After 14 years of marriage I had an epiphany while making taco meat.  If you add beans it stretches the quantity to twice as much.  I will now present you with the most multipurpose, easy, budget friendly dinner of all. Get ready to save money!

Brown your beef (I'm using 3/4 of a pound), and drain the grease.  Then drain one can of black beans and add to the ground beef.  My beef was from the freezer and the beans were in the pantry.  No shopping required!


Add 3/4 cup water...

Add 3-4 tablespoons of McCormick Taco Seasoning.

Simmer until the sauce is thick and delicious.

Here's the multipurpose part...Make it into a Burrito!  Jason added salsa, lettuce, tomatoes and a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese with a "Daddy" flour tortilla.

Or make it into taco salad!  Heidi put her taco meat on a bed of corn tortilla chips with lettuce, tomato, cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

Or make it into a taco!  You can toast your taco shells in the oven using the directions on the box.  It makes them so much more delicious than right out of the box! Liz is a taco purist, she added taco meat and cheese.  She's often anti-vegetable.  But that's okay because so am I.  We get our vitamins so don't judge us!


If ground beef is $1.99/pound and a can of black beans is about $0.50-$0.79 than the beans are half the price of the meat.  It may not sound like you've saved much, but if I cook Taco Meat once a week for 14 years of marriage, here's some math fun for you.

Budget Friendly Taco Meat:
3/4 lb. ground beef = 1.99*3/4 = $1.50
1 can black beans = $0.50 (thanks to the caselot sale at Smiths!)
Total =  $2.00
Once a week for 14 years = $1,456

NOT Budget Friendly Taco Meat:
1 lb. of ground beef instead of 3/4 pound = $1.99
another pound of ground beef instead of a can of black beans = $1.99
Total = $4.00
Once a week for 14 years = $2,912

Savings = $1456 over 14 years or $104 a year

What would you do with $104?  And this is just the money saved on one meal.  Imagine if you had a whole collection of budget meals?  Never underestimate how much you'll save by being wise for every meal.

And what if I bought dry beans and cooked them?  One pound of dry beans is about a dollar and makes a huge quantity of cooked beans.  I also have a recipe for homemade Taco Seasoning!  Let's save those recipes for another day...

Multipurpose Taco Meat
Serves 6 (that's $0.33 per person, not including toppings)

3/4 or 1 lb. ground beef
1 can black beans
3/4 c. water
4 T. McCormick Taco Seasoning (or more or less depending on how hot you like it)

Extras:
Taco Shells or Flour Tortillas or Tortilla Chips
Lettuce, chopped
Tomato, diced
Cheddar Cheese, shredded
Salsa
Sour Cream
Guacamole

1. Brown and drain ground beef.  Drain beans and add to beef.
2. Follow directions on Taco Seasoning (mine is McCormick, it's 3/4 c. water and 4 T. mix) and add to beef and beans.  Simmer until thickened and heated through.
3. Prepare extras and serve with hot taco meat.
4. Plot how to use all your extra money...