I needed to prepare something I could eat for lunch every day this week without breaking my wallet - which contained $20. Since I spend quite a bit of time clipping recipes out of magazines, I decided to pick one of the recipes and make enough of it for one week's worth of lunches. This cost me about $10 for the ingredients from the grocery store, not including the few I already had.

Green Bean and Pasta Salad
Makes 2 servings.

* 4 ounces penne (1 1/4 cups)
* 4 ounces green beans, halved crosswise (about 1 cup)
* 1 cup canned red or kidney beans, rinsed
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan (2 ounces)
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* kosher salt and black pepper

Cook the pasta according to the package directions, adding the green beans during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain and run under cold water to cool. Toss the cooled pasta and green beans with the red beans, parsley, Parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Refrigerate for a couple days.

I'd like to note that I cooked the green & red beans separately, cooled them, and then tossed them into the pasta mixture with the other ingredients. You can also, of course, modify the recipe to your own taste. I doubled the recipe for myself. I found this to be really easy to make and very delicious!!! I wish I could eat it now instead of waiting for my lunches this week.

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a year ago: store.