Cheddar Melt Chili

Follow me on Pinterest!

All right my fine feathered friends, it's another day and another meal.  Still just as hectic as the day before, but hey, at least I got my youngest to help me on this one, right??  :)  I got this meal from one of my daily recipe emails from Betty Crocker, and let me tell you, it didn't disappoint!
So first thing's first: I needed 1 pound of ground turkey (the recipe called for ground beef, but I always like using turkey!), 1 box of Hamburger Helper Cheddar cheese melt, milk, chili powder, chili beans, shredded cheddar cheese and 1 tomato.

All right, all right, so I realized a bit too later that I didn't include the milk in the photo, but I still used it!  Also, since 3/4 of my family have milk allergies or are lactose intolerant, I used soy milk, but please use whichever best suits you.
Then in my super awesomely fancy Dutch oven I cooked the ground turkey until it was done.  I didn't need to drain it because it was the very lean ground turkey and actually didn't have any sort of juices to drain.  However, once you've cooked your meat, make sure to drain if necessary!
Then I added 1 1/3 cups of hot water (or should I say my youngest did!). the pasta and sauce packet from the Cheddar cheese melt, 1 cup of salsa, 1 2/3 cups milk, 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder and 1 can of chili beans (the recipe called for 2 cans and I realized too late I had only purchased one!  Use whichever amount you'd like) into the pot with the ground turkey.

I heat that until it was boiling (stirring constantly), lowered the heat, and then covered it to simmer for about 10 minutes.  Make sure to stir occasionally once the pasta is in there to loosen it and check for tenderness.

While that was simmering, I diced the tomato and measured out 3/4 cup of cheddar cheese.

Once the chili had simmered, I topped each bowl with some cheddar cheese and tomatoes and voila!!  Dinner was served!!!!!

This meal was very easy, and a complete hit.  Considering my husband used to always tell me how much he hated eating Hamburger Helper as a kid, it makes me happy when I can get him to like it by trying other things.  Just add a few other things and there's a meal!

This meal was 480 calories and only $4.32/serving!

Here's the recipe!!!

1 pound ground beef (or whichever ground meat you prefer)

1 1/3 cups hot water

1 box Hamburger Helper Cheddar cheese melt

1 cup salsa

1 2/3 cups milk

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

2 cans (15 ounces) chili beans in sauce, undrained

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 large tomato, chopped

Happy cooking everyone!!!!