[Fizgig]

My absolute favorite cheap meals start with ham on sale. When it's on sale for $0.50/lb, I'll buy a few 10 pound bone in hams. ($5 each. Way cheap) One goes in the freezer, and I roast the other one. There's one dinner and a few lunches during the week. I freeze the rest in 2lb packages, and freeze the bone with a fair amount of meat left on it.

Now you have fodder for lots of soups, ham and beans, etc.

Here's my favorite recipe for ham and beans:

~6 cups*dried*pinto beans(2 1/2 pounds)
1 ham bone
olive oil
~2 onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
~2 large jalepeño peppers, chopped
~1 large serano pepper, chopped
~6 cloves*garlic, minced
~1 cup*light-brown sugar
salt (~1 small handful or ~1 1/2 tablespoons)
freshly ground black pepper (Several turns of the peppermill)

First wash & sort all dried bean. Discard any beans that float or seem swollen or rotten. Those that don't sink to the bottom are questionable. Wash beans by the cupful in a bowl of water and pick through by the palmful to find any that look bad.

Put all the good beans in a stockpot or Dutch oven, cover beans with cold water by about 4 inches. Soak 8 hours or overnight. If you don't have time to soak the beans overnight, place them in a large pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and turn off heat. Let stand 1 hour. A combination of boiling, standing and then overnight soak with the pot of beans in the refrigerator also works nicely.

Next drain all the old water off the beans and cover with freshwater by 2inches. If cooking with ham bone, put the ham bone in the pot as well. Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer over low heat for about 2-3 hours. Stir occasionally.

After a few hours of cooking the beans, heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet. Sauté the diced onion, the chopped jalepeño & serano peppers and the minced garlic until the onions are soft.

Add the onion mixture, the brown sugar, salt and pepper to the pot of beans, stirring in. (Note if using a honey-baked ham bone - may want to decrease the amount of sugar slightly.) Continue to simmer the beans over low heat in a covered pot for another 3 hours. Stir occasionally and make sure the water doesn't boil completely away. Serve warm.