Just in Time for Lunch: Ginisang Monggo with Dilis

It’s almost lunchtime, you woke-up realizing that you weren’t able to shop for groceries the day before. Eating out is not an option; you know that something needs to be prepared – anything. What will you do?

Improvise. Search for available food items in your pantry or fridge and make something out of them. What if you didn’t find anything? Well, stop reading this and run to the nearest grocery store, unless you plan to skip lunch. But seriously, you should be able to find something edible that’s worth whipping. Once you find something, it is up to your imagination to make lunch happen.

This sounds like a good way to start an article. The truth is: I am simply justifying my laziness. I was not able to shop for food when the silos were depleting. There I was, opening every container – searching for something to cook. I was about to give-up and head to the store when I saw an unopened package of Mung beans. It felt real good as if I made a touchdown to tie the game on the last few seconds. All I needed was a convert to win the game and I knew that I had something to make it happen. I remembered storing the left over Sinangag na Dilis in the refrigerator. I thought that I can make Ginisang Monggo taste better when I paired anchovies with Mung beans – so I did – and it was oh, so great!

I learned a couple of valuable lessons from this experience: Being frugal by saving left over foods is a good thing; always monitor your food supply and replenish it right away when needed.

Have you experience something like this before? How was it like? What did you do about it?