Mahogany chicken with chipotle-lime sweet potatoes & cilantro chimichurri: $2.16/serving

If you’re thinking this looks awfully fancy and composed for something I’d come up with on my own, your suspicions would be founded. It’s an oldie but goodie from the Food Network—a recipe I’ve had in the rotation for quite a few years now when I happen to have some chicken thighs to spare (in this case, Costco: $1.69/lb.) and the weather calls for sweet potatoes. Not only are the colors fantastic, but it’s relatively quick to make and is an excellent vehicle for an ending-its-lifespan bunch of cilantro. (If you haven’t yet been enlightened with my tip for making bunches of herbs last for weeks past when they’d normally die a sad, slimy death in the crisper, check it out.)

How to make soup out of (just about) anything

Yes—it’s true! It probably took me a good six months into the $35 a Week project to realize this, but most soups don’t require a recipe. In fact, there exists an extremely simple formula that allows for a fabulous soup out of just about anything you’ve got left over in your crisper or pantry. Yes, I made the formula up, but I’ve probably tested it close to 50 times by now, and I can assure you it works. Consider it your ace in the hole for fall, on days where you think there’s nothing in the house to eat when there is, in all likelihood, an entire meal—with leftovers—just waiting to be called into action. All you need is an onion, a few cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of cooking oil, salt, and some broth. See below for the formula and some easy-to-make examples.

Panzanella: 18 cents/serving

With compliments to the Italians, panzanella is the original budget meal. The O.G. Sui generis. Some stale bread, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and tomatoes and basil from the garden, and you’ve got yourself dinner. Provided you made your own bread or are using a loaf that otherwise would’ve been thrown out (and have tomatoes and basil in your garden), it shouldn’t cost more than 25 cents or so a serving. And it’s still tasty even after it’s sat for a while, making it an excellent side or potluck dish.

Mizuna pesto: $2.17/cup

Last week, we were gifted with a CSA (community-supported agriculture) box. One of B’s work colleagues runs the drop-off spot for this particular farm, and an unclaimed share was generously passed on to us under the (exceedingly correct) assumption it would be used and appreciated. As I’m sure comes as no surprise, I’ve never been part of a CSA before, but I can definitely see the appeal. The only downside with this box was that it was one of the “family” shares—intended for households with more than 2 people. Which meant we suddenly had a house full of summer squash, peaches, potatoes (on top of the ones we already have from our garden), dill, mizuna, green beans, wax beans (again, on top of the ones we’re already harvesting), carrots (again, more), and French crisp lettuce. The squash were no problem—immediately grated and frozen in bags for bread and muffins. A little bit of the mizuna went into BMTs—bacon-mizuna-tomato sandwiches, using heirloom tomatoes from our garden—but what do with the rest, other than insert it unceremoniously in a series of salads? Pesto, of course!

Sweet potato, apple & spinach salad: $1.47/serving

I make a lot of salads. Most of them I don’t bother posting here, as they’re usually just a mishmash of ingredients I happened to have lying around, paired with produce from the garden and tossed with some vinegar and olive oil. Simple, often boring (by food-blog standards, anyway), and not always good enough to bother re-creating. This salad, however, was an exception. It was originally supposed to be black beans and rice with roasted sweet potato and lime, but, as I came to discover at the last minute, I was out of black beans. Time for Plan B. Thanks to some apples from our neighbor’s tree and some spinach in the crisper, I was able to transmute most of the original ingredients into a salad that’s actually worth revisiting.

Creamy lemon pasta with olives & basil: $1.01/serving

Because basil is finicky to grow from seed outdoors—and doesn’t last as long once it gets going—we’re currently on our second planting of basil in the indoor Aerogarden, timed (hopefully) to coincide with the ripening of our larger heirloom tomatoes. Unfortunately, this means we’re currently having to buy basil, as I did for a lemon-basil cake I made for a party this past weekend. Do you have any idea how much basil costs in the store? Either $1.99 for a few limp sprigs packed into a plastic clamshell case, or upward of $3.50 for a “hydroponically grown” (with, incomprehensibly, dirt clods attached to the roots) or living bunch. You’d better believe I’m using every last minuscule leaf of that stuff. All I had left was enough for a sprinkling over this vaguely Greek-inspired pasta, which is good hot but even better cold as a salad. I must say, though, the basil completely made the dish, and may have earned it a spot in our regular rotation once the home-grown basil gets going.

Sweet corn risotto: $1.36/serving

Is anyone else having as much trouble as I am procuring decent corn this summer? It happened (albeit slightly early) with the corn & prosciutto crisp last month, and it happened again this week: I go to the store expecting bins overflowing with cheap, fresh, delicious corn and find a sad little pile of overpriced, desiccated cobs that look destined for someone’s bird feeder. I specifically don’t grow corn in the yard because it’s always so cheap, abundant and delicious elsewhere, and this is the first year it looks like that decision is going to come back and bite me in the butt. I might have to do without, or at least play pretend with a few bags of frozen corn. So, dear readers, if you have access to plump, fresh, juicy ears of corn, this recipe is for you. It’s intentionally simple to bring out the sweetness of the corn against the savoriness of the Parmesan.

Fresh oregano pesto: $1.15/serving

If I could go back three years and undo one of my many newbie gardening mistakes, it would undoubtedly be planting herbs in our raised beds. Specifically, rosemary, sage, thyme, mint and oregano. I’m not exactly sure what I was thinking, but as anyone with half a brain cell could have predicted, they’ve all become mutant bushes of death that have taken over and choked out anything within a 5-foot radius. Thankfully, most the herbs are (almost) making up for the inconvenience with their usefulness. Not so much the oregano, however. Sure, I use it here and there, but it’s not sturdy like rosemary, sage and thyme, or supremely versatile like mint. I don’t know why it took me so long to try it in a pesto, but I think it may have found its new calling. Not only does it use up a lot of the leaves, but this pesto tastes incredible; full of fresh-oregano flavor without being overpowering. Try it on pasta.

Garlic scallion noodles: 48 cents/serving

This is a terrific, flavor-packed weeknight meal that can be whipped up in minutes using pantry staples, some green onions, oyster sauce, and Vietnamese fish sauce. I made it specifically to use up some Chinese egg noodles I had wearing out their welcome in the fridge, but you can also use just plain ol’ spaghetti and I promise it’ll be just as good. You could also add meat or fried tofu for protein, if you’re so inclined, although it most certainly doesn’t cry out for any additions, especially given the amounts of butter and sugar in play here. (Trust me—you won’t be sorry.)

Parsley-walnut pesto: $1.12/serving

Apologies for the dearth of posts the past few days; we had company over the weekend, and while I did try and cook at least some of the time, I wasn’t keen on interrupting the day’s activities to sit down and write about it. But I’m back now, and with a surplus of parsley growing wild and neglected in the Aerogarden. I’ve had reasonable success growing parsley outdoors, but WOW this stuff loves growing hydroponically. I can hardly keep up, which is exactly why this pesto might soon be in the regular rotation. Even if you don’t grow your own parsley, a bunch is usually less than 50 cents at the grocery store as opposed to $1.99 or more for half that amount of basil, and it works wonderfully with inexpensive walnuts instead of $26.99-a-pound (yes, that’s what they cost at my grocery store…IN BULK!) pine nuts. B. and I both think it tastes just as great as “regular” pesto, plus it gets dinner on the table in less than 2o minutes and makes excellent lunch leftovers.