Well I only spent @ 500 less than I made in February. I lost the sheet of paper where I had the exact figures but I think that's about right. I did look at my spending and realized that about 200 of the 500 was unnecessary things like a couple of lunches out and a few trips to Safeway because I was too lazy or forgot my lunch. I also spent a bit on dinner ingredients for a trip to Bonny Doone that I wouldn't otherwise have done. (I made Cincinnati Chili Mac from one of Nava Atlas' cookbooks, really good) I also went to Saver's twice and spent about 100 on both trips on clothes I didn't need that was definately unnecessary.
Other than that I did stick to my "pantry" diet with the only exception of fresh greens and soy milk. I checked out a library book called "The Tropical Vegan Kitchen" and cooked a delicious Cuban Black Bean soup for [M]'s birthday that was fantastic. I had traded with Chip for 2 cans of refried beans for 2 cans of diced tomatoes so I wouldn't have to go to the store. (I'm making that count as "eat from the pantry" even if it's someone else's pantry) The recipe called for black refried beans which I have 3 or 4 cans of and needed to get disapeared, a can of coconut milk, the afore mentioned diced tomatoes and cilantro, (I substituted oregeno). It also called for vegatable broth but water worked fine and I added 1/2 onion and a can of corn (which I also needed to get rid of). It was even better the next day. Anyway, this book just came out and you guys should check it out at your library. I am especially looking forward to trying some of the Thai dishes.
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I can attest, that soup was TO DIE FOR!!
ReplyDeleteThe soup sounds lovely; I'll try it. :) I don't have canned corn, but I do have lots of cilantro I need to use up.
ReplyDeleteI did make a black bean soup last night, similar to what you described. I didn't have refried black beans; I just used dried black beans. And I did use the can of coconut milk--but the "lite" kind. Not sure I'd do that again. So my ingredients were: black beans, half an onion, coconut milk, dried smoked chili pepper, cilantro, and about 1/4 cup of Cuban sofrito that I had made a few weeks ago and froze into portions. Then I pureed it. I decided not to put tomato in. It was really good--but I wonder what the effect of putting in regular coconut milk would have been. The lite just tasted a little... off.
ReplyDeleteI've tried lite coconut milk in something else and it just didn't work. It's like adding water and coconut extract. It doesn't have the richness you want.
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