It’s cold.  When it’s cold, I like to eat hearty things, like chili.  I mentioned this a few weeks ago when I first shared that I had made deer chili and was eating it with oyster crackers.  Yesterday, I pulled a bowl of chili from the freezer to eat.  It’s cold.  I need warming.  And I had fritos on hand.

I love fritos and chili.  Chilitos are the best.  Not only do they taste great, they have good memories attached from childhood.  I remember eating them at the baseball park in middle school.  When I bought chilitos there, the moms working the concession stand would clip the end of the small frito bag off, pour in a bit of chili, and hand you a plastic spoon.  Deliciousness.

However, chilitos aren’t something easily packed into a bento box.  The fritos cause issues.  Trust me, I know.  I’ve been trying for months to get it right.  Finally, I just had to pack everything up separately.  A deliciousness was had for lunch.

Today, I have no lunch to share.  It’s my dad’s birthday, and we’re taking him out for lunch!  Have a great day everyone!  I’ll see you tomorrow with a long Photo Friday post!

This is hands down one of the best bowls of chili I’ve ever eaten in my life. And I’ve eaten it often. First, as a kid in my parent’s home, and now, as an adult in my own home. There is absolutely nothing special about the seasonings. Just two packs of chili seasoning you buy at the grocery store, some diced onion, couple of cloves of minced garlic, and a bit of diced bell pepper if you are so inclined.

What makes this chili so spectacular, at least to my frame of mind, is the meat used. It is deer meat. My father enjoys to hunt and fish, something quite common in my area of the country. They don’t call Louisiana Sportsman’s Paradise for nothing. I can remember my father hunting for deer as a child and using that meat to help feed his family. It is considered a special item to have, like really great, fresh 20/25 shrimp.  And it makes a better chili than anything else.

So, when my parents offered me a 2, 2-lb packages of unseasoned deer meat, I thanked them profusely, brought it home carefully, and reverently placed them in my freezer. The first pack was taken out that weekend, made into chili and consumed the following week in culinary bliss.

The second pack I saved for a few weeks, thinking I’d use it only when just the right occassion hit. And it hit this week. Cooler temperatures and chilly weather returned to Louisiana meaning a need for chili!

Two pounds of any type of meat (or beans if you are so inclined) makes alot of chili. I have two small containers of chili for lunch today and tomorrow along with 3 larger containers sitting in my freezer, ready to come out at a moment’s notice…ready to defrost…ready to make a spectacular bento.

Today’s chili is topped with shredded cheddar cheese. When it is reheated in the microwave…whoa momma.  (Or maybe I should say thank you mom….and dad!)

When I’m not enjoying chili ontop of a bed of corn chips, I like it straight like this, as though it is a really hearty, thick soup. Topped with cheese, and eaten with oyster crackers…that’s my other favorite way to eat chili. I also have some nice and healthy veggies to go along with today’s bento: roasted broccoli and steamed carrots.

Be the bento everyone! I hope you enjoy your bento as much as I am going to enjoy mine today.

Last time I popped by to say hello, I mentioned that my cooking was nearly non-existant due to a currently busy period of my life.  Life contains to be crazy busy (and I’m quite enjoying it) and leaving little time for cooking (which I’m not enjoying as much).  This weekend, I finally got a chance to try out a recipe that I’ve wanted to try for some time now: Beans & Chocolate Chili.  The chocolate added to the concoction didn’t really add much by way of chocolate flavor, but added ALOT by way of thickness and color of the chili.  My chili went from this reddish color to a deep, dark brown in a matter of seconds.  And let me tell you, tasty it most definitely is.  However, I think I might have cut too much of the spiciness out of it.  I’m just about ready to start trying to add a few jalepenos, minus seeds, to my dishes.  Just to see what it would be like.  I’m getting brave and starting to wonder if I can handle at least that much heat.

I topped a baked potato with this chili and added a bit of cheese and sour cream to the concoction.  This was a most awesome dinner.  I was only able to eat half of the potato, so am looking forward to leftovers for the weekend.  No bento to share again yet, but here’s a picture of that dinner to tide you over.

While I type this, I’m munching on a peanut butter cookie I made right after this recipe.  Deliciousness.

  I hope to be back in full swing soon.  In the meantime,  be the bento everyone!  And have a very Merry Christmas this week.

