Chef Alanzo’s Healthy (but Hearty) Chili

Cold days and nights in Texas are great for chili! Here's a healthy chili recipe I threw together last night using alot of ingredients you may already have in your kitchen. It's super easy and only takes about 30 minutes to prepare. I'm not real scientific when I add the spices, so you can experiment and flavor it to your taste. The recipe below is for a "medium" heat chili. So good on these cold nights we keep having in Texas!

Here's what you need:

• 16 oz 96% lean ground beef

• Diced garlic clove (I used pre-diced in a jar, it's just easier for me!)

• 0-cal cooking spray

• 1 yellow onion

• 1 orange bell pepper

• 1 container mushrooms

• 1 can crushed tomatoes (low or no sugar added)

• 1 large diced celery stalk

• 1-2 diced green onions

• Fresh cilantro leaves

• Chili powder

• Ground sea salt

• Ground peppercorns

• Black pepper

• Garlic salt

• Slap Ya Mama seasoning

• Chili pepper flakes

Instructions:

1. To prepare, dice up your onion, bell pepper, celery, green onions, and mushrooms (if they don't come pre-sliced).

2. In a big saucepan, spray the zero-calorie spray and heat over medium-high heat.

3. When saucepan is hot, add 1/2 teaspoon of diced garlic and the onions. Sauté until the onions soften a bit, about 5 minutes.

4. Add the diced bell pepper, celery, green onions, and mushrooms. Sprinkle the vegetables with garlic salt. Stir fry for about 5 minutes.

5. Add the can of crushed tomatoes to the vegetables. Mix everything up and lower heat a little.

6. In another pan, use 0 cal cooking spray and add the ground beef. Stir fry and break the meat into crumbles until brown (right after any pink is gone).

7. Pour the ground beef and all the juices into the vegetables in the big saucepan. Mix everything up.

8. Add about 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon black pepper and sprinkle Slap Ya Mama seasoning, sea salt, and ground peppercorns. Add the green onions. Mix everything up.

9. Let everything simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

10. Taste and add red pepper flakes or sea salt to make spicier/saltier.

11. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

Chef Alanzo's Hearty (but Healthy) Chili