Frugal Friday - what's hiding in the fridge?

It's still nutritious, and the family confirmed it tasted delicious, so we win with 'making do with what we have' again, and I'm adding this to the Life as Mom's Frugal Friday meme as my first contribution.

When I ask "what's hiding in the fridge", I do mean EDIBLE food, not anything hinting as suspicious. The goal: to use up what you have before you buy more. So, when I write up on my menu "Pasta with vegie sauce", that could be made with anything that night.

Hubby was actually laughing at me photographing this last night. I know, it's just a plate of pasta with sauce and cheese, but I had to put a picture, lol!

So, what's in the sauce?
- one brown onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 a green capsicum, which was roasted, skinned then diced
- 2 sticks of celery
- one carrot, diced
- stalks from 2 broccoli, diced
- a stalk from the cauliflower, plus a handful of remaining florets, all diced
- 4 anchovies (no, you don't really 'taste' it, but it adds some bodied saltiness)
- 1 small jar of bottled tomatoes (or a 840g tin would do)
- 1 cup of kidney beans, soaked overnight and slowly boiled in preparation (OR use a 420g tin already prepared, or baked beans)
- sprinking of oregano

I saute'd the onion, garlic, capsicum, celery, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower pieces all in olive oil until soft, added the anchovies for flavour, tipped in the jar of tomatoes and the beans. Let it all simmer away for about 20mins until the beans were well done. Add the oregano, then put into the food processer and pulse to chop finely (but still with some texture).

It works well on any type of pasta and didn't cost me an extra trip to the shops. Thankfully we still had a sprinkling of parmessan each, otherwise I would have been tempted to make it as a baked pasta dish, with a cheese sauce layer made with tasty.

This served 2 adults and 2 children, with leftovers for hubby to take to work the next day.

You can check out more frugal ideas on Frugal Friday, or contribute your own ideas!