Miracle Leftover Chili -

Chili Recipe using leftovers

I find an odd pleasure in making a meal out of seemingly unrelated items. One night a week I have “Miracle Leftover Night”. Miracle leftover night is always more of spontaneous event rather than my usual premeditated dinners. Since it is based on whatever I have leftover, it is somewhat different every time I make it..

This is what I found in the refrigerator:

~ 1 cup spaghetti sauce (all the noodles had been consumed)
~ 1 1/2 cups of baked beans
1 hamburger patty (all of the buns had been consumed)
~ 1/2 cup of taco meat
~ 1/2 cup of black beans
1/2 med. onion
1/2 bell pepper

I chopped up the hamburger patty, onion, and bell pepper. I placed all of the above ingredients into a large pot with 1/2 cup of water and cooked over medium heat.

In my cupboard I found:

15 oz. can of kidney beans
14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes
homemade chipotle seasoning mix

You could also add:

Cooked Rice
Corn

I stirred in the above items to the pot without draining them first. I continued to cook over medium heat until the beans began to boil, them simmered on low until the flavors had blended.

This could easily have been done in a crock pot if I had thought about dinner a little sooner. I was telling a friend about my dinner and she said it sounded like Blizzard Chili. I had never heard of blizzard chili, but the idea is similar: make do with what you have on hand.