Sunday Suppers

aka...Monday lunches.

Today was a nice laid-back, frugal kind of day. Mostly. It started cool and foggy, with a 5k race. I finished in 27:50, which is my best time ever. Not a very hard thing to do, because it's the first 5k I've ever fully run (walked a couple). But that's an average pace of just under 9:00 per mile, which is awesome!!

Then it was cooking, playing with my son, cooking, trying (unsuccessfully) to get my 2-year old to take a nap, more cooking, hanging out with my naked toddler in the kiddie pool (giving me the chance to soak my feet, and do a little pedicure...soak off a couple of months of junk on my toes). Said toddler is looking pretty tired after no nap.

The only non-frugal thing was the purchase of a sunshade type of thing, 10'x10'. Our back patio gets hot and has little shade. It will come in handy. It was on sale for $69.

Onto the major topic...dinner. Tonight I made my sister's calico beans and tabouli. The picture is actually from our lunches for tomorrow. I seem to forget to take pictures on our fine china (aka, hand-me-down Corelle).

Calico beans
1 lb ground beef (2.99)
1 can pinto beans (0.69) (original recipe left these out)
1 can kidney beans (0.69)
1 can baked beans (1.09)
1 can cannelini beans (1.29) - recipe actually called for butter beans
4 slices bacon (0.50)
1/2 cup ketchup (0.17)
3 T cider vinegar (0.08)
1 large onion, diced (0.35)
1/4 cup brown sugar (0.25)
salt and pepper to taste

Total: $8.10 for 8 servings, $1.01 per serving (per cup). Original recipe says it serves 10-12, I assume for a side dish. We used it for the main course. I could have made it cheaper by cooking the beans from scratch and subbing higher-fat meat.

Directions: Brown meat, onion, and bacon. Combine all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low all day.

Tabouli
1 cup bulgur ($0.44)
1 cup boiling water
1 cucumber, peeled and diced (CSA, ?0.70)
2 tomatoes, or 1 cup cherry tomatoes, diced (CSA ? 1.00)
1 bunch green onions, sliced (0.50)
2 cloves garlic (0.08)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup cider vinegar (0.21)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (0.44)
3 T lemon juice, or juice from one lemon (free from neighbor's tree)
1/2 cup chopped parsley (0.35)

Total: $3.72 for about 4.5 cups, or $0.83 per cup.

I'm guessing on the cucumber and tomato costs, as we get them from the CSA.

Man I love this stuff. I make it every single week when cukes and tomatoes are in season.