Another Successful Meat Less Chili

Budget tip for the day: Use up all leftovers. Just add chili powder and cumin to make a delicious chili!
Well, I haven't been posting a lot lately. Mostly because life got really busy again, and we haven't been sticking to a budget. My husband got "The Four Hour Chef" for his birthday and has been following all of Tim Ferriss's directions to a "T." I have been really enjoying his amazing creations!!! I am actually going to write Mr. Ferriss a letter thanking him for writing such a wonderful book. The book is perfect for people who have never cooked before - it gives pictures with directions in paragraph form and the food recipes are absolutely delicious. The only problem is, Mr. Ferriss doesn't really teach what to do with leftovers. I have to admit we have wasted a lot of food lately, mostly because I didn't have time to deal with the leftovers. Now that I've been off school a couple of days due to the beautiful snowy weather (welcome to Virginia!) I've been able to work on how to avoid waste in cooking. Last night, we used leftover beef from his roast that he made to create yet another delicious chili. So easy to make, and so great to use up leftovers!



Here's what I did:
2 cans chili ready diced tomatoes
1 onion (I used 1 cup frozen chopped onions)
1 tbs garlic
2 tb chili powder
1 tb cumin
1 lb beef (we used leftover roast, cut up)
1/2 cup beef broth (came with the leftover roast)
1/2 cup mushrooms (came with the leftover roast)
I actually staggered the recipe so the beef wouldn't be over cooked. So I put the tomatoes, onions, and spices in the crock pot for about 2 hours on high. Then I added the rest of the ingredients and cooked on low for about 3 hours. The nice thing is, this meal is even more delicious the next day after you put it in the fridge over night! Hope you enjoy, and let me know how it works out for you in the comments!

More no-bean chili...

Paleo Budget tip of the day:
Regarding grass-fed beef:
Local grocery store: $6 - $10 per pound, but possibly good variety
Local warehouse store: $4 per pound (but only available as ground beef)
Local humane farmer: $4 per pound if you buy a share of a cow (if you buy about 30 pounds at once, about $120)
tip #2: Use a big ol' tomato instead of canned to save on BPA exposure.




No-bean Chili

This isn't a cheap dish, but I needed something to take to a potluck. I enjoyed my low-cost chicken version so much that I had to do a beef version as well. This is adapted from Stephanie O'Dea's "crockpot 365" blog - thanks Stephanie! I've done this several times with basic variations on the meat.

Recipe - No-Bean Chili
Ingredients:
2 lbs beef loin sirloin tip steak, cubed
1 lb ground beef
10 oz Spicy Mango Jalapeno Chicken Sausage (or andouille) - you see Italian in the picture, but I actually used both, it needed the spicy cajun style sausage
1 onion (I used 1 c frozen)
1 tomato (or can of diced)
2 cups of beef bouillon
1 tb ground cumin
2 tb chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder

Directions:
Combine everything in the crock pot and cook on low 12 hours or high 4 hours then low 4 hours.

The low-down: It was good, but I actually liked my chicken version better. I will state that several people got seconds and the pot was almost clean by the time we left.

Day 15 - Cheap and Easy Paleo Chili

Budget tip for the day: Buy chicken at BJ's or Walmart. Both places have a large selection of vegetarian fed, free range, no antibiotics chicken. BJ's was cheaper, though, for the record.
Cheap and Easy Bean-Less Chili
I got this recipe from the Crockpot365 blog. We tried the "Meat Lover's No Bean Chili" and it was delicious. However, it's pretty expensive. So today I'm remaking it, using free range ground chicken (bought at Wegman's at half price for about $2.60) and some free-range chicken sausage. This is delicious! Chicken is less expensive than typical beef, so I wanted to try this out with all chicken based ingredients.



Recipe:
1 lb ground chicken
10 oz chicken sausage, pref. andouille, but we wound up using italian sausage and it worked
1 can tomatoes (I used generic organic)
1 onion (I used 1/2 cup frozen chopped onions)
4 cloves garlic (I used 2 tsp garlic powder)
1 tb cumin
2 tb chili powder
1 t salt (I omitted this, there's enough in the tomatoes for me)
2 c broth (I used "Better than Bouillon Organic Chicken Low-Sodium")
Put all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low 8 hours. Delish!
Thank you Stephanie O'Dea for this paleo friendly dish!