Eating Paleo: Paleo Chili (ie "REAL" Chili)

Technically, "REAL" chili doesn't actually have beans. Most people don't know that.

This is Paleo chili.
I made this recipe the other night, by combining a couple of beanless, from-scratch chili recipes.
Now, it's just me that I'm cooking for so...measurements are fudged a bit so that I don't wind up making ridiculously massive amounts.

Sorry it's not very sharp - I took this photo with my cell phone camera :p

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of organic diced tomatoes
• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 4 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1/2 an Onion (chopped)
• 4 carrots (chopped)
• 3-5 celery stalks (chopped)
• 3 Bay Leaves
• 2-4 sprigs of fresh thyme 
• Fresh parsley (chopped) - about 2-3 tbsp

Directions:

1. In a frying pan, cook up the ground beef (use a little cooking fat/evoo/coconut oil if needed/desired).
2. In a different pan (or, in my case, after cooking up the ground beef and moving it to a different dish and reuse the frying pan). In the EVOO, saute the garlic over low heat until it gets fragrant.
3. Add the onion, celery, and carrots and cook until the veggies are soft (or as tender as desired, I personally like to leave the carrots just a little crunchy to add in another texture to the mix).
4. Stir in the canned tomatoes and the cooked beef (at this point, I had to switch to a big pot because not all of this actually fits in a medium sized frying pan).
5. Add the bay leaves, thyme, and parsley.
6. Let cook on low for about 4 hours (I was too impatient...and only let it go for about 2 - it tasted fine, the addition of more time just allows the flavors to meld together a bit more).

Voila! Meat and Veggies all in one go, and very yummy! :)

This recipe makes a good size batch (even with my adjustments, it made more than I was expecting but it was fine because then I could just stick it in the fridge or freezer and eat it throughout the week for various meals).

Note - with the amount of prep that you have to do for this recipe (ie all the chopping) - you're gonna wind up feeling like an assistant chef as you're getting everything ready, but...I've found that listening to the soundtrack from Ratatouille helps to get into the mindset. And while, yes, it's a lot of prep - it's all still really very simple to put together. ("So easy a Caveman could do it!" :P)

And if ya make a little bit of a mess, don't feel bad - Cause I'm a *really* messy cook (although, I am improving...a little.) - Just be sure to do a really good job of cleaning up afterwards! :)

So long as your kitchen doesn't look like a tornado hit it afterwards...then you're a cleaner cook than I :p