mmm-yoso!!! is a blog about food we (Kirk, ed (from Yuma) and Cathy) eat. We like to talk about it. You apparently like to read about it. Welcome back.
Hi. Cathy here, making a meal for two for less than or equal to $5 out of stuff I found on sale this week.
Casseroles are communal meals- one dish meant to be shared. Cassoulet, a French casserole meal, is based with white beans, meat and herbs. Essentially, it is a peasant dish said to date back to the 14th century siege of Castlenaudary during the Hundred Years' War, fed to the soldiers to keep them strong and send the invaders away. If you win at Trivial pursuit by knowing this little fact, you owe me.
The French can make cassoulet kind of very fancy, using duck confit or smoked duck as a protein, but you can use chicken, or sausage, smoked pork, pork rind, pig knuckles or a combination of meats. White beans are the key ingredient.
It so happened that Vons had the smoked sausage marked down to $1.99 and the one pound of beans was 49 cents at Food 4 Less, so this was going to be an extremely inexpensive couple of meals.
I'll mention some optional add ins as I go along.
Rinse and clean one pound of white beans and put into a pot with 8 Cups of water.
Let boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat, cover and let stand one hour.
Next, put in one whole small onion, one whole carrot and the center of a celery stalk (you know-the feathered part that you usually toss out). I also put in a couple of sprigs of thyme and two bay leaves.
Let simmer until the rest of the water is absorbed and the beans are mostly tender and fully almost cooked, about an hour.
(You want all of these ingredients whole, because you will be removing them).
While the beans are cooking, chop up the onion, carrot and celery and put into a hot pan with olive oil. Let the ingredients sweat on low heat for about 20 minutes. Until the onions are translucent (not burned).
Add the sliced sausage and some Herbes de Provence and saute until warmed through, about 5 minutes. 
Now add some liquid (beef or chicken broth or stock, and-or some red wine, or just water-but add some more seasoning if you only add water) and simmer for another five minutes-to get that flavor infused in the meat and vegetables.
Remove the whole vegetables from the cooked beans, which should have very little (if any)water in it and add the vegetable sausage mix. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes until the liquid is also absorbed into the beans.
You could serve with a salad or piece of crusty bread. The flavors get deeper overnight.
Cathy's Cassoulet
1 lb white beans, 2 small onions, celery and carrots, smoked pork sausage, broth or red wine, Herbes de Provence.
Optional: smoked ham, pork, pork rind, chicken or duck. Brown the chicken or duck if you are using it.
Quick soak the beans. (add 8 C water, boil for 2 minutes, cover, remove from heat and let soak for one hour.
To the beans, add one whole carrot, one whole small onion, a few celery stalks to the water and simmer until the rest of liquid is absorbed, about 50 minutes. (optional: add fresh thyme and 2-3 bay leaves) Remove those whole vegetables (and herbs).
In another pan, with about 2 Tbs olive oil, on low heat, sweat a chopped onion, celery and carrot until the onion is translucent-about 20 minutes. Add the sliced sausage and some Herbes de Provence and stir, heating through the meat (about 5 minutes).
Add liquid (broth and wine or water and some Herbes de Provence) to cover the vegetable/meat mix, bring to a boil then simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the vegetable/meat/liquid mix to the cooked flavored beans. Mix well and return to a low heat, covered, until the liquid is absorbed into the beans (about 15 minutes).