Beef Bean Burrito Filling

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

This is no beauty queen.

It's barely even a recipe.

But it contains beans and it passed the Kip-nearly-impossible-test-of-beany-approval, so I'm posting it anyway.

It has a sweetness to it and a wee bit of barbeque-y-ness (which is surely not a word to be found by Webster). These things allow it to pass the picky man test.

Also, it's a great way to reduce the cost of your ground beefy recipes because you can use significantly less beef. Many thanks to Cara from whom this idea sprang.

Beef Bean Burrito Filling
Serves 4-6
Prep and cook time: 10 minutes
Cost: $1.55 (That's as opposed to the $3.99 it would have cost me to brown a pound of ground beef.)
(beef: 1.00--I use beef that is more expensive because though not entirely grass fed, the cows are given more space and are more humanely treated than is the standard; pork and beans: .55)

1/4-1/3 lb ground beef
1 can pork and beans
1/2 tsp taco seasoning if you wish (I skipped it)

Brown the beef in a skillet. Dump in pork and beans and heat up. Cook off some of the liquid if it's too runny for you. Throw it in your burrito with any other burrito fixings you enjoy.

If you think this is the cheating-est recipe you've ever seen and you'd rather die before using a can of pork and beans when you just spent your entire Saturday rehydrating beans because you are a pioneer and a true cheapskate (unlike some people), you can probably replicate (though I can't promise because I totally used the pork and beans because I am a shameless cheater, {but I do make my own BBQ sauce, so I bet this will work} [and, yes, I did just use a parenthetical statement within a parenthetical statement within a parenthetical statement because I am also a hopeless rambler]}). Um, where was I?

Anyway, you can use:
1/4 lb ground beef
1 1/2 C rehydrated pinto beans
1/4 C finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp worcheshire sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4-1/2 C ketchup or tomato paste (depending on how utterly pure and virginal you want this to be--if using the tomato paste, you probably want to double the sauces, vinegar, and brown sugar).

Add the onion to the ground beef and cook. Add the garlic. Add the sauces, vinegar, sugar, and ketchup/tomato paste. Then add the beans. It should have a similar effect (especially if you sort of still cheat and use the ketchup).

Cheaters may not prosper, but they do have shorter ingredient lists.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

P.S. Yes, you do deserve a Saturday sweet, but I didn't post the carrot cake I made this week in an effort to save time by posting this 2-ingredient, er, recipe. (Have I mentioned I'm a cheater.) But worry not, because I have a link for you. I'm planning to try this chocolate chip cookie recipe tomorrow to see if it can compete with either of ours. So if you need a sweet fix, give it a whirl. Or have a look at any of the other recipes on Sweet as Sugar Cookies.