I can’t believe it’s taken this long to get to my favorite kind of dish – a Crock-Pot creation!
I confess to always feeling so smug once I’ve put dinner in the Crock-Pot. I go through the whole day smiling to myself, knowing dinner is ready before lunch is even served. And on one of the last rainy and chilly weekends I think (or perhaps just hope) that the DC area is going to have this spring, I felt the time had come for a transition-to-spring dish – a Backyard Barbecue Chili, to be exact!
This recipe, from Robin Robertson’s Vegan Planet, is one of my favorites. Hearty yet not heavy, festive yet homey, it’s a fantastic dish for any season. (I’ve even been known to cook it in the summertime, with cole slaw on the side!) Serve it with some Fritos, top it with some leftover cheese from the other night’s lasagna, and you’ve got yourself a great one-dish meal that takes very little time (or money!) to create.
The stats:
Ground “beef”: $4.69 ($1.17/person)
Diced tomatoes: $1.89 ($0.47person)
Kidney beans: $2.00 ($0.50/person)
Barbecue sauce: Pennies
GRAND TOTAL: $8.58 … or $2.14 per person.
(Note: Some of these items, such as the Fritos, I’ve already purchased prior to these itemizations. I’ll pick ‘em up in the grand total next time around!)