Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Dinner on a Dime: Braised Beef Tacos

Dinner on a Dime tonight was SO GOOD!
Braised beef tacos with (semi)-homemade salsa.
I'll be honest, I had my doubts for sure. I'm not a fan of cooking (or eating) London broil, but ti my pleasant surprise it was fantastic and so tender! It was so good in fact that Jonathan made the comment that it tasted like something you would order in a restaurant, and it really did.
Oh, and did I mention that it is a CROCK POT MEAL?!?? It doesn't get easier than that friends! :)

And a lot of the ingredients are things that you probably already have so that makes it even cheaper!

You can find the original recipe HERE

We used: (and by we I mainly mean Jonathan since he is the one that put it to cook this morning)
2 lb London broil
Can Rotel tomatoes w/ chilies
Minced garlic
Cilantro
Garlic powder
Onion powder
beef broth
Taco seasoning
Onion
Lime juice
Tortillas

So I am against cooking meat that has not marinated for at least 30 minutes, but I prefer to let it marinate overnight. So that is what we did. We rubbed the meat with onion powder, garlic powder and taco seasoning then added some broth (about 1/2 cup, water would do) and let it marinate.

What to do:
Put 1/4 can of tomatoes and 1/2 the cilantro at the bottom of the crock then place the meat on top. Rub the minced garlic on the meat then add the remainder of the cilantro and another 1/4 of the tomatoes and a can of broth and cook on low for 6 hrs. When done drain crockpot and remove beef and shred it. (I saved my liquid for my round 2 meal)
About an hour before the meat is finished make your own salsa, with the remainder of the can tomatoes (1/2 the can), 1/4 chopped onion, cilantro, lime juice and S&P.

The salsa is so good! We had some Tortilla chips that we ate along with our tacos and store bought (well I got it free) salsa.

My Cost:
London Broil: $6.78
Rotel Tomatoes: $1
Cilantro: $1
Beef broth: $1
Lime juice: $.20 (approximately how much I used from my new bottle)
Garlic: $.30 (approximately how much I used from my new bottle)

Total: $10.28


That may seem like a lot for a meal but we had a LOT of beef leftover and we have already planned a Round 2 meal for for the leftover beef that will give us meals for 2 more nights and a couple of lunches!

Braised beef Mexican rice bake extra cost:
Corn: $.89
Black beans: $1
Rice: $.20 (approximately how much I will use from my new box)

That brings my grand total to $12.37 for THREE nights worth of meals plus lunch! Now that's not bad! That makes it under $2 per serving!

This really is one of my favorite meals we have had lately, and they have all been good! What I love about this is that it's the amazing-ness of tacos but a bit more flavorful and sophisticated by not using ground beef but keeping the cost low.

So try it out and let me know what you think! :)

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