Tuesday Night - Chilli Con Carne

Well this one is an old family fav, and seeing as the kids are off to gymnastics I thought I'd be better off making a super quick recipe so cheated a bit with a recipe base, but it's still something new to the regular rotation for us.

INGREDIENTS
500gm mince beef
1 sachet of Continental Chilli Con Carne recipe base
1 tin diced tomato
1 tin red kidney beans
1/2 cup water
sml amount of oil
2 tsp cumin
2 cups rice

METHOD
1. Place rice in rice cooker with appropriate water and set to cook.
2. Put oil in a frying pan, add mince and brown.
3. Drain and rinse kidney beans, add to pan with tomatos, water, cumin  and recipe base.
4. Mix together, cover and simmer over a very low heat for 15mins.
5. Rice should be done just as the chilli is finished, serve and enjoy!

COMMENTS
Hubby enjoyed it though he said he wanted it a bit hotter. Fussy son ate the whole plate and didn't once mention the spiciness so that's a good thing! Daughter said it was 'good' and toddler ate all the beans and half the meat and rice mix which is good for him at dinner time, he's not normally a big dinner eater.

My thoughts are that it was goodm could have been a little spicier, and also lacked that vegie content, I think maybe a bit of red cabbage through it next time, or grated carrot or zucchini mixed through wouldn't affect the taste and it would be a little healthier. No pics this time, in too much of a rush to get it on the table LOL

Monday Night - Red Wine, Beef & Chilli Casserole with Cous Cous

Well it's a bit of a mouthful but it sure smells nice as it's cooking in my slow cooker.

This is one of these recipes that I always thought sounded too hard to make when reading the title, but it was really simple to do. So I have tweaked a few things here and there, so i will write the recipe as originally inteded and have my chaged in italics to the side. I've converted it to cook in the slow cooker instead of in a casserole dish in the oven as well.

The recipe is Low Fat as well for the health concious, it'll be a good start to my new diet today I think!

INGREDIENTS
2tsp canola spread or oil
1.5kg lean beef chuck steak, cut into 3cm pieces (I've used 1kg)
1/2 cup flour
Garlic Powder
2 cloves garlic (2tsp crushed garlic)
3 red thai chillies, seeded, sliced thinly (1tsp Masterfoods chilli)
2tsp Dijon mustard
1 large brown onion, sliced thickly
2 medium tomatos chopped roughly (1 can diced tomato)
410gm can of tomato puree (410gm of passata)
180ml of dry red wine
1 cup beef stock
250gm Cous Cous

METHOD
1. Place the flour and garlic powder into a bag with the diced beef. Shake to coat evenly.
2. Place the oil in the slow cooker and coat the base and sides to help prevent sticking.
3. Place the Garlic, chilli, mustard, onion, tomato, tomato puree, wine and stock in the slow cooker. Stir well to combine. Place the meat into the mix and stir well to cover.
4. Cook on high for 4 hours.
5. 10mins prior to serving, cook the cous-cous according to the packet directions (normally 5mins to prepare).
6. Serve and enjoy!

I will post some pictures up of the finished dish and the opinions of my little and big food critics :)

Ok have eaten dinner and everyone enjoyed it. Hubby liked it, daughter licked the bowl clean, fussy son ate it all although he did think it was a bit 'spicy', and the toddler ate it too with no complaints. I thought the cous cous was a bit plain on it's own but mixed through the casserole it was nice. Would be better with some mashed potato though I think!