So the other day I was emailing with Kim from Kim’s Kitchen Sink because she had recommended an awesome new food blog for me to check out (Le Petit Pierogi) and I was telling her that I have recently figured out that I actually like cooking, though I’m so crazy anal Type A about it that it’s hard for me to add a pinch of this and a dash of that…I tend to follow recipes to a T. The problem is that money is now getting super tight, it’d definitely be an advantage to be able to throw together something from the existing ingredients in my fridge & pantry!
Her response was this:
I am super crazy Type A, and there is something immensely satisfying about creating a meal from whatever you have lying around. It’s like, “Oh shit. I didn’t use a recipe, and I didn’t have a plan, and this is freaking delicious. And I made it. Out of just my brain and my kitchen.”
I am super crazy Type A, and there is something immensely satisfying about creating a meal from whatever you have lying around. It’s like, “Oh shit. I didn’t use a recipe, and I didn’t have a plan, and this is freaking delicious. And I made it. Out of just my brain and my kitchen.”
Seriously. Try it. It gives you a whole new sense of power/control (and isn’t that what being Type A is all about?)
Well shit, color me a light bulb… it kind of makes SENSE that I’m in control of what I put in the dish, so why not try it? 🙂
Last weekend we had a housewarming party with a bunch of friends and I made a quinoa recipe of Rebecca’s from Girl’s Gone Child that includes bell peppers, corn, etc. It was meant to be served as a cold side dish, and it went over well, but since we were more focused on drinking than eating that night, I had a bunch of leftovers. 🙂
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| We had maybe 5-10 more people there that weren’t in this pic. Great times!! |
Also, since I was fairly hungover on Sunday thanks to a really awesome time on Saturday night at the party, we never got around to going grocery shopping (30 minutes away in the “big city”) so we’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel this week food-wise.
ANYWAY, after the challenge from Kim, I decided to go home and try to do a simple dinner with just basic leftovers from the fridge. I chose to use the leftover quinoa dish (heated up instead of cold), the last 4 eggs (hubby loves bfast for dinner), the end of a jar of salsa, and some good ‘ole S&P.
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| I don’t know why Blogger rotates the photo. Annoying! |
Anyway, it turned out awesome – I was happy to find a use for random odds and ends in the fridge, hubby was stoked to get breakfast for dinner, and even though YES, it was simple and had 3 ingredients, it’s honestly stepping outside the box for me to not cook from a recipe card.
Expanding my horizons left and right y’all. Don’t you forget it. 🙂
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU! This is only the beginning…just wait until you discover my personal favorite: "Cover it with cheese and bake it" 🙂
LOL, thanks Kim. Honestly, for breakfast the next day we were then out of eggs, so I took more leftover quinoa, covered it in cheese, and heated it up for breakfast. 🙂
There you go! My favorite thing to do is throw a bunch of veggies and chunks of stale-ish baguette (cause we can never finish a whole one in one night) in a baking dish with some marinara sauce and cheese stuck in the "layers". Cover with cheese, bake (30-40 minutes at 350-375ish).It's like lasagna, but lazier.
Sounds yummy!!! I just bought some organic red quinoa from Trader Joe's last week and am going to make something yummy. I might post it in a couple of days. I love hearing about new healthy recipes, and I've never had quinoa before. So, we'll see!
I like to cook and I LOVE to bake. Annies-eats.com and smittenkitchen.com are my favorite food blogs
@Jess – If you email me, I can send you some of my fav quinoa recipes. GGC has a lot of good ones @Hopeisafourletterword – I LOVE sittenkitchen as well. Pioneer Woman and Smitten Kitchen are both regulars for me. 🙂
YUM that looks awesome. DH is the best at just throwing stuff together and making it taste great. I have started to get there under his teaching.
I call this "refrigerator cooking". Love it.Putting a fried egg atop most any leftover business in the fridge is one of my specialties! Makes anything a meal!