Chili Mac and Cheese

I've been attempting to mix up the menu on occasion and I was looking for crockpot recipes (because I'm still as lazy as always) and found a recipe for chili mac and cheese that I decided to cook on the stove.  Would recommend.

Megan's version:

Ingredients:
-1.5# ground bison

-onion

-red/yellow/orange peppers

-garlic

-1/2 box of pasta (I used cavatappi instead of macaroni)

-16oz fire-roasted tomatoes,drained or 1 16oz can rotel tomatoes, drained (next time I'll use the fire-roasted tomatoes I bought specifically for this purpose that I forgot about until after I'd opened the rotel, sigh)

-2 (8oz) bags "macaroni and cheese" blend cheese (1 bag was insufficient, if mac and cheese blend isn't available, cheddar is recommended)

-1 cup broth

-1-2 cans of beans, drained (I forgot this, but will add it next time)

-1-3 tablespoons chili powder

-1 teaspoon-ish oregano

-1 teaspoon cumin

-Cayenne pepper (if you want heat spice, I omitted this)

Directions:

-Start water to cook pasta, cook pasta while cooking meat.

-Dice vegetables

-Start cooking meat, add chili powder, when meat is almost cooked, add onion, peppers, and garlic. 

-Drain.

-Add seasoning.

-Add broth.  Simmer until pasta is cooked.

-Drain pasta, then mix with meat/veggies.

-Add 1 bag of cheese.  Slowly add the 2nd bag until your heart feels full (I'd probably use half the 2nd bag, we added mexican cheese because 1 bag wasn't enough for my cheese loving heart).

Megan Notes:
-I don't like ground beef so we use ground bison as a substitute, you can use whatever ground meat you prefer.  I think this recipe is versatile enough for most proteins or even as a vegetarian meal.

-I made sure to add enough chili powder and cumin that the food was well seasoned, especially since I wasn't using the cayenne pepper and I'm slightly scared of chili powder.  Teh German approved of the spices.  I explicitly asked him.  

-We didn't actually miss the beans, but the beans make it more like chili than hamburger helper, so I will fix that error next time.

-I will always pick the most fun pasta.