1 can chili con carne with beans

The purpose of this meal is to learn how to make do with little and at the same time learn how to stretch what you do have. I could have very easily used a whole onion or a whole tomato but when you are running low on produce, it can be a good practice to use them in portions so that you have some left over to flavor other foods with in the future.

Every time I cook chili or beans, I always make sure to have some cooked rice with the meal. This technique will stretch one can of chili into four separate meals that aren’t boring even if simple.

The only preparation, really, for this dish was the effort put into presentation. Warm your chili on the stove, at end of cooking time toss in your diced veggies but save about one fourth of the jalapeno for garnishing purposes. Season rice with your cumin and garlic powder, top with chili, then sour cream followed by jalapeno slices. The technique I used for the jalapenos was to cut at an angle in order to provide more surface area to make it look more pretty.

p.s. Canned chili almost never looks pretty or appetizing unless you are quite familiar with it.

• 1/4 cup cooked rice
• 1 splash soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons crushed pineapple
• smidgen of cock sauce

This snack took a total of two minutes prep time. This included twenty seconds in the microwave for the rice while retrieving the other ingredients from the fridge. Top the rice with your soy sauce then your pineapple and dress with thin strands of Sriracha sauce, be careful this stuff is hot. You can double this recipe twice to feed four people a quick snack.

If you want to get really fancy you can take the scrapings and debris from left over chicken and mix it in with the rice. Put that extra chicken fat and skin to use, don’t throw it away. You can accomplish this quickly with some boiling water by using just barely enough water to cover your chicken thigh or chicken leg (you’ll be amazed at how much meat comes off once you get into the practice of doing this with all your meat) and simmer for five minutes or so. Drain the broth through a mesh type cloth to save for later and use the leftover meat for your serving of rice.

• 1 lb beef sliced into strips
• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 2 tablespoons butter
• chili powder
• cumin
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• cayenne
• salt
• black pepper
• honey
• basil
• a few ounces of canned tomato sauce

The secret to making this good is: don’t be afraid to over-spice this. The second most important thing to remember is that your meat will cook quickly. Start with a hot pan with all of your butter and soften your diced pepper. Make sure to have your rice cooked beforehand because this is going to go quick. While the rice was cooking I covered all of the meat with salt, pepper and chili powder.

Once the bell pepper has softened, toss in your meat and cover it with the rest of your spices as it browns. I used everything quite heavily in almost equal amounts. The honey can come next, use maybe two to three tablespoons. This process should take no more than a minute because your meat is close do being done. Dump in the tomato sauce, reduce to a simmer and stir in your rice. Let me remind you, don’t be afraid to use too much cumin, chili powder or cayenne. After a few more minutes, your meal is done.

You can stretch this meal by adding half an onion to this recipe and serving with warm tortillas. For a side serve some re-fried beans however you like them.

Start with cooking your rice because it can cook while we prep everything else. Once your rice is boiling, turn the heat down and simmer on a low heat for about thirty minutes.

While the rice is cooking slice one large zucchini into cubes about one-quarter-inch small. Pre-heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet. Once the oil is hot, insert your ground hamburger and attack it with your spatula while salting and peppering until you have small chunks of slightly browned hamburger. Before the ground beef is completely cooked, dollop your stone ground mustard into the pan and give it a good stir.

Next, toss in all that zucchini we diced earlier. We won’t be draining the ground beef fat because we want to fry the zucchini and the rice in the juices. Splash some Worcestershire into the skillet and give your food a couple of good tosses. Don’t be afraid to dash in a bit more salt and pepper.

By this point your rice should be almost fully cooked. The technique I use is to pour rice into a small pot and then cover it with double the amount of water and then simmer it on the oven, covered, until all the water boils away. Just before the rice gets fluffy and when there is just a bit of water left is when I insert my ingredients for flavoring the rice. This time we are putting curry into the rice.

After approximately five minutes from the last step, dump all the rice into your skillet and keep the heat on high. Just five more minutes of cooking and stirring and just a pinch more salt and we will be done. In the last minute of cooking I sprinkled in some orange zest and mixed it into our dinner.

I think I changed point of view throughout the last few paragraphs from first person to second person and then back to first person again but I’m too lazy to go back and re-write it so don’t let it confuse you too much.

