Apron Free Cooking ~ Prize Winning Chili

By Noel Lizotte

Jan­u­ary is a month for watch­ing the bud­get. For one thing, I’m try­ing to recover from all the hol­i­day extrav­a­gance and excess. For another, I’m look­ing ahead to man­age the yearly bud­get. It seems like every year, I plan to do bet­ter man­ag­ing the money. I get a bit crazy with all kinds of money sav­ing ideas.

Then my hus­band speaks up with his voice of rea­son and reminds me that our goal is to sim­ply live on last month’s income. Last month’s income is money in hand, as opposed to liv­ing pay­check to pay­check. Work­ing towards this small goal has helped us relieve some of the money stress that always threatens.

We try to set small goals and iden­tify the steps to reach them. I try to do what I can to help, since bal­anc­ing the check book isn’t my strong point; I save money in other ways. Fix­ing bud­get friendly soups that can stretch over sev­eral meals is one thing I am good at.

It also helps that dur­ing a cold month like Jan­u­ary, a hearty bowl of soup is a wel­come sup­per­time item! Not only are we eat­ing a bud­get friendly food, but it’s one we like. Last fall, I entered this chili recipe in a local chili cook off. I was sur­prised to win the top honor!

Prize Win­ning Chili

1 jar (8 oz) medium salsa

1 cup diced green peppers

1 can (14 oz) yel­low corn, drained

1 jar (12 oz) enchi­lada sauce

1 lb ground ham­burger, browned

1 can (14 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

2 cans (14 oz) red chili beans

1 can (14 oz) baked beans

2 cans (14 oz) diced tomatoes

Com­bine all ingre­di­ents in a slow cooker and heat on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours.

Approx­i­mate Nutri­tional Val­ues: Serv­ings 24, Calo­ries 117, Total Fat 3g, Sat­u­rated Fat 1g, Cho­les­terol 12mg, Sodium 552mg, Total Car­bo­hy­drates 17g, Dietary Fiber 5g, Sug­ars 3g, Pro­tein 8g. Note that these val­ues are approx­i­mate and will vary based on the ingre­di­ents you select.

Make it a meal: Serve with a sand­wich for a full meal. A pop­u­lar sand­wich with chili seems to be sim­ple peanut but­ter on white bread. If you’re look­ing to make a bowl of chili the meal, add a vari­ety of top­pings, banana or jalapeno pep­per slices, shred­ded cheese, sour cream, diced onion or a dash of hot sauce along­side some corn­bread, bis­cuits, or crackers.

Since this makes a large crock-pot full of chili, we’re usu­ally able to make it last for a few days worth of lunches after our ini­tial sup­per. I’ve also started freez­ing some of the left­overs for future use. The eas­i­est way I’ve found is by plac­ing two cup serv­ings in zip top bags and lying them flat to freeze. I mark on the bag with a black felt tip pen the name and date. These flat bags stack neatly in the freezer and the two cup size makes a per­fect sin­gle serving.

My par­ents have been the recip­i­ents of these frozen left­overs and my dad likes hav­ing an option in the freezer for a quick sup­per on those nights that mom has to work late. This prize win­ning chili not only helps me stretch my gro­cery bud­get over the week, it helps my folks too. This is a bud­get friendly recipe that I’m happy to share.

Noel Lizotte is break­ing free of cor­po­rate stress with con­ve­nience cook­ing! www.apronfreecooking.com.

Posted by Noel Lizotte on Jan 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.