My Dear "Kindred Spirit,"

My Dear “Kindred Spirit,”

So since absolutely everyone has been asking me for this recipe (and by absolutely everyone I mean two people), I thought it would be a good idea to actually create this recipe, as neither of my absolutely everyone’s were overly impressed with my response to their request for the recipe:

“Recipe? Wut dat??”

See, I have this ongoing dispute with the Ant and cousin (aka the two everybody’s desiring this recipe). I don’t follow recipes when I cook, and they think that is unusual.

What they don’t understand is that I read recipes, I get ideas from recipes, I just never actually follow the recipe… I simply take the idea and run in my own direction with it.

And somehow this counts as creative genius in their book.

Hah! I wish!

It does make life rather interesting, though. Watching and listening to them trying to convince me (and others) that I am somehow this chef extraordinaire because I’m good at stealing recipe ideas and making them my own.

It’s a rather nice ego-boost to be talked of as such an accomplished cook, but I’m not buying it just yet. Cooking without a recipe isn’t that unusual, right? Lots of people do it!

I will, however, admit that this one is rather tasty. And I will do my best to recipe-ize this – uh… “chili?” (I’m not quite sure what to call it, but it does have chili powder, so chili it is!)

Sweet Potato/Kale Chili

Makes 5 or 6 quarts

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 pounds (or somewhere in that area) ground beef
• 1 large onion
• approx. 2 TB Olive or coconut oil (for browning beef)
• 3 large or 6 small sweet potatoes
• 4 carrots (totally optional. You do have sweet taters in there already)
• 1 large can diced tomatoes (or 2 or 3 fresh tomatoes diced)
• 1-2 quarts broth and/or water (broth will add more flavor!)
• several large handfuls of kale, shredded (approx. 2 cups, packed)
• 2-4 cloves garlic, mashed
• chili powder, to taste (1/4 cup? More if you like it spicy)
• cumin, to taste (1/4 cup?)
• parsley
• basil (optional, fresh if you have it)
• oregano (optional, fresh if you have it)
• salt

Instructions:

Brown ground beef and onion with your oil in a large skillet. As that’s browning, peel and dice your sweet potatoes and carrots. Once your beef and onion is mostly cooked, put in a crock pot (or other large pot) along with all the other ingredients. You could definitely add beans and/or other veggies as well if you want, I usually run out of room in the crock pot and simply can’t fit them in…

Cook until sweet potatoes and carrots are soft, around 6 hours on low is good, probably 2 or 3 on high or on the stovetop.

Enjoy!

This chili is super yummy, gluten free, grain free, dairy free, paleo, and all those other nice catchy labels.

Let me know how you like it, and how you tweaked it!

Now excuse me, please… It’s time for some leftovers for lunch!

Love, N.

P.S. Real foodie rant: (I tried not to go on this rant, but find I simply can’t resist.) This is one of the best ways to eat kale! Kale is one of my pet peeves, because it’s such a health food fad, but everyone always eats it RAW! Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with kale, in fact a lot of the good things said about it are completely true, but kale is a member of the cabbage family and is actually better absorbed by your body when it’s cooked! So enjoy your chili with cooked kale! Ok, ok, sorry. Rant over.