So tonight I am cooking.  I haven't been able to cook much this week and a nice home cooked meal was #1 on my list tonight.  I am cooking Chili Beans...yummo!!!  I actually like to cook but after a long day at work I don't always feel like running home to the stove.  (you working ladies know what I mean)  While softball season is going on I often like to cook extra food so on the nights we have games we don't get in the habit of eating from a drive thru all the time.

Chili Beans are the perfect food for those fall and winter nights.  They are quiet easy to make, affordable and you can FREEZE them to eat another night when you don't feel up to slaving at the stove.  I would advise you just go ahead a make big ol' pot full and save yourself sometime on dinner in the future :)

So lets start with the ingredients.  You will need hamburger, tomato juice,dark red kidney beans, light red kidney beans (or any beans those are just the ones I use), onion, bell pepper, canned diced tomatoes, and cheese.

  1. Place your hamburger in a pan and brown
  2. Drain the fat from your hamburger
  3. Open cans of beans and rinse with water
  4. add all your ingredients to one extra large pot :)
  5. Cook your beans until your onions and peppers are cooked, add more tomato juice if needed
Simple as pie!!!

So lets talk about the cost of this nice good for your family dinner.

  • 6 cans of Kidney beans @ $0.68 = $4.08
  • 3 cans of diced tomatoes @ $0.95 = $2.85
  • 1 onion                                         = $0.50
  • 1 bell pepper                                 = $0.89
  • 1 container of tomato juice           = $2.50
  • 1 bag of cheese                             = $1.89
  • 4 lbs of hamburger                      =  $10.00
  • Grand Total:                             = $22.71
But it didn't cost me this much because I used deer meat instead of hamburger (free), and the bell pepper was some that I frozen from our garden this summer :)  So think about when you feed your family and how much it cost to order pizza out.  It really isn't that bad.  Mark and I are a family of 2 so the amount I made will last us several meals.  I would estimate us to get about 8 meals from this pot of beans.  If I had paid the price above that would make it $1.42 per person per meal.  Bet you can't get a whole meal at McDonald's for that.  But actually since I didn't have to buy the hamburger it ends up being $0.67 per person per meal.  A good amount will find it's way to the freezer tonight for the nights I don't feel like cooking.

So what's your favorite fall meal to cook?