New Year's Chili

Happy New Year!

There are traditional New Year's foods around the globe, but one speaks to my frugal heart: beans. Said to symbolize coins or wealth, they're an excellent (and inexpensive) choice for entertaining.  I made a huge batch of chili, enough for our dinner table with friends and family, leftovers for our family's lunch the next day, and extras for a friend.

The recipe below stretches the most expensive ingredient - meat - with three kinds of beans, and the optional toppings on the side let diners choose how they want their bowl. I used my Instant Pot pressure cooker, but I've added variations for the stovetop or slow cooker as well. The recipe below serves about 20 for about $.55 per bowl (not including toppings), and is easily halved. 

I've included my prices, including beans and spices bought in bulk, but as always, your prices may vary. 

Chili for a Crowd

4 T vegetable oil ($.40)

2 lb. ground meat (I used a mix of ground pork and ground beef) ($4.98)

2 c. dry pinto beans ($.50)

2 c. dry kidney beans ($.75)

1 c. dry black beans ($.37)

2 medium onions, diced ($.50)

1 green pepper, diced ($.50)

1 stalk celery, diced ($.10)

3-14 oz. cans diced tomatoes ($1.50)

1-14 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles ($.50)

1-5 oz. can tomato paste ($.41)

Seasonings - to taste, adjust for your liking and availability ($.35)

2 T chili powder 

1 1/2 T cumin

1 T smoked paprika

1 T garlic powder

1/2 T dried oregano

1/2 t cinnamon

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse, drain, and prepare dry beans. I cook beans, unsoaked, in the pressure cooker, covered by 2 inches of water, on the Bean setting. You may instead soak overnight and cook on the stovetop. Drain cooked beans.

2. Heat oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet. Add diced onion, green pepper, and celery. Cook until onion is translucent, about 6-8 minutes. Add seasonings and tomato paste to the vegetables and fry, stirring frequently. Once fragrant, add meat and cook until no longer pink, breaking into small pieces.

3. Combine beans, meat mixture, and tomatoes into the Instant Pot, large stovetop pot, or slow cooker. Stir together. The mixture will release more liquid as it cooks, so don't worry if it looks a little dry, but feel free to add a splash of water if the chili doesn't look moist.

Pressure Cooker: Use Beans/Chili button.

Stovetop: Bring to a light boil, then turn down to simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. 

Slow Cooker: Set for low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours. 

4. Serve with toppings! Our favorites include:

• Sour cream
• Grated cheese
• Cilantro
• Green onion
• Diced white onion
• Corn chips
• Sliced olives 
• Lime wedges
• Hot sauce

What are your New Year's food traditions? And what are your favorite chili toppings? 

When life hands you a giant can of marinara sauce

In early November, I bought two food-service sized cans of marinara sauce for $1.99 apiece at the Grocery Outlet store. With 24 servings each, the cans would easily provide us with 6-7 meals at $.08 per person. What a score!

While we could easily have the sauce plain with pasta, I wanted to bulk it up a bit and build up the flavor. What I ended up with is a flavor-packed sauce that is the frugal base of at least 9 meals.

Here’s the cost breakdown:

1 lb. hot Italian sausage $2.99

1 lb. mild Italian sausage $2.99

½ lb. pepperoni, diced $1.50

4 medium onions, diced $1.33

6 zucchini, shredded $2.00

A handful of fresh basil from the garden $.00

6 lb. 11 oz. can of marinara sauce $1.99

Total cost $12.80

$12.80/9 meals = $1.42 per meals

$1.42 per meal/5 servings = $.28 per serving.

This is the sauce that does not end. It just goes on and on my friend...

Pasta

We’ve used this sauce on pasta, naturally, for a dinner ready in under 15 minutes. (I've added a label for meals ready in under 15 minutes, so as I add to this blog you can look up quick, cheap dinners.) I added another shredded zucchini, trying to use up the ones given to us by a neighbor whose garden overproduced. Our neighbor's zucchini came after I made the sauce, so I bought the ones in the sauce. With a serving of pasta costing us about $.20, that was an easy and filling $.48 dinner. We have two family members who are gluten free, and I buy gluten-free pasta for them. I cook it in the boiling water first, pull their pasta out, then cook ours, so there is no cross-contamination in the water. Their pasta costs a bit more, ours a bit less, so the $.20 is an average for the meal. It would be cheaper using all wheat spaghetti.

Soup

I made a big batch of pizza soup with white beans using my favorite beans with sausage and greens method. About a pound of cannellini beans ($.82) were cooked in the Instant Pot/pressure cooker along with a diced onion ($.25), celery ($.10), and carrot ($.06). Once cooked through, I added the pasta sauce ($1.42), an extra can of diced tomatoes ($.50), a package of frozen spinach ($.99) and a cup or two of water to get the consistency I wanted. I simmered everything together for about 20 minutes so the flavors could meld. The huge pot of soup cost $3.64 for at least 15 servings at about $.24 each. We had it for dinner served with cooked pasta, for lunch the next day, and it was in the fridge to take a bowl when someone was feeling a bit hungry between meals.

Pizza

On a night that the kids were at their dad’s, we made a pizza with homemade dough. Homemade dough comes in at $.35 per pizza. About 2 oz. shredded mozzarella is about $.38. Meaty sauce is $.54 for two servings. The $1.27 pizza served 2 of us at $.64 each.

Shakshouka

With another portion of that batch, I made shakshouka, poaching eggs ($.20) on top of the sauce, bubbling in a pan over low heat on the stovetop, and and serving with toast made with homemade bread ($.12)  A hearty splash of hot sauce gave it a nice kick for about $.01, and we were up to $.60 for a filling breakfast. If you've never had eggs poached in tomato sauce, I highly recommend it as a simple method with big flavor!

*****

We still have a few batches in the freezer for more pizza-flavored meals. I read a suggestion of adding hard cooked eggs to spaghetti with marinara and, being a fan of hard cooked eggs, that is next on my to-try list! Another unopened can of marinara sits in the pantry, ready for another round. How should I doctor up the next can of sauce?