Tight Budget Healthy Dinner, Mexican or Italian

Submitted by jennifer in new jer

"This is basically just a very simple and plain chili/casserole. I made this meal for under 8.00 (i already had the seasonings in my pantry) and it made 2 good sized adult portions. Nothing fancy but definitly answers yes to the question of, "can a person still eat good,healthy, non -processed food for cheap?" I always get store brand organic meat or the meat offered that has no hormones, antibiotics, etc... . Some stores even have their own line of organic canned goods to really keep this price low. I have even made this without the meat and just subbed a small container of fresh mushrooms and it was still really good. BE SURE to use the liquid from both the beans and the tomatoes; it gives it more flavor and better texture. Hope it works for you."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 10mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 1 lb ground turkey or 1 lb ground beef
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons olive oil or 1 1/2 teaspoons water
• 1 (15 ounce) can dark red kidney beans
• 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (for mexican version)
• 1 tablespoon sour cream (for mexican version)
• parmesan cheese (for italian version) (optional)

directions

1. Place ground meat in pot, add oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
2. Brown ground meat.
3. Add beans and tomatoes.
4. If making mexican add chili powder.
5. Simmer for 1 hour.
6. Top with either sour cream for mexican or parm cheese for italian.

Reviews

[Hadashah]

This is simple and cheap, but it lacks taste. This dish is basically chunky chilly. We used chips to scoop it and it was okay, but there are other chilly recipes I would rather use.

 

[mydesigirl]

Wonderful....simple....cheap!! I used ground turkey and I also added some minced onion. I put it on top of tortilla chips and cheese and made nachos. Very good and will make again! Thanks so much for posting! Made for My 3 Chefs '08.