Chef Jack

Mini chocolate chip banana muffins. Yeah, they are good. Really good. These past few weeks have been all about zero waste and working with what you got. I have had some interesting meals along the way. Just decided that is what today’s post will be about. The best and the worst.

Easily the worst was some leftover steak over rice……covered with a can of cream of mushroom soup. I thought it would be good. It wasn’t. It wasn’t even remotely good. It was bland and disgusting.

A few things I have made for the first time that will become staples are macaroni salad, Mexican rice and fresh squeezed orange juice. The macaroni salad is probably my favorite new item. It was by complete mistake. I was looking for a way to use some bacon that was about to go bad. I found a recipe for some bacon avocado macaroni salad. I didn’t have any avocado….which I love….but I had strangely just made a ton of elbow noodles for some pasta a couple nights before. I never use elbow noodles! Anyway, it was so good. All of those noodles were eventually made into some different versions of macaroni salad.

Before I get to my favorite meal in isolation I want to talk about the luxury of having a couple fruit trees in our backyard. When we lived in San Jose we had an orange tree and for the ten years that we lived there I ate zero of the oranges from that tree. Honestly, I didn’t trust them for some reason. Plus it was a tiny little tree. Now we have a massive lemon tree and a massive orange tree. Both have a ton of fruit on them and I have been using it. The lemons have been used for the macaroni salad dressing, I’ve had some fresh squeezed orange juice, the boys have had orange slices, we made some lemonade and I’ve used the oranges to garnish some old fashions. The list goes on and these trees are the best…..I’m grateful.

If you’ve been following along you probably already know. Spam and eggs over rice. I add some sautéed onions and I was so excited to learn how to make a good macaroni salad that I can add to have the complete Hawaiian experience. A little sriracha on top and I am golden. It is so amazing. I’m sadly out of spam now so I am bummed. I will restock and with even more after falling in love with it even more over the past couple weeks.

Finally, I am glad I am still running. I’ve been eating so much rice and pasta and drinking so much alcohol in isolation that I’d probably have gained a ton of weight if I wasn’t. That is one of the most beneficial reasons of running a lot. I don’t really mind what I eat. I do to a certain extent but for the most part I eat what I want and burn off the calories and carbs with my runs.