Dinner Deals: Slow Cooker Chili for an Army

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

This is a cheap meals recipe I came up with to use up the 1 lb of ground beef we received from Angel Food Ministries. To make it even more frugal, dried beans are used as well.

The spices are key in this recipe because there’s not a lot of meat to carry this dish. Slow cooking brings out the best in the beans and the spices for a warm-your-toes satisfying chili.

Yum!

Ingredients

@$3.00 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey (whichever you prefer or whichever is cheaper)
@$0.25 1 onion diced
@$1.75 1 bag dried kidney beans (if you really want to s-t-r-e-t-c-h your budget, make it 2 bags and you’ll feed an army for a week.)
@$1.50 1 jar salsa (generic is cheapest and tastes the same as name brand, at least in our area)
@$1.20 1 can chicken stock (if you make my crockpot chicken salad and chicken broth 2 for 1 meal you can cut the cost of this recipe.)
1 ‘can’ Water
@$1.00 1 can diced tomatoes with juice (this can be left out if money is tight.)
@$0.50 Spices: 1-2 tbsps. Cumin, 2-3 tbsps. Chili powder and anything else you like in your chili

Total recipe cost: approximately $9.20
Serves: An army! At least 6 servings. Easily 10-12 servings if you use an extra bag of beans.

Cooking Instructions

1. Soak kidney beans overnight.

2. The next day, dice onion and put it in skillet with a tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp cumin and 2 tbsp chili powder. Saute together for a minute or two until spices are fragrant and then add your meat. Cook throughly.

3.Rinse beans one last time and put in crockpot with salsa, tomatoes, chicken stock and an equivalent amount of water (eyeball it to see if you need more water. You don’t want too much or too little. There should be just enough water to cover the top layer of ingredients and no more.). Add some more cumin and chili powder followed by the cooked meat.

4.Cook on high for 6 hours or until beans are soft. (I used some old beans and slow cooked my chili for almost 18 hours, which totally screwed up my meal plan. Also, I now know I have to eat my beans faster! Old beans are tough!)

Serve with cornbread (from a mix or homemade) or top with some shredded cheddar cheese to make a $10 dinner deal. This recipe should yield enough for leftovers or to feed the freezer.

Tags: beans, cheap meals, ingredients for slow cooker chili dinner, slow cooker chili
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