Progressive Meal Plan: 3 Creative Dinners from One Pot of Chili (MM#16)
Chili is one of those magical meals that stretches beautifully, and with a little creativity, it doesn’t have to feel like leftovers. Our total came out to just $29.80 for all three meals using 16 ingredients, making this one of the cheapest and easiest ways to feed a family for multiple nights.
You can use the plan all in one week, or cook a big batch of chili, freeze it, and spread these three dinners out over time. Either way, it’s flexible, filling, and a smart way to batch cook while still eating delicious meals for super cheap!
Grocery List Needed for the Mini Menu
If you want to see the full shopping list on Walmart in your area, all you have to do is click my Walmart Grocery list and change the zip code to your area. *This is an affiliate link, and I do make a small commission on any purchases, but at no additional cost to you!*
**** Please note, that every once in a while, an item that I pick turns out to be regional. This means that it may be a much higher price in some areas. Always double check the list and if you see an item that is much higher than normal, just adjust as needed.
Base Recipe for Stovetop Chili
This is a super basic recipe that you can easily adapt. You will notice we used frozen onions this week because it easily shaved some money off our total. 2 onions would have cost over $2, so this was a quick fix to lower our total without removing onions!
Chili Rice Bowls
You may have been expecting that we would just have a bowl of chili on the first night, but by adding rice to the mix, we can make that chili stretch even further! Another option would be to serve over spaghetti noodles, but since we are having pasta later on, I wanted to show a different starch!
Chili Nachos
This is a perfect easy night dinner! So quick to make and customize, as well as really just assembling and heating up in the air fryer, toaster oven, or oven if you are using one right now!
Chili Mac Pasta
This classic dish is a great twist on chili plus it is usually a big hit with kids and adults. Since the chili already has a good number of tomatoes, I didn’t add them to this dish but personally I love to add extra to this pasta!
Possible Variations
We are making our chili this week with ground turkey because it is truly a cheaper option right now compared to ground beef. BUT if you already have a bunch of ground beef, definitely use that!
Some other options that can be used here include ground venison, ground pork, or a mix of ground sausage and any other ground meats.
Don’t be stuck in your meat choices. You could actually do a white chili version with chicken and white beans instead of kidney beans.
You are only limited by your imagination here, so please take this as an example to help you make your own progressive meals!
Free Printable Grocery List & Recipes
Here is a 1-page cheat sheet that includes the grocery list as well as all the recipes you need to make this budget mini menu work!
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