Main course - easy, cheap and quick recipes - does anyone have one?

[travel-mum]

I just posted a deal I got on nacho chips and salsa.

We eat the whole wheat tostitos chips and salsa not just as a treat, but as a meal. Just put the chips on a microwavable plate. Top with the salsa, some brown beans out of a can and then the shredded cheese. Microwave for a couple of minutes till the cheese melts. It's actually a very nutritious meal, as you have the whole wheat, tomatoes and peppers in the salsa, brown beans are a very good source of protein, and the cheese is your milk product! And there's not many dishes to do at the end.

Another way to use nachos in a meal is to make a nacho salad.
What I do is when I buy the Old El Paso Taco kits, I only use half the seasoning mix in the meat. It is very salty, so half the salt and spice is better for you. I save the other half for use later.
When I get a few halves on hand, I buy a big package of ground beef, and cook it all up with the seasoning packages and water. When it's cooled down I put about a quarter to a half a pound each in some in ziploc bags and put them in the freezer.
When I want to make a nacho salad, I just defrost one of the meat packages in the microwave.
Then in a big bowl I shred a head of lettuce, add a couple of diced tomatoes, a half a bag of grated cheese, the meat and about four to six big handfuls of crumbled nacho chips. Pourabout a quarter of a bottle of catalina or california dressing over the whole thing, mix and eat right away. This does not keep. Makes enough to feed two people. OMG IS THIS EVER GOOD! It's cheap, quick, easy and cool on a hot summer's day.
Let me know if anyone tries this recipe and how they like it.

[Frugalbigmama]

I do the same but I call it "taco salad" lol and I use ranch dressing So yummy

[lisalein123]

"Chili con Carne"

The "basic" recipe is

some oil

800 grams of minced meat (beef)
1 can of brown beans
2 onions
3 cans of diced tomatoes
2 slices of garlic

spices: salt, pepper, chilli powder (cumin, cinnamon, dried capsicum, sugar, cayenne pepper)

additionaly you can add some red wine, fresh corn , capsicum and coriander! but it´s not essential. You can eat it with white bread or rice.


first of all u add some oil in the pan, and frie the onions up till they get "smokey" (for the smokey flavour), than you add the minced meat and frie it at high temperature, and add the sliced garlic (if you frie it to much the garlic taste gets bitter/acerbic). When its welldone you add the tomatoe cans and the spices. Just at the end you add the beans! if you cook the beans to much they would boil to a pulp

[travel-mum]

Maybe you could put some on your nachos instead of just the beans? Or maybe you could use nachos to scoop the chili out of the bowl instead of a spoon!

[electric_viking]