Wednesday's Menu and Some Tips

The weather is starting to cool down a bit, so time to drag out that chili with beans recipe. We eat a lot of soups and stews at our house, along with the quick rolls or a pan of jalapeno cornbread (recipe coming next week). Chili is one of the favorites, it's easy, and it's inexpensive to make. We like to add toppings like grated cheese, chopped onions and tomatoes, and sour cream. I also sometimes add veggies like corn or hominy, and I've seen it (although I've never tried it) with green beans added. This really can stretch your food budget, allowing leftovers for lunch or for freezing. Chili freezes well in serving sizes for about 6 months.

The recipe I use is below. Very simple and quick. Hope you enjoy it. Please keep in mind that the recipes I post are for a family of four, with a little left over. If your family is larger, you may need to double the recipes, or you can serve over rice to feed a few more tummies. Now, for Wednesday's menu.

Wednesday

Breakfast: oatmeal with chopped apple and cinnamon sugar

Lunch: chicken salad sandwiches (or leftovers)

Dinner: chili, toppings, biscuits (recipe below) or quick rolls (recipe on Sunday's menu)

Kim's Quick and Easy Chili

1 lb ground beef

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1/2 C diced green pepper (or can of diced green chilis, if you have them)

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained (regular or chili ready)

1 can dark red kidney beans, undrained (or black beans if you like)

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 ROUNDED Tbsp chili powder (Or more, to taste)

Brown the ground beef with the onion and pepper. Drain. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Add additional chili powder if desired.

Serve with grated cheese, chopped tomato and chopped onion, if desired. Makes 4-6 servings.

Weight Watcher's points:  7 points per serving (if broken down into 6 servings), before cheese topping or rice (if used)


Biscuits

I'm linking you to a recipe for biscuits. I can't give my grandmother's secret recipe away. At least not just yet. But I think this one is good, too. You can use slightly softened butter in place of the shortening if you like, since we didn't purchase shortening this week.

Weight Watchers Points: A whopping 6 points for these babies, so stay away from them if you're dieting, or make sure it's a day when you have lots of points left in your plan.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/easy-biscuits/detail.aspx

Now for some tips for shopping:

1. Never buy pre-grated cheese. Not only is it more expensive (unless there's a sale), but it also often has additional ingrediets (like corn starch or even flour) to prevent the bits from sticking together (store brands are especially bad about this). You can buy the store brand block of cheese, stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes, and it will grate easily. I buy a pound at a time and grate the whole thing when I get home from the market. Stored in a zipper bad in the fridge, it can be used for everything from casseroles to grilled sandwiches.

2. Be careful about buying that pound of cheese. Make sure the 8oz packages aren't on sale. When they are, you can often buy 2 8oz packages for less than the 16 oz.

3. Watch out for the packaging. I noticed recently that one store was selling a 2 lb bag of rice for $1.29, while their 5 lb bag (which should be less, right?) was a whopping $5.99. I could buy 3 of the 2 lb  packages for $3.87, for a total of 6 lbs of rice. Sheesh! Don't these people do math?