Beef and Black Bean Chili

What better way to start off the year than with a food post?

The Hubs and I have vowed to get healthy this year, so I'll hopefully be writing about food a lot.  It will keep me honest.  ;)

My family and I really LOVE chili.  We eat it year round.  I have several different recipes that we like, but Beef and Black Bean Chili is by far our favorite.  It's actually a Weight Watchers recipe, but it's so delicious no one would ever know. I made it for Christmas with my in-laws last Christmas and my father-in-law had three helpings.  He ate and ate, and didn't believe me when I told him it was "diet food".  Ha!  The look on his face when he found out that his chili was from Weight Watchers is one of my favorite memories of him.  

I know the recipe by heart, and here it is:

1 pound ground beef

16 oz tomato sauce

1 cup chunky salsa (I use medium!)

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can black beans with juice

1 tbsp chili seasoning

I brown the ground beef and then just dump everything in the crock pot and cook it on low for 6-8 hours.  So good.  Of course, we top it with a little sour cream and cheese and the boys always enjoy their chili with corn chips.  Even Violet loves this chili.  

I have recently had to start doubling my recipes since the boys have the appetites of monsters.  I'm so thankful that I won my own crock pot back at my family's Dirty Santa exchange this Christmas.  I dropped my big one and broke it a few months ago, and a double batch of chili won't fit into my smaller crock pot.  We're good to go now, and I tried it out a few days ago.  The Beef and Black Bean Chili was my new crock pot's maiden voyage.  It turned out perfectly.  We just used the leftovers to make chili cheese fries for lunch today.  

Yummo.