My Random Five-Ingredient Recipe

I will leave it up to you how much or how little hot peppers you add to this recipe. I used to add jalapenos, and tobasco sause. I had to stop, as I am now allergic to peppers. You can go for it, as hot or not as pleases your pallet.

1 pound dried beans (I prefer pink beans)
Clean any leftover trash or stones from processing, rinse. You can either soak the beans overnight, or put into water and boil for a couple of minutes. Then, shut off heat, and allow to soak for an hour or two.

While your beans are soaking, do the rest, so as soon as the beans are ready to cook, your other ingredients will be ready also.

Onions (to your taste)
Chop or dice and saute on medium low heat, until they are golden brown, (not burned).

garlic (to taste)
I always add plenty of fresh garlic, which I chop up, or even crush and mince. You may also use the ready minced garlic such as Costco sells, or garlic powder. I avoid using garlic salt, as I will be adding salt to the recipe, and there is also salt in the chorizo I add.

1 pound ground meat (I use 3 different meats)
Be sure to use low fat ground beef. ( I add ground turkey, and pork chorizo).

⅓ of each variety. This adds flavor and helps with cholesterol levels.

Be sure to use a pan large enough to accommodate the amount of meat you are going to cook, so that you will have plenty of room for stirring and breaking the meat up during cooking.

When your meat is nearly cooked to your liking, add the sauteed onions and garlic, to allow for mixing of flavors.

Tomato sauce and/ or tomato paste(to taste)
I like to use Italian style tomato paste and I use the canned tomatoes that are already stewed. I generally use at lest one large 32 oz. can, and sometimes I even add more canned tomatoes,

Play with this, as you may well have your own favorites.

MIX INGREDIENTS:

Now that you have all the individual ingredients prepared, you can either add the tomato sauce to your meat mixture, (which I think works best) or put everything into a large slow cooker (crock pot). Be sure to add enough water to cover the contents of the cooker, set on high, and allow to cook for at least 6 hours, before you even consider lowering the temperature to low, or simmer.

At times, I even allow it to cook overnight. ( My slow cooker has three settings, so I set it on the medium heat for overnight).

SERVE:

Serve with your favorite simple salad, and your favorite summer or fall drink, such as fresh made lemonade, or iced tea, or even a nice cold beer,

Be sure to have some wonderful homemade corn bread. I'm sure you have your own favorite. Even those little boxes of quick make types are good, if you don't have time for scratch. (Personally, I don't care for the sweetened variety from Marie Calenders)