Lunch yesterday may have been uneventful, but dinner certainly was not! As I mentioned last night, I gathered a number of overflow food pantry items on my way out of work, thanks to Mildred and Pura! The goods, pictured to the right, included two packages of chicken fajita wraps, a container of fruit salad with cottage cheese and jello, a flounder sandwich, a pumpernickel baguette, three pumpkin muffins, a blueberry bagel, and a banana (from Jessica earlier in the day).
I sliced the bread items and added them to my freezer bag of carbs for enjoyment at a later date, the banana went into my countertop bowl of fruit, I portioned the 12 fajita pieces into 3 lunch-sized containers, and I kept the flounder sandwich and the fruit out for playtime dinner last night!
The flounder sandwich was loaded with mayo, which I’ve never been able to stand, so I dismantled it completely. I rinsed the lettuce and tomato until all evidence of mayo was obliterated. I also rinsed all of the breading and mayo from the teeny flounder pieces, brushed them with dijon, dredged them in coarse blue corn meal, and seared them in canola on the skillet until browned. They went on top of the clean lettuce and tomato:
The sesame bun was soggy and loaded with mayo as well, so I pulled out and discarded all the gushy insides. The dry sesame-ridden outer layer went into the oven for 10 minutes at 450 until it turned into sesame chips that I could dip in some asparagus guacamole:
I rounded out the meal with steamed asparagus and two slices of soy-lime coco loco tofu:
Next order of business was the package of fruit salad. I immersion blended the 1/2 cup of cottage cheese with 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, the results of which will appear in breakfast and lunch later today along with the berries and grapes :-).
For dessert, I ate the jello and the remaining fruit (pineapple, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe) topped with about 1/3 cup of crumbs from the pumpkin muffin-slicing earlier and a dollop of chocolate mousse:
Ummm, YUM!
And then, of course, there was dessert dessert: one piece of Lindt hazelnut chocolate, fresh from the freezer 😛
So, it seems I really can’t go a day without having at least one meal deliciously inspired by donations from work. I don’t want this internship to end! (Aside from the food, I actually really do enjoy the work … and my coworkers, of course!)
Have you found any food lately?
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 
I love what you came up with for your dinner!! It’s so creative & looks really delicious 😀
You are so lucky to get those donations from work!!
I haven’t found any food lately.. but now after seeing what you found I’m on a hunt.. haha
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I LOVE your “found” dinner!! I would have tossed out the mayo-laden lettuce and tomato—you put me to shame!
I found 2 mushy plums in the work kitchen the other day, but couldn’t bring myself to take them home 😦 Although I’m sure I could have salvaged them in some sort of dessert fruit puree . . . next time!
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Fantastic “found dinner.” I really enjoyed the way you made it your own.
The only found food I’ve had lately was a slice of blueberry muffin cake brought in by a coworker.
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i rarely find food, but I wish I did! 🙂
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I need to work on finding more food. You are an expert!
I can’t believe how fresh your gauc still looks!
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Wow so jealous of all your delicious food! Yeah, I don’t think I ever find food!
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I absolutely LOVE how you re-created that fish sandwich from something horrible sounding to a delicious meal!! You and your blog have given me some GREAT ideas and tasty recipes!!! THANKS!! 🙂
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I’m always amazed at your found meals!
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You are incredible! I never would have thought to rinse the tomato and lettuce, nor would I have made chips out of the bread crust. Seriously, this is so inspiring!
I haven’t found any food lately (I think a college campus should be friendlier in that area) 😦 I should practice that though. I’ve just been eating everything in my fridge before I head home.
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I love how resourceful you are with food, when I see mayo on something I generally throw it right in the trash! I never would have thought to rinse things off.
I’m learning a million different ways to be less wasteful from reading your blog!
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I love how you took a totally inedible meal and made something super tasty from it. Way to be resourceful!
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You seriously need to write a book about your amazing finding food capabilities 🙂
I’ve found free samples at WF 😉
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Uh, I found about 50 tubs of hummus on my doorstep yesterday. Crazy!
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