​Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chili with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Stumbled on this recipe and realized that it's time for all the squash, pumpkin, and sweet potato recipes to come out! My favorite time of the year. This pumpkin chili turned out delicious and was an awesome recipe to kick off the fall season. I did tweak the recipe some and added roasted sweet potatoes once the chili was finished, and I may be biased, but I thought that made the meal even better. I also have to admit that I was expecting the chili to have more of a pumpkin flavor, but the sweet potatoes might have taken away from that or I might just love pumpkin too much that I need a lot of it. Either way though, the chili still turned out tasting amazing and I highly suggest this recipe to anyone! 

Also, make sure to check out the original link below. That blog had a lot of awesome looking recipes that I plan to sort through and will probably make in the future!
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Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chili
Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp coconut oil or pure beef tallow (such as Fatworks Pure Tallow)
• 2 cups chopped yellow onion (about 1 large onion)
• 1 medium green bell pepper, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ½ pounds grass-fed ground beef or bison
• 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
• ½ 6-oz. can tomato paste
• 1 14-oz. can pumpkin puree
• ½ - 1 cup chicken broth or water (homemade or store-bought)
• 2 ½ tsp. dried oregano
• 1 ½ Tbsp. chili powder
• 1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• ½ - ¾ tsp. sea salt
• ⅛ tsp black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add oil and saute the onions and peppers, stirring occasionally, for about 7 minutes or until onions start to soften.
2. Add the garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds or until fragrant.
3. Add the ground beef. Use a spatula or large spoon to break it up as it cooks. Cook until meat is nearly cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.
4. Transfer meat mixture to the slow cooker.
5. Add remaining ingredients and stir.
6. Set heat to LOW and cook for 6-7 hours. Serve with desired toppings.

Original recipe found here


My Homemade Sweet Potato Fries
(Basically just roasted sweet potatoes)
Ingredients:

• 4-6 Sweet Potatoes (Depending on how much you want to make. 5 medium sized sweet potatoes usually gets me 6 oz of sweet potato fries for 6 meals. I think my idea of medium sized is bigger than most though.)
• Olive oil spray
• Sea salt (I actually use Garlic Sea Salt on everything I cook)
• Optional: Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Skin and cut the sweet potatoes into whatever shape you want. I either do fries, wedges or circles.
3. Spray baking pan with olive oil. Lay down sweet potato fries flat (please do not just dump a pile on the pan).
4. I fill my Misto with olive oil and lightly spray the fries, then add some sea salt (sometimes cinnamon too).
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Take out of the oven and move them around or flip them over. Bake for another 15-20 minutes.
6. Keep an eye on them, if they are thin bake for less time, and vice versa. Key is to move them around or flip them over half way through baking them. I usually make mine thicker, so I bake them for at least a total of 40 minutes.