Stretching Ground Meat

One of my favorite ways to save on the grocery budget is to stretch meat.  Meat is a huge part of the budget so using less is always a savings.

One way I stretch ground beef or ground turkey is to pad it with other food.  Earlier this week we had taco salad and I used organic ground turkey, half an onion and 2 cups of cooked black beans to bulk up the meat.

•  organic ground turkey purchased on clearance for $2.50 and tucked into the freezer.  I defrosted it five minute before cooking.
• half an onion, chopped, that I just pulled out of my fridge
• black beans I cooked 2 months ago and froze in 2 cups portions so I could use them for this purpose and any time a recipe calls for a "can of black beans - 15 oz." 

All cooked & combined.  I also used garlic, cumin, chili powder, & paprika for Mexican seasoning.

Finished product

My whole family had taco salad and some had seconds.  There was still half of the meat mixture left when I cleared the table.  We used a little meat for tacos for lunch for DD2 and we used the rest for leftover taco salad for lunch yesterday.

Love Katie