It is cold and dreary this weekend, which makes it perfect weather for chili. I actually made this and took the photos a couple of weeks ago, right when my computer died on me. So apologies for the extremely lousy pictures in this bunch, but I didn’t realize until much later and I didn’t want to wait until I made it again to share it with you. So with that in mind, here we go, out of focus pictures and all. It’s amazingly simple, you won’t need the pictures anyways, trust me.

You’ll need 5 cans of Brooks Mild Chili beans, 2 cans of chili ready tomatoes, 1 can of tomato soup, 1 can of water, 1 can of tomato sauce, and 1lb of ground beef. Not pictured: an onion. I forgot to buy one, and I don’t like them anyways, so I left them out.

First brown and drain your ground beef (and your onions, if you’re using those). The ground beef will be the first thing you add to your pan… and make sure you use a big one. I used the biggest pan I have (which is admittedly not all that big) and barely had enough room.

Dump in your 5 cans of Brooks mild chili beans. I’ve been told that it HAS to be this brand of chili beans… we’re usually pretty store brand friendly around here, as you can probably tell from my usual ingredients photos, but apparently other brands of chili beans “just aren’t the same.” That’s what my mom says anyways, and since she’s been cooking the chili I like for a long time, I decided to trust her on that one. We like a lot of beans in our chili, but you’re welcome to scale down the amount if you feel like it’s going to be too much.

(See? I told you the photos get lousy…) Next, add in your two cans of chili ready tomatoes.

Followed by your can of tomato sauce.

Your can of tomato soup.

And then your can of water.

Finally stir it all together, and let it cook! Basically you’re just waiting for it to get hot enough to eat… the longer it sits, the more it thickens. In my opinion, the chili is better the second day than it is the first day too.

Oh! I almost forgot the secret ingredient– Hot Dogs! I sliced up half of the package into my pot of chili. Obviously, hot dogs are not a necessary ingredient if you’re not feeling it, but I have to tell you — the hot dogs have always been my favorite part.

I was too impatient to wait for it to thicken up much at all, so the first night, I ate it pretty soupy as soon as everything was hot. Add some cheese, sour cream, and crackers if you have some, and you’ve got a wonderful warm and filling chili for cold winter evenings! This chili is not very spicy, which fits my bill exactly. I took some over to my best friend, and she declared it was better than her mothers. Score one for me and my hot dog filled chili!

I’ve been experimenting with a gluten-free diet lately. That’s my latest excuse for not updating with more regularity anyways. (Don’t you just love how I always seem to have an excuse? :)) When I was given the opportunity to try these, I couldn’t resist throwing the diet experiment out the window, at least long enough for breakfast. I’ve been gushing about these cinnamon rolls to anyone who will listen, so I figured I better tell all of you as well!

First of all, you just can’t go wrong with Cinnabon and cinnamon rolls. In fact, I have been really wanting cinnamon rolls for quite some time. Living by myself though, I just never could justify making an entire container or even making them from scratch because hello? My thighs just do not need me to polish off an entire batch of cinnamon rolls by myself. Which brings me to this new offering from the folks at Pillsbury. Instead of arriving in a tube, these cinnamon rolls are in a bag. In the freezer section. Imagine how excited I was when I realized, I could make myself two cinnamon rolls. I could make myself two, and put the rest in the freezer for breakfast NEXT Saturday!

I was concerned about how they would turn out being baked on a cookie sheet by themselves, when all the cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had before have been all smushed together in a pan. But I set my oven to 350, and greased my cookie sheet. The rolls looked a little compressed when I took them out of the bag, but I decided to have faith. (These are the regular sized, by the way… I didn’t trust myself not to eat the entire bag of minis.)

20 minutes later, I pulled them out of the oven. They’d puffed up, were normally shaped cinnamon rolls, and they smelled delicious.

In the bag, there was one packet of icing available for every two cinnamon rolls. I was impressed that there was plenty of icing available for each roll, and so conveniently packaged.

The verdict? AWESOME. They were wonderful, not crunchy as I’d worried they would be. And the best part? Being able to bake only 2 at a time kept me from going back for the rest of them. I’d have gladly eaten more cinnamon rolls if they were already baked, but I didn’t want to wait another 20 minutes to bake more. These cinnamon rolls that I can bake individually may be one of the most dangerous things I’ve discovered this year. Especially when they’re chock full of things that I had been trying to avoid.

Today’s post is on one of my favorite things about summer. The bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, or the BLT. It’s just the perfect summer meal. Simple and delicious!

Making this BLT also marked the first time I have ever attempted cooking bacon. You’ll notice that the photos of this step are conspicuously absent. At first, this was because I was more worried about not burning myself than taking pictures. In the end, it was because I burnt the crap out of the bacon and filled my apartment full of smoke. In fact, the pieces of bacon that made it into the picture (plus enough for one more sandwich) ended up being the only pieces I ate. The rest made it into the garbage can. Since then, I’ve heard I should try cooking bacon in the microwave or in the oven, so I’ll have to try that. In the meantime, I’m happy with Oscar Meyer fully cooked bacon. Shh, don’t tell.

Everything you need for a BLT. Bread, tomato, lettuce, bacon, miracle whip, salt and pepper.

First, I sliced up my tomato. Then I fried my bacon, but we’ve already established that I won’t be showing you that step.

Then I toasted my bread.

Followed by a generous slathering of miracle whip. Seriously tomato, plus the “tangy zip of Miracle whip” is just wonderful.

Then I showed how completely weird and anal I am by cutting my tomato so I could put it in one single layer. Cause I’m strange like that and I don’t like it doubled up. I’m also a strange person who doesn’t like the meat too thick on my sandwiches either.

Salt and pepper the tomato. Usually I go all out and salt and pepper the other side of the bread too. Wild woman, I know.

Add your bacon, if it’s edible.

Then add your lettuce. Normally, lettuce picked out of a salad mix is not what I would use, but it’s what I had so that’s what you get.

Then put your sandwich together and eat! And use a napkin because it will drip yummy goodness everywhere!

The beautiful thing about summer, though? I’m just as happy with a simple tomato sandwich, where you’re done assembling after you salt and pepper your tomato. Which is exactly what I had with the rest of my tomatoes after I dumped my burnt bacon in the trash can and hauled it out to the dumpster while my apartment smelled like bacon for 3 days.