Weekly Meal Deal X2

Black beans and rice

Ingredients: 1 small onion or 1/2 large onion (.25), about 5 heads of garlic(.10), 1 can of tomatoes(..50), bag of dry black beans (1.49), ham bone if you have it on hand or 1/2 pack of ham steaks (2.50 for pack at Wal-Mart, so 1.25). I serve this over brown or yellow rice, depending on what we have onhand.

If you had to buy everything for this meal it would cost you 3.59 or .60 a serving for 6 servings. If you had to buy the rice as well, it would cost another 1.69 for white rice or another .28 per serving. I only had to buy the beans, as I had everything else on hand and a hambone left over from Christmas in my freezer...so this meal cost me 1.49 to make or .25 a serving.


Directions: This is just how I do it, there are many ways. I rinse the beans and put in my crockpot on high for 4 hours and then set to low until we are ready to eat them. If you are leaving your crockpot for the day, put LOTS of water, as they soak it up. I chop the onion and garlic add some salt to taste, and put the ham in. I add the tomatoes about an hour before we eat. I serve this over rice. Sometimes I also make cheddar biscuits or a homemade bread.

Enjoy!

I forgot to add that we almost always have leftovers of this...so we get a whole other meal out of it. I use the leftover beans and mix them with the leftover rice and make burritos for another dinner during the week. So you get two cheap meal deals.

Ingredients: 1 lb of chicken or beef (1.79 at Sam's Club), red and yellow bell peppers cut up...about 1/2 of each (1.00 at Aldi), garlic (.10), onion (.25), 1/2 jar salsa (if you had to buy a new jar about 2.00...I wait until they are bogo and stock up), shredded cheese (1.25), sour cream (.50), 1/2 can of corn (.25), tortillas 1.50. If you had to buy all the ingredients it would cost another 8.64, or 1.44 a serving for 6 people. I always have all of this on hand, other than tortillas, as they go fast...and I never pay full price for any of this.

Directions: Put enough oil in the bottom of a pan to coat, and add the onions, garlic and peppers. Once these have cooked for about 5 minutes, add the chicken or beef. I usually use chicken for this recipe. I add salt and pepper and once the chicken is done I put it in my food processor with the onions and peppers. Put it back in the pan, add 1/2 jar of salsa and the corn. Warm the tortillas for 30 seconds in the microwave. Put the meat mixture, a scoop of the rice and bean mixture and cheese. Roll the tortillas and put cheese on top. Put in 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Serve with sour cream and any other fixings of your choice.