Forums » Smalltalk » Improvised Meals

Ever had a moment where you've got nothing really in the house for putting together a traditional meal and can't be bothered going out shopping, so you've just thought "I guess I'll just improvise"?

I'm curious as to whether anyone has had any success with their improvised dishes, perhaps even to an extent where it might even be better than a similar traditional meal.

Today, I found that most of my go-to lunch recipes were missing key ingredients. Usually when that's the case, I throw together a soup of some kind. Well spaghetti caught my eye today and I wondered if I could make some spaghetti ramen with it. Now, I've never actually cooked ramen before, but I had a quick look at a recipe and figured I could probably wing it with some similar ingredients to the ones listed.

So I threw the spaghetti in with some veg stock, a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, a dash of rapeseed oil, some mixed lettuce, salt and ground ginger... the result was actually pretty delicious.

This sounds like a fun thread!

My lazy improv meals make heavy use of red/green pesto. It's an instant win button for cooking IMO. It's great with scrambled eggs, quiches and omelettes as well as rice and pasta. Whenever I make tomato soup/bolognaise I add a big splat of red pesto and the result always tastes super fancy.

I am a cheap man.
I grab a sausage and roll it in bread.
Ketchup added if necessary.

Now I have a hot dog.

I have previously grabbed two breads and made a sausage sandwich before.

Honestly I feel as though all of my meals are improvised, these days.

We usually have an abundance of eggs, so I'll invent different ways of serving those. My recent attempt at breakfast was scrambled salsa eggs using leftover hot salsa that would have otherwise spoiled. Half an avocado on the side and it was a very warming breakfast/brunch! If you like spicy food, that is.

Another thing I like doing is, instead of scrambling or making an omelette, any leftover vegetables kicking around will get chucked into whisked egg seasoned with salt & pepper, and put into an oven muffin tray. The egg muffins are great for an easy meal.

i haven't had a traditional dish in like years. it's getting serious. i'll mix wild rice with quinoa and some peas if i don't really want to actually cook, since everything just boils if i don't already have it made. it's actually pretty good if you add garlic powder, rosemary, and salt. i'm usually out of bread bc my roommates like to eat it but i p much always have soft shell tortillas on hand so i make sandwiches out of those a lot

All of my cooking is lazy. Basically I just throw miscellaneous vegetables into a cauldron of chicken broth and call it soup. The trick is to add so many spices that people think you know what you're doing.

Also, if you ever make a curry or thick stew or something that turns out too salty, pour it over white rice. Now it's edible again.