BeeZee

@blue_dolphin, the vinaigrette looks like it has a dairy base, is it buttermilk or something similar?

I've taken leftover plain cooked quinoa and reheated it with milk, honey, and cinnamon (maybe some dried fruit), but you could also do something leaning savory with broth and sliced toasted almonds (ie, more like pilaf).

Someone sent me one of those plastic thingys that strips herb leaves off stems (little slots/holes). I didn't even use it, put it straight into the donation pile. A long time ago I had a zester, which I tossed in favor of Y-peeler and microplane. If I want little thin strips of zest, I'm fine with cutting down strips of peel.

Salmon brushed with miso/honey mixture before roasting. Yams and asparagus cooked on another pan, easy and quick cleanup thanks to alum foil.

Thanks for the reminder on More than Gourmet, they usually have it at my local supermarket and it will come in handy for enhancing some chicken soup I need to make for Passover.

Regarding chickpeas/ceci...I take the lazy way and buy canned ones. Many years ago I tried dried, didn't use them often, and found bugs in the bag, so I was put off. However, the quality of canned varies tremendously, and if you are keeping them whole for a salad, it makes a difference. I have been buying Rienzi brand at my local Shop Rite, they are nice and firm. The store brand were terrible, I will only use them when they are going to be pulverized into hummous.

My soup pot is like a reverse clown car, when I portion it out it just seems like it makes way more than it should!

Whole wheat pita with hummous and roasted veg (leftover from weekend), one test bite taken

A bit of the kabocha squash soup I made on Sunday was nice for late breakfast, although now I have a bit of onion/garlic aftertaste. I'm generally not a fan of savory breakfasts unless it is lox and bagels! I'll make another batch of this soup with less alliums, it will be nice for future breakfasts with some toasted nuts.

Red clam sauce made with Bumble Bee canned whole baby clams, which were really tender, I just added them to heat in the simmering sauce 2 minutes before serving. I was a little worried they would be like erasers, so I was pleased it worked out OK. Making a concerted effort to reduce my canned goods stock.

Muffins or bread use some puree, ravioli filling, and I like the idea of using the Creami to make ice cream! As they are cans, if you really aren’t feeling inspired, a food pantry would take them.

Winter squash soup (half recipe) from Smitten Kitchen Keepers. I had a bag of Kabocha squash cubes in the freezer, which worked well for this once defrosted. I did not make the toasted onion/garlic/coconut garnish, since this is destined for the freezer. The squash was sweet, so this savory recipe is nice for balance.

You'll love the Kitchen Consumer Thread (ie, the enablers hall of fame)!

An expression I'm fond of is "don't yuck on someone else's yum". As far as online reviews...buyer beware, since the internet has empowered everyone to believe they are a restaurant critic.

Last spring/summer I subscribed to a service so that my husband would have something healthy that he could just reheat before going to play softball on week nights - for those days that I didn't have leftovers from our weekend meals, since I work late and he needed to eat pretty early. It is quite expensive, indeed, with the built in cost of shipping and cold packs. We sampled around 8 meals (promotional package deal), IIRC, and the one issue I had was that the vegetables were always overcooked (as to be expected) and I would have liked more of them. There is a local restaurant that offers "chef prepared" meals that don't require a subscription and we can pick them up 10 minutes away, so I may try that as an alternative for him. He can't/won't cook for himself.

I was near a store after an appointment, so I popped in. There was a fair amount of refrig/frozen stuff I would have bought if it wasn't going to be sitting in the car for a while, so I wound up mostly buying dry goods and a package of fresh snow peas. Picked up a bag of Favorina chocolate covered marzipan Easter eggs (individually wrapped), there aren't too many places to get marzipan candy and I like it 1-2x a year. In the "bakery" area I bought a pizza roll, which wasn't that good when I tasted a bite cold, but when reheated at home in the toaster oven it was better (but not an item I'll buy again). Prices seemed like they weren't as low as in the past for a lot of items, many items were comparable to prices I had seen at the Supermarket recently.

Employee appreciation day (according to our Marketing dept.), so breakfast for the office. You know you are near Philadelphia when someone brings a bunch of soft pretzels to add to the spread.

I used to get a slice of white pizza with potato at a pizza place in Morristown. Don't knock it until you try it, it was delicious...they used (probably) Yukon gold potato, sliced very thin, and had roasted garlic, also. Ligurians eat pasta with potatoes and pesto, so it isn't so weird.

Generally the vegetarian meals are "OK" for my office freezer stock when desperate. I used to buy TJ's Indian fish korma, but it was discontinued. I do tend to "doctor" the meals with seasonings, since they are usually lacking, and try to buy products that are not crazy in the sodium level (which is difficult). There is a brand called Tattooed Chef, which may not be National in distribution, which has pretty some good vegan and vegetarian meals, I like the plant-based egg roll bowl. I hate the texture of the chicken that is used in the frozen meals nowadays.

desk lunch-leftover chopped Greek salad with some added (canned) tuna.

Aside from rising food costs, I've noticed a lot of packaging being changed to thinner/cheaper materials. Today, I pulled a plastic tub of whipped cream cheese out of the fridge, it was purchased this past weekend. Upon opening, I saw that the top of the plastic tub was cracked, apparently at some point it had been dropped. The plastic was very thin/brittle...and I've noticed bit by bit that other packaging materials have been downgraded (not talking about shrinkflation, another issue altogether). Obviously the packaging manufacturers are looking for ways to keep cost down/maintain profit levels.

well, the gift certainly has both the whimsical and the practical...

Fundamentally, those pieces of salmon get mushed when they are vacuum-packed, so most of them won't peel apart cleanly. I think I usually look for the cleanest/driest edge and try to slide a thin blade under to work a slice free. I think slightly tempered from fridge temp, since that lets the oil/fat be less congealed/sticky (sounds appetizing, huh? but IDK how else to describe). If the fish is too warm, it gets softer, so it's a fine line.

Shoprite had some Icelandic Haddock on special, they said "never frozen", but regardless it was very good (unlike some of the very sad/not fresh fish I saw there) - sweet and moist. I roasted it with some Panko crumbs on top to add a little crispy texture.

I was cleaning out a cabinet a while back, and found that a tube of chipotle paste had sprung a leak. The surprising thing was it happened so long ago, the goo had completely solidified and I was able to just chip it off the shelf and just had to clean a little residue with hot water. During the pandemic “lockdown” I got better at rotating things so the cabinets didn’t become like archeological digs.