Learning to cook 2+ years ago was a big decision for me.  It meant trying not to eat out all the time.  It also was a move away from boxed, canned, and ready-prep foods.  While I don’t eat these things too often anymore, sometimes life conspires against me.  At the end of August, I worked a crazy schedule and found myself at the grocery late one evening wishing and hoping that something would jump off the shelf and fix itself.  I also had a hankering for a hot dog.  Something I eat very, very seldom.  I purchased a hot dog from the deli section and picked up two things to fix along with it.

Nothing pairs better with a hot dog than chili in my mind.  Without a stash of chili in my fridge or the time to make any, I headed to the canned food aisle to see what was available.  I am NOT  fan of canned chili.  I abhor Wolf branch chili.  The meat just tastes funky to me.  It always has, even before I started on this more meatless/meat-lite eating style.

While I am not a fan of canned chili, it occurred to me that vegetarian chili might be a different story.  Without the meat component, I thought this might be an option.  I picked up a can of Amy’s Organic Chili.  This is a brand I have tried before and liked.  I found one that I thought I might like.  This was easier said than done.

First, I had to find something that did not have the word “SPICY” splashed across it.  Mild chili wasn’t to be found.  I am unsure if they just don’t make one or if the grocery store was just out of any mild flavors.  This medium chili wasn’t too spicy for me, but might be too mild for some.  I am a spice wuss.

Another factor for this one was the abscense of tofu in the ingredients list.  At the time, I was having great problems with tofu and had chosen to avoid that product for the time being.

Verdict: With all my wants, wishes, and needs in mind, I narrowed my selection down to Amy’s Organic Chili with Vegetables.  All in all, I liked this chili.  It tasted well enough, didn’t taste too canned, and worked in a pinch.  I would love to learn how to make a more homemade version of it.  In the meantime, I’ll work with this in a pinch.

To accompany the chili, I chose to pick up a box of macaroni and cheese.  This is another thing I’m not a big fan of, and I blame my mother, wholeheartedly and thankfully.  My mom wasn’t much on canned, out of the box dinners.  She worked hard every day to provide a really good, home cooked meal every day for our family.  She has a few pet peeves when it comes to food, and boxed macaroni and cheese is one of them.  She absolutely refused to serve it to us at her house.  In fact, it wasn’t until I hit college that I ever tried it.  It’s not a favorite of mine, but I do eat it when there isn’t much time for anything else.  Or when I’ve eaten fish sticks.  You just have to have boxed macaroni and cheese with frozen fish sticks.  But that’s another story, I suppose.

I purchased two different types of Annie’s macaroni and cheese and ate them during that busy week.  I have to say that I was not pleased with either.  I followed the directions exactly and didn’t find these brand to be very good at all.  I didn’t taste any type of cheese flavoring at all, not even that god awful powdery cheese taste you get from Kraft.  And though I say that about Kraft boxed mac ‘n cheese, I do freelly admit to eating it on occassion of nostalgic college pursposes.  When making the cheese sauce, it seems way too thin and didn’t cling well to the macaroni.

Verdict: I didn’t care for this at all and fed leftovers to the dogs during the week to get rid of the abundance of boxed mac ‘n cheese.  If I feel an overwhelming urge to indulge in this type of product again, I’ll stick to the tried and true Kraft.

While this dinner was filling enough, I’m hoping not to get so busy to do this again any time soon.

Have a great day everyone!

Note: These product reviews were not solicited in any way, nor do the companies know I even did them. I was not compensated in any way for these opinions.

Last night, I came home from work, looked at the clock on the wall, and gave it a big raspberry.  I decided not to worry if I had to stay up late.  I was going to try to make chili, using the notes I took from the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives episode I mentioned yesterday.  After four hours of cooking, I had my first pot of chili ala Dottie’s True Blue Cafe.  I’m starting to think that somewhere in the future I need to make a trip to San Francisco just so that I can go to this place.

My biggest concern, as you all remember, was the heat profile on this dish.  I ended up omitting most of the elements.  In place, I tried to season the chili pretty well.  It tastes fairly good.  I need to up the seasoning a bit, and there does need to be a touch of heat to this thing.  All in all, I’m happy with this first attempt.  It is definitely edible!

In an attempt to lower the heat profile, I substituted green chilis for the jalepenos.  Either I didn’t put enough, or these things have no heat whatsoever.  They did give a decent flavor to the chili, but I didn’t get any spiciness from these at all.

