Bean and Cheese Burritos

Yesterday I put two pounds of pinto beans on to soak overnight and today I cooked them along with an onion in my pressure cooker for fifty-five minutes, so they would be good and soft enough to make refried beans. 

Afterwards I scooped some out and mashed them with my potato masher to make them into refried beans. 

Then I warmed a tortilla in the microwave and place some beans on each tortilla. 

Afterwards I added the toppings each person wanted. On mine I placed cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and taco sauce. Other good toppings would be onions, black olives, and jalapenos. Even some Mexican rice would be good in one of these. 

Then I rolled them up...

They look as good as anything from Taco Bell, right?! My daughter says once I duplicate the cheese sauce on the Taco Bell burritos I can say that. LOL

I didn't use all of the bean broth, so I made sure to save it as I can use it for other things later like a soup base. 

My daughter even made brownies for us to enjoy afterwards. 

That's what's for dinner at our house tonight. What's for dinner at your house?

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"

Saving Money on Meat or Not

Our local Cooke's grocery store has ground chuck on sale this week for $3.99 a pound. They also have the Ball Park Hamburgers on sale for $6.49. And many people I know enjoy the convenience of having the Ball Park Hamburgers on hand for a quick meal, but is the convenience of having already cooked ready made hamburgers worth an additional $2.50? With the high price of groceries these days, $2.50 can buy more food. This seems like a no brainer to me. 

I can think of at least four meals my family misses having since we have reduced our consumption of meat. They are tacos made with ground beef, meatloaf, Pedernales potatoes, and hamburgers. While I miss the days of ground chuck being on sale for $1.39, I am thinking about breaking down and buying some of this for $3.99  a pound and making a couple of my family's favorite dishes. 

There are ways I can stretch the meat to make it seem like there is more there than meets the eye. I can add potatoes, which I have always done, to the taco meat and I can add crackers to the meat for meatloaf. 

Taco Meat with Potatoes added to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the meat

What do you think?

Update: I went to Cooke's on Saturday and looked at the meat. The packages were slightly over two pounds each and were close to $10.00 in price. Cooke's is usually well known for the quality of their fresh meat, but when I compared the ground chuck to the ground beef, I didn't see much difference. In fact, the ground beef, which was 10¢ cheaper, actually looked better. In the end, I decided against buying any meat. It just didn't look good enough to spend $10.00 for in my opinion. 

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"

My Frugal Week

I went to IGA on Monday morning to take advantage of a meat sale. I bought 10 pounds of ground beef, which was on sale for $1.99 a pound. This was not the ground chuck that I used to purchase. This was ground beef at 73/27 mixture. I made sure I drained this meat well after cooking. 

I don't know if we will ever be able to purchase ground chuck at a decent price again unless I find it on markdown, which does happen from time to time. 

I also bought a package of 3 sirloin pork roasts, which were also on sale for $1.99 a pound. There were three nice sized roasts in the package and I cut each one of them in half, which is plenty for the three of us for one meal. I put 4 of them in the freezer, saved one to cook for dinner, and gave one to my Dad. 

On Tuesday we woke up to snow in the forecast, but school was still open, which turned out to be a mistake. I dropped my daughter off at school only to turn around 2 hours later and pick her up and had a rough drive there and back. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday turned out to be snow days and unfortunately, I missed two days of working as a result. 


All breakfasts, lunches, and dinners were eaten at or came from home this week. 

Dinners this week included:

Monday: Tacos with all the fixings
Tuesday: Spaghetti & Garlic Bread
Wednesday: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans & Onions
Thursday: Chili
Friday: Chili Tacos
Saturday: LaChoy Beef Chow Mein, Rice, Corn
Sunday: Pork Roast, Oven Roasted Potatoes & Carrots

Other things done to save money include:

1. Read a book for free on my tablet Kindle.
2. Paid bills online to save on postage costs.
3. Entered codes at Kellogg's Family Rewards
4. Entered codes at My Perks for Purina Cat Chow
5. Entered codes at My Coke Rewards
6. Watched Port Charles for free on You Tube during free Internet time. 
7. Stayed home four days this week and spent no money. 

