Making Chili

You would think that something as simple as making a pot of chili would be easy. But, no, we're in Guatemala! Chili isn't much of a thing here, although we expats are trying to get our local friends addicted to it by bringing it to every potluck. (Right, Iva?) 😊

First things first: beans. Well, I know from experience that cooking rock-hard beans for four hours on my gas stove makes them only slightly less rock-hard. Waste of gas! And finding a can of beans is almost impossible. But then I noticed this huge bizarre package of beans next to the dried ones at Despensa. It says they're whole precooked beans. I had to try it!

Here is the video I made on opening this weird plastic thing.

So that was successful, if unexpected! I tasted the beans right then and they were soft and salty and slightly spiced.

I then added a pound of cooked chorizo sausage, canned mushrooms, a chopped onion, a shredded carrot for vitamins, tomato sauce, and various spices. Less than an hour later, we had hot spicy yumminess. 😋

Homemade chili, yum!

For those who are interested in prices:
large can of mushrooms Q13
1 lb of chorizo Q9
big bag o' beans Q17
2 large spaghetti sauce bags = Q12
a carrot, an onion, and spices = Q1?

So the total cost to make was about Q52, which is CDN $8.88 or USD $6.75.

I used chorizo cuz we had some in the fridge. Ground beef is quite a bit more expensive, about Q24 a pound (or more), which is around CDN$4.10 or USD$3.11. The price would have gone up significantly. Substituting sausage or chicken for beef is just one of the many ways I adapt recipes to adjust for prices here in Guatemala. The other is not adding cheese.... wahh!! 😭

But on the bright side, after dinner I went for a stroll to the store and got a delicious creamsicle for only Q3 or about 51¢ Canadian or 39¢ American. Ha! 😁