Extend your ground beef dishes by throwing a few beans into the mix. This works especially well for dishes like chili, tacos, soups, and casseroles. Black beans are my family's favorite, but any kind of beans will work. I try to cook a large quantity of dried beans at a time and keep them in quart sized bags in the freezer. Then it is easy to pull out whatever quantity I need for a recipe.
Beans are filling, a source of protein, and mild in taste, plus they are very inexpensive. According to Harris Teeter's online store, 16 oz. of dried black beans are $1.29. The cheapest I can regularly get ground beef (on sale) is $1.99/lb., and it is much more when not on a good sale. Plus, that is generally 80/20 ground beef, which loses some of its weight when the fat cooks off.
Sometimes just a cup or a half a cup of beans is the difference between a meal's serving us for one night or two, which really extends the value we get from the meat.
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I'm not a big fan of beans, but I addd frozen corn to my chili for the same reason. It extends the meat, and it's super tasty!
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