Things we do every week to save money:

1. Haul our own garbage for free to the county dumpsters. 
2. Paid bills online to save on postage. 
3. Used cloth napkins at meal time instead of paper napkins. 
4. Combined all my errands into one trip this week to save on gas. 
5. Log onto MyPerksCatChow.com daily to earn free cat food. 
6. Clip coupons from the Sunday Paper.
7. Check grocery store sale ads for good deals on food. 
8. Combine store coupons & manufacture coupons with sales to get the best price on food. 
9. Use paper in the printer twice by reusing to print on 2nd side. 
10. Make use of residual heat on my electric stove. 

January always brings with it extra expenses for the renewal of my car registration, auto insurance, and auto membership, which is a yearly fee. All expenses have been paid for and I even have a little surplus left at the end of the month, which is a good thing. 

How did your week shape up this time?

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

Christmas

We celebrated a pretty simple Christmas in our home this year. 

We made our traditional Sloppy Joes for Christmas Eve dinner, and I also made a very nontraditional Taco Salad, which we warmed up today when we got hungry rather than making a big Christmas dinner. We decided this year to make it easy on ourselves and not cook a big Christmas dinner and just enjoy the day without having to cook or clean up a messy kitchen. It was really nice to just be able to enjoy each other's company and not have to worry with cooking and cleaning up the kitchen. I think this will be a new tradition for us in the years to come.

I actually lucked out on the price of the ground beef for the Sloppy Joes. I was behind another customer who was right behind the meat department employee who was marking down the meat with yellow stickers and I was able to purchase four pounds of ground chuck for $9.49, so $2.38 a pound, which normally sells for $13 plus change for the same package. This made a large amount of Sloppy Joe meat, which will be frozen after Christmas into meal sized portions for those who want them. This will last for several months. 

Presents were kept simpler this year than in years past. There was no big gift for my daughter this year, but I did take the time to pick out several smaller, thoughtful gifts that I knew she would like. One was a personalized notebook with her name on it from Etsy, and a handmade necklace, also some Harry Potter stamps from the post office, which she was thrilled with and said she would never, ever use because they were so special. In the end she was very happy with her presents and that made me happy as well. 

As for the tree, we used our artificial tree, which was bought on clearance from Lowe's several years ago, the special ornaments that we've collected down through the years, and the wrapping paper was also from the past, bought on clearance in January of 2012. At the rate I am using these ten rolls they are going to last me for a long time. 

I sent fewer Christmas cards this year and even used some forever stamps that I already had on hand rather than buy new Christmas stamps. And of course I already had the cards from past years as well. The number of cards we receive diminishes each year and I suspect younger generations are more into greetings on social media and not the Christmas card tradition as older generations were in the past.    

As we begin to close out the 2013 year, we think of many of the things we accomplished this year and look forward to what is in store for us in 2014. I hope all of you, my readers, had a blessed Christmas day today and your 2014 holds many treasures for you. 

Until next time,

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

Taco Soup

This recipe for Taco Soup comes from the Get Rich Slowly website. I made a big batch of this soup on Tuesday evening after work and school and we've been eating this for the past three days. I actually made a double batch of this recipe and in the end my 12 quart stockpot held about 6 quarts of this soup. Here is the recipe along with some tweaks (my changes are in red) that I made.

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
2 large yellow onions, diced and cooked with ground beef
7 cups water (or use beef broth and omit concentrate below)
1 can (about 15 ounces) corn kernels (I drain both cans first)
2 – 3 cups potatoes, diced (I use 8 cups for a double batch)
7 oz. can of diced green chilies
1 package Taco seasoning (I use my homemade version)
1 can (about 15 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup
2 tbsp. beef broth concentrate such as “Better than Bouillon”
1 can (about 4 ounces) sliced black olives

Directions:

In a large pot combine water and potatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer 20 minutes. Add green chilies, corn, taco seasoning, tomatoes, and cooked ground beef & onions. Simmer 15 minutes more. Add cheese soup, olives, and beef bouillon. Simmer 5 more minutes. 

Makes 10-12 two-cup servings.

Here is what my portion looked like in my soup mug:

I've been using this recipe for the last five years and it has become a tried and true family favorite. I love making a big batch of something early in the week and then being able to eat on it all week long. It is definitely a money saver when you don't have to cook all week, but simply have to reheat something.

