Sundays in my kitchen are pretty busy. I love to spend a large part of my day in the kitchen, playing. After a trip to the farmers’ market I like to clean out the fridge. This generally leads to figuring what I can do with all of the leftover produce from the week. And what I can do with dinner leftovers.

This Sunday I made some burritos with leftover black beans with corn and tomatoes I had. Sometimes I just put leftovers from meals in the freezer to eat later. But I cook everyday, so often, I forget about what’s in the freezer. So I’m trying not to put so much in the freezer. Steve will eat the burritos throughout the week, so it works well.

I also had some fresh beets in the fridge, so I pickled them. They were very nearly on their way out (meaning garbage) but I didn’t want to waste them. Luckily once I peeled them, they were fine. I’m trying to pickle something each week because I love pickled vegetables on my salads (even more so since I’ve become a plant based eater). And since I eat a big salad nearly every day, I eat a lot of picked veggies.
I also made a pot of beans on Saturday. These turned into Rajma Masala (Indian chili), for Mondays dinner, and my weekly salad. Every weekend I make a salad to eat off of throughout the week. Last week it was a barley salad, this week it’s beans with onions, garlic, celery, carrot, sun dried tomatoes and a quick vinaigrette with fresh frozen thyme. Fresh frozen thyme just means that I had a ton of fresh thyme so I picked all of the leaves and put them in a jar in the freezer for later use. Super handy.

I also had a bunch of leeks from last weeks farmers’ market trip. So I chopped and cleaned those up for easy use during the week. I’m thinking I’ll make some pasta with a caramelized leek and mushroom sauce. And there’s also a ginormous (about 16 inches long) head of bok choy that I’ve had for a couple of weeks (I love how long cabbages last). I’m thinking this would go nicely braised with a miso glaze.

I have a few other odds and ends, but they’ll just get added to salads during the week. I’m thinking that avocado I found in the fridge will go nicely with my cold bean salad. And maybe that lonely parsnip can get julienned and tossed in with my salad greens. As for the very large bunch of Italian parsley, I’ll be a garnishing queen this week!

Spending my Sundays playing in my kitchen feeds my soul. And even though I’m thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day, I wouldn’t change it for anything. It’s my thing and I love it.