One rule that I follow is to always cook an extra portion in case an unexpected guest arrives. I live by this rule. I wouldn’t suggest it to those who don’t know how to eat leftovers, however.

• 1 can tuna
• 1 c cooked rice
• 2 tsp garlic powder or 1-2 cloves garlic minced
• 3-4 tsp dried chopped onion or 1/2 onion chopped fine
• 1/4 c chopped raisins
• 1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp relish
• 1 squirt dijon mustard
• enough mayonnaise to make the whole thing stick together
• juice of 1/2 lemon or 2 tsp wine vinegar
• 3 slices of sharp cheddar cheese
• 3 slices favorite lunchmeat
• 6 slices favorite sandwich bread
• 1-2 tsp butter

Mix all but the last 4 ingredients together. Arrange the cheese and meat on the bread. Top with a generous helping the tuna mixture. Spread the outside of the sandwich with butter and grill on a sandwichmaker, Geroge Forman-like grill, or just sautee in a frying pan. Delish.

Later I will share how with only another fifteen to twenty-five dollars per month we can keep our pantry stocked with items to round out our meals nicely. This will include spices and cooking essentials.

Standard Share

• 2 lb. Chicken Breast
• 1 lb. Diced Beef (Beef Stew Meat)
• 1 lb. Pork Spare Ribs
• 1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
• 1 lb. Rice
• 1 loaf Artisan Wheat Bread
• 1 pkg. Mushrooms
• 5 lbs. Red Potatos
• 8 Kiwi
• 6 Apples
• 6 Oranges
• 1 bunch of Green Onions
• 1 Red Leaf Lettuce
• 3 Artichokes

I did some comparison shopping at Albertson’s. All items were identical with minor differences in the spare ribs and maybe the size of the artichokes. Grocery store would have cost around $55.00 give or take tax. Here is the list broken down by price.

$4.98 – 2 lb. Chicken Breast
$4.49 – 1 lb. Diced Beef (Beef Stew Meat)
$4.99 – 1 lb. Pork Spare Ribs
$2.99 – 1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
$2.00 – 1 lb. Rice
$3.99 – 1 loaf Artisan Wheat Bread
$2.49 – 1 pkg. Mushrooms
$5.99 – 5 lbs. Red Potatos
$4.72 – 8 Kiwi
$4.47 – 6 Apples
$2.49 – 6 Oranges
$0.99 – 1 bunch of Green Onions
$1.29 – 1 Red Leaf Lettuce
$8.97 – 3 Artichokes

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$55.00

You can tell when my pantry is getting low and these are my most favorite times to cook because it forces me to use up items that I normally don’t get around to using. I also come up with creative combinations that are usually not so bad. Today was no exception.

I started boiling some rice. About one and a half cups of medium grain rice. This should cook to about three cups. While this was cooking, I starte some butter in a frying pan after quartering a few white pearl onions. I love to prep while food is cooking. It is sort of a juggling act. I used extra butter in the pan, like one tablespoon and a half because I wanted the curry to have something to stick to.

I found a hot pepper in the fridge from Carl’s Jr and thought it would be a good idea to chop that up and throw it in with the butter and the onions. These peppers are quite spicy and flavorful so be careful with how much you use. One is plenty. A little teeny tiny one. After cooking the onions, butter and hot pepper for a moment, I dumped in about two teaspoons worth of curry powder. I could be wrong, I just eyeball the stuff.

Then I pulled out the large can of pineapple bits that I have been saving to cook with some rice. I drained these well because I didn’t need the juice to cook anything with. There was plenty of butter in the pan. Pineapple and curry are a great mix.

Right about this time the rice was done cooking. I just placed it on top of the pineapple-curry mixture and let everything stew together for a few minutes and gave it a few stirs with some sea salt to bring out the rest of the flavors.

For only using three major ingredients and two minor ones, this meal turned out pretty decent. Took me, maybe, thirty minutes at the most. Cooking with an empty pantry always produces food that you don’t have on your regular menu.

p.s. Some sweet basil and a splash of coconut milk would have been perfect with this. That would have taken this meal to the next level.

*update – I think that I will use a red bell pepper next time along with some basil to add color to this dish. It was a bland yellow, but yummy.