We're in the phase of the year when we need to make do, as much as possible, with regards to fruits and vegetables. My kids love produce, so sending them off for the day with just a sandwich and some nuts just won't cut it. It also wouldn't be terribly healthful.
I am out of carrots and oranges. These are my usual winter lunch-box staples. We're just very low on fresh produce for the time being. So, I inventoried the frozen and canned fruits and veggies in my kitchen and came up with: frozen crabapple sauce, some wrinkly fresh apples, potatoes, frozen spinach, canned pumpkin, canned tomatoes, and home-dried prunes.
For lunches this week:
- cooked the wrinkly apples and combined with some frozen crabapple sauce
- mashed potatoes with cottage cheese, garlic and spinach
- individual snack-size containers of prunes and peanuts
- veggie lasagna with pasta, canned tomatoes, garlic, cottage cheese, tofu, herbs and spinach
- pumpkin pie
- peanut butter sandwiches
When I made out my plan, I realized that I had 4 dishes to cook up with this lunch round-up. So I made my cooking do double-duty. What I prepared for lunches, became Monday's and Tuesday's dinners (or at least part of), as well.
Everything I made this week had to be completely vegetarian, as on many days, it could sit out in a heated room for several hours, so no using animal fats for sautéing vegetables, and limited egg use. And it all had to be "safe" to eat without reheating, in a pinch. The spinach lasagna may be tastier when heated, but it would still be good and "safe" if eaten cold. (I like cold pasta, myself.)
Full disclosure, here. This was a lot of scratch-cooking for me on Monday. I also had financial matters to tend to, and be out the door for my class by 4:45. So, as you can guess, my hair did not get combed, nor my face washed until 2-ish! I did shower and dress early in the day, as I'm more productive if I'm dressed and in shoes. A day when I ate standing up at the kitchen counter, had an empty bag in the middle of the kitchen floor for garbage, and many things were set on the floor, table, or chairs, as I was constantly running out of space!
Good music blaring, a plan and timetable, and I was cooking up a storm in my kitchen. Good times!
And just for fun (accounting purposes), I did a little cost estimate.
the lasagna . . . about $3 for 10 servings
the spinach-cheese potatoes . . . about $2.25 for 10 servings
the pumpkin pie . . . about $1.35 for a whole pie (10 small servings)
the apple-crabapple sauce . . . about 15 cents for 7 servings (apples and crabapples from our mini-orchard, 15 cents for the sugar)
If any one of us ate all of this in one sitting, it would have cost $6.75, (and they'd be exploding), still a lot cheaper than one meal in the cafeteria at my daughters' university, at $9.25 for ONE meal!
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Everything I made this week had to be completely vegetarian, as on many days, it could sit out in a heated room for several hours, so no using animal fats for sautéing vegetables, and limited egg use. And it all had to be "safe" to eat without reheating, in a pinch. The spinach lasagna may be tastier when heated, but it would still be good and "safe" if eaten cold. (I like cold pasta, myself.)
Full disclosure, here. This was a lot of scratch-cooking for me on Monday. I also had financial matters to tend to, and be out the door for my class by 4:45. So, as you can guess, my hair did not get combed, nor my face washed until 2-ish! I did shower and dress early in the day, as I'm more productive if I'm dressed and in shoes. A day when I ate standing up at the kitchen counter, had an empty bag in the middle of the kitchen floor for garbage, and many things were set on the floor, table, or chairs, as I was constantly running out of space!
Good music blaring, a plan and timetable, and I was cooking up a storm in my kitchen. Good times!
And just for fun (accounting purposes), I did a little cost estimate.
the lasagna . . . about $3 for 10 servings
the spinach-cheese potatoes . . . about $2.25 for 10 servings
the pumpkin pie . . . about $1.35 for a whole pie (10 small servings)
the apple-crabapple sauce . . . about 15 cents for 7 servings (apples and crabapples from our mini-orchard, 15 cents for the sugar)
If any one of us ate all of this in one sitting, it would have cost $6.75, (and they'd be exploding), still a lot cheaper than one meal in the cafeteria at my daughters' university, at $9.25 for ONE meal!
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