Panera Bread work lunches

Lentil Soup in Bread Bowl

So amazing! I was lucky to randomly stumble upon a haul from Panera and it was awesome they put still warm bread in bags just filled with breads and wrapped in parchment paper.  I took a couple and froze them.  This way they wouldn't go stale. And just popped them in microwave to heat up and it worked bread was chewy and crispy!  All my coworkers were so jealous.  I mean their soup in a bowl is super expensive!  And what some people don't know is they sell the bowls individually too.  Either way, I had some freebie gourmet soups I got from an event.  

To make this super easy work lunch, all I did was microwave soup in my glass tupperware bowl so it was hot.  And microwaved the bread for a quick bit till toasty. Then put the soup in the bread bowl!  So easy!

The best was I had some curry soup and left over Kale Salad ( always try to sneak in Kale).. this had people  seriously hungry :)

Taco Fried Rice

So I've been so busy lately, I just wanted to update on my meals.  I almost never pay for any food food any more except when I go out.  I've pretty much allocated my budget that used to be for groceries for entertainment/ eating out / socializing.  It's truly amazing how much better I eat and to top it off how little I need to cook.  Just because I'm getting all my groceries for free these days, doesn't mean that I don't occasionally cook to spice things up and stretch those meals even further.  

So I had some left over sale hamburger meat in freezer and onions so I added it to my pre made brown rice bean packaged meal from this super high end food place.  Basically they have no meat in theres and the spinach is raw, theres squash, corn, black bean and peppers in their dish. I decided to use up some my my left overs to make this more savory and fatty.  

So I basically stir fried everything to make a brown fried rice.  I added too much salt and there was so much non rice stuff, I decided to stretch the meal further with left over white rice.

Turning my original freegan find into an additional meal.  Or 4 diet sized servings.

Candy Candy Awesome Dive Haul

 

I just had to take picture all the candies were not expired, wrapped and in super clean separate bags.  We left so much it was such a shame!  I will not be needed to buy breath mint and gum for a long time!

LEFT OVER cooking Ideas: Raw Veggie Wrap

So I got a bunch of these Collard Green THAI wraps from a dive and because its RAW, I wanted to cook what I couldn't eat to preserve the food.  So GREAT point is when in doubt make FRIED RICE.. you can do this with most leftovers.  With this combo of veggies and there was Mango, I decided on making fried rice but added Korean Red Pepper Paste. I also used a combo of leftover rice, 1 part white rice and 2 parts brown rice. So it had a taste very similar to Mixed BIMIBAP.

SO yummi!  ANd healthy vegetarian, I actually made a big batch and froze half of it.  Great easy microwable meal if your in a hurry too!

Gazpacho Verde Left Over Ideas

LEFTOVER GAZPACHO VERDE IDEAS

Freeze it.  Yes the texture will change so I just puree it and freeze it.

When your ready for another cold cup, if u like it chunky just add a little bit of chopped cucumbers and tomato.

Heat it up and make what I did a HOT Gazpacho Verde soup with SHRIMP and brown rice.  Basically left overs soup.  This actually turned out so yummi!  I just quickly stir fried 3 shrimps, heated the soup, put in leftover frozen spinach and some left over brown rice.  

Make it Salsa, by adding Chopped Chunky Unions and Tomato's.

Use heated version as a MEAT sauce, similar to Spanish Style Rice dishes. I have a feeling this would taste great over White FISH with refried beans on the side.

Or use as soup base for another soup.

Thai Collard Wrap

Organic Avenues Thai Collard Wrap, super filling and healthy!

$9 in store !

Basically an entirely RAW meal .

Freegan Haul

Yummi! EPIC bc of where it came from and how super clean and quick the dive was.

NYC Freegan Finds and Update

Healthy Work Snacks- BYO so you don't waste money on vending machines!

I know I've been pretty MIA lately .. I've just been enjoying life, working and of course DIVING!! Anyways, I've finally got a day to myself and so I started thinking of the work week ahead.  My fridge is packed full so come Monday I'm moving a weeks worth of food to my office fridge.  I can't believe I didn't get more lunchables on my of my dives last week they threw a ton of them out in boxes (which I've since removed for extra space and so I don't have to clean).  Grr I had no idea they had Capri Sun's in them as well, man who'd of thought I would have found OSCAR MYER lunchables on a dive.  So thats why I havn't even been posting pictures of my Hauls any more because I've kinda got my grove on diving.  Remember all the things I said I had trouble finding .. well not anymore I have tons of Cheese, Yogurts, Lunch Meats, and just enought that I've probably spent less than $30 these past months on food.  And those trips were more couponing stock pile trips.  The above is a weeks worth of work week snacks.  Sometimes, I'll add whole grain cereal to the yogurt for healthy breakfast.

Anyways, I've also found lots of actual EGGs in my dives now too.  Crazy huh.. and I did take some pics of some recent things like tons of Organic Butter.

And the below, again.. I'd wish I'd had grabbed more of this stuff.  Its so yummi!  And these box things are the easiest because to clean all I do is remove the boxes!

I just wanted to say how amazingly grateful to have the chance to do these Food Rescues aka dumpster diving.  It is one of the best things about living in NYC!  I've literally just used all the extra money I've saved and TIME (I rarely cook)  to have fun and just relax!  And while I've been writing this post, I've been doing a yogurt face mask :)

Epic Weekend food rescue

Above was from large group dive.
And below was from a much smaller group.  It was pretty epic because I got tons of SUSHI not pictured, sandwiches and salads and... a huge bag of my favorite cookies!  And also not pictured was huge super cold cooked meat ! I had to give away stuff to make room for it.  But I literally got a huge bag full of premium sausages!

