Thursday, February 9, 2012

Desperation Lunches—or I only grocery shop every two weeks and I don’t shop accordingly

I have been a terrible grocery shopper since Liam’s been born.  It’s disturbing and ridiculous how bad I am.  I forget things, I can’t seem to make a cohesive list, and my spending is nuts.  I used to be really good at grocery shopping…and that’s totally gone out the window.  I also really hate doing it…so I extend my time far beyond what’s reasonable.  It has forced me to be creative though.  We’ve had some really good and interesting (and..keeping it real, some not so good) meals come from the nothing in our cupboards.  Here are three lunches I’ve cobbled together recently that weren’t half bad…and they used up random things that were about to go bad.

Chicken Salad A (I made a whole chicken, and we had leftovers, obviously…Andy doesn’t really love leftover chicken…so it became my lunch for a few days)

Chicken

A handful of Craisins

Some pecan pieces

Green onion and celery

A Tbsp. of mayo

A shot of Dijon mustard

Salt, pepper, a bit of lemon juice (from a real lemon)

A tiny pinch of cinnamon

Chicken Salad B

The same as A, just exchange the Craisins for golden raisins and the cinnamon for curry powder

Bean Salad

1 can white beans

Green onions

Broccoli (I had some leftover steamed broccoli I just chopped up)

A quick shot of salad dressing (I used Trader Joe’s Tuscan Italian…basically a balsamic)

Any my favorite end of the week soup….take any veggies left in the fridge, chop them up, cook them in chicken broth, and puree it and add salt, pepper, and curry powder.  I find that I like this soup best if it has some carrot and/or sweet potato in it..something about the sweetness makes it super comforting with the curry powder.  And I like to keep a bag of broccoli/cauliflower mix in the freezer for this soup too.

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