mix until dry mixture is smooth and lumps are gone <---I could not get the lumps out, so I went ahead with the recipe and made sure it was smooth after adding the egg and milk, turned out great anyhow. Combine mix with egg and milk, mixing well until smooth. Spray 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray and bake at 400 degrees F 15-20 minutes or until done. I doubled the recipe and used a glass 9x13 pyrex dish and it turned out fantastic...not too thin, not too thick.

Also, I put in the part about the extra milk. Made up the way it was, it was waayyy to thick to bake right. I added probably (didn't look) 2 tsp of extra milk, maybe 3 to the batter and mixed in it well. It made it the right consistency and helped it turn out the way it did.