Orzo with Cannellini and Spinach

I've been trying out different kinds of beans to see which we like, so yesterday I made pasta with cannellini, or white kidney beans. For the pasta I used an orzo I'd purchased at a specialty pasta place in Pike's Market in Seattle months ago. At $10 a pound, that pretty much blew the budget. It also didn't add much--it would have worked better with the butternut squash I bought this week. There were some pumpkin and cinnamon notes that didn't really work with the garlic and tomatoes. Adding a couple prepared sausages also blew the budget, and was not strictly necessary, but I was afraid Nugget would not eat the beans. As it turned out, he wouldn't eat anything. All in all, I'd call this dish a failure. Trent said he liked it, but he always says that. The nutrition was really good, but it's hard to go wrong with spinach and beans.

Menu/Ingredient	Nutrition	Cost
Pappardelle’s Autumn Orzo	Fiber (2 g/8%), Protein (7g), Vitamin A (15%), Calcium (2%), Iron (10%)	$5
White onion	Vitamin C (1%)	$0.42
Frozen spinach	Fiber (5 g/18%), Protein (6 g), Vitamin A (366%), Vitamin C (14%), Calcium (20%), Iron (16%). Very good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper, Manganese and Selenium.	$1
Canned cannellini	Fiber (6 g/24%), Protein (7 g), Calcium (6%), Iron (10%)	$1.39
Organic canned diced tomatoes	Fiber (1 g/4%), Vitamin A (10%), Vitamin C (20%), Calcium (2%), Iron (2%), Selenium (50%), Folate (5%).	$0.96
Casual Gourmet chicken sausage w/red pepper, spinach	Protein (15 g), Vitamin A (20%), Vitamin C (4%), Iron (6%), Fiber (1 g/4%)	$2
Fresh Plums	Fiber (1 g/4%), Vitamin A (5%), Vitamin C (10%), Iron (1%).	$1.02
Total	35 g Protein, 62% Fiber, 49% Iron, 416% Vitamin A, 49% Vitamin C, 30% Calcium.	$11.79

Cost per person: $3.37
Nutritional Goals: Excellent Vitamin A and Fiber, Good Vitamin C and Iron, Fair Calcium. No whole grains.  


Recipes: Loosely based on this and this.