Our random Recipe Roulette meal this week was Chicken Biryani from Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything.” Amy liked it, but I have a confession to make: I didn’t make it. And I most likely won’t, because it has saffron in it. Do you know how much the only bottle of saffron I could find cost? Twenty-five dollars. To which I said, “Oh please.” And also, “No thank you.” But only after I passed out in the spice aisle. Random recipe picker? I blame you for my failure.

Happily, I get to pick next week’s recipe. Rest assured it will not contain saffron.

Maybe it was a reactionary thing, but I seem to have picked a bunch of extra-inexpensive meals for this week. With the exception of the red beans and rice, they’re also low-effort. The red beans and rice will take a good bit of time, but I’m making a ton of it. So next time it’ll just be a matter of thawing and reheating it.

Butternut squash ravioli

Spaghetti

Red beans and rice

Tacos

Mexican pizzas