Hm. I Wonder What I’ll Pull Out of My Hat Tonight.

by Little Miss Attila on January 6, 2010

Last night I made lentils, which were fine with onions, a few carrots, and salt and pepper.

Tonight it’s going to be white beans, and I can’t think of a better spice scheme, unless I decide to add some tomato paste, or maybe throw a piece of salt pork in.

Also, there is the brown rice / white rice / noodles problem to be tackled: I am on the horns of a trilemma, and I’m not even sure that’s a real word.

UPDATE, AND I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M BLOGGING ABOUT THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2003 OR WHATEVER:
But I am determined to reduce our use of Progresso soups, and so I have. We went with the white beans, with a bit of pre-made bottle spaghetti sauce, which I jazzed up with some more spices. I served it over penne, and we had broccoli on the side, with a bit of balsamic on it. There was the bean-soaking time in the middle, but the hands-one time still came in at under an hour, which is all I ask. (And, as always, that hour included little Kitchen Organizational Tasks, laundry, and whatnot in between the cooking subroutines.)

I haven’t crunched the numbers, but I’m estimating that I cut our food costs about in half when I cook humble stuff like this, as opposed to when we heat up our separate-but-equal soups and frozen fare.

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

retriever January 6, 2010 at 3:26 pm

White beans are great with pesto. You could do a quickie pasta fagiola (spelling?) derivative w ham and small noodles, and celery and kale and carrots and chicken broth and garlic and onions. They are also good w chopped red onions, tomato, Italian parsley, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, black olives and with bulghur wheat (duh…I just realized tabouli, but with the beans…)

I love beans (my family don’t).

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Charlie Martin January 6, 2010 at 3:34 pm

White beans, white wine, onions, garlic, thyme. Add, as available, salt pork, garlic sausage, chicken, duck, goose confit.

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Little Miss Attila January 6, 2010 at 3:34 pm

Pasta it is.

I was going to use the salt pork strictly as a flavoring agent, but I see that I can also fry it up, after rolling it in corn meal. Hm.

I also grabbed some smoked turkey for use in sandwiches, but I can certainly throw a little of that on top of the pasta + sauce I use as the main course.

Though it would be financially and calorically extravagant to do both, of course.

Maybe broccoli on the side, as well . . .

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Little Miss Attila January 6, 2010 at 3:37 pm

But Charlie! If I had thyme, I wouldn’t be throwing things together at the last minute. Oh, wait . . .

I’m having spice-insecurity, here.

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Charlie Martin January 6, 2010 at 4:48 pm

But Charlie! If I had thyme, I wouldn’t be throwing things together at the last min

I just hope you’re proud of yourself.

Oof.

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Little Miss Attila January 6, 2010 at 5:18 pm

I am utterly at peace.

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vanderleun January 6, 2010 at 10:09 pm

I tried it and my hands-one time came in at under on hour.

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Vlad January 6, 2010 at 10:46 pm

Lentils? I don’t think I’ve had lentils since the last time I was in jail…..

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Little Miss Attila January 6, 2010 at 11:14 pm

Gerard, why are you stopping by to place typos in my entries? And then to use them as the basis for dirty jokes?

I’m going to excommunicate you if you’re not careful. Then, just to make sure, I’ll ban you!

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I R A Darth Aggie January 7, 2010 at 9:53 am

Salt pork and white beans? raaaaaaaaaaaaccccisssssssssssst!

Hint: if you’re going to use salt pork, you need some red beans and some rice to go with it…

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