Chili with Meatballs

My husband found a package of chopped beef in the freezer and asked me if I would make something with it.  I had planned on making a vegetarian chili, for dinner, so now, it was becoming a meatball chili.  Frankly, I prefer it without the meat but the meatballs were good and my husband ate many more than I did.

I wanted the onions, corn, carrots, peppers and beans and had my share.

Although, this is not a difficult recipe, it has lots of ingredients.  Don’t let that scare you away.  It is chopping and opening cans and cooking in a pot.  Sounds easy, right?  It really is.  I based this recipe on a vegetarian recipe from allrecipes.com.   I did adapt it quite a bit.

I realized, I was concentrating on cookbooks and magazines and wanted to also get some of my recipes from the bigger cooking sites.  I have been very fortunate with allrecipes.com.  This was one more time that we had a good meal, thanks to them.

Chili with Meatballs

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 cup chopped onion

• 1 cup chopped carrots

• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper

• 1 teaspoon chili powder

• 1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid, chopped

• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, undrained

• 2 cups frozen corn

• 1/2  teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• 1  tablespoons fresh oregano

• 1 teaspoon dried basil

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

 I used a lot less spice than the original recipe.

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the  onion, and carrots in the pot until tender. Mix in the red bell pepper. Season with chili powder. Continue cooking 5 minutes, or until peppers are tender.

2. Stir in the tomatoes with liquid, black beans with liquid, and corn. Season with cumin, oregano, basil, and garlic powder. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

   Add cooked meatballs to dish.

   • 1 pound chopped beef or combination of chopped chicken and chopped beef
   • 1 teaspoon Worcestshire sauce
   • 1 egg, beaten
   • ½ cup crumbs from taco chips (made in food processor)
   • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
   • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Grease a cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

Mix all ingredients together and form into 1  inch round meatballs.  Place meatballs on cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes.

Add to chili.

Serve  over rice.

This is linked to  Tuesday’s Tasty Tidbits