Use it Up Days 7-9: Chili Pie

Since the soup incident, I haven't burnt anything else (food included).  My arm is healing up nicely.  By "nicely" I mean it looks disgusting, but it does feel better.  Malachi has been fighting a cold for almost a month - he is just about over it and now Jeremy and I have it.  Yippee!  Hopefully I'll be feeling well enough to keep cooking.

On day 7 I was going to make my favorite roasted potatoes and post the recipe for you but we didn't eat til pretty late.  So, we had oven broiled steaks, a salad that consisted of the few sad lonely veggies still in my fridge, and microwave baked potatoes.  Ha!  But it was all really good.  :-)  I actually just bought frozen veggies at the store for this week, so my fridge is starting to look pretty sparse.  That's fine with me though!  I don't intend to use up every little thing and then have to spend a gazillion dollars the next time I actually go shopping.  But we are a stock-piling family (I actually have a stockpile upstairs due to couponing deals), and we have built up a pretty big supply of stuff that I want to whittle down since we are working on saving money.  It has been exciting to see some things disappear that have been taking up too much space forever!

On day 8 I used up some cornmeal and we had a tasty chili pie (recipe below).

Day nine was cereal and I don't even know what Jeremy ate.  We were busy.  :-)

Chili Pie
Inspired by this idea, but heavily adapted.

Filling

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 6-oz can tomato paste
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilis, drained
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder



Spread up the side of the pan

• 2 tablespoons taco sauce

Crust

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, for topping

In a skillet, brown the beef and onions.  Drain.  Stir in remaining filling ingredients and set aside.  In a large bowl combine all crust ingredients and mix well.  Grease a 10-inch oven-proof skillet (or baking dish of similar size).  Spread crust on the bottom and up the sides of the pan.  The crust was pretty stretchy and it didn't spread too easily, but it turned out fine.  Pour filling into the crust, cover with cheese, and bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.