What You Need:

2 (15 oz.) cans chili beans in gravy

1 (15 oz.) can butter beans, drained well

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained well

1 C onion, chopped

3/4 C green pepper, chopped

3/4 C sweet red pepper, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine

1 (18 oz.) bottle regular barbecue sauce

1 C vegetable broth

1 C instant brown rice, uncooked

How to Make It:

Stir all three types of beans together in the crock pot.

Add the onion and all three types of peppers, stirring to combine.

Pour the barbecue sauce and broth into the crock pot and stir until blended.

Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

Turn the heat setting to high.

Stir in the rice, recover and cook for 30 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Makes 6 servings

This is a great side dish to serve with hamburgers. Beans and rice contain lots of fiber and protein making this a healthy dish to boot. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Use the leftovers in enchiladas or chimichangas.

Preparation Time: approximately 15 minutes

Cooking Time: approximately 6 hours 30 minutes

Total Time: approximately 6 hours 45 minutes

Nutritional Information: (approximate values per serving)

Calories 385; Fat 3g; Saturated Fat 0g; Carbohydrates 68g; Fiber 17g; Protein 19g; Cholesterol 0 mg; Sodium 1,676 mg

There are a few tips to curbing that impulse shopping and allowing the call from the checkout line to grow more distant every day.

1. Make a list – This is the single most important thing you can do if you are trying to save money. Many people believe that making a list will help to keep them on track when it comes to items they are going to buy, and it does, except when impulse buys come into the picture. By taking a list, you are able to track your spending and stick with your budget. This means if you need parmesan cheese but you want the candy bar, you may have to settle for store brand to keep the balance in check.

2. Take a snack and drink – Parents will bring a snack and juice for their child while walking through the store so they don’t try to grab anything outside the cart. Subsequently, those parents also grab a box of goldfish and a soda. Why not bring in your own snack and drink to satisfy that snack attack?

3. Choose your line wisely – Picking the shortest line when going to checkout is a must. The less time you are standing around, the less likely you are to “find” something you “need.” Check the items on your list as you put them on the conveyor and make sure you know the prices ring up correctly. Some stores offer free items if they ring up your purchases incorrectly. If you stay busy, you will not have time to act impulsively.

Of course the checkout line is not the only place impulses hide. They also lay in waiting down the chip isle, soft drink isle and the candy isle. Ever notice how these isles are thoughtfully spread throughout the store like a team of well-trained snipers? This is not saying that you cannot ever go down those isles. It’s a warning to be weary when walking around without a plan.

Make a list and stick to it. If you have a craving for some junk food, make sure to put it down on your list and get only that. If you plan for it, it will not come as a surprise when the clerk tallies your take-home.

Checkout lines are notorious for being some of the best anglers in the world. Who else can have 90% accuracy when it comes to putting out a baited hook and actually getting the catch in the boat? There are so many different items that are placed within the, already tight, confines of a checkout line. There is a good chance at least one of them will catch your eye. It may be the sugary candy, the collector cards or even the small little shiny trinket and let’s not even bring small children into the picture because the odds are instantly increased.

With everyone feeling the difficulties imposed by the recession, stores are counting more and more on the little extra impulse buys. Have you noticed that the checkout lanes are more organized and enticing than ever before? That’s because these last minute items are extremely important to their business. It is the magazine that you need to grab because you don’t have an updated copy, the gum your significant other really needs or that favorite candy bar, just waiting to be torn into like a vicious savage.

Currently, impulse shopping is down as the monetary pressures are being felt in all income brackets. That being said, retailers are getting savvy to how consumers are beginning to shop and are changing up the impulsive items. Where customer once would splurge on a seven-dollar bag of beef jerky, the stores are now replacing the dried meat with more health conscious alternatives like seven-dollar bags of dried fruit. The consumer is justifying the purchase by the “at least it is good for me” standard, not even aware he or she just spent the same amount of money.

Have fun with your leftovers. Try different combinations and add different spices and see what you can come up with. There are two things to remember when trying out new recipes with your leftovers. Pay attention to the ingredients and not the taste while also, paying attention to the taste and not the ingredients. Confusing? Not really, let’s explain.

