Meaty Chili and Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Hi friends! I am psyched to write to you tonight and tell you about the dinner that I ate! On this evening's menu was a meaty and hearty chili along with some apple cinnamon muffins. I realize that we like to make a lot of chili at the 812 house. Everything from vegetarian chili, white chicken chili, Kara's chili cook-off winning green chili and now a super meaty chili. But what can I say, Laramie is a 'chilly' place! In fact, as I am writing this, I can hear the wind whipping around outside, and it does not sound pleasant at all!

I especially enjoyed making dinner tonight because I had my boyfriend Mike's help! He was in charge of the apple cinnamon muffins and did a great job because they looked, smelled, and tasted fabulous. While he was whipping those together, I was working on the chili and combining everything into one big pot. I didn't follow a recipe but added the staple chili ingredients. From start to finish it was a quick dinner that made a ton, was delicious, and warmed you from the inside out. As Mike said, "now I can go outside and take on this weather".

And also dining with us tonight was Juli, of course, and Sam! It's always fun to have great company when sitting around the dinner table. It just makes it that much better.

So here is the recipe that I put together as I was making the chili!

Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
2 green or red peppers, chopped
1 large white onion, chopped
2 cans of kidney beans, drained
2 cans of pinto beans, drained
1 large can of diced tomatoes, undrained
approximately 4-5 cups of spicy V8 juice
chili powder (to taste)
red pepper flakes (to taste)
salt
pepper 

Directions
Chop the onion and peppers. In a large pan, add ground beef, onion and peppers and cook on high until beef is no longer pink. Then add the kidney beans, pinto beans, diced tomatoes, spicy V8 juice, chili powder, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir everything together and turn down heat, cover, and let simmer about 15-20 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

This meaty chili was so easy to make and is a classic flavor for a hearty chili. It also made a lot, so this would be great for leftovers or if you are feeding a whole crowd of people. If you like spicy chili I would suggest adding more red chili flakes or chili powder. Or if you are feeling really adventurous you could add some Sriracha hot sauce, and that would definitely give it a little kick. And as for the apple cinnamon muffins, we just used a store bought package and followed the directions on the box. It did not make very many though, about 6, so if you want more than that I would suggest buying 2 muffin mixes. These muffins were some of the better ones I have had at home, and with a little butter in the warm center, it was absolutely perfect!

I will leave you all with this filling chili dinner, and hope that you try it out for yourself!