Those Bad Boys

A few weeks ago, I spent a cold, rainy weekend making pots of black bean soup. Even though we are not yet to the first day of autumn, I was feeling winter pressing down gently. It was a two-day process, not because it was complicated, but because I let it set overnight to let everything meld together.

Our house smelled wonderful.

And, ever curious about the cost of eating, I calculated what went into those pots. Four pounds of dried black beans, $4.98 at Aldi. A bag of Vidalia onions for $1.49 and three cans of tomato paste for $1.17 (total, not per can) from the same. The tomato paste was my error: the recipe calls for four cans of tomato sauce, so I thinned out three cans of paste and hoped for the best. I added another onion from those I already had (maybe, maybe 40 cents), two heads of garlic (66 cents), some oil from a massive container of blended sunflower and olive oil we bought months ago, and a handful of spices from the cabinet (mostly bought bulk). And about four tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (in lieu of wine); I bought the vinegar at least two years ago for a few dollars and am still using it. All the sweet peppers needed (eight total) came from our garden, some already chopped and frozen earlier this summer.

As I posted on a No Spend site I belong to on Facebook, my work and those few dollars spent represented  a whole lot of meals once those bad boys cooled.

And cool they did. When it was all done, I froze most of it (several quarts) for the winter, we ate black beans for several meals, and one container went to our next door neighbors. Total cost? Maybe $9.50, if I am generously rounding up on the spices, vinegar, and oil.

Pennies in, warmth and friendship and winter meals out.