September: A Month of Inexpensive Meals

In an effort to control our budget and use up those stray ingredients tucked away in the pantry far too long, I have decided that for the month of September we will be eating out of the pantry and eating as inexpensively as possible. Now, we live in Alaska and I am going to use all means at my disposal so I am not pretending that my recipes and menus will be equally inexpensive and practical to others. Hopefully they will be useful to some (maybe just me in the future) and interesting to others (who am I kidding, I'm just talking about myself again).

To start the month off I made Red Beans and Rice. Traditionally, this dish is slow cooked with big hunks of meat seasoned with more meat, but today I just used two Italian sausage links out of the freezer along with the beans and vegetables.

Red Beans:

2c dry kidney beans
2 links Italian pork sausage
1 large onion
3 stalks of celery
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp ancho pepper
2 tsp oregano
salt & pepper
olive oil

Cooked white rice.

Soak the beans over night or "hot soak" by boiling for 2 minutes and allowing to cool for 1 hour. Rinse and drain. Cook the beans with the bay leaf until almost tender. Meanwhile, chop onion and celery. Bake the sausage, transfer pan to stove top, remove the cooked sausage and cook the onion and celery in the grease until soft, adding additional oil if necessary. Drain off the beans again. Add sausage, veggies and seasoning plus water to cover. Allow to simmer together until very tender, adjusting seasoning toward the end. Mash 1/4 of the beans against the side of the pot and simmer a little longer until creamy. Add more water if things start to look dry. Serve over rice