My neighbor's $3 meal trick still haunts me

Last year my neighbor Carlos saw me tossing out some wilted spinach and basically stopped me in the driveway. He said I was throwing away cash and walked me over to his place to show me what he does. He just sauteed that sad spinach with a can of beans and some garlic powder, served it over rice, and it was honestly one of the best cheap meals I ever had. Cost him maybe $3 total for the whole thing and he ate off it for two days. He told me his abuela taught him that you never waste greens, just cook them down with anything you got. Now I keep a bag of rice and canned beans on hand at all times and I actually look forward to my sad leftover veggies. Anyone else got a cheap trick from a neighbor that totally changed how you cook?

1 comments

1 Comment

logan_thomas879d ago

That's the thing about older generations, they just knew how to stretch everything. My grandma never threw out a single vegetable stem or onion skin, she'd boil them all for stock. We've gotten so used to perfect grocery store produce that we forget wilted spinach is basically pre cooked spinach. It's just water loss, not spoilage.