…make it to the end of the week without grocery shopping.

As the weather starts to cool here, we have had a few of those annoying realities hit the budget simultaneously- refilling the propane tank for winter and the last of the high summer electric bills. ARGGGH Add to that yarn shopping for holiday gifts, the outrageous increase in home owner’s insurance and current gasoline prices and the bank account is stretched pretty thin. So the challenge is to find a way to make the paltry staples in the pantry last until Friday when I can shop for groceries again. It will be an exercise in kitchen creativity, so wish me luck.

Tonight’s menu – Red beans and brown rice with multigrain bread. This is a good stick-to-the-ribs kind of meal. Nice and filling but nutritious and high in comfort food points too. The leftover beans will be recycled into chili later in the week. I always keep dried beans on hand for just such an emergency. It’s a good thing my family actually likes them.

For the rest of the week, I have to think up three meals a day with the following ingredients – potatoes, pasta, brown rice, two chicken breasts, dried black beans, dried baby limas, dried lentils, garbanzo beans, broccoli, meatballs, green beans, corn, corn meal, pasta flour, cream of mushroom soup, eggs, oatmeal, grits,various bread products (loaf bread, bagels, English muffins) and cheese (cheddar, colby-jack, baby Swiss and Parmesan). This should be a week for inventing new recipes. If any of them actually tastes good, I will share them later in the week. Wish me luck.