Two feasts for $5.58

Are you a grad student working an unpaid summer internship? Determined to eat like a queen on a shoestring budget? Here's what you do: visit your nearest Hispanic market or bodega. Pick up an onion, green bell pepper, avocado, can of Goya black beans, and homemade corn tortillas. Contain your surprise when these ingredients (plus a few breakfast bananas) total $5.58 at the check out. Fortunately, you already have some crumbly cheese (feta works), garlic, and cilantro at home or you would've forked over at least $7 or $8.

Dice your onion and pepper, mince your garlic. Saute them all in olive oil. Meanwhile, drain and rinse your beans. When the onion/pepper mix is done--browned slightly, onions translucent--add the beans, salt, and pepper. Stir well. As the beans warm up, chop your avocado, your cilantro, and crumble some cheese. Turn the beans to low or off. Heat a smidge of olive oil in another pan until warm, then toss in a tortilla. Heat on one side until it puffs up and the bottom gets crispy. Flip. Repeat with a second tortilla. Put tortillas on plate, pile with 1/3-1/2 of the beans, top with avocado, cilantro and cheese. Save the leftovers for tomorrow's dinner, and toast your thrifty-ness with a glass of an $8-a-bottle pinot grigio.