What I Ate in a Day #13

It's been over a month since I did one of these, and this time I wasn't planning on it until more than halfway through my day so you're missing a photo or two here and there, but I will explain all. Essentially, this day was a use-it-up day for food during mini staycation, so nearly everything I ate was inspired by the need to finish some stuff off I already had in my fridge.

I began my day with my usual raspberry leaf tea, but in an unusual manner, because a heat wave was coming and I wanted some time outdoors before it became oppressive out there. So I packed it up in a travel mug and went for a walk first thing in the morning to drink my tea. The only others out were the birds and some worms that had come up after a rainstorm, and it was lovely, but you are getting no photos of it because I didn't have blogging on my brain.

Then, after my walk and a bit of yoga, I made a version of Eggs Benedict that you will see at some point soon on a breakfast compilation as "No Eggs Benedictish." I had purchased some English muffins, but the rest of this was in use-it-up territory: Some baby spinach, a few slices of Yves veggie ham, a scramble made of JUST Egg, mushrooms, onions, and chopped asparagus, some leftover Hollandaise, and a garnish of asparagus spears. It was delicious.

That was not my whole breakfast; I had the other half of the English muffin with some Miyoko's cream cheese and the dregs of some pumpkin butter but I did not photograph it, nor did I photograph my Teeccino (but I did love both of those things). I did, however, photograph this fruit salad I had with breakfast:

This fruit salad is a far cry from a use-it-up meal, aside from the forgotten kumquat I found in my fridge that was oddly enough still good and the poppy seeds I added in the dressing that are beginning to look questionable. But having some freshness boosts the motivation for use-it-up specials. This was a half a banana, one sliced kumquat, half a kiwi, a couple of strawberries, and some fresh cherries I pitted and halved.

For lunch, I needed to use up some ingredients I'd prepped for the onigirazu in the picnic you saw yesterday. That was delicious and photogenic!

I had a base of sushi rice that I briefly microwaved to freshen it up and take the chill off (not so it was warm, just so it wasn't cold) and topped that with cucumber pieces, strips of nori, baby spinach, the last of my maple Dijon tofu, pickled red cabbage, carrot salad, sesame seeds, and probably way too much sriracha mayo (but it was really good and I am without regret). This cold meal was perfect in the midst of a record-setting heat wave.

Since I'd bought strawberries for the first time in who knows how long I wanted more with dessert. Maybe you're a dessert after dinner person but if I'm at home all day I'm more likely to have it after lunch for whatever reason.

For dessert, I had a bit of a Dr. Bronner's Magic chocolate bar, two chocolate tea biscuits sandwiched with some Bonne Maman strawberry preserves, and two pretty strawberries. Yes, there is a theme, and it's a good one. Strawberries and chocolate belong together. This warranted a second cup of Teeccino.

Dinner was a more profoundly use-it-up themed meal, and far less photogenic, but still really good!

This is a toaster oven mini casserole I made with the last of a package of farfalle (I only had about 2/3 cup of the pasta). While that cooked I sauteed a bit of onion I had in the fridge, a clove of garlic, my last two fresh mushrooms, and a cup of kale that needed to be used up. I mixed the cooked pasta, veggies, the chopped end of a Field Roast Celebration Roast, and the very end of a batch of vegan Hollandaise sauce with some of the pasta water and put that in the casserole dish. On top of that I put some shredded Daiya cheddar and the dregs of a slightly stale bag of kettle-cooked jalapeno potato chips. You can see the chips got extra brown where the toaster oven's heating element was, but it didn't matter. This was also really delicious, but I wouldn't be serving anything like it to company! (I don't know why that matters; it's not like aside from that picnic I've actually cooked for anyone in years.)

Because it was such a hot day, the only other thing I wanted was a lot of iced sparkling water, not pictured, and my usual multivitamin and algae-based DHA supplement.

Tell me about your favorite use-it-up specials!