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.

Freegan Cooking

So literally this entire dish is Freegan the noodles, the chicken, carrots, mushrooms and even the soup base was from that Simply Asia Haul.  

Crab Meat Spinach Feta Omelet

Basically I used the Crab Meat Salad from recent freegan haul to make awesome Omlet!

Freegan Dinner

Asian Style Freegan Dinner over white rice.  The Cajun shrimp, Asparagus and Meet all were from recent hauls.  

Shrimp Ramen Freegan Cooking

I read this article recently about waste today.  And it really struck me as significant, why we choose to our actions based on what we're going to buy instead of trying to make use of what we currently have.  And that's what I did with this Shrimp Ramen dish I made.  I used left over Shrimp Salad and the Kale Cabbage mix I rescued and this dish was amazing!  

Asparagus Stir Fry

I forgot to include the perfectly fresh bundle of Asparagus I got in my last haul.  To clean them, I just rinse and then let them dunk in a vinegar solution for a few minutes.  And to not waste the ends I just take a veggie peeler and peel a little of the tougher outter layer of the stems.  I also added the smaller handful of long green beans to this mix to save time.  I just stir fried all of this with a little garlic and bam yummi healthy dish.  And all free from my food rescues!

Freegan Lunch Tuna Sandwich and Split Pea Soup

Every thing in this meal was from my Freegan Hauls.  The country bread, arugula, tuna salad and split pea soup.

I read a post recently on this guy experimenting with Freeganism and he seemed challenged on what to eat but hopefully this post shows how healthy and balanced your meals can be on a Freegan Diet.

Egg Bagel Sandwich

I was exhausted this week but I feel super grateful I made a buge batch of these bagel sandwiches for the work week.  Every thing but the eggs were Freegan Finds.  This seriously is the most amazin sandwich , I just fried an egg, put it on a bagel, put some blue cheese and arugula to top it off.  

Ramen Noodles with Freegan Veggie Haul

Tip for Ramen Lover's I always have frozen duck on hand and its usually the boniest pieces.  It always adds extra flavor to your Ramen.  You only need 2-3 pieces.  I am posting this because the veggie on hand this time was the huge amount of Brocoli Rabe I got from my prior freegan haul.  Of course I cleaned it and even blanched it to be extra cautious.  I just wanted to demonstrate common ways to incorporate Freegan finds into your regular meals. So yummi and cheap.

Curry Apple Chicken Stir Fry

I made this while I was watching the VOICE earlier this week.  I had a bunch of apples from my freegan haul as well as chicken and plain yogurt from another haul so it was perfect time to make this recipe.  It's so easy and to make it even healthier I served on top of brown rice.  All you do is stir fry your chicken first then add the onions, apple, curry powder and salt cook for about 3 minutes.  Then at the end add a little water and your yogurt and mix and your done.  

Pita Bread Lunch Ideas

One of the things I got in my haul this week was Pita Bread.. I never buy it so I was lucky enough to find an awesome book in the library that gave me a super cool idea.  I basically made a pita bread TACO.  All the ingredients from my cheap couponing stock pile and freegan hauls.  I shredded chicken, added beans, lettuce, sour cream hot sauce, tomato sauce and easy meal!  Best part is that I got to use up some ingredients I had on hand.. I hate food waste.

The book had some awesome ideas that I am super excited to try.

The above is stuffed with potato salad.. perfect because I got a bunch of potato's in my last haul.

And chicken salad stuffed in pita bread..

Juicy Asian Style Burger

This is actually a super easy recipe and its so amazingly delicious.  

Basically the Asian Marinate is soy sauce, salt, and a little bit of cooking wine.  You let it soak for at least 20 minutes.  While you do that chop your onion.  Then after time as past for the meat to marinate, mix in the chopped onion.  You can let that marinate together for a while or just move on to the main reason why this burger is so juicy.

Egg whites!!

I just crack open the top of an egg and pour some whites in to the mixture.  You don't need much just enough for a glaze on your mixture.

And since I don't like to get my hands dirty I lightly shape my patty using plastic wrap.

And then you add to lightly greased pan to cook.

And when your done, your'll have a super super duper JUICY burger.

O and I forgot to mention this meal was pretty much all made from my Freegan Food Rescues except for the cheese, marinate and egg whites!

I got the whole wheat bread and high quality ground beef, onions all from my past food rescues.

Veggie Pasta made with Mario Batalli's Pasta Sauce Recipe

This meal is a combo of a practically free meal because of Couponing and my Freegan Food Rescues.  I had  almost no space in my Freezer so I'd thought I'd start using the High Quality Ground Beef I had rescued recently.  I defrosted a batch of Pasta Sauce I made from one of Mario Battalli's recipes and pulled out some free Veggie Pasta I had.  I browned the meat and then added it to the pasta sauce that I was slowing defrosting.  End result a super HEALTHY, Cheap low calorie Pasta Meal.

And because I'm not calorie counting.. I added a bunch of Parmesan Cheese.

Pret A Manger's Curry Egg Arugula Sandwich

The other day, I got a craving for Pret's Curry Egg Arugula Sandwich...which is so so ridiculously expensive at least $5 for a small meatless sandwich (ok yes PRET does use organic everything and cagefree eggs) but seriously kinda ridiculous.  And then it hit me!!!  I had organic bread for Le Pain Quotidien still in my freezer and lots of organic Arugula from my food rescues.  I basically just hard boiled eggs the prior night and brough some condiment mayo from resturants and put in a zip lock my seasonings of curry powder, salt and pepper and it was the most amazing work lunch ever!

So I'd thought I'd post about it today since I just had to share this yummi cheap meal.

Below are my freegan ingredients.

What you need to make this is 

2 Hard Boiled Eggs

2 Tablespoons Mayo

1 Teaspoon Curry Powder

Handful of Arugula

Salt and Pepper to taste

Bread if you want to make it a sandwich

Add mayo in bowl with seasonings.  Mix.

Add in your hard boiled eggs and mash with back of fork.

Then mix everything or if your doing this at work shake your tupperware.

Adjust seasonings if you wish.  

Transfer mix to your bread that you've layered with Arugula.  

Or if you have left overs just mix in more Arugula for a Salad!

I'm just blown away by how much a difference Arugula makes !

Freegan Meal Ideas

One of the most common obstacles, I used to face when wanting a Tuna Sandwich was never having Celery , bread or Mayo on hand.  So while I was lucky enough to get Celery on one of my more recent hauls, it gave me the prefect idea to make a Tuna Sandwich.  I even instead of mayo used some of the packaged coleslaw packs (I had stretched to a potato salad) to stretch my tuna further.  Basically I added canned tuna, mixed it with my potato cole slaw, some chopped celery and added on to a bed of kale (also from my organic salad freegan find) and put on seeded Italian bread!

This has to be one of the fanciest tuna sandwiches I've ever made and everything but the tuna was from my Freegan food rescues.

Freegan Meal

Sometimes, I just get so lazy and want to quickly microwave a meal.  But at the same time the most difficult part of batch cooking is getting your Veggies in.  I personally, just hate hate making salads, I hate chopping and drying veggies.  So finding all that packaged salad was like godsend to me.  So in an effort to use my freegan findings.  

I made a huge batch of fried plantains from the 4 that I rescued.

There was a lot more but I ate it so fast and was to lazy to take a picture after it was fresh and hot.  Seriously it was so yummi and it was my first time making it.  

So I basically ate 1/2 the salad in this prepackaged box and about 2 plantains worth fried.  I still contend it was a healthy meal because of the salad and plantains are healthy too.

AWESOME freegan meal!!

what I did with the rest