Chili is a complete meal on its own. Its filling and one of my favorite comfort food on cold weather days. I’ve been making quite a lot of soup lately, mainly because of the cold weather. Although there were times that I craved for soup during summer, nothing beats having hot hearty bowl of soup on cold days.

This chili is thick, packed with lots of flavor, hearty filling vegetables and lean ground beef. I was tempted to add some sausage too, but I thought I should probably save it for other chili version I have in mind. This recipe is incredibly easy to make and it freezes well. This means, although this is a small batch recipe, this can be doubled or even tripled and can be kept frozen for crazy busy days.

Its always nice to come home to some homemade hot hearty meal at the end of the day.  I am not a fan of take-out food, so chili is one thing I normally have in my freezer once the weather starts to get cold.  Thye can freeze well for months and all you have to do is to thaw them then re-heat and you got yourself a meal. Chili is actually a very flexible meal, and there are quite a lot of ways that you can eat and serve it. Here are some of my favorite use of chili.

• Chili with Bread: Chili top with cheddar cheese and sour cream with sides of bread. I love dipping my bread and scooping chili with it.
• Chili Rice Bowl: Sometimes I like to eat it with rice, a rice bowl chili is one heavy meal that always never failed to keep me going all day.
• Chili Zoodles: This is one of my new favorite way to have it. I recently bought spiralizer and I cannot get enough in using it. Chili on top of zoodles to replace traditional pasta sauce, now that’s what I call creative and deliciously “healthy-ish”
• Chili Stuffed Zucchini Boat: Zucchini stuffed with chili and top with grated cheese and baked until the cheese becomes bubbly and browned. Seriously good!
• Baked Mexican Chili Bruschetta: Bread topped with chili and plenty of cheese then baked until bread is crunchy and toasty and cheese starts to melt. How could I say no to that?

So you see, regardless if you make a small batch or a big batch, you don’t have to be stuck eating it the same way. Explore, be creative, have fun and enjoy! After all, food is meant to be enjoyed! Let me show you how I made this chili so that you can start planning how to devour it. Let’s get started!

Ingredients: