Leftovers no more

I have finally finished my leftovers from last week! It seems like they have been around for a lot longer than that though.

Leftovers can be wonderful. I definitely don't have the energy nor the inspiration to cook every night; so in that sense, they are completely necessary. However, when I had them for two meals on Sunday and still wasn't quite done, I was approaching the end of my rope.

At least one of the repetitive meals was super photogenic. Soup and salad featuring week old greens and even older cabbage (in the soup).

For the soup, I halved this recipe and added a bunch of things from the fridge/freezer. The soup base is a can of diced tomatoes and half a can of refried beans with 1-2 cups of "stock" (water with all purpose seasoning...that's basically what bullion is, right?) plus frozen veggies, cabbage, and meatless crumbles topped with tortilla chips and some parmesean cheese. Quite good, and ready in about 15 minutes. Tough to beat...at least the first time around.

Salad is old greens from giant tub I thought I would have no trouble finishing before it got soggy (early in the summer, I did eat a Costco sized tub of spinach pretty much all by myself while my parents were out of town for 10 days. Not so much this time and I can't explain it) plus diced peach, pecans and fresh herbed cheese drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The cheese really did the trick, as it should for $7. I can't help it if I have expensive tastes!

I like to oot, oot, oot...

...Ootmeal in the moornings. I like to uut, uut, uut uutmeal in the muurnings. Hopefully, you get my Raffi reference. If not, you are undoubtedly really confused.

But really, there isn't much simpler in the morning that putting 1/2 cup of oats in a bowl with 1 cup of water and putting in the microwave for 2 minutes. I got on my current oatmeal kick after becoming a regular reader of this fantastic blog. When someone else loves something enough to have page after page of photos of it, it's kind of hard not to get a little excited, or at the very least try some.

Monday morning's bowl with daily cup of joe. Yeah, those are ice cubes on the top. Warm oatmeal and hot coffee are a bit too much on mornings when it's already reached 80 F by 8 AM.

Quaker Oats topped with 1 Tbsp strawberry greek yogurt, blueberries, 1/2 of a peach and some Trader Joe's trail mix granola cereal.

A wonderfully satisfying blend of textures.