Making Hamburger Chili

soaking the beans

I get to take hamburgers home among other food items from one of my part-time jobs. I usually get to take about 4 hamburgers home, and I certainly don't feel like eating these cold hamburgers. It is also against my belief to throw away perfectly good hamburgers with onion and tomato slices. I thought they would be perfect for making chili. I have made chili with these hamburgers with and without beans. Canned beans work great, but since I am trying to spend as little money as necessary, I got some dried beans, too.

I like to mix different kinds of bean together. My favorite beans are black and kidney beans, but I would mix any kind of beans. For this batch, I mixed 1/2 cup small pink beans and 1/2 cup white beans. The beans were soaked during the day and then cooked overnight in my 1.5-quart slow cooker with about 1 inch of water covering the beans.

chopping up the rest of ingredients from hamburgers

While the beans were being cooked, I chopped up the rest of ingredients - cooked hamburger patties, onion, and tomatoes. I put all of them in a Tupperware and put it back in the fridge. In the morning, I checked on the beans and they were all cooked through.  I added the chopped onion, tomatoes, and hamburger bits into the pot. I wasn't too concerned about the proportions of each ingredient. I just filled up the pot. For spices, I used:

1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon chopped up garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt

dried beans are pre-cooked overnight

I also poured in some tomato sauce. Sometimes I add a can of tomato paste or diced tomatoes. It just depends on what I have in the pantry. Sometimes I add some cut corn kernels if I have them. After all the ingredients were in the pot, I carefully mixed them all together with a spoon and let it cook.

I got all the ingredients in the pot around 10 A.M. I went out to run some errands, and when I came back around 2 P.M., I could smell it as soon as I walked in. The chili was done, and it was easy. I didn't even have to be in the kitchen much of time.

By the way, I got the 1.5 quart  Crock Pot for $5.00 from Craigslist. The woman who sold it to me said that she probably used it only once or twice since she got it, so she decided to get rid of it. It was still in its original box. The pot is perfect for bringing hot food to potlucks, too.

Chili is done!

Downsize and Live a Simpler Life

For years I had housemates so I could save money on rent. After I finally became debt free, I decided to get my own place. However, I always looked for the cheapest place in a nice safe neighborhood. Safe is more important than cheap. I learned my lesson when I rented a cheap one bedroom apartment in a funky area of San Leandro. My car window was smashed, CD changer and gym bag were taken. My locker under the carport was broken into and the box of art supplies was taken. They were most likely useless to the burglars, but they were expensive to acquire. After that, my rule was to find the most affordable place in a nice neighborhood. You can get a feel by just driving around the neighborhood. You can also do some research on the internet for any area you are planning on moving to. Apartment Ratings is also a good resource to get some idea whether you want to move into a certain complex.You want to avoid any apartment complex that has a history of keeping everyone's security deposits or have pest problems.

My rent had always been on the cheap side. I have rented studios and taken over other people's leases. I didn't mind whether it was an old apartment as long as everything was functional and clean. I preferred to use the money I saved from rent for traveling. The biggest monthly expense for most people is the rent or mortgage. I personally feel it is important to keep this expense as low as possible so I wouldn't feel trapped at my job. I wanted to have the option of walking away from any job when it was no longer making me happy.

I think Felice Cohen's apartment (see video) is awesome. I would totally live in there although I would miss having a real kitchen since I do love to cook.  The original article is here.

Taking On Odd Jobs

I never had much trouble getting a job or a few jobs. One of the reasons is that I don't have my eyes fixed on some 6-figure position. I would take a tolerable job just so I could pay my bills. Although I am taking a year off from working full time, I applied for a few part time jobs so I have my basic expenses covered, such as health insurance (it's a shame that we Americans still don't have universal health care), utilities, internet, cellphone, car insurance/expenses, tuition (only because I want to take classes!), and food.

The best place to find odd jobs is Craigslist.org. I think all of my full time jobs were applied through craigslist in the last 10 years. Through its part-time section, I was hired for 2 jobs. One job asked for a year commitment, and it's just one day a week. However, since it's a restaurant business, I get to take quite a bit of food home each time I go to work. I hardly have to do any grocery shopping.

The second part time job is more freelance. I get a call when computer help is needed, I let them know my earliest availability and work anywhere from 1-4 hours per visit. I get paid at the end of each session. I usually get called only once a week.

Between the two very part-time jobs, I have all of my basic expenses covered. Sometimes there are unexpected expenses such as car repair, which happened last month. My car could not pass smog, so repairs were needed even though it ran perfectly. That was an unexpected $500 expense. Of course, an alternative would be to get rid of the car altogether, which is an idea I have been contemplating.

The "gigs" section also has some paid odd jobs. I have answered to several postings under "gigs" but didn't receive any response. If I needed extra money to cover unexpected expenses, I would look through "ETC" under "jobs" and/or "gigs" to make extra money.