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Homemade Slow Cooker Chilli

Chilli Con Carne

1 can of diced tomatoes (796 mL / 28 fl oz)
1 can of tomato paste (6 oz)
1 pound of lean ground beef
2 sticks of celery
1 onion
1 cup of white mushrooms
1 can of bean medley (15 oz)
1/4 cup brown sugar
hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

The Chilli Con Carne is the spicy stew better known as Chilli – which actually means spicy peppers with meat! I like my chilli’s quite thick and hearty as it’s a meal when I make it, and not a topper. I also like to use beans in my chilli as it helps thicken the chilli. Besides, without the beans, it just doesn’t seem the same.

I first start by chopping up my mushrooms, onions and celery and browning the meat in a pan with a tad of seasoning. When it’s all brown and there are little bits of goodness in the bottom of my pan, this is the stage where I add in the tomato paste and then I place the browned meat in to the crock-pot.

In my empty pan, I now put in my veggies, sauteing them until they are tender – and I put it in my crock-pot.

Now, I basically put everything else into the crock pot – I open up the canned diced tomatoes and pour out the liquids, and just put the tomatoes in. The can of beans needs a good rinsing before going into the crock pot as well, and I mix everything together with a bit of salt, couple dashes of hot sauce and some brown sugar.

I set this on low for 8 hours total. I did dig in when the 8 hours wasn’t up yet for lunch, and it was really good! I bought myself a nice crusty bread to absorb all the sauces and it was a delicious lunch. For dinner, we enjoyed it with some mashed potatoes. Chilli can go with anything, so here’s where you can be creative!

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Cantina Grill at Denver International Airport

So, not all layovers at an airport is bad! We had a stop over at Denver International Airport (DIA) for awhile, and we needed to eat lunch. We went to the second level of concourse B where we found Cantina Grill for Mexican cuisine.

We had to be a little quick, so I ordered the Chicken quesadilla and it was really good. There’s never too much to say about a quesadilla, but this one was gooey with cheese and filled with cheese and chicken goodness! It was very satisfying for a food court!

We also ordered a Chicken Qdoba. (Gumbo) and it was also very impressive. It came in a bowl with beans, rice and stew on the bottom, and topped with cheese & salsa! We mixed it together for a delicious bowl of goodness as every spoonful was full of flavour!

The best part of Cantina Grill is the fact it’s on the second floor where there seems to be less passengers – so the line ups for food isn’t nearly as long! If I’m in Denver airport again, I wouldn’t have a problem sitting down at Cantina Grill for another meal!

Cantina Grill in Concourse B

Airport: Denver
Concourse B 8500 Pena Blvd
Denver, CO 80249
(303) 342-6860

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Aji Japanese Canteen in London

We walk by the Aji Japanese Canteen every time we walked from our hotel to the tourist areas and every time we did, there always was a nice crowd inside – which made me think it’s not bad! It’s located on the South bank of River Thames just after you cross the Waterloo bridge. One evening, we finally popped in as it was a cold and rainy evening… and they had free internet which we were looking for a place to sit down and use!

It’s a different concept in this restaurant, or what they call Canteen as the space is large, but it is a seat yourself like a food court. Then, you order from the menu an they servers will bring you your food. We each ordered our own dish, and the food came out really quickly. They didn’t mind us staying there longer than we needed to, or anyone doing that actually!

I ordered the Kara Age Don which was ginger flavoured crispy fried chicken, boiled eggs served in a bowl of rice with shredded cabbage, Japanese QP Mayonnaise and Shiso flavoured Sauce

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The other entree we ordered was a Soup Noodles, where you got to pick the kind of noodle you wanted, the type of soup, and the topping you’d like! So, this was fun as we got to personalize our noodle dish. We chose to have Ramen, which is a thin egg noodle, (one of our favourite types of noodles) with Shoyu soup which is a chicken broth that is kind of “soy sauce” flavoured. Then, we topped this bowl of ramen with Cha-Shu and garnished it with bean sprouts, shitake mushrooms and bamboo shoot.

