Three-Way Frito Chili Pie

Yum! Next in our frugal meal week is Three-Way Frito Chili Pie. Three-way chili (well, technically four way bean chili, but I like to call it three way) is my favorite way to eat chili. I worked all night last night and then slept today. I got up at 4:00pm and we have church at 6:30, so I did what any good mom would do. I put chili in the crockpot. Chili is a great meal to fix when you need flexibility. It's quick and easy, the ingredients are nearly non-perishable and you can make it a variety of ways. When I have time, I like to make a more creative chili. Today wasn't that day.

In a 4 qt crockpot, I placed browned ground chuck (from the freezer), chili style diced tomatoes, chili beans, kidney beans (rinsed), dried minced onion, chopped red bell pepper from our garden, tomato sauce and Williams chili seasoning. I stirred it up, put the lid on and cooked on low until we got back home (about 2 1/2 hours). Then I cooked spaghetti, took a bag of fritos out of the pantry and the bag of shredded co-jack cheese out of the fridge. VOILA! Here's what it looked like:

Frugal breakdown:

• 1 lb ground chuck from the freezer - $1.99 @ Food Pyramid
• 1 can chili style tomatoes - $0.59 @ Aldi
• 1 can kidney beans - $0.59 @ Aldi
• 1 can chili beans - $0.49 @ Aldi
• 1 can tomato sauce - $0.29 @ Aldi
• dried minced onion from pantry
• bell pepper from garden - FREE
• 4 Tbsp chili seasoning from a big container @ Sam's Club - maybe $0.15?
• 1/2 bag corn chips - $0.99 a bag @ Aldi - $0.50
• 8 oz spaghetti - $1.49 for 2lb box @ Aldi - $0.38
• 4 oz shredded cheese from 5lb bag @ Sam's Club ($10.88) - $0.54

Total: $5.52 for family of 5 dinner + 2 individual lunches.