Trader Joe's: Saviour of Men

So anyone who's ever eaten food on the fast and cheap before knows that Trader Joe's is totally ingenious. Their food is of a remarkably high quality, and they do a good job of keeping it interesting. They lack a lot of the staples of my office cuisine, particularly canned vegetables, but I don't mind hitting a few grocery stores at a time, so it's all good.

Tonight's dinner employed one of my favored TJ's discoveries - the Marinated Bean Salad. It's just a bunch of beans soaking in what amounts to a light salad dressing, but in one can you get 630 calories - not bad for $1.50 or however much it actually costs. I cleverly discarded the price prior to dinner today. Whoops!

Anyway, beans go remarkably well with couscous, which, as we know, cooks like a dream in the microwave. 3 minutes, a can of corn and beans later, and you've got a tasty, incredibly filling, and relatively high-protein meal.

There are variations on this which are super delicious at the ever-wonderful RecipeZaar. The problem is that unless you fancy chopping green peppers or you've got cumin next to your microwave, you've really got to keep it simple. Fortunately, the bare minimum is plenty for a balanced and delicious meal. Let's round it up!

Beans: $1.50?
Corn: $0.30
Couscous: $0.15

Total: $1.95

Ah, the taste of scrumptious poverty.

If you want a more professional take on this college eating thing, definitely hit up RecipeZaar's Guide, which looks fun and useful. I'll even look at it myself!

Cow Peas?

Tonight's fabulous dinner is focused on curried cow peas, called lobia. Cow peas are, as far as I can tell, a lot like other peas-that-are-more-like-beans, like black-eyed peas, but mine are a little smaller. Of course, it doesn't help that they come from the ghettoest can of food I've ever purchased, some company called Sohna, which I've never heard of and seems to have no information online. Regardless, it's good protein for a single can (52.5g) and is quite well spiced. It's not gourmet (it came from a freakin' can) but it gets the job done.

How come more things don't come curried in cans? It's not much more expensive, and it's super-duper delicious. A can of lentils, whatever, but a can of curried lentils, now we've got something we can work with.

Anyway, I made this with couscous, another life-saver in the office eating department. It cooks in like 2-3 minutes in the microwave, and for once you get the benefit of using the same stuff in your kitchen as in your office. In other words, you don't have to pay quadruple for a single serving that takes a third of the time to cook.

The unfortunate thing about couscous is that it's basically just bread. It's not rice, it's more like pasta, which is a bummer when you want rice. Apparently my logic is, I want rice, couscous is not rice, therefore couscous is not good enough. Still good, though. I really have to figure out how to make rice in my microwave, though, this is an important step in my development as a graduate student.

Anyway, for this dinner I threw in the rest of that veg-all can, which, with its little chunks of potatoes really compliment the rest of the meal nicely. I'd be a little sad if I got this at a restaurant, but it's pretty decent for an office dinner.

Can of Lobia: $1.50
Veg-all remainder: $0.67
Whole wheat couscous: $0.15

Total: $2.32

I think I may soak some chickpeas tonight for use tomorrow. Excitement grips me!