Like I always do, I asked for my husband's suggestion on what to make. His immediate response was chili! I had just made it earlier that week, so I was like "Again? I just made it!". So I listed a few other ideas and he still wanted chili, and requested leftovers, so guess what I made?
Chili!
For some reason I felt like it hadn't been long since I made it for the crowd meal, but looking back in my blog posts I discovered it was last December, so a year ago. (You can find that post here.) I was curious to see if I could make it cheaper than last time with only a day to plan. We'll see how I did!
One of the perks of chili is that it's a very simple, but tasty dish. I can my own tomatoes, so it's not only quick, but also free. Beans are cheap, it doesn't require a huge amount of meat, and how hard is it to whip up a batch of cornbread?! I think this was the first time I've duplicated a meal that I've already blogged, so I was able to look back on last year's post for reference. That was super handy, and very convenient to figure how much of what ingredients I needed. I had originally thought I would need 4 lbs. of ground beef, but after looking back at my notes, realized I had used 6 lbs. last time, so we could've ended up with more of a tomato-bean soup otherwise. Ask [almost] anyone - they like a meaty chili. Still trying to keep within a budget, I strive for the happy medium.
Here's the rundown on the pot of soup:
I used 10 quarts of chunky tomatoes (free), 2 pounds of dry kidney beans ($2.58), 6 lbs. beef ($12.38), and spices (probably about $1 worth). I put it in my 16-quart stockpot, and it almost filled it, so I'd say we were at around 14 quarts (3 1/2 gallons) of soup. I served sour cream with it (something I'd have forgotten had I not blogged about it previously), and while I spent $5.96 on 4 16oz. containers of sour cream, we only actually used two of them. So counting only the sour cream used, this part of the meal totals in at $18.94, which is a whole $3.02 less than last year! We had 5 quarts left over, which made both Aaron and me very satisfied. He got his leftovers to take to work, I had a few easy lunches for the kids and me, all giving me a few less meals to cook for! I ended up putting half of it in the freezer, so we'll have an easy pre-made supper in the next few weeks, too.
I made three batches of cornbread, and it filled a 10x15" and a 7x11" oblong baking dish. Combined, the two pans total 6.5 quarts, so I figure it would be about the same as if I had used two 9x13 baking dishes. We were able to get free milk this past week in exchange for taking care of a family member's place while they were on vacation, so that cut cornbread expenses greatly since I needed over 5 cups for the recipe. Part of my goal for this month was to make something that used a substantial amount of milk simply because we had zero cost in a refrigerator full. (Not that I didn't have a dozen other ways to use up milk! We went through 6 gallons easily in a week.) All the rest of the ingredients into the cornbread (cornmeal, flour, eggs, butter, etc.) cost me $3.29. That figure includes the butter and maple syrup used for serving. The maple syrup was free that someone gifted us. I used that rather than stuff we had bought because the gifted syrup was in a glass container and I was curious to know how much would get consumed (it ended up being 1/2 cup). Next time, I would make one more batch of cornbread, because we only ended up with one piece left after the meal was over. We wouldn't have minded bringing more home to go with our leftover chili.
To add some veggies to the meal, I made a salad as well. It seems like I always make salad and I am stuck in a rut of doing it the same way. Well, I switched it up a little bit this time by adding boiled eggs instead of tomatoes, but for next time I might switch up my salad game even further and try something new. We'll see. Anyhow, this month's salad consisted of 2 heads of iceberg lettuce (1.87), 1 cucumber (.88), 1 orange pepper (.41), 6 hard-boiled eggs (.72), and half a bag of croutons (.89). Salad dressing I estimate around $1.00. This makes the salad total in at $5.79. There were enough leftovers to feed 3 servings.
Now let's add up all three parts and see how we compare with last time! $18.94+$3.29+$5.79= $28.02. Wow! I made it under $30! That's only $1.06 more than last December, but I added a salad to the meal this time, and we ended up with more leftovers, so we definitely got a bigger bang for our buck. Dividing our total by the 40 mouths fed, and we come out at 70 cents per serving. (For reference, while we served 40, only half of them were adults.) This month has made the top 3 list for least expense per serving!
To add some veggies to the meal, I made a salad as well. It seems like I always make salad and I am stuck in a rut of doing it the same way. Well, I switched it up a little bit this time by adding boiled eggs instead of tomatoes, but for next time I might switch up my salad game even further and try something new. We'll see. Anyhow, this month's salad consisted of 2 heads of iceberg lettuce (1.87), 1 cucumber (.88), 1 orange pepper (.41), 6 hard-boiled eggs (.72), and half a bag of croutons (.89). Salad dressing I estimate around $1.00. This makes the salad total in at $5.79. There were enough leftovers to feed 3 servings.
Now let's add up all three parts and see how we compare with last time! $18.94+$3.29+$5.79= $28.02. Wow! I made it under $30! That's only $1.06 more than last December, but I added a salad to the meal this time, and we ended up with more leftovers, so we definitely got a bigger bang for our buck. Dividing our total by the 40 mouths fed, and we come out at 70 cents per serving. (For reference, while we served 40, only half of them were adults.) This month has made the top 3 list for least expense per serving!
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