Using up what I have

January 7, 2025 10:42 PM

So I had most of a lemon sitting in my fridge for the past week because it was left over from my hummus and my green beans. I really could have gotten by with a single lemon that day, but I ended up buying two, and here I was with 4/5 of a lemon. I was struggling to find a creative use for this lemon, so I decided to make more hummus.

I just stuck with regular hummus today, but man, homemade hummus is so good even without any fun add ins. The only thing it was missing was some pita bread. I ate it with cucumbers instead, and even though I don't really love cucumber, I had half a cucumber in my fridge so I figured I should try to get through it.

I actually was originally going to make some Mediterranean hummus bowls, but I ended up pivoting to something else entirely after I bought some queso fresco and one of those pre-marinated pork butts from Aldi.

I had a lot of random ingredients in my fridge, so I decided to try to use those up rather than buy even more stuff. Pulled pork and queso fresco is kind of Mexican leaning I guess? Maybe I could make a burrito bowl! I had some lettuce, a tomato, some onions. This could work.

I did end up buying a container of sour cream and a lime from the store today because I thought that this needed some sort of sauce. I thought about making a salsa, but a lime crema seemed easier so I ran with that.

I also ended up pickling the onions because I had some red wine vinegar and I figured this could give my bowl some extra flavor.

What I didn't include was rice. For once in my life, I actually don't have any cilantro and I didn't feel like buying any more. I did have some potatoes though. So uh, I guess that's the starch in this dish. I've been wanting to roast potatoes with mayonnaise for a while, and even though that doesn't really make any sense with the rest of the ingredients I just rolled with it.

Okay, these potatoes were actually so good. I didn't follow a recipe or measure anything, but I threw in some mayo, some garlic, some thyme, some paprika, some salt, some pepper, and the rest of a container of dried rosemary that I've had for who knows how many years. And then I roasted it. Maybe one day I'll post a proper recipe of this.

As far as the dish as a whole? Eh, it was kind of weird. Honestly, the worst part was the pulled pork. I felt like it was way too salty and kind of overcooked, but maybe the overcooked part is my fault. But I did still eat everything that I put in my plate-bowl, and then I munched on more potatoes when I was done.