Making Crockpot Chili!

I'm starting chili in the Crockpot this morning because for the next 6 weeks I'm teaching from 2 - 5 pm. I'm sure I've said this before, but Crockpots are perfect for the working person, and there are hundreds of gluten-free Crockpot recipes out there (or if they are not gluten-free, you can usually make them gf with a few substitutions!). Stephanie's blog (where I got the chili recipe) is probably the best gluten free Crockpot-only site; check it out, she just wrote a book that will be available in the fall!

OK....the chili. The full recipe is here, but pictures can be worth a thousand words (yeah, I know I don't post tons of pictures like a lot of other blogs do, but that's because I don't usually have time, or I forget, or I'm too tired or in too much of a frantic hurry or just not good at photography! Or all of the above!):

So I browned two pounds of ground beef (we've also used ground turkey before) and drained it, then threw it in the Crockpot with a can of kidney beans with the liquid from the can.


Next I start chopping veggies....you'll need five or six tomatoes, a bell pepper, 3-4 cloves of garlic and an onion for this chili. Dice everything up (smash and mince the garlic) and toss it on top of the meat and beans in the pot.

Note: usually I use a green bell pepper because it make a beautiful color contrast with the tomatoes, but this time I only had red bell peppers. Oh well.... :)




Next I add the spices and the red wine vinegar.....love the colors of the turmeric and the chili powder! I should mention that I've been spicing the chili up a bit more than the recipe I've posted on my Gluten Free Recipe Archive. Instead of 2 or 3 tsp of chili powder, I've been using 2 tablespoons, plus a couple of tsp of Old Bay Seasoning! Which makes the chili considerably hotter! It's still not too hot; most real chili heads would think it pretty wimpy. But I'm trying to get my toddlers to eat it, and this is still not overly spicy for them. But be sure to get the spice level right for your family!


Additional note: I'm currently using salt without iodine, because of my husband's dermatitis herpetiformis rash (DH for short). DH is a rash associated with celiac disease, so it's aggravated by gluten, but apparently also by a few other things, including iodine and NSAIDs such as ibubrofen. Of couse we'll go back to iodized salt after his skin clears up.