sesame seeds

supposedly its less expensive for you to cook for yourself then it is to eat out every night. but, unless your kitchen's stocked up and ready to go, you'll find yourself buying a $4 jar of sesame seeds or something like that, not realizing you spent $4 on them the last time you made this dish, and you'll be so bitter about the fact that you were trying to save money and now you've spent $8 on sesame seeds that you'll never want to make another thing with sesame seeds in it ever again!

here's a good lesson I learned early on: keep your kitchen stocked. even if you don't cook all the time. get any cookbook, turn to the section that talks about stocking your kitchen and buy everything that they put on the list. you might break the bank the first time you go but at least you'll be prepared and you'll know what you've got to work with. i've blown so much time and money driving back and forth getting stuff that i didn't have or thought that I didn't have.

its a pretty good feeling when its the middle of the week, your just not interested in spending the rest of your non-working day cooking, and you can throw something quick and easy together like this mediterranean salad with artichokes, penne, and sun-dried tomatoes. since i was stocked, all i had to get was the lettuce, feta, and some bread (like $6) and we were good to go. very satisfying; lots of good flavors; we had it for lunch the next day too. Sierra was a fan.