Chilly Chili

It was a chilly day in Payson, and I was on the go all day. It is Veteran's Day and it seems like everyone has somewhere to be and guess who is the taxi?? I knew this when the day started, so I decided to make Chili with my left over beans from yesterday. This meal was VERY reasonable. Here's the recipe:

o 3 cups pinto beans
o 2 cans stewed tomatoes
o 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
o 1/4 cup chopped red onion (double the flavor, 1/2 the onion)
o 1 tsp salt
o 1/2 tsp pepper
o 2 tbs minced garlic
o 2 tbs cilantro (I used dried)
o 2 tsp ground cumin

Brown ground beef with seasonings and onions. Once browned, put into crockpot along with beans & tomatoes. Cook on high for 2-3 hours, low for 4-6 hours. And you are done. Garnish with shredded chedder cheese if desired. Simple and best of all delicious!

Price:
Beans: FREE from leftovers from last night
Tomatoes: .29 a can at Fry's. TOTAL: .58
GroundBeef: $1.25 a pound at WalMart this week. TOTAL: $1.75
Onion: .25
Seasonings: less than .25


TOTAL DINNER: Less than $3.00 for a family of 6 and leftovers!!

Oh So Good Salsa!!

My husband was craving salsa this afternoon, so being the wonderful wife that I am, I made him salsa that was cheap!

I used my cans of tomatoes that I bought at Frys last week for 29 cents a can.

Recipe:

4 cans of tomatoes
1/4 red onion (love red onion--double the flavor means I use half the amount of onion, if you use a yellow or white onion, I would use 1/2 of an onion.)
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
4 oz green chile
2 tbs minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red chile paper

I put the onion & cilantro in the food processor with the seasonings, once it is chopped, I put the green chile & tomatoes in on pulse twice, just to mix everything up.

I made a slew of salsa for less than $4...compared to a jar of salsa-->quite a bit less than what I made is $4 a jar.

Oh I hate to say it again but I have to: yum yum!

Dinner for 6 for less than $3.00!!

AND that was the entire meal, not per serving!

Dinner was great tonight! It was delicious and practically FREE! The only thing that I actually paid for was the chicken. We had chicken breasts, potatoes Au Gratin, and Birds Eye Veggies.

I love my electric skillet! I simply placed my chicken breasts bone side down in the skillet, set it for 350, put salt, pepper, garlic powder (you know I love the garlic!!!), and basil on top and covered it for 25 minutes--EASY EASY!!

As the chicken was cooking, I baked the potatoes Au Gratin as per the instructions on the box and put the veggies on to steam.

25 minutes later, my dinner was done! Did I mention it was practically FREE?

Best Laid Plans!

You know, I woke up this morning thinking it would be a great day. I was off to a great start. I remembered to take the chicken, that I had gotten on sale from Safeway for 89 cents a pound a couple of weeks ago, out of the freezer. I knew that I was going to use my potatoes and Birds Eye veggies that I got for free from Fry's and life was good!

Then Karessa whined from her room, I don't feel good. Well she is 14,so I figure she can stay home by herself without burning down the house. So we left her at home and I started my day--which was pretty cool because I was on the local radio station talking about technology in schools. I didn't fumble too badly over my words! While at the radio station, my husband calls their non live line (thank goodness!) to tell me that our youngest daughter, Margaret, is in the nurses office and needs to come home. Ughhhhh!

Rushing back to school, posting my grades because of course they are due today! And then making substitute lesson plans for the rest of the day, I run home. Cleaning up these kind of messes are not what I enjoy most about being a parent! Then our middle daughter, Eve, called to say that she was sick and needed picked up from church. Now I have 1/2 of our family down with the sickness....let's hope and pray the other 1/2 stays healthy.

Needless to say my dominos coupons came in very handy tonight!!!

Tuesdays are LeftOver Days in My House

Normally I work late on Tuesday nights so I leave it up to Michael to worry about dinner. Usually that means leftovers. (I'm sure that there has been several cereal Tuesday nights too!) So I thought that I would share my shopping excursions with you.

This week at Fry's I bought the following:

5 Birds Eye Veggies -- FREE
5 Betty Crocker Potatoes--FREE
5 Canned DelMonte Tomatoes -- .29 each can
5 Halls Cough Drops -- FREE

My total shopping 1.45---> So less than $1.50 for all of that! I simply used my coupons in conjunction with what is on sale this week. I'm sure that you will see these ingredients in meals to come!! Well minus the cough drops :)