Random Meals #15

We use stuff up around here! Even when it's weird! It's not always weird, of course. Only sometimes. 

My randomness this time involves more noodles and peanut butter than usual, which doesn't bother me--I am always up for peanut noodles--but if you are looking for a ton of creative uses of leftovers or something, that's not what's happening here. The inspiration would be, instead, the reality that there is very often a way to feed ourselves, even if imperfectly, in ways that get us through strange times.

Breakfast

Melon slices (this was orangedew melon, a hybrid of cantaloupe and honeydew that I personally think is superior to both), a leftover lemon cranberry millet muffin, and a moringa moon milk (soy). Melons, millet, and moringa moon milk--hey, look at that alliteration! I didn't plan that, but it was cool, right? I eat my melon with salt, which I highly recommend. This was a great way to ease into a day.

I chopped the melon this time, and I had it with orange juice and a bowl of creamy wheat farina cooked in soy milk and topped with vegan butter and a generous sprinkling of salt. I truly love farina, so this was perfectly agreeable.

I tried an experiment here, replacing the water in a pancake recipe with blended-up watermelon. I had my watermelon pancakes with a veggie sausage, so I ended up making a pancake and sausage sandwich. With that, I had some cherries and clementine segments and some warm golden milk. I really enjoyed this breakfast.

Fruit salad, herbal tea, and an English muffin with veggie sausage and a JUST Egg patty. Maybe this is less random than just breakfast, but there isn't much to say about it, so it goes here. (It was delicious.)

I had a tiny bit of farro left, and instead of buying more to use it with, because this is the pantry utilization year, I added some brown rice to it and made a breakfast porridge based on a recipe from Eating Well. This tasted oddly familiar, like a memory of childhood, when my mother often served us rice for breakfast with milk, cinnamon, and sugar. This was less porridge-like than just kind of creamy, but it worked out fine. It used up the farro, in any case.

Lunch

I had two chick'n nuggets left at the end of the bag and the end of a bag of frozen fries, so I made this meal of a nugget sandwich with leftover homemade "honey" mustard, spring mix, and red onion on lightly toasted whole wheat bread. I had that sandwich alongside the fries. I found this really satisfying and surprisingly delicious!

When you are given a fresh, locally grown tomato, you must have a tomato sandwich, especially when your last two slices of Garlic Tuscan Bread are calling to you from the freezer. To make it a slightly more balanced meal, I had a soy latte and some sea salt & vinegar chips. Call me crazy, but this was perfect.

Pita sausage and olive pizza. Start with pita, top with leftover homemade pizza sauce, leftover homemade TVP sausage, non-dairy cheese, and olives. Bake in the toaster oven. Done.

Homemade vegetable soup and crackers--lower protein than I usually want, but it was that kind of day. You could add TVP to this, though, and if I had thought of it, I would! It was good, anyway.

I had some leftover savory mochi filling--tofu, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and cabbage--so I cooked up some thin spaghetti and tossed it with the veggies and tofu and a simple spicy peanut sauce. I topped that with some sesame seeds. This could have been saucier, but other than that, I have no complaints.

Dinner

I had some leftover refried beans and Mexican rice, but not the things that they were made to be served on the side of, so I made them into the main event. I put the beans and rice side by side in a bowl and topped them with non-dairy cheese, avocado, tomato, red onion, and olives. I had a little bag of Fritos, too, so I had those with this. It was not a typical dinner, but quite good nonetheless.

Here we have something you've seen an approximation of already: An English muffin pizza with homemade cashew alfredo sauce, TVP sausage, and non-dairy mozzarella served with a cucumber-tomato salad. This was amazing!

Don't think I forgot the spicy peanut butter ramen!

I had some leftover veggies, so I had those with some boxed noodles in vegan cheesy sauce (Goodles, if it matters) and some Beyond breakfast sausage links. This was very satisfying!

I had some leftover spaghetti noodles and some leftover white beans and chickpeas in a tomatoey sauce, so I warmed both of those and put them together with some vegan mozzarella on top. This was remarkably good; I might try a beany spaghetti sauce on purpose someday!