Tagged with " beans"

Pasta with Arugula, White Beans, and Walnuts~ It’s Friday Pasta Night!

Apr 21, 2012 by     2 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, food, recipes, saving money

I got this recipe from Everyday Food magazine. I am really enjoying the recipes in it.  Since it’s Friday, this is the day I fix pasta. I do this in order to move through my stock of  dried pasta and use up what I have, all the while trying new recipes and flavors. This is a meatless meal but has plenty of protein with the nuts and the beans. We tried it & we both liked it. I’ll do it again! Also… the only thing I had to buy for this recipe was the bag of arugula. A bargain!

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces farfalle (bow-tie pasta)
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 pound baby arugula
  • 1 can (15 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/3 cup walnut pieces, toasted if desired

Directions

  1. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain pasta, and set aside.
  2. Place pasta pot over medium heat. Add garlic and 1 tablespoon butter; cook, stirring, until garlic is fragrant, about 2 minutes.
  3. Add arugula to pot; toss just until wilted. Add beans, pasta, and remaining 3 tablespoons butter; season with salt and pepper. Toss, adding enough reserved water to mixture to coat pasta. Garnish with walnuts.

Roasted Garbanzo Bean Snack

Dec 9, 2010 by     No Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, food, saving money

Recipe

Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) canned

Olive oil

Salt

Cayenne Pepper

Drain the chickpeas. Toss them with a little olive oil, salt & cayenne pepper. Roast in a single layer on a cookie sheet for about 1 hour at 400°. Occasionally shake cookie sheet to turn.

You can eat 3 times the amount of these for the calories of  the same amount of peanuts!

Bean Soup~Yum!

Nov 16, 2010 by     6 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, Canning/Preserving, food, Grocery Challenge, saving money

For me, it really doesn’t matter what kind of bean it is. Every bean has it’s theme! When I make things with garbanzo beans (chickpeas) I think SPAIN. When I cook with black beans I think Read more »

The Greenhouse

Feb 24, 2009 by     6 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Gardening, Grocery Challenge

Here’s the progress on my plants in the greenhouse. Mind you, I’m only interested at this time in growing vegetables. This my attempt to squeeze every penny (euro cent) to death! My goal is to grow 100% of the lettuce we eat (we’d like to eat 2 salads a day) and hopefully the rest of the vegetables too…though I have not been able to see how I can do that yet.

Let me explain to you my “program”. Remember you can see a larger version of the photo by clicking on it.

The Greenhouse

This is a photo of the outside of the little greenhouse. You can see some of my plants though the plastic.

Inside the greenhouse Here’s another view as I’m standing in the doorway. The 2 big pots are potatoes. The others have already been placed in the garden outside as the weather has warmed.

greenhouse You can see the lettuce growing and the other containers are: lettuce, mint, oregano, par-cel, basil, mixed greens, dill, eggplant, tomatoes, cilantro, tomatillo, green beans, crookneck squash, chives, & arugula. Thanks to Mary, Jesseka and Rebekah for the seeds!

the greenhouse

Here is the other side, on the top row, I have lettuce at various stages. My hope is that I can harvest enough each day to never run out. I’ve also planted some in my garden, with high hopes of a good production. I have scallions, cherry tomatoes, micro-greens, potatoes in various stages, cilantro and parsley.

cilantro

I have cilantro in the garden plus 3 pots growing as above and 3 more trays waiting to germinate. Cilantro is not that common here and I can find it only at one store, plus, it’s expensive. Thanks again to my MOM for sending me the seeds!

my lettuce

Here is a close-up of some lettuce. It’s very tender and I just pick off what I need for the meal.

By the by, all the ‘trays’ you see, are what meat and vegetables come in here. I simply wash them out, add potting soil and plant. It also keeps my greenhouse more organized.

Each tray is labeled with a popsicle stick that I bought at a craft store in Chicago. I bought large ones and small ones. This is a very  cheap solution to keeping track of what I’m planting. For only a few $ I have enough to last for years and years.

I hope the next photos I post will be of lush plants in very pot! So far, the lettuce, dill, oregano, cilantro, some scallions, micro-greens and arugula are “up”. I water once a day… spend 10 mins. enjoying the new growth and it gets me out of the house and office and I’m having a good time. Growing vegetables gives me hope.

Economy

Jan 1, 2009 by     4 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Grocery Challenge

Well, my 20 euros for 20 days was a COMPLETE success! I had money to spare! I then proceeded to spend all of my Decembers food allowance on my holiday menu. Now I’ll begin to “rebuild” my food budget surplus. Last month I ended up getting 5€ less than I had thought because our dollars exchange was at 1.28 instead of 1.26.

John got me my “dream gift” this year for Christmas and I have had the most fun with it!  Yep, I asked for a pressure canner. Here are some of the results:

canned beans beans potatoes

I canned chili with ground beef, beans (garbanzo, pinto and kidney) and 7 jars of canned potatoes. Fun, eh? I had such a great time doing this!!

more to come!