I also want to thank everyone who came by yesterday to say, “Don’t skip the apple cider vinegar!”  This is the exact reason why I continue to blog here.  I still don’t know about these things like a high sweetness level that must be offset by the acidity of the vinegar.  All I can say is that all of you were SO RIGHT!  I made sure to pick up a small bottle of the stuff and added some to the chili mixture.  When I tasted the chili after it had simmered for awhile, I could immediately tell why the cider is essential.  Quite some time ago, I made a vegetarian chili that didn’t fair too well.  I remember thinking how overpoweringly sweet it was with the bell peppers I’d used.  I really didn’t care for it and in the end disposed of much of that dish.  Now, I know what was wrong with my chili.  It needed something acidic in it.

Another nice thing I like about this chili is that it has no tomatoes in it.  Unless somewhere in the process Dottie’s owner sneaked in some tomatoes, I didn’t see any as he made this recipe.  Tomato-based products and I dont’ always get along.  Or maybe I should say my stomach isn’t so fond of them sometimes.  They upset me.  I was concerned if this was going to have any type of sauce, or broth, or whatever you might call it, to the chili.  I shouldn’t have worried.  I should remember what I do know of Louisiana cooking.  That many vegetables in a dish cook down to give a viscosity to the liquid that one enjoys.  As well, I employed a little technique my mom used to make her red beans creamy: smash up a portion of the beans.

I’ve decided that later this week, I’m going to make a special page on Not Exactly Bento for this recipe.  It’s going to be a work in progress.  We’re going to start with the basic process I used last night, and as I make changes, I can update the page easily.  As well, those of you that choose to make it, and I hope at least a few do, can come to this page and make your own comments of how you improved upon, changed, or enhanced the recipe to make it better.    Thanks everyone!  I couldn’t have done it without you.

And in case you are wondering, I have a container of this stuff with shredded cheese and sour cream for work today.  I’m going to stop at the grocery on my way to work to pick up some saltines to go with it.  I’m still not overly happy with my cornbread.  It’s tasty enough.  I put shredded cheese in it.  However, it is still missing some oomph.

I love Chilitos.  In the event you don’t know want Chilitos are, let me explain.  The first layer are plain Frito-Lay corn chips, topped with homemade chili, sour cream, and cheese.  You want to add that cheese on while the chili is still hot.  Then, you proceed to mix it all together in one gooey, cheesy, delicious mess.  Finally, you devour the whole bowl.  AAAAHHHHH, this was so good Monday night.  I knew all day at work that I was going to have Chilitos for supper.  It had a great work day knowing that I was going to come home to this.  Chilitos remind me of being a kid and getting chilitos as a treat from the vending station when the ball game was over.  At the ball game, they serve you chilitos inside the bag.  One end of single serving size bag of corn chips is cut off to open the bag, chili is spooned in, and you as a kid are delighted with the goodness.

Not wanting my fun to end, I decided to pack Chilitos for lunch on Tuesday.  Into the first container went leftover chili with shredded cheese.  I didn’t overpack this container so there would be room to add the fritos.  The chili was heated in a microwave not only to warm the chili but to also melt the cheese.  After heating, the corn chips from the second box were mixed into the chili.  AAAAAHHHH, goodness.  With the corn chips, I packed one quartered chocolate honey graham.  I’m telling you, sometimes it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Anyhow, that’s all I have to share today.  I’ll have today’s lunch posted either late this evening or tomorrow.

Be the bento everyone!

There’s a potato under there.  I know you can’t see it, but it’s there.  I even have pictures to prove it!  I’ve had a hankerin’ for chili so I made some.  Today’s bento contains steamed potato, chili, sour cream, and shredded cheese clocking in at an estimated 510 calories (give or take a few I’m sure).  It is a different sort of lunch from anything I’ve fixed before so I sort of wondered.  Now, onto the bento construction.

I keep telling myself that I’m not going to continue to do this bento construction thing each morning.  It’s just that (1) today’s bento was a bit different for me, and (2) it’s sort of addictive.

First, I sliced a potato into quarters, lengthwise, and placed them into my rice cooker’s steamer basket.  They took about 12-14 minutes to steam.

While the potatoes steamed, I shredded some cheese and placed it into a silicone cup on top of about two tablespoons of sour cream.

Once the potato was done, it was time to pack the bento.  The silicone cup of wonderment was placed on one end of the bento box.  Half of the steamed potato was placed next to the cup, then chili was poured on top of the baked potato.

Gorgeousness.  I’m ready for lunch!  I’m really liking this idea of a psuedo-baked potato lunch.  Tonight’s dinner will be  chilitos.  I’m soooo ready, and will be sure to share a picture!

Be the bento everyone!