Sequestration Meal #629

 

Although I am eating a slightly more extravagant way now that September is underway, these posts are scheduled in advance, so you'll get a few more glimpses into my low spend adventure before you see other things. But this could have been something I made anytime, even though this was born of needing to scrap together a dinner based on what was there.

So what was there? Well, there was a salad of romaine, grape tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and Spanish olives, as well as some Salad Toppins, which I have tossed in a homemade ranch dressing. And there was a toaster oven pizza with a base of naan from my freezer with homemade improvised pizza sauce (essentially, seasoned tomato sauce and tomato paste mixed together) which is topped with some non-dairy mozzarella, a few slices of veggie pepperoni, some broccoli, and some non-dairy Parmesan (in that order). 

Although I like making my own pizza crust, this was not yet oven season. (Oven season is coming soon! I'm so excited!) So naan worked well! And I think the pizza sauce is ingenious; I will absolutely be making that again because it is delicious and also much, much cheaper than the jarred kind. I found the idea at Joy Food Sunshine, and adapted it to my needs. It used up a tiny bit of tomato sauce I had in my fridge, and I always keep tomato paste in my freezer (frozen in little teaspoon-sized lumps).

I didn't buy the pepperoni; it came free with something else I bought a while ago and needed to be used up. So that was a win, too!

I don't enjoy looking in a fridge that is nearly bare, but I do appreciate the reassurance I get from knowing that I can use the skills I have to turn "nothing" into something. That is one of the best parts of the low-spend August I just had. I can look back on it and remind myself that I can rely on me more than I sometimes think.