More frugal recipes

Last night I was trying to figure out a dinner I could make without going to the store. We budget $125 per week for groceries (for our family of 5) and I really want to save $25 of that this week for our trip to the zoo. That way we don't have to use next weeks money to pay for the trip. We have a zoo membership, so we go there a lot. Anyway, I was looking in the cabinets and I found like 5 cans of albacore tuna (whoa...I had forgotten about those!)and some mini penne. In the fridge I had some carrots, some garlic, some ginger and mayonnaise and sour cream. This is what I ended up making for dinner.

Tuna pasta salad
1 box of mini penne or sea shells or any other small, short pasta
1 12oz can of tuna (or 2 6 oz cans) preferably albacore, drained well
3 green onions, sliced
1/2C light mayonnaise
1/2C light sour cream
15 grape tomatoes, halved (optional)
2tsp lemon juice (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta and rinse under cold water for 1 minute. In a large bowl, combine tuna, mayo, sour cream, lemon juice and green onions and mix well. Add pasta and mix well again. Add grape tomatoes (if using) and mix again. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired. This can either be served right away or refrigerated and served chilled. I thought this came out awesome!

Carrot ginger soup
4 large carrots, peeled and diced
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
1C leftover mashed potatoes (optional)
4C vegetable or chicken broth

Heat about 1Tbsp butter or oil in a large pot. Add onion and garlic and saute for a few minutes. Add ginger and carrots and saute until ginger is fragrant. Add broth and leftover potatoes (if using) and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until carrots are tender. transfer soup to a blender (working in batches if necessary) and puree soup until smooth. transfer back to pot and serve. I ate this soup with corn chips and it was really good! You can use less ginger if you don't love it like I do.:P