As you’ve noticed (she says with a guilty expression realizing the last blog post was almost a month ago…), the past couple weeks I haven’t quite stuck with meal plans. Between babysitting late nights and having leftovers from a camping trip, I didn’t have much of a schedule worth posting. So, I ended up with a lot of random stuff in my fridge I needed to use up before it went bad! Here’s how I tackled it:
Had in kitchen: Miso paste, 2 flour tortillas, 1/4 jar salsa, 1/4 container sour cream, 1/2 bag shredded Mexican cheese, 1/4 jar roasted red peppers, balsamic dressing, Ranch dressing, head of garlic, vanilla yogurt, pancake baking ingredients (flour sugar, etc)
Bought: 1 can black beans, 1 can kidney beans, 1 can stewed tomatoes, 1 can corn, 1 pack Ramen, ground ginger, 1 bunch carrots, 1 cucumber, 1 package sliced white mushrooms, 3-pack peppers, 1 bunch scallions, 1 package baby spinach, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 1 container of chopped white onion, 1 bunch bananas (to have in my bag for snacks during the day), 1 dozen eggs, 1 pint milk
Spent: $30.43 (aka $6.09/day for 3 meals per day)
Daily Breakfast: Pancakes with Yogurt and Strawberries
Comments from Claire: I was randomly in the mood to make pancakes for myself Sunday morning (just followed this recipe), and since you can’t really make a single-serving worth of batter, I decided to cook a whole batch and have them during the week. To be slightly healthier I topped one each morning with yogurt and fruit.
MONDAY
Lunch: Leftover from the Weekend
Dinner: Roasted Red Pepper Quesadilla
Comments from Claire: This was a way to use up leftovers: literally had all the ingredients in my fridge already! Quesadillas are one of those throw-anything-in meals that also takes mere minutes to make. Thiis was just roasted red peppers and cheese, topped with salsa and sour cream when finished.
TUESDAY
Lunch: Quesadilla
Dinner: Random Ingredients Salad
Claire’s Quips: Half use-up-things-in-the-fridge ,half use-ingredients-from-other-meals-this-week. Spinach (which I knew I wanted for the miso soup), black beans, cherry tomatoes, chopped onion (using for chili), cucumber, some scallions and cheese. Could’ve used the carrots but I was too lazy to peel that night. Also, I have SO MUCH salad dressing in my fridge for some reason, so this helped drain some of it.
WEDNESDAY
Lunch: Salad
Dinner: Fast Miso Soup
Comments from Claire: Another favorite quick meal since I knew I was going to get home late this night. You can follow my basic formula here. I also added a poached egg to this one, and used ground ginger instead of fresh since I had to buy another shaker of it anyway.
THURSDAY
Lunch: Soup
Dinner: Simple Vegetarian Chili
Comments from Claire: This ended up being a great meal because I threw in even MORE random crap I had in my fridge! I followed this basic recipe, but didn’t use celery, and instead added: 1 random 1/4 jar of vodka sauce (just to use it up, it was tomato-based so I thought why not?!), 1/2 can black beans (from my salad) along with the kidney beans, and the rest of the spinach from the salad and miso soup. I also messed with the spices. I did the same tablespoon of chili powder and cumin, but for the others did instead: 1 tsp Italian seasoning, 1 tsp dried basil, and 1 tsp turmeric. It was DELICIOUS with a capital D.
FRIDAY
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Out at an Event
See you next week! To see what I’m eating in the meantime, follow me on Instagram or Twitter @ClaireLeaden
Oh ! You have made it with Indian style.
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