I have been doing beans from scratch as well, I don’t know why I never did before, canned is ok but when you eat a lot it’s way more expensive than it has to be. They take forever to cook but I just put a pot on my woodstove and 12 hours later they are done.
Beans are great with like canned tomatoes, even tofu, and other veggies.
I need other better meat substitutes, tofu is so so, not all that cheap though, it’s like 1.50 a pound even at aldi, and it doesn’t go that far.
Other that that in the city there’s a place that often but not always has young turkeys on sale for .50 a pound, I stocked up but am running low, except I have a lot of turkey stock I need to use, freezer is full of remnants of carcasses and bit pots of some, heating some right now, maybe to throw carrots and celery in there for soup which is good but gets old quick eating it back to back for a week.
Other than that I’ve lots of vinegar from alcohol brews that got infected, so I buy vegetables and wash and cut and throw in the buckets of vinegar, which is great, and keeps the veggies forever. Cabbage, zuchini, cucumber, jalapeno, garlic, onion, even radishes, and the like.
I’ve been saving money, haven’t been to the grocery store, or to town, since the holidays, have to run soon before maple syrup season starts in earnest around march 1st. Unfortunately turkey place is not near though, lots of beans this time around and idk what else, I guess tofu if not meat on sale which is unlikely. Chicken maybe. Hopefully I can find a fresh deer on the side of the road instead.