Queen of Easy Meals

Melody Queen of Easy Meals. Yep, that's me. I don't love to cook, but I do love to eat healthy (relatively speaking), good tasting food.

For the past few days I have been making simple foods. There was a vegie noodle soup one night, stir fry (which I showed you) another night, bean soup, and last night was chili.

Because I am a sharing person, and I assume everyone wants easy, yummy meals, I will share with you my recipes.

Chili

Prepare your beans. If for you that means opening a can of kidney beans, so be it. If that means that you get out your 5 gallon bucket of beans, sort the beans, wash them, soak them, and cook them, good for you ~ use 4 cups of dried beans for this recipe. Any way you do it is great with me. I used 3 - 15 oz (so 45 oz total) undrained cans of assorted beans (use that juice!) that I found in my pantry. There was 2 cans of black beans and 1 can of kidney beans. It was the first time I'd ever used black beans, but they were yummy. I usually use kidney or pinto.

Add diced tomatoes. I added 1 - 15 oz can. Use however much you like, but start small and add.

1 very full tsp of Oregano.

1 very full tsp of Salt.

1 tsp Baking Cocoa (Yep! I even put chocolate in my chili! Try it!)

1 TBS Chili Powder

Simmer together while you:

Brown 1 lb Hamburger with 1 medium Onion and 1 clove of Garlic. Drain. Add to beans. Simmer for about 15 minutes more. Serves about 6.

After I figure out how to scale down my bean soup recipe (it makes a HUGE pot, so I'll adjust the recipe) and how much and of what kind of noodles I use for my veggie noodle soup, I'll post those too!

Oh! While I'm thinking of it, do you want a good meatloaf recipe? I haven't made it for a while, but here it is:

Meatloaf

1 lb hamburger
3/4 cup oats (I prefer instant)
1 - 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 medium onion
1 egg
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper

Add all ingredients and squish together. (Does the word "squish" bother you?? I use my hands to mix it through and always think "squish" but what I mean is "mix it together".) Put in an ungreased loaf (bread) pan and bake on 350 degrees for 1 hour.

OR...(yes, it is time for my "Oh crap! It's almost dinner time and I haven't even started making dinner yet!" recipe) use muffin tins so that the meatloaf cooks quicker! Just divide the hamburger mixture into pieces (enough to fit the muffin cup) and place in muffin cups and bake on 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

I like ketchup on top, but maybe that's just me.

Enjoy!