Chocolate-Chipotle Chili is Alliterative, Awesome Chili

There's almost no way to make chili photograph well. Obviously, alliterative foods are the best foods. Such is the case with a recent creation: my Chocolate-Chipotle Chili!

Sometimes, the dishes I feature here at Hungry Sam seem to constitute a survey of "how to make awesome reasonably healthy food when you're broke." ("On a budget" is such a cliche. Besides, aren't most people, rich or poor, "on a budget" of some sort? Even a badly thought-out, credit-heavy budget?)

Chili is the perfect, ultimate, ideal "awesome reasonably healthy food for when you're broke." (So many adjectives!)

Now, I know you're already aware of my chili fixation (See my posts/recipes for Pumpkin Turkey Chili and Epic Turkey Bean Chili), but this is really something special. That's because this time, I thought to myself, "how can I make chili even more hardcore and decadent while adding more ANTIOXIDANTS!?!?" Because these are things I think.

The answer sprang to mind at once: I should use chocolate!

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Emergency Pumpkin Muffins

It's happened to all of us -- you're headed to a "Tastes of Fall" brunch party, and you remember 30 minutes out that it's a potluck. You COULD be lame and simply purchase a six pack of pumpkin beer or the like, but somehow you've acquired a reputation for being a decent cook. It might have something to do with your food blog.

So, in less than 25 minutes start to finish, you whip up Emergency Pumpkin Muffins!

Recipe below!

These are not health-food pumpkin bran muffins with whole wheat flour and oats; instead, these are slap-dash, fast-and-dirty pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins -- nothing healthy about 'em.

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A Brief Rant About Nutella

I'm back from the Yucatan, dear friends, and soon I will have a few posts detailing the stupendous dishes I enjoyed while away. But first, welcome to "A Brief Rant About Nutella."

Ok, people: I like Nutella as much as the next guy who loves chocolate. That's because Nutella is chocolate. With, like, some hazelnuts ("Over 50 hazelnuts per 13.5 oz. jar!" I hear).

But then you see ads on Facebook, Google and elsewhere, marketing Nutella as part of healthy, balanced breakfast. And it's not even just a marketing ploy -- the website, www.nutellausa.com has a "Nutella & Breakfast tab" as well as a dynamic "breakfast builder" with which you can design a balanced breakfast (which will, inevitably, include Nutella!). So OF COURSE NUTELLA MUST BE PART OF A BALANCED BREAKFAST? How could it not be? The website says so.

From www.NutellaUSA.com

Well, sort of. The section referring to Nutella and nutrition goes into great depth about how critical breakfast is, without really ever adding the caveat that WHAT one chooses to eat for breakfast might have some impact on things. By this logic, straight, unadulterated spoonfuls of butter could be part of a balanced breakfast. Sneaky (and good lawyering).

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