Sequestration Meal #433

 

This was kind of a "use what you have" meal, and it didn't end up where I had envisioned it, but it ended up delicious, so I win anyway. 

I cooked some protein penne, saving the starchy pasta water for later use (the penne isn't gluten free, but it has some legume-based protein added to it, which meant I would still have starchy water). While that was happening, I cooked some onion, red bell pepper, garlic, mushrooms, and kale in olive oil. (Added in that order and allowed to cook before adding each vegetable, lightly salting between additions, so that the veggies that needed the most cooking got the most time.) When the veggies seemed mostly cooked, I added some frozen Don't Be Piggy sausage crumbles and a bit of the starchy water and browned the sausage. When that was done, I added some Silk half-and-half, soy milk, more starchy water, and the pasta. This wasn't quite flavorful enough so I added some tamari and nutritional yeast, then finished it all off with some Violife Parmesan.

I was aiming for something cheesy and creamy and ended up with something that was more meaty and earthy but it was still really good. Things work out, sometimes! And I have to remind myself every so often that I can cook by winging it and don't always need to rely on recipes. I think recipe-reliance has something to do with anxiety, somehow. I need guidelines and rules, perhaps. But it does sometimes work out when you throw the guardrails off. It's just dinner, after all.