Dinner on the cheap

I am all about feeding the family healthy food on the cheap. Last nights dinner is by far my cheapest one, especially since the main ingredient is a leftover. I always love this dinner, and so does the family, and it is super healthy to boot! We take a leftover ham bone, usually this is from a honey ham and I often freeze the bones with some extra meat. You take a cup of dry navy beans and cover it with water, bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat and let sit for an hour. After the hour is up, drain and rinse the beans, put them back in the pot with the ham bone, two stalks of celery chopped, half and onion chopped, a bay leaf and some sage. Cover the whole thing with 4-6 cups of water, depending on how much ham you have. Let it cook away for an hour or so until the beans are soft. Remove the ham bone, take the meat off and chop and add back into the pot. Puree everything together, leaving some chunks of meat and beans (I use an emulsion blender) You can season as you see fit, I often use some clove and nutmeg to compliment the flavor of the honey ham. This whole meal (minus the leftover bone) costs about $1.50 to make, and is full of things for growing bodies.

On the menu tonight, mini BBQ meatloafs with maple sweet potatoes and green beans. The kids love the mini meatloafs, especially since they are individual and topped with tangy BBQ sauce. The sweet potatoes are roasted with a drizzle of real maple syrup, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, green beans are steamed. Healthy food from scratch, who said that had to be hard?