I think everyone needs at least one dish that they just always have the ingredients for lying around.

Those ingredients that you always have stocked in your cabinets or buy each week at the store just to make sure you never run out of them.

A dish, while maybe not the most delicious dish you’ve ever eaten, is something you can enjoy every time and not be so bored with that you would rather go eat out then quickly make it.

A dish that you can quickly make if you haven’t been able to do any meal prep and have no leftovers to quickly heat up.

For us, omelets (or scrambled eggs) and chili are our healthy go-tos (and I don’t mean the super long cooking chili…I mean the dump everything into the cast iron and let it simmer for 10 minutes and then devour chili).

We always have ingredients for both around – eggs, tomato sauce, some sort of vegetable and ground beef.

Since we usually have at least a pound of ground beef lying around, if we make a quick chili, there are even leftovers to eat later!

Below is the basic quick chili we make along with a link out to my favorite cauliflower chili (which is a bit more time-consuming).

Quick and Basic Beef Chili

While a few basic spices are listed below, you can add in others like chipotle powder.

Ingredients:
1lb grass-fed ground beef
1 can organic tomato sauce
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/2 tbsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
OPTIONAL…AKA if we have them around:
Onion, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, sausage, bacon, olives

Heat a skillet, we use our cast iron, over high heat and add the ground beef. Add some salt and pepper and break the beef up. (Can add in sausage and onion at this time if you are putting them in.)

When the beef is still a little pink, add in tomato sauce and spices. Stir.

Add in any vegetables and bacon if you are adding any. (Cook bacon before adding beef to the skillet. Let bacon cool and then crumble.)

Mix vegetables into the sauce and then lower heat to low. Let simmer another minute or two, stirring everything together occasionally.

Serve with maybe some grass-fed or raw milk cheese on top. If we have the ingredients for guacamole, we will also usually top it with that.

This basic chili recipe can also easily be served over spaghetti squash as a “spicy” meat sauce if you have any lying around!

And if you happen to love cauliflower as much as I do and have a bit more time to cook, try this chili variation – Cauliflower Chili.

What is your go-to healthy dish? What ingredients do you always have lying around?