Chili

I had been craving chili & cheese nachos for weeks. Instead of going out to dinner and getting a plate of them for $9-$10, I made my own batch of chili!

I had trouble finding a recipe I wanted to use. I knew I didn’t want any beans in it, but other than that I wasn’t sure because I’ve never made it before. I ended up combining two recipes and what I came up with was pretty good!

Here’s what I used:

1.22 lbs of ground beef -  $4.87

2  10 oz. cans of Rotel tomatoes & green chiles-  $1.00 each

¾ of a jar of tomato sauce

2 cloves of garlic - $.50 for the whole bulb

1 small yellow onion - $.59

1 tablespoon of Texas Pete’s hot sauce - $.49 for the whole bottle after coupon

Salt

Pepper

Cumin

Chili powder

Red pepper flakes

Tortilla chips

Shredded Cheese $2.49

Sour cream $1.45

I browned the meat in a frying pan and then threw everything  (minus the chips, cheese & sour cream) into the crock pot for a few hours.

When I made up a batch of nachos, I spread out a layer of chips on some tin foil, covered them with cheese and chili and popped them into the toaster over for a few minutes until the cheese was melted.

I already had all of the spices, a jar of tomato sauce and a bag of tortilla chips on hand. The remaining ingredients cost me $12.45 and I still have plenty of sour cream, hot sauce and garlic left over for other recipes.

Mid-week I was sick of chili (and out of chips!), so I froze the leftovers.

Even though most of my ingredients weren’t on sale, I still made out better than going to a restaurant. I got more meals out the $12 I spent and at least I know exactly what went into my meal.