Chili in a pan, chili in a bowl, chili on the blog

Last night, I served my kids one of my favorite comfort food recipes. It's officially called "Meat and Corn Bread Squares". But I think we will rename it Corn Bread Chili, since it's basically chili mixed with corn bread in a pan.

I wasn't sure if my kids would eat it, but all three reported, "Wow, Mom! This tastes good!" I'm so glad they have learned that sometimes food tastes better than it looks.

The second recipe in this post is for my friend Lisa's Award Winning Chili. (She won the award from me and all of our other friends who have tried it.)

This recipe makes a huge quantity. The next time I make it, I'm going to try putting together all of the ingredients and freezing it before I cook it. Then, I can pull it out of the freezer and cook it the day we plan to eat it.

Corn Bread Chili

1 pound ground beef

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1 16-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 4-ounce can diced green chili peppers, drained

1 package Jiffy corn muffin mix, plus the ingredients to make the mix

1 cup cheddar cheese

Cook the ground beef and add the cornstarch, chili powder, garlic salt, diced tomatoes and peppers.

Mix up the muffin mix and add the cheddar cheese.

Spread half of the batter into a greased 9x9x2-inch baking pan. Spoon meat mixture atop. Top with remaining batter.

Bake in a 375 degree oven about 30 minutes.

Lisa's Award Winning Chili

3 lbs. hamburger

1/2 cup onion

1 cup celery

4-5 tsps. chili powder

chili beans (2 40 0z cans of Brooks)

2 cans diced tomatoes, drained

2 large cans tomato juice

2 to 3 cans tomato soup

1/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup white sugar

Dice celery and onion.

Brown hamburger, onion, celery, part of chili powder, salt and pepper.

Drain most of the grease; leave some to taste.

Put meat mixture in pot and start adding liquids, tomatoes and beans.

Salt and pepper to taste. Add rest of chili powder. Add sugar.

Simmer 3-4 hours. Stir often.

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