I've been working 60 hours a week for three weeks in a row now. Uhg. About 3.5 weeks ago now, I pledged to myself that I was cleaning up my eating habits, aiming for as little processed food and added sugars as possible. Other than two meals served in whole wheat wraps during that period, I've stuck to it. Oh, and that one hard cider after that impossible day, but come on, give a girl a break.

Thing is, working as much as I have been, my meals have mostly consisted of salads, cups of pre-made soup, and cottage cheese topped with veggies or fruit. I like salads, soups, and cottage cheese quite a bit, but still, I was really wanting a fuller meal tonight and got off work at 5pm, hurrah! In honor of this event, I created a new cheap, healthy, easy meal that I think is about to become a staple in our house. The meal has a bit of sugar in it and the processed sausage, but its affordable and full of fiber and greens, so again, I'm cutting myself some slack.

This is a what I call a "shorty" - a recipe made with many pre-concocted ingredients so its almost more heating things than cooking, but the result is still a satisfying home-cooked-feeling meal. Don't get me wrong, I try to avoid "cooking from cans" when I can, but this meal, can-ful as it is, is still a far healthier and cheaper option than going out to eat. The cost comes out, if done with vegan sausage, $3.29 a serving if made with ingredients from the co-op (I worked it out and if you replaced the vegan sausage with some local farm Triple S sausage its $3.40 a serving). Its not cheap enough to qualify for our Food For All program recipes which can all be made for $2 or less a serving from all CGFC ingredients, but still, $3.29 for a big satisfying bowl of delicious home-cooked goodness that is done in 15 minutes total? Sign me up.

Greens and Beans
4 Servings
1 T olive oil ($0.20-ish)
1 organic yellow onion, chopped ($1.50)
1 bunch local collard greens, remove tough stems, chop ($3.49, Prairerth Farm)
8oz Tofurky beer brats, sliced ($3.14)
2 - 15oz cans of Field Day organic maple & onion baked beans ($4.78)
1 tsp chipotle powder ($0.05-ish)

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, once hot add the chopped onion. Cook over medium-high heat for a few minutes, then toss in the collards. Sprinkle on some salt and cook until the greens get bright and soften a bit, about 3 minutes. Push the greens to one side of the pan, then add the sausage. Cook until brown a bit on the edges touching the pan and hot, about 3 minutes (if it is animal sausage cook a few minutes longer and make sure it is cooked through, no pink in the middle, before proceeding to the next step). Add both cans of beans and the chipotle powder. Stir in well and continue to heat until a hot.

This makes generous, filling servings. I took a picture to show you the finished product . . . but it seems to have disappeared from my camera's memory, boo. Trust me, it looks like a delicious stew you can't wait to dive into. This recipe will leave you with 1 and a half  Tofurky sausages left over to flavor another meal later in the week, bonus! I think this also could be very good with a bit of Worcestershire sauce added as well, but it was mighty fine as in, and as I said, done in 15 minutes! I'm definitely making this one again after a long day at the office. So nice to know you can make something so quick and healthful after a long day at work that costs about half what a fast food "value meal" would cost that tastes soooo much better. And, for those interested, I threw the recipe into a calorie calculator and came up with 429 calories per serving. Very reasonable, no?

Do you have a go to very fast, very affordable, yet healthy dinner recipe for busy nights?