Italian Sausage and Bean Soup

With the cooler weather finally upon us, I'm cracking out the soup recipes. I found this one in Taste of Home magazine and it's one of our standards now.

1 lb Hot Italian Sausage (you could use mild or even hamburger if you wish)
2 cans Great Northern Beans (rinsed and drained)
1 16 oz package coleslaw mix
1 24 oz jar of spaghetti sauce

Brown the italian sausage and drain excess fat. Stir in the beans, coleslaw mix, and spaghetti sauce with 3 cups of water. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes until flavors are blended. Makes 6 servings.

Instead of simmering on stove top, we put in crock pot for one to two hours. This soup also tastes just as good, if not better the next day.

Chilli

I found this chilli recipe in the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook twenty years ago and I still use it.  I've made some adjustments but it's still been a staple of mine for a long time.  I like this recipe for two reasons - it is fast and easy and you can come from work at 6 PM and still get this on the table for dinner in 30 minutes.  I also like that this recipe only makes four servings, so you're not dealing with leftovers forever.

Ingredients

1 lb ground meat (hamburger, pork, turkey) I used ground pork
Chopped green pepper (I only measure things that are easily measured.  For chopped veggies, I just put in what I think looks or sounds good.)
1-2 cloves garlic (again, for your taste)
1 can chilli ready tomatoes (if by chance I can't get chilli ready tomatoes, I just increase the chilli powder to 3 tablespoons)
1 can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons of chilli powder (Yes, I used tablespoons.  The original recipe says teaspoons, but somewhere along the way, I have translated that to tablespoons that that is what I used today.  Again, this can be adjusted for your spice preference.)

Prepare

Brown the meat with garlic and green pepper.  When the meat is no longer pink, add the rest of the ingredients in the appropriate pot for cooking.

Cook

Stove Top

On the stove top, heat to boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Microwave

Heat on high 5-6 minutes in a microwave safe dish.

Crockpot

 Heat on low for 1-2 hours or high for 1 hour or until heated through.

Toppings

We can't eat chilli without plenty of toppings.  Here are our favorites and staples:

• Cheese
• Oyster crackers
• Croutons
• Chopped onion (because we top the chilli with onion, I don't cook any with the meat)
• Jalepenos
• Sour cream

What are your favorite toppings for your chilli?