Using What I Have Journal Entry #13: Making My Own Convenience

I missed posting last week, but here we are again! I had a really rough time and needed convenience food, but I didn't buy any--I had made my own convenience, and spent less time on cooking than picking up food. Here's how that works. 

First up: Noodles, Impossible meatballs in some leftover mushroom gravy I had in my freezer that I mixed with some non-dairy sour cream, and steamed French beans. This was a very easy meal. I just had to boil the noodles, simmer the meatballs in the sauce and then add some sour cream, and microwave steam the beans. Super easy, but also delicious!

I also had some tempeh sauerkraut stew in my freezer. I steamed some rice to have with it and this was an almost zero-effort meal. I also had a kind of low appetite, but this worked!

I also had some homemade corn tortillas in my freezer, along with some Mexican rice, plus a partial can of enchilada sauce in my fridge. The tortillas and sauce became the basis for a sort of enchilada casserole-type thing, layered in a small round casserole dish like a lasagna with homemade TVP ground beef and sauteed peppers and onions. I added some non-dairy cheese I had, too. To have with the rice and the casserole, I opened a can of black beans and simmered it in some spiced tomato sauce and made a Mexican-ish cucumber salad (recipe from Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures). Though this was a heavier lift than my other convenience meals, it was still very easy--maybe a half hour or so to pull it together and have leftovers suitable for four meals.

There's more than one kind of convenience, of course, but I've long ago stopped buying frozen dinners and ready-made burritos in favor of this kind. My focus on using what I have is part of this, but I'm also finding it more pleasant to have a little freezer stash of my own to support me in challenging times.

We'll see what comes up this week, though I am still struggling--there is so much going on, and everything is so very challenging.