Tip #7

Stretching your meat....

Have you noticed how expensive meat is getting? One way to stretch your meat is to mix it with beans. There are a couple of ways to do this.

1) cook up a batch of beans until they are soft. Mash them. Use 1/2 mashed beans and 1/2 meat. An example of this would be taco meat. Pintos work great. If you season them with your usual blend of spices, then this not only stretches your meat, but is actually quite healthy. Cooked beans freeze great. So, cook up a big batch and freeze in little batches. Pull out what you need.

2) use whole beans mixed with meat. I have a wonderful sloppy joe recipe that uses black beans.

You can also use rice to help stretch your meat as well, but to be honest I prefer the beans because of the added protein. Both of my kids love beans, so it's not too difficult to do.

Yes, there is that added side affect from eating beans, but your body will adjust if you keep them in your diet.

Pinto beans are the beans I use the most, but if you don't like pintos, then use what you do like.