For the past week I’ve been making my own meals from scratch, exclusively.  My budget got screwy in July, and I’m determined to recoop as much as I can back into my Savings this month.  This meal was by far the cheapest, and perhaps the tastiest.  Cajun by nature is a mixed bag.  For me the signatures tend to be green pepper, yellow onion and diced tomato for fresh ingredients.  With lots of random spicy goodness, and oddities thrown in.  For vegan (of course!) I use a lot of interesting beans.  Which is fun to work with.  I like cajun because it involves a lot of bravery. The core ingredients:

• 4-5 cloves fresh garlic
• green pepper
• medium yellow onion
• can dark kidney beans
• can diced tomatoes
• black eyed peas (made from dry)
• half some large green hot pepper (I pick what looks tasty)

Probably here in Baltimore that equals about $5 in ingredients and it made a TON of food.   I use a laundry list of basic spices in everything.  The base for this was chilli powder, supplemented with dry basil, cilantro, oregano, cayenne, crushed red pepper.  Also for savory added a pinch of cinnamon and all spice.  Always I make sure to balance the sugars, salts and acids.  Used raw sugar, table salt, a dab of balsamic vinegar, and squeezed in half an orange I had lying around.   I had made a large batch of brown rice on Sunday night, so that was already done. These days when I cook I don’t measure and don’t use recipes.  The whole process is very voodoo and I hope to someday be able to articulate how I go about making food.  I had not made cajun for awhile so this was a nice change of pace.  First I cut up the yellow onion, then peeled the garlic cloves, and slice off a hunk of hot pepper and threw it in the little hand held chopper.  Threw all that in the pan, and started cutting green pepper.  At which point I realized it might be wise to put in black eyed peas.  I threw them in a pot with some water, finished the pepper, and let the beans simmer for a half hour.  At this point I took a small bowl and started mixing the dry ingredients. I opened and rinsed the kidney beans, and drained the tomatoes, started the pan with veggies after adding some olive as the peas finished.   Let the onions and peppers soften and squeezed in some of the orange, and then threw in the kidney beans, and tomatoes, added the dry spices.  Then I drained the black eyed peas, and tossed them in.  I let it all simmer for a minute, then did a taste test.  At this point I added more orange, chilli powder, and the cinnamon and all spice.  Probably a few other things as well. Grabbed a literal handful of rice, scooped on some of the tasty cajun mix, and enjoyed.  As I have been walking a lot, I’ve been eating a lot.  Three small bowls tonight, and this will get me through a few lunches as well.  For $5-7 total, no joke.