This winter we’ve been eating ever so frugally. I’m often proud at the substantial meals for 2 I’m able to produce for well under $1. It’s mostly thanks to these kind of ingredients.  

Apart from the usual carbs like pasta, rice & flour, we always keep a pretty good stock of beans & grains in the pantry. Pinto, navy, kidney, various lentils, split peas…

I’ve expanded my repertoire of bean & lentil stews, chillies, soups, curries & taken a lot of influence from the cuisines I’ve recently learned here in the US, like Mexican & Cajun, plus my old favourites like Indian, Thai, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Himalayan, Tibetan & Indonesian.

With just a limited selection of spices you can pull recipes from all these cuisines to make grains a meal. They often have the shared ingredients of cumin, coriander, garlic, ginger, lime, chili… By tweaking the quantities & shifting the emphasis you can keep a repertoire of dozens of meals while keeping only a handful of ingredients in stock.  …I’m sure my husband must be getting tired of the cumin+coriander combo though. I’ve already destroyed cinnamon for him with the frequency of snickerdoodles, pancakes & other budget munchies..

So, apart from the spices listed above, here are a few of my favourite pantry flavours this season…

Lime! I put lime in everything. We go through them like we go through eggs. From my lime & ginger beer to Thai & Malaysian dishes, instant ramen, & pretty much everything Mexican. Yep, lime goes in everything. It brightens up a dull meal & adds a freshness in these wintery meals for only a few cents.

Ginger. Like I mentioned, my homemade ginger drink is a regular in our fridge. I love the stuff as I don’t drink soda & juices are often too sweet for me. Ginger also goes in a tonne of our Asian meals & a few Mexican. I’ve recently found ginger is a cheap flavour for sweets since we haven’t bought cocoa in a while. Last week I made gingerbread for the first time & I totally dug it. I’ll be doing that one again.

It’s legend that vegetarians eat far more chili than carnivores & there’s a lot of truth to it judging from the veges I know & blogs I follow. We eat a lot of chili, cayenne & black pepper. I love heat in my food. Look at these beautiful chilies, translucent enough to see the ominous seeds inside, just waiting to punch you in the tongue.

..And the staples of course. I can’t think of many meals we eat without onion & garlic. However, in the US I’ve been buying the spanish red onions over the brown & white varieties. The white & brown are not as sweet over here in America, just strong. My eyes just can’t handle the heat & I end up crying a river chopping them.