$4.60 Turkey Chili

We love Chili. We love easy. My friend Crystal gave me this super easy turkey chili recipes. I love recipes that are "a can of this...a can of that..." The ease of not needing one measuring cup made this a great recipe! It also made the house smell fabulous, is quite healthy and tasted great too!

By the way, have you heard of Slow Cooker Liners? These things make my life so much more pleasant. Clean up takes seconds and there is no scrubbing of cooked on food. To me, the added expense (about $2 for 4) is worth the saved time. Time is money! Right? Reynolds makes them and they are available at Wal Mart and other stores near the aluminium foil, etc.

Ingredients:

• 1 lg. ground turkey $1.79
• Taco seasoning $0.33
• 1 lg. can crushed tomato $0.79
• 1 lg. can kidney beans $0.79
• 1 lg. can chili beans $0.79
• 1 onion, diced $0.11 ($1.49/bag/13 onions in bag)
• Total = $4.60

Directions:

1. Place turkey in Crock Pot
2. Cover with onion, beans, tomato and seasoning.
3. Stir to mix, using side of spoon to break up turkey
4. Cook on high 6-8 hours*
5. Serve with dinner rolls $2.50/15 rolls = $0.17 each (Dinner gets slightly more expensive when you leave the bag of rolls on the table and the dog steals the bag and eats 5)

*If the turkey is frozen chili needs to cook more than if it is not.

$5.00 Crock Pot Chicken "Stir Fry"

I love Chicken Stir Fry. It is an easy and healthy meal. However, out of curiosity I wanted to see if there was a way to mimic the flavor in the Crock Pot - therefore making it even easier. I found this recipe for an Asian inspired Crock Pot Chicken. Using the user comments on the recipe I adapted the recipe.

The night before I prepared the sauce to make a quick fix in the morning. If you make the sauce in advance, be sure to stir it well in the morning as the brown sugar will separate out. The sauce probably has a few more calories than regular Chicken Stir Fry, however you are saving fat from not using oil to fry the chicken. I also saved calories by replacing the Sprite with lemon and lime juice. If I had Sprite Zero or Diet Sprite this would have been a good choice as well.

Below I have calculated the approximate cost of both the main dish and a side salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts with rib meat, large $2.70 ($8.11/lg. package divided by 3 meals)
• Frozen stir-fry vegetables $0.99
• Brown Rice $0.56 ($1.69/box divided by 3 meals)
• Total = $4.25

Pantry Items:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup Lemon and Lime juice (about 1/8 cup each)
  
• 3 -4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
  
• cornstarch

Directions:

1. Place chicken in crock pot.
2. Pour frozen vegetables over chicken.
3. Mix all pantry ingredients and pour over chicken.
   
4. Cook on low for 6 hours.
5. Break up chicken with spoon.
   
6. Add cornstarch to thicken sauce a bit. A shake or two will do.
7. Serve over cooked rice.
8. Enjoy!

Side Tossed Salad

2 bags chopped lettuce $4.98 ($2.49 x 2)
4 tomatoes $3.49
2 cucumbers $1.58
Total = $10.05

Obviously, buying a head of lettuce would have been less expensive, however the store did not have any available while we were shopping. I used the ingredients to make one large salad in a covered bowl. This will save time throughout the week as all I’ll have to do is serve out a small side salad with several meals. I expect to use this salad for at least 5 meals. This makes each day about $2 or $1 per person.

Getting Back To It...

Around the time this blog came to a screeching halt...I found myself pregnant with an aversion to raw food and cooking! Well, she's here (February 3rd) and I'm ready to start cooking again. My objective is to have relatively easy, low-cost and low-calorie meals. My husband is a type 1 Diabetic and getting a pump soon, meaning we need to be extra careful with our carb counts.

I'm also madly in love with shopping at our new store, Price Rite. The entire shopping list for this week's dinners and also lunches and breakfasts came to less than $80!

Here is the plan for this week:


Monday – Chicken Stir Fry w/salad
Tuesday – Turkey Chili w/rolls and salad
Wednesday –Pasta with pesto and chicken w/salad
Thursday – Marinated Pork roast w/potatoes and carrots
Friday – Pork chops w/cous cous and broccoli w/salad
Saturday –Ham steak w/pineapple, rice and veggie w/salad