Skip The Expensive Ground Beef And Taco Kits: A Better Way To Do Taco Night For Under $5

With the cost of groceries rising, finding ways to make meals that taste good and don't break the bank is increasingly difficult. Fortunately, there are still ways to make cost-effective meals that taste great with just a little pre-planning and creativity. For instance, you can put together a family taco night for under $5 by swapping out beef for beans.

Ground beef is an old standby for homemade tacos, but you can make an equally filling and delicious version using pinto beans as your protein. Depending on where you live, lean ground beef could be around $7 per pound at Walmart. There are a few great vegetarian alternatives to ground beef, but pinto beans are one of the best for tacos.

A one-pound bag of dry pinto beans only costs about $1. You can also get a 12-pack of El Milagro corn tortillas at some Walmart locations for just 66 cents. An 8-ounce brick of cheese is about $1.87. Add roma tomatoes for around $0.29 each, a fresh onion for about $0.65, a fresh jalapeño for about $0.25, and a fresh lime for $0.25. That brings the final cost to $4.98, with enough ingredients to make 12 bean and cheese tacos with fresh salsa. All you need to add from home are your seasonings of choice and some oil. Compare that to an Old El Paso taco kit which contains tortillas, taco seasoning, and sauce for about $3.50, and you'll still need the beans and cheese. The dried pinto bean version ends up costing about $0.41 per taco.

Canned beans are more convenient, but dried beans offer better value and taste just as good, despite taking longer to prepare. We have some tips for cooking with pinto beans, but one of the most useful tips is to soak them for several hours to reduce the overall cooking time. That may sound inconvenient, but if you soak them overnight, it's not much of a hassle.

You can rinse and cook dried beans without soaking, but they will have to cook for several hours to get soft, so plan accordingly. The beans can be cooked down with seasonings and served on the tortillas as is, or you can make homemade refried beans by frying them in a little oil before mashing them.

For added crunch and flavor, and to help your assembled tacos hold together better, you can heat them in a pan after assembling. That ensures the cheese inside melts into the soft bean mixture while also crisping your tortilla and making them more easily dippable in the salsa. You could also opt to turn them into bean tostadas instead of tacos, too.

Dried pinto beans generally triple in size after soaking and cooking. A one pound bag should yield about two cups of dried beans, so expect this recipe to make about six cups of cooked beans. You can store extra beans in a sealed container in the fridge for several days, or up to three months in the freezer.