Reduce, Reuse…Eat

I will not eat Thai lunch specials.
I will not eat Thai lunch specials.
I will not eat Thai lunch specials.

Now that school is in session, I am surrounded by good Thai, contrary to my home neighborhood. This school year I am going to resist. More. And without the double-load of grad school at night, I have more time to whip up lunches for myself… combinations of form and function. The truth is I’ll eat anything I bring to my classroom. The same food that sits bored in my fridge is given new life within the confines of reading and math workshop. For example, the very same cherry-sage sausage I made for the real-deal vegan brunch has been in the innards of my lunch sammies for several weeks. And I ate them with ferocity.

So here is the next few days’ menu…Sloppy Joe’s. I have a real problem with the container size of tomato paste. It is very conducive to waste. I needed to make something that utilized the paste leftover in the fridge with a flimsy foil hat, that re-heated well and that utilized other relatively cheap ingredients.

I have to have fruit. Here, the rest of the grapes from my weekend, the only figs that weren’t moss-covered upon delivery from Fresh Direct and the sliced kiwi that came with the cut strawberry used for below. Now, what about the 5 blackened bananas in my bowl? Hmmm. 
I made a batch of cupcakes to dole out to The Electrician‘s family during his birthday thing… but the texture was way off. So as to not taint their impression of vegan baked goods, they came home with me. I whipped up a half recipe of a coconut buttercream using the rest of the coconut milk from my recent curry and sandwiched in some strawberry.