My Healthy 50 Cent Dinner! Tomatillos and Beans.
In my last post I wrote that I am able to buy a large amount of produce for just $10.
I had plenty of tomatillos that I didn't quite know what to do with.
Well, I am not scared to experiment with my culinary skills. A quick search online showed that some people put tomatillos into chili.
It said to put the tomatillos into a pan with a bit of olive oil to soften them up. That's about as close as I followed the recipe.
(If you have never had a straight tomatillo, like myself until this past weekend, think of a granny smith apple as a tomato and you will be pretty close to the taste of one. A firm, tart tomato thingy.)
It did get my thinking of what I could do though.
Looking in the fridge I saw some leftover corn and a little bit of red pepper. They would be added.
In the cupboard was a can of black beans that had been purchased at a reduced price of $.39 because the can was double labeled. Back in the fridge was a bag of shredded cheese and a few cooked italian sausages from lunch the day before.
I cut off about 1/5th of the sausage and chopped it up. I used a sprinkle of cheese at the end to top it off.
My estimate of the cost of this dinner.
Ingredients from $10 veggie box:
- Corn .04
- 1/4th Red Pepper .06
- 1lb Tomatillo .16
Other ingredients:
- Black Beans .39
- Splash of Olive Oil .10
- Spices .04
- Cheese .07
- 1/5th of an Italian Sausage .14
The total cost was $1 but it ended up being two meals worth. So each meal was 50 cents AND healthy!
The beans said 110 calories per serving, with two servings in the can - no fat. Add in the rest of the ingredients and I think around 250 calories and 6-8 grams of fat is a good estimate. (Google said a tomatillo is about 11 calories and .3g fat)
I'm not saying that this was some amazing out of this world meal. It was a nice, healthy meal that just cost me very little.
If I was to change anything, I would add a bit more sausage as the tomatillo is tart and having something spicy to balance it out. I had a lot of tomatillo and not so much sausage. Still, I won't mind having the rest for lunch tomorrow.
If you want to try out this recipe, here it is fast and loose.
1lb diced tomatillo and red pepper in pot with a splash of olive oil. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. Stir as needed.
Add corn, beans, cooked chopped sausage and spices. Cook until most of the water is evaporated.
Put in bowl, and top with a sprinkle of cheese.
You probably could make this vegan by removing the sausage/cheese and instead put in a diced hot pepper of your choice to balance the tart tomatillos.
What do you guys do to have cheap but healthy meals? I am always looking for new ideas to add to my frugal cooking portfolio.
Thanks for reading!
I love fresh vegetables. I've been a vegetarian my entire life. Nothing any better than a meal fresh from the garden🍅🍅🥒🥒
Oh yea, when you snap that pea pod off the vine and bite into it.... Well that's why you garden :)
I love this! SO frugal! So Healthy. I need to get this point.
Kaylin, I think I read one of your books on my kindle when I was flying back home from Qatar. Is Sell Everything: Get rid of all your stuff WITHOUT a yard sale! your book? :D
Amazing value for money! And I'm sure has a great taste to back it up! Nice one, brother! :)
Not bad, for lunch I added 1/4th cup of rice and removed the cheese. Still full.
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I love how creative you got with this! I've been keeping my grocery bill down to about $600 a month to feed 3 adults. Granted, we almost never eat 3 meals a day but a big part of our savings it is frugal shopping and portion control.
I just recently made sausage stuffed mushrooms that were so delicious and made from left-over breakfast sausage, bread ends toasted in the oven then crushed into bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and seasoning. If I felt safe foraging for mushrooms, I might consider that a free meal! :D
After housing and transportation, food comes in third highest on the family expense chart. Finding ways to trim and reduce the expense seems like a never ending battle.
The sausage stuffed mushrooms sounds really good - and used up a bunch of leftover items! Big thumbs up from me.
I used to watch this show, forget the name, where they followed this couple that went around the country foraging and selling mushrooms to fancy restaurants for big bucks. I thought that sounded amazing.
OMG - I love shows like that. I fantasize about ginseng and truffles. LOL That would be like growing gold in my back yard.
In addition to healthy and not too expensive, I love meals where the produced amount of trash is reduced (not too many packages, etc.)
This being said, I think that with your meal, we must be careful with the sausage quality. It is easy to get cheap bad ones :)
Well, they were the store brand but the wife and I find them quite good. It was $3.49 for 5 of them. They are about 6 inches long.
They have vegan substitutes for both cheese and sausage that in my opinion taste identical or nearly the same. Your meal looks like what I often eat, minus the animal products. Though another cheap meal is noodles. For like 10 cents you can have a meal, and I often throw in some vegetables into the noodles as well, so it'd prob be a lil more. But.. Those are two of the main things I eat, and I never really get tired of them.
Oh man, noodles are something that I never get tired of eating them either! My cupboards are full of all types of them!
Looks amazing, got my taste buds jumping ;)
I think it would work well as a dip for some tortilla chips too. :D
Wonderful post! Thank you for sharing! I Resteemed!
Thank you so much! :D
My mouth is watering! This sounds so yummy! Great use of tomatillos.
Thanks! After tasting this meal I know the tomatillos would be excellent in a traditional chili! Especially one that is hot as the tangy tomatillos certainly balance out that type of heat. Thanks for reading. :D