Eating a bowl of chili….is it really healthy? Uh yeah, sure!

If you've ever asked; 1) how good does a bowl of chili really taste and 2) whether it’s actually good for you to eat, you might get lots of positives for the former and few, if any for the latter.

The truth be told, there are a lot of chili abusers out there. Individuals who prefer to slather on the copious amounts of cheese or otherwise 'corrupt' the nutritional value of the dish with all sorts of wacky additions (see Cincinnati 5-way)!

I like to follow a much more mundane, (and hopefully) a nutritionally safer route to my version of ‘chili heaven’! Read on…

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In my world, a bare bones bowl of chili could contain the following;

Beef – ground or chunks

Tomatoes – stewed, diced or whatever

Chili powder to add a little heat

Cumin – for that authentic chili taste

While this works out OK, the result is rather boring. As an option, here is my favorite recipe for chili:

1 lb ground beef (80% - 20%  mix)

1 onion, chopped (as a topping for when you eat)

1 can petite diced tomatoes, 8 oz

1 can red kidney beans, drained

14 grams of Williams chili mix  (per lb ground beef)

1 tsp Olive oil

1 tsp brown sugar (optional) per lb ground beef

Directions: To make it, you simply brown the meat in a frying pan, drain off the excess fat and then dump this along with the rest of the ingredients into a crock pot set to low. That’s it! The whole deal takes me about ten minutes to throw together in the morning. Then, I can go out and play, work or whatever, and I’ll have a steaming hot bowl of chili ready for me when I get home. This recipe will make enough for four to five one cup servings depending on what you idea of a cup really is.

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Now, as to the nutritional factors. Here’s a label that combines all the ingredients. Note that the sodium is low because I used low sodium beans and so-called fake salt (potassium chloride) to flavor the dish. For added heat, I also used a shot of Tabasco sauce!

Note: When I was figuring out what a true serving was, I figured that a cup was about right and that's what I based the nutritional analysis on. The bottom line is that a good hot bowl of chili ain’t all that bad for your body assuming you supplement it with lots of fruits and veggies!

Oh, and how did this chili taste? Marvelous, just marvelous!