Curried Vegetables with whole wheat pasta

I lost two days?!?!? How did I lose two days?
Okay, let's not talk about that. But I will admit that I was chagrined to note that I spent $200 on dining out in the month of April. Not good. My grocery budget was $220, which normally would be good had I not splurged so much with the take-out/dining. My job is seasonal and I don't work in June and July. Basically, I could have saved that money and used it to buy groceries in June. I'm mad at myself.
Anyway...

We all came home starving today and my in-laws had served my daughter crappy grocery-store bakery-made pizza for lunch for the second time this week. She had an apple for breakfast, some grapes mid-morning and no other real food that I know of so I needed something fast and full of vegetables.
Curry popped into mind.
I've never made curry.
But that's never stopped me before.
I whip out my vegetarian cookbooks, but quickly feel like I'm looking for a proverbial needle in a haystack. With a hungry family, that's not a good feeling. I grab the laptop and google "curry pasta sauce." Get several hits. Like this one:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/pasta-with-low-fat-curry-sauce.html#

INGREDIENTS

(as originally listed)

8 ounces dry pasta
3 tablespoons slivered almonds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 cup diced tomato
1 1/2 teaspoons mild curry powder
Pinch cayenne, or to taste
1 cup frozen peas, rinsed briefly in hot water to thaw
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Okay, I look around my kitchen. I have:
13.25 ounces of whole wheat penne pasta
1/4 cup slivered almonds
olive oil
cumin powder
one can diced tomato with garlic
curry powder
[I forgot to look for cayenne]
frozen peas
frozen cauliflower, carrots and broccoli
1 cup soy milk and 1 cup dehydrated milk which I add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to so it "cooks" more like buttermilk.

1. Prepare pasta.
2. While pasta cooks, toast almonds in skillet and set aside.
3. Thaw vegetables.
4. Put spices and tomatoes into skillet. Add a drizzle of olive oil as needed to keep from burning.
5. Add vegetables. Drizzle with olive oil and heat until hot.
6. Reduce heat and stir in milk, simmer until a consistent temperature.
7. Drain pasta. Combine pasta and sauce.
8. Sprinkle almonds on top.

Cream of Wheat Morning

We're supposed to get a winter storm today. My office has already called a snow day, their cautiousness is in part due to the fact that we have an adult day care center. It's nice for me, because I don't get paid holidays, but I do get snow days. Anyway. You know those people who go to the store and buy bread, milk and eggs on threat of snow? I'm not one of them. Bread, milk and eggs are far from my list of necessities. I'd be more likely to head to the liquor store for wine, Wegmans (or Antoinette Chocolatier) for some quality chocolate, and some fruit. Yep, then I'm ready to weather a storm.

We are once again running out of food. This month's grocery tab is around $125 so it's no surprise that the pantry is near-bare. But it is the 19th! So that's $6.58 a day. For a hearty winter breakfast, we opted for Cream of Wheat today. The cream of wheat dilemma always floors us. How much to make? We end up making "about" four servings according to the directions and end up with enough for an army.

This box of Cream of Wheat came from Aldi. Per one cup of prepared cereal, there's 20% RDA of calcium plus 50% iron. I up the nutritional content by using powdered milk instead of water to make it. Then for flavor, I stir in a teaspoon of jelly. In this case, blueberry Trappist jelly.

Unplanned snack time

 Lunch was a success (on the Superman plate). We each ate the equivalent of one carrot and about twice what is on the plate in muffin. But we were trying to use them up. I almost served cheese cubes with this, and I probably should have. By three p.m. I was starving. So, the family and I decided on snack (striped plate). Daddy made cocoa (Swiss Miss, some bittersweet shavings, a hearty dose of powdered milk someone gave me). To up the protein count in the snack (preschooler requested granola), I added a slice of homemade bread with peanut butter and nutella.