Well, tonight’s meal was a last-minute substitution, necessitated when the cherry tomatoes I thought I had on hand (for lemon-basil pasta, you see) simply weren’t there. So I turned my attention to this meal, which was also on the menu for the week (courtesy of inspiration from $5 Dinners), and promptly began to frown, for I hadn’t half the ingredients and was feeling a bit dejected at my lack of planning!
(Oh, sure, I started the week with these ingredients. But the eggs went toward Saturday’s brunch, the onion went to a Friday night barbecue … the list goes on an on.)
But never fear! A little substitution never hurt anybody! Or, in this case, an omission or two. Or three. But who’s counting.
I found that mixing two cans of black beans, mashed with a potato masher, with half a cup of bread crumbs, a small bell pepper, and some fresh cilantro, spiced up with some cumin and some salt, hid a multitude of culinary sins. So we didn’t have onion. So we didn’t have your standard egg binder. Who cares? These cakes became, well, cakes very quickly, and within 20 minutes they were ready to roll, served with some fresh corn and green beans from Great Country Farms, our CSA!
I will say that the other lucky part of this meal (the first spot of luck being the fact that everything worked out as it should) was that earlier today, my friend Denise and I spent the afternoon canning salsas – one tomato-based and one peach-based. So tonight with dinner, LeeLee and I gave the peach-mint salsa a try with our black bean cakes, and the combination was so good it looked like I planned it that way! That never hurts.
So, in short, we had a great meal, learned a new recipe, and tasted a new canning creation. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday night!
The stats:
Pepper: FREE from the garden!
Black beans (two cans): $1.98 ($0.99/person)
Bread crumbs: $1.69 ($0.14/person)
Cilantro: $1.67 ($0.09/person)
Corn: Prepaid.
Green beans: Prepaid.
GRAND TOTAL: $5.34 … or $1.22 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe makes enough cakes for two servings of leftovers. So the per-person price goes down even more!
:)