Cooking From My Stockpile

I know a lot of you probably wonder what I eat.  You will see one Photo Show and Tells where I buy 12 boxes of pasta and Eggo Waffles and then nothing else.  Then you will see another Photo Show and Tell where I buy lots of green beans and zucchinis, buy a ton of chicken broth and then not much else.  Here is the secret to saving money at the grocery store – you have to build up a stockpile.  Stockpiling is basically stocking up on items when they are at rock bottom prices.  This means that when an item can not get any cheaper you should buy as much of it as you will need either before the sales cycle comes around again or before the item’s expiration date.  When you have a stockpile, each week you have the luxury of only buying rock bottom sales price items and necessities like milk and fresh produce. 

Last night I cooked off my stockpile.  I didn’t follow a recipe at all.  I made a “well rounded” meal that consisted of protein, veggies and complex carbs.  And, I have enough of this for us to eat at least two more meals and then maybe even freeze another couple of meals.  I typed up a “rough” ingredient list and recipe of what I made.  I say “rough” because I totally go by taste when I cook and I don’t measure anything – unless I am following a strict recipe.  I am typing this up for you for two reasons 1) so you can get an example of how we eat and 2) so you can see how to throw together a meal using whatever you have on hand.  The main ingredients in this dish is canned beans, pasta sauce, pasta and  fresh veggies.  Who would have though you could use black beans in an Italian dish?  I never would have guessed but it came out amazing.  You can make this too!  Just add your own twists!  Use frozen veggies if you have those on hand, use tortellini or ravioli, throw in cheese, make your stockpile meal the way you would enjoy it! 

**Tip – if you end up trying to follow my recipe – to make a thick pasta fagioli use less water and chicken broth and to make this into more of a minestrone like soup, add more 🙂

Italian Chili or Pasta Fagioli (I haven’t decided what this should be called :))

approx 3T Extra Virgion Olive Oil
1/2 Red Onion
1 Green Pepper
3 Large Zucchini (diced)
5 cloves Garlic
1 cup Red Wine
One Half Used jar of Ragu Pasta Sauce
One Full Jar of Barilla Sauce
1/3 carton College Inn Chicken
1 Can Chickpeas (drained)
1 Can Black Beans (drained)
3/4 Box of Healthy Harvest Pasta
Crushed Red Pepper
Hot Pepper
Black Pepper
Dried Basil

All I did was saute the onion, garlic and green pepper in the olive oil in a large soup pan.  Once everything was cooked through and the onion was translucent, I added red wine to deglaze the pan – you totally don’t have to add the wine but I use wine a lot when I make my own red sauce and enjoy the sweetness it brings.  Then I added the diced zucchini.  To that I added the jar and a half of sauce and seasonings (use more or less of the peppers according to what you like – we like spicy so I added more).  I then added the chickpeas and black beans.  I brought all of this to a boil and then added 3/4 box of pasta.  Once the pasta was cooked, the meal was finished 🙂

Do you have any fun stockpile meals you have concocted?