Belinda

WFD Saturday? Tacos!

Saturday night dinner is Tacos, which is a family favorite around here. Pictured above is the plate I made for my Dad. I serve his on a paper plate, so he does not have to worry about returning any dishes to me. He likes to eat early and is within walking distance from our house, so once I fix his plate, my daughter will walk it over there to him and visit with him. Then later I can warm up the taco meat again later and fix our dinner. 

The tomatoes are fresh from the garden, cheese and onions were bought on sale last month, ground beef was bought on markdown and frozen until last night when I put it in the refrigerator to thaw. The tortillas and lettuce are fresh that I bought at Sam's club this week. 

I put cubed potatoes in my taco meat to stretch it even farther. Today I used the can of potatoes I bought last week at Bi-Lo in the Crash and Burn section. I've made tacos before and not added the potatoes, but then everyone asks where the potatoes are, so I make sure to add them all the time now. Here is a picture of the meat with the potatoes added in there:

By my calculations these Tacos cost approximately 50¢ each to prepare at home, which is cheaper than ordering out anywhere. Like I, and many other personal finance writers have said for years, it it will save you money to cook the majority of your meals at home. 

What's for dinner at your house today?

Belinda

© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2012.

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

WFD: Chicken Tacos

Dinner tonight consisted of the last two chicken breasts that I cooked on Tuesday. I diced up an onion and sauteed it in olive oil. I added the chicken and heated that up and added lime juice, cumin, salt, taco sauce (from my Taco Bell stash), and added some cheddar cheese once it was all warmed up. 

I served them on freshly cooked corn tortillas with lettuce and tomatoes. It was very satisfying and inexpensive, which hit the spot and fit our budget perfectly.

Belinda 

© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2011. 

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

Taco Seasoning Mix

Dinner tonight will be a choice of Tacos or Taco Salad since we have planned over Taco Meat from Sunday's Taco Dinner. (We usually have Tacos once a week at our house).

One thing I like to add to my Taco meat is a can of potatoes, which I dice up into small pieces. Potatoes can be a good filler and stretch the meat a little bit further, which helps me to save money.

Everyone in my family likes the potatoes added to the taco meat and actually request that I include them.

Taco seasoning is one of those things I don't buy unless I can get it for free or close to free with a coupon.

The reason for that is because when you add up the cost of the ingredients in one of those packets you realize how expensive they really are, and how much you can save by making your own.

So, another thing that I add to my taco meat is this combination of spices:

Taco Seasoning Mix

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground oregano

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together.

Store in an airtight container.

To Use:

For tacos add 2 Tablespoons (or to taste) to 1 pound of cooked ground beef.

Add ½ cup water and simmer until most of the water has evaporated.

I mix this up in a double batch since I use 2 pounds of ground beef when I make tacos.

To make the tacos, I brown my ground beef and then add this mixture with a little bit of water and let that cook until most of the water has evaporated. 

That is how we make Tacos in our home.

Belinda

Father's Day Dinner

Tacos are a tried and true family favorite around here, and especially for my Dad, so I made them for him today for Father's Day. I used 5 pounds of ground beef, so I would have plenty of meat leftover for Taco Salads tomorrow. After I bought everything I needed for the Tacos I had spent less than $10.00  and I ended up making over 20 tacos and still have plenty leftover. 20 tacos at a Mexican restaurant would cost considerably more than $20, which just goes to show cooking at home can save you a great deal of money.

Taco Sauce

Taking a chapter from Carol from CT on a Budget, I decided to empty all the Taco Bell sauce packets I had into a pint size jar. My Mom used to get tacos from Taco Bell on a regular basis, but didn’t use the taco sauce, so she would give them to us and we had been keeping them in the plastic container you see here.

Carol emptied her leftover ketchup packets into her ketchup bottle, which gave me the same idea to do that with our Taco Bell sauce packets. 

So, I took all of our packets, and working with three at a time for faster work, cut the tops off, and poured them into a pint sized jar. You can see that they almost filled up one pint size jar. 

This sauce is great to mix with sour cream and make a dressing for taco salad and also good to put on tacos.