Bargain Basement Black Bean Soup

So, I was walking into the grocery store last night after work, and stopped at the bunch of "clearance carts" they always have set up near the doors. These carts are where they'll put huge overstocks of mini plasticene photo albums or off-brand Valentine's candy, or random selections of flashlights, whatever. But they'll also occasionally put food items here. Not perishable stuff, but stuff that's had its packaging damaged in some form or another, and isn't pretty enough to stock on the shelves.

Last night, they had a cart with some canned goods in it, so, since I'm still recovering from the financial brouhaha that was "The Holidays," I started picking through them. They were mangled, to be sure -- big dents in the cans, crushed and ripped labels, not very pretty. But no leaks. No signs that the interior foodstuffs were in any way compromised. I found two cans of Progresso soup for $.75 each, three cans of black beans (two with cumin and chili spices) for $.30 each, and two cans of two-color corn for $.30 and $.35 each. Jackpot!

I'd been thinking about what to cook this weekend -- trying to stave off the below-zero temps -- and as I put these sorry-looking cans in my cart, it came to me: Bargain Basement Black Bean Soup. An onion, two jalapenos and small package of hot pork sausage later, I had everything I needed to purchase to make this soup (having the remaining ingredients already at home). So, I think I spent a total of about $4 on ingredients for soup that will probably last me about four days. Not too shabby!