Using What I Have Journal Entry #17: Clearing the Fridge

 

Since I'd made several things that only used parts of what I had opened, it was time for me to use them up. Thanks to this "using what's there" muscle I'm still developing, I was able to pull together a pretty great meal!

First, I stuck some sweet potatoes in the oven. I figured that no matter what else I cooked, they needed a head start. (Yes, I happened to have sweet potatoes! I was excited about that. If I hadn't, though, this would have gone with the tater tots in my freezer, or some rice, or pasta, etc.--that's all part of the using-what-I-have discipline. But I was excited about having sweet potatoes, because I think they really elevated this meal.) You see that sweet potato with some non-dairy butter, salt, and pepper--pure delight, really.

Next, I got my beans ready to bake. There was half a can of kidney beans and half a can of pinto beans in my fridge. That's not the usual choice for baked beans, but they were there! I also had a partial can of tomato sauce, some onions, bell pepper, garlic, maple syrup, liquid smoke, vegan Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. I cooked the onions and bell pepper on the stove before adding the rest to my cast iron skillet and popping that in the oven with my sweet potatoes. I was somewhat guided by a recipe from The Vegan 8. Although I would have preferred some nice white beans--great northern would have been lovely, as the original recipe says--these were still very tasty, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

After rummaging around, I decided I could make a recipe I'd loved before with some substitutions. I use non-dairy butter, of course, but that wasn't the only change I made this time to an omnivore recipe at Spend with Pennies for garlic mushrooms. I didn't have any white wine, so I used red. That made the mushrooms very dark, but they were delicious.

I still had a partial can of diced tomatoes in my fridge, so for that, I made a variation on sauteed spinach with onion and tomato from the recipe at Very Veganish. I chose this because I needed to use a partial onion I had left over from the baked beans, and because I had some baby spinach in my fridge that also needed using. Plus, I try to include green veggies on most of my plates, because it just makes the food look more appetizing to me, in addition to being good for me.

Although I may still find it hard to remain contented with the things I have, when shiny things are always calling to me, I do find something really satisfying about meals like these. It's a beautiful assortment of delicious food. How could I be frustrated with that? Especially when it makes more room in my fridge.