My Low-Cost Chili Dinner

I apologize if you 're starting to feel nauseous by the sight of tonight's dinner. After I finished cooking and compiling it on the plate I took the time to actually look at it and just laughed. Awesome! As I drove home from work today I was thinking of what I could do with my $1.69 can of Trader Joe's Turkey-Chili. It's a cheap and healthy meal (3g fat; 230 calories) but unlike other chilis there's not much to grit to it.

So once I got home, I started boiling pot of water for spaghetti noodles. In my local culture (as opposed to my ancestral one), we like putting chili on top of rice. But alas, I was too tired to bother with that tedious process. Boiling spaghetti takes 1/3 the time.

I searched my fridge for things that were firm, chewy or even crunchy. There wasn't any frozen beef but I did find one bag of peeled shrimp, again from Trader Joe's.

There was an onion sitting on my counter so I halved that and sliced it thin. Then I put it in a pot and stir-fried it in Enova oil, which makes me feel less guilty since it has some magical property to burn away, or something like that. There were some baby carrots sitting in my 'Crisper' bin so I tossed them into the boiling spaghetti just for the heck of it. I've been lacking in the vitamins so I found some lettuce and lined my plate with a few leaves.

Now, I love Trader Joe's Turkey Chili but I was craving something with a little kick, so I dug around my spice cabinet and found these guys:


A few shakes of each was enough. That thing in the middle, Aromat, is something a friend from Switzerland sent me. I kept asking him what it was but he didn't really know either. It's a combination of spices which no doubt includes MSG. Very tasty. I woulda chopped some garlic, but why bother when you have it in the form of salt?

So guess what? My dinner tonight was excellent! Who cares if it looks ugly? It all ends up in the same place anyway. Best part though, is how much money I saved by using my resources. Now for tomorrow's dinner, here's what I have left in the fridge: an eggplant, cheddar cheese and a tomato.

Hahah. Okay, I'll spare you the visuals.