Awesome Freegan Haul

Stir fried veggies Kale stems, Green Beans, Asparagus, Celery and Eggplant

So here's a freegan tip, when taking home veggies that are loose, try to use it as soon as possible. For the most part my produce rescued comes in sealed packages.  But what I've noticed about one of my spots is they have become more spiteful of freegans.  And they will literally cut open packages and take salads out of their containers to discourage people from rescuing the food.  At least in most cases they toss it all in one huge bag so sometimes because I just can't stand the thought of not rescuing these veggies all in great condition I take home loose veggies. Like in this case the celery and Kale stems.  I'll clean and then blanche them to be extra careful.  And then stir fry them in oil and garlic.  

It's just a quick way to cook everything and preserve the nutrients as much as possible.  Plus, I'm a rice fanatic so it goes great with that.

Freegan Italian Pasta Salad Cooked

So so Yummi and this meal was entirely free. I had some basil from the garden, and the ready made pasta (with sun dried tomatos, feta cheese and spinach) along with cherry tomatoes and chicken from recent freegan food rescues.

This box of pasta alone would have cost $6.49 from the high end grocery store we rescued it from.

And here's the chicken I froze separated from the deluxe salads I rescued.

And I'm so bummed I didn't rescue more but literally there were two huge bags full of cherry tomato's I had to leave behind.

Basically all I did was cut these up and stir fry everything, took about 10 minutes max. And that's one free lunch right there.

Kale, Baby Potatoes and Kimchi over Rice

This has to be one of the most yummiest and healthiest meals ever and its vegetarian.  Best part is with the exception of the rice, the whole meal was free!

I'd gotten a bunch of Kale Salads from one of my favorite spots but I couldn't eat it all so I decided to stir fry them and Kale tastes super yummi stir fried I discovered.  I also added some of the baby potatoes I got from an earlier freegan haul and kimchi and everything just blended perfectly.

Freegan Haul amazing finds

So lately I've been super swamped to document all my freegan hauls.  But I feel like now I've gotten a good rhythm to my diving and finds.  So I haven't felt compelled to post about them as much.  But recently I had an amazing haul at one of my favorite sandwich spots, they actually trashed the stuff that they usually donate  for some reason on this epic haul.  So I got tons of the standard sandwiches and premium salads instead the standard wraps!

Freegan tip, I actually took out all the speciality like ingredients to store in separate containers to freeze.  As I feel that it makes the leaves stay crispier longer.  And they put a lot more extra stuff than I need in one salad serving.  So its actually a frugal tip to stretch your salads.  Plus I wasn't sure if I could eat all the salads fast enough.

Also on this run I got about bunch of Kale salads from and juices from that super expensive juicing spot.

Olive Bread

I feel like this post is like an episode of the most delicious thing I've ever eaten.  So recently on a Sunday dive, I took a bunch of strange looking bakery breads I've never eaten before but a bunch of people in the group had and they said it was delicious.  So I took some one was these amazing cheesy breads and one was these Olive breads.  Literally with olives baked into it. I've never had it before but it was so amazing that I had to take a picture to remember how amazing it was.

god I love freegans.

Ramen with Quinoa

So this is why I love Ramen, I literally just toss all my leftovers in and the spicy MSG seasoning makes everything taste good.  I  had some left over mexi quinoa with cauliflower and brocolli left over and carrots and that Roitisere Chicken that I just put in and it a great way to use your leftovers.

Freegan Cooking from skinny falaffel to huge burrito

So I love finding these wrapped Falaffels, they are so the perfect ready to go meals and super versatile and freezer friendly .

Basically its just a wrap with pure flavored protein like in this case spicy chicken breast.

I can totally just eat it as is or make it even more frugal by stretching out the meal.  One idea, is to make it a burrito.  So I made some cilantro rice.  Mashed so avocado, added some lime juice and those purple onions I got in my prior haul.  And the result is a meal twice the size!

And everything is super healthy so easy and its still frugal even though ironically the falafel was free to start with lol.

Organic Ave Haul

Organic Ave juices at $9 a pop are so addictively good in a healthy way. I picked up their still cold Chai Latte, Green Love and Almond Milks.  I was super psyched to get 5 boxed salads from them as well.  As we were waiting we dived at the supermarket across the street and ekk got more smoothie juices! These are tastier as their fruit smoothies and POM as well.  My diving partner preferred the POM's to the Organic Earthbound salads as well.   On top of that I got chopped butternut squash and from OA a mexi quinoa bowl.  Haul worth about $75!  

Sandwich Haul

I just love NYC just for the fact that I can be a freegan.  Just look at this amazing haul, the wraps were still hot when I took them out of the bag about $65 worth of expensive fancy wraps and sandwiches.

And then I got 4 more chilled garden soups, 2 sets of Hard Boiled eggs with Quinoa and Spinach, and 6 Fruit Yogurts. I guess its worth another $60.

What I love about this is that everything is super healthy and what most non Freegans don't realize is that Garbage bags are super clean its not like smelly garbage, although these stores sometimes tend to throw coffee grinds to discourage freegans.  And I don't have to cook!

And lets not forget dessert!

3 regular croissants, a chocolate croissant, and cranberry oatmeal cookie!