Ingredients, not taste

Let’s take the hamburger meat as an example. What ingredients did you put into it for the actual hamburger? Salt, pepper and maybe some Italian seasoning were used. Keep these ingredients in mind when repurposing the hamburger because it may not need more salt in the dish you are trying to create. If there was plenty of salt for the hamburger, cut out the salt in the new recipe and see if that works well. What else? Bread crumbs, ketchup and possibly even some A-1. If you went heavy on the A-1 sauce, this might not work well repurposed as a breakfast casserole. A meatloaf on the other hand might just work. Just remember what you put in to determine what kind of dish you want to reuse the meat in.

Taste, not ingredients

For this example, let’s use the holiday breakfast make-over. One can only assume that since mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey all go together in a meal, that they can all be used together in a single dish. Pretending with your mouth can get you a long way when cooking. If you think it will taste good together, go for it. If not, then you are probably right. Think about how the food will taste together to get a good idea of the expected outcome.

Leftovers are the best things on the plant. Some might agree and others might want to gag, but leftovers are not just a doom sentence to devour the same food you had for the last three nights. Leftovers provide a healthy meal in an instant, or as quickly as they can be heated. They can also prove invaluable in your weekly cooking routine. Using leftovers saves you incredible amounts of money because it either reduces the cost per meal for your weekly tally or can be repurposed in a different dish to save green on your shopping trips.

Here are a couple examples of repurposing leftovers:

Meat – A staple of many households is ground meat. It is a perfect start to practice repurposing leftovers on. A couple pounds of ground beef can be used for hamburgers, then the next day for tacos and finally as an addition to spaghetti sauce or a warm crock pot of chili. Steaks are also great leftovers to utilize for a couple of days. Eaten first as a main dish with mashed potatoes and green beans, cut into strips to top a hearty salad and finally cut into chunks for stews or soups.

Holidays – Leftovers during holidays usually surmount into outrageous quantities. If you are getting tired of the same old turkey or ham sandwiches for the following week, try changing it up for breakfast. Combine the mashed potatoes, stuffing and diced meat in a pan creating a little creator for an egg. Pop it all in the oven for ten minutes on 350 degrees and you have a hearty egg in a nest for breakfast. This is a complete meal with your meat, grains and dairy. It’s also not a bad way to start a day off from the turkey hang-over from the night before.

There are other ways of to get your family the nutritional balance of certain foods and that can be done with some clever hiding techniques. Depending on what you are trying to hide, there are certain techniques to disguise almost any food. Here are some possibilities:

When all else fails, you will be surprised how far raw veggies with a little dip will get you. There are numerous children, and adults too, who strongly dislike cooked vegetables, but when offered a veggie tray, will devour it in a second. A simple rule is, offer the veggies as-is first to see the initial reaction, then try incorporating them into different foods.

To get some grains into your family, try making grilled cheese with whole grain bread. Another possibility is making toast with wheat bread. The color will be masked when the bread is toasted or grilled and who doesn’t love bread smothered with butter and jelly or with a piece of melted cheese slapped in between.

There is no child that will refuse to eat his or her own baked goods. By letting your little one participates when it comes to baking and throwing in a few whole grains, some unbleached flour and some dried fruit. The kids will have a blast making and then devouring their creation.

No matter what you choose, try and keep the recipes simple. While incorporating different fruits and veggies in, to see what your family prefers. Maybe they like softer vegetables or those cooked with butter and brown sugar. The point is you will never know until you start trying, and there is no better time to start than the present.

Choosing the right foods can make all the difference. If your kids don’t like spinach, then why try to feed them spinach? Why would you put yourself through the hassle of preparing the food and making it look great, only to have it turned down due to ingredient choices? Make life easier on yourself and use recipes that you know they will love.

Almost everyone loves pasta. Why not grate some carrots or finely dice a couple of mushrooms or green peppers into the sauce? The red color will hide any evidence of vegetables and the tomato taste will mask anything that is small enough.

Chili and soups are another great way to hide vegetables. Take a chicken noodle soup and experiment with adding different vegetables to see which one your child likes the best. Chili is a giant mix and match of ingredients, so adding another one to the mix is no big deal.

Any ground meat is begging for some veggies. Mix some shredded carrots or beets into a hamburger or meatball for some added nutrition and also some extra moist meat. It is amazing what a little well-ground vegetable can do to even the driest hamburger.

Pizza is a win-win situation for kids and parents. Kids love to eat it and parents love to hide vegetables within its gooey goodness. Take a little of the tomato sauce described above as well as some finely chopped veggies under a layer of melted cheese and you have a slice of pie that is as nutritionally dense as a full salad, not to mention a winner for everyone.