Trying to Eat Cheap: Dinner, Day 20

The big eater of the house was out at a meeting tonight (the kind with free pizza!) so I made a spontaneous soup for myself and the little one. Basically, we foraged for dinner. What I ended up with was a pretty good lentil soup and, of course, my favorite side dish of toast--this time with melted cheddar.

I liked this soup. I had about 2 cups of cooked lentils sitting around. (I remind myself of Neil from The Young Ones with my constant LENTILS.) I combined them with sautéed celery and red onion, some water, and threw in dulse (seaweed, yeah), turmeric, crushed garlic and marjoram for flavoring. I also added a little of the red pepper tapenade that was featured back on Day 4. I threw in some thinly sliced kale to force some veggies on us. I served it with some grated parmesan on top. Even my sometimes picky companion said it was good! I was glad there was a bit of that tapenade left to try in another way, because it really blossomed in this soup and had a nice smoky flavor that I didn't notice on Day 4 when it was covered with cheese.

Here's my breakdown:

lentils: $1.00
celery & 1/2 onion: $1.00
kale: $2.00
garlic & dulse: .50
spices: .25
parmesan & cheddar: $1.50
1 slice bread: .50
Total: 6.75

Frugality lesson for the day: Dinner may already be lurking in your kitchen. If you don't know what to eat, don't despair. Start opening cupboards and taking things out of the fridge and it will be unable to hide any longer.