Dining In Weekend Edition - & a Chili Recipe (sort of)

Yea!! Grand total spending for the weekend was $16.00. We ordered pizza Saturday for dinner... $16 total. No trips through the McDonald's drive through for tea, which is a major accomplishment for me. Tough to do, but I'll take it, at least for one day! On the menu over the weekend was stuffed peppers. I haven't made these in quite a while, so I completely forgot how much my kids actually like these. I made six huge stuffed peppers. And we ran out. Isaac actually requested more, but they were gone. I guess I will have to make more stuffing next time so I can stuff a few extra peppers. I also made some chili this weekend. I don't really ever work off of a recipe for chili, but I tried to jot down some notes on what I used so I can share it with you. Here's the definites:

• 28 oz. crushed tomatoes


• 28 oz. fire roasted tomatoes


• 14 oz. Italian style tomatoes


• 14 oz. light kidney beans, drained


• 4 oz. chopped green chills


• 2 lb. ground beef


• 1/2 sweet onion, diced


• 3 cloves garlic, minced

And the not-so-definites:

• ~ 1/3 cup + chili powder - I started with 1/4 cup, but I kept adding it as I went. 1/3 cup is my best guess.


• generous dose of garlic powder


• palm full of dried oregano


• ~ 1/8 cup cayenne pepper


• 2+ tsp paprika


• generous dose of black pepper


• 1/2 tsp salt (ish)


• ~ 1/2 pack taco seasoning

Steps:

• Saute the onions and minced garlic in olive oil for a few minutes.


• Then add the ground beef to the onions; brown & drain


• In a large pot, mix all the tomatoes, beans, cooked & drained ground beef, seasonings, and everything else on the list


• Mix it up and let it stew for as much time as you can or want to give it.


• Eat.

This most definitely made plenty for us to get two full chili meals plus a few left-over servings. We froze a little less than 1/2 of the pot for another round of chili later on, and we kept the rest on hand for quick lunches, etc. for the next day or so. Worked lovely! Tasted yummy!