Meatless Monday

     Apparently it's not Monday anymore, because it's late, but I always say "It's not tomorrow till I go to sleep and wake up!" I'm actually going to start this cleverly titled article with a dinner I made Saturday night, not Monday. :P I've been wanting to try some new recipes, and have been scouring the internet for healthy and inexpensive meal ideas. It shouldn't come as a surprise that about half of the meals I found to make did not call for any meat. Meat can be expensive, and when used for dinner every night, that can end up costing quite a bit more than you and your wallet might like.

Minestrone

"a rich thick vegetable soup usually with dried beans and pasta (as macaroni or vermicelli)" -- Merriam Webster Dictionary

The recipe I followed for this was found from the well-loved Better Homes & Garden's website, http://www.bhg.com/recipe/minestrone/.

Ingredients

• 1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
• 2 cups water
• 1 (14-15 oz) can cangarbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained [the cheapest can I found was actually 19 oz. yea!]
• 1 cup vegetable or chicken broth [I chose chicken]
• 1 medium sweet yellow pepper, chopped
• 2 tsp. Italian seasoning, OR each of dried basil and garlic powder [I chose option two]
• 1 cup dry rigatoni or penne pasta
• 2-3 cups baby spinach
• Shaved Parmesan and/or fresh basil, for topping (optional) [I used an Italian cheese blend that had parmesan, mozzarella, asiago, and romano in it, since I had it on hand already.]

Directions

• In a dutch oven combine the tomatoes, water, beans, broth, yellow pepper, seasoning, and pasta. Bring to boiling over high heat then reduce heat to medium. Cook covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, just until pasta is barely tender.
• Stir in spinach. Ladle into soup bowls. Top with Parmesan cheese and/or fresh basil.

It really wasn't complicated to make at all, and was quite delicious! One thing I might change when I make it in the future is to have people stir the spinach into their individual servings, because with the way it wilts into the soup, it really is best eaten right away, which can pose a slight problem if you have leftovers. I've mentioned the economic value of going meatless at least one or two nights a week, well, I decided to add up the amounts of ingredients used and divide it by the servings. The recipe says it makes 4 servings, but really, I had a couple bowls the night I made it, and then Nate and I each had a couple bowls for lunch after church, and I also had a bowl of it for lunch today. . . . 7 servings?! 

• 8 oz. broth - .66
• 3/4 of a yellow pepper - $1.75
• 28 oz. can of tomatoes - $1.88
• Penne Pasta - .75
• Chickpeas - 1.06
• Baby Spinach - 1.69

divided by 4 servings was $1.90, but since it was more like 7 servings for us, it was a lot closer to a $1 a bowl! Try cooking at home with some vitamin-rich, veggie-filled recipes and see how good you feel and how happy you make your wallet. I'd love to hear about it!