One of my biggest money problems is that I don’t want to take the time to make dinner for myself. Instead of having a pantry stocked with beans and rice and a fridge with fresh veggies I have a credit card bill for restaurants in my neighborhood that have a good tasting dinner for under $20. I lie to myself and say that I love food and that’s why I prefer having someone else cook for me.
But really it’s because I have high expectations and a princess attitude. When I do cook at home I make salmon, seared, with potatoes and bustle sprouts. The ingredients alone cost more than the meal would at a restaurant. The leftovers end up sitting in the fridge and browning until they are too old to eat.
Now before you stop and think to yourself, fancy for this women, she spends $30 on groceries for one night, why should I spend my time reading about her problems? And I say, that’s a very good question my friend. You should not. What you should do instead is support me in changing my habits by following an ongoing report of the cost effective home cooked dinners I vow to make every night at 6pm sharp.
October 1st
Orzo. Tri color. One cup boiled in 8 cups of water with dashes of salt. One half sweet yellow onion sautéed in generous amounts of extra virgin olive oil. Three handfuls of fresh arugula shredded up by hand (pul out stems) them, just pull them out). Healthy dumping of parmesan reggiano cheese.
There’s no really important order to follow Once you get the pasta cooking up you can put the onions in a separate pan and let them simmer a while, the longer the sweeter (like 15 minutes even). When the orzo is out and cooling and the onions are done, they go together in a big bowl with salt and pepper. Use plenty of oil for more flavor.
Get salad stuff from a farm-like place if you can. The whole bag of arugula cost $4 which felt like a splurge at the time. And it probably is except I made at least a salad plus this meal so far and there’s still some leftover. Plus it really tastes so good, like better than the kind from the super market, as far as I can tell.
If you have other ingredients you like then throw those in too. Mushrooms, tomatoes or bits of asparagus steamed or done up in oil like the onion would probably be worth a try. Oh, and feta cheese instead of the parm if you’ve got some on hand.
I ate this meal over a “conversation” with my LIB (live-in-boyfriend) about how i need to get a job. Baby steps, I tell him and I taste the caramelized onion in between the pasta chunks and the flashes of cheese. For now this is as grown up as I get.
P.S. I’m Back.
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