Overall, this place is decent. It’s not the best, but it definitely hit the spot and it served our purpose of getting some nice noodle soup in our bellies, use the internet, and wait out the rain. This isn’t a location I would return to mainly because there are a lot of Japanese resturants that have opened up along the banks of River Thames.

AjiZen Japanese Canteen

Waterloo
Riverside Building County Hall
Waterloo, United Kingdom
(0871) 962 0035

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Belgo Centraal London

My sister really wanted to introduce Belgo Centraal to us in London at Covent Garden, so we all went to eat an early dinner there – which they called Express Lunch. The express lunch was available daily 12-5pm and for £7.95 it came with a choice of Belgo Pils, a glass of house wine or a soft drink with the selected lunch.

I ordered the Salmon Filet with leek mash and mustard cream sauce, and even though the salmon looks like it’s over cooked, it was actually cooked to perfection! It was flaky and still tender inside. The leek mash was divine and it was smooth and creamy. While both these contents sat in some mustard cream sauce, it really tied the dish together. It was a perfect pair.

We also ordered the Pork and Leek Sausages with stoemp mash and berry jus, and I have got to say the stoemp mash was better than my leek mash! It was pretty much a mashed baked potato and it was truly something memorable!

My sister ordered a Bowl of Traditionelle mussels served with frites, and of course I stole a few of both mussels and frites (fries). The mussels – they sure know how to make them here at Belgo, and they were really fresh with absolutely no fishiness to them at all. The portion of this bowl is huge and is a great dish to share!

We were having such a good time here at Belgo, we decided to order dessert! We ordered 2 to share between the 3 of us and it really was the perfect amount! Our first dessert was the Strawberry Pavlova which was not only insanely beautiful to look at, it was insanely delicious as well! The pavlova was nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I’ve had a few pavlovas and they tend to be very chewy on the inside.

We ended this fine express lunch with the very heavenly Belgian dark chocolate cheesecake! The Belgium Dark chocolate wasn’t so dark that the entire cheesecake turned bitter or anything, and the texture and creaminess of the cheesecake was to die for.

This was one of the best meals I’ve had the entire trip, and I would recommend it to anyone! The location does seem strange as it is in the lower level where it appears it’s the entire building! The concept of this restaurant is phenomenal, and the food is extraordinary!

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Koreana BBQ Restaurant

Ahh, something different and totally delicious!! We popped into Koreana BBQ Restaurant with some great friends to try it out and it was so good! The prices were a little high, but it definitely could be a lot worse in the city! The space was open and there were private booths along one ends and regular booths on the other edge. In the centre were regular tables and all the tables throughout had the option of having a BBQ flame right at the table!

As most Korean places, they give you a wide selection of kimchi first and then your actual meal. Here, they gave us not only a large selection of kimchi, but they also had a really good soup with it. It was kind of like a miso soup, with more ingredients in it.

We ordered Seafood pancake (Hae Mul Pa Jeon) which was made with tons of seafood and made into an egg pancake with green onion! It definitely tasted as good as it looks and the dipping sauce it came with added just the right amount of sweetness and saltiness to the omelette.

We also ordered a delicious Korean cuisine soup, the Pork Bone Spicy Soup with Potato and Vegetable (Gam Ja tang) which was full of flavours and spice! The pork was fall of the bone tender and juicy and the potatoes and vegetables made it nice and hearty!

As you can now see, there were huge chunks of potatoes and tons of spices in this soup on the pork and throughout! It was a wonderful soup and extra special – perfect for a cold winter day!

The final dish we enjoyed for the evening would be the Marinated Grilled Beef Short Ribs in a large order – and we got them to cook it for us. It was cooked to perfection, tender, and the sauce that goes with it was unbelievable!

I am sure we will be back, either to try dishes such as these, or even their Korean Hot Pot and maybe even the actual Korean Tabletop BBQ!

Koreana BBQ Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Koreana BBQ Restaurant
17-7400 Macleod Trl S
Calgary, AB
(403) 452-1020