One of my favorite food staples are (is?) beans. I buy really inexpensive bags of dried beans at the supermarket (usually under one dollar per bag), soak 'em overnight, and have delicious protein (and fiber) for a week.
The other day, I went through my cupboard and found three partial bags of beans -- red kidney, navy, and mystery (the label was in Spanish, don't know quite what they were). I soaked them overnight, then boiled them up, put them in the fridge, and after they cooled mixed them up with some garlic and celery (okay, it was fridge clean out day), oregano, rice vinegar and olive oil and had a lovely three bean salad. It was a really nice summer treat -- and I'll have about eight meals out of it.
One of my resolutions is not to throw any food away that I buy. Sometimes I find intriguing things at the market, buy them, but then don't know what to do with them, so they go bad. I hate myself when I throw food away, so i'm trying to be really good about not tossing food and about not shoppping for more than I need. My fridge is usually pretty bare, but I always have enough to eat. I'm glad I got to use the celery, because that tends to be something that I buy more of than I need, then it has the tendency to go to waste. But it was great in this chewy fiberific bean salad!
