The Veggie Tray That Keeps On Giving!

I have made it known in previous writings that my husband is a consultant. He does a little bit of traveling for clients and many times I get to go with him. We take out daughter and she learns about the different areas of the country. I take care of stuff in the room such as making the room presentable for housekeeping, cooking/meal prep/procurement of breakfast, daily activities and schedules and packing up everything when it is time to go. The family was traveling for business again, and my husband decided he wanted a suite. He wanted to have a separate bedroom to lay our 3 year old daughter down in when it got late so she could get somewhat of an appropriate nights sleep and he could continue working. So I claimed this suite as my own and decided that my husband rented a condo for me in the Chicago suburbs, for my birthday (10/6). What a guy! What a present! Here it is:

We were out camping just hours before we got to our hotel room. (It has been a crazy couple of months). There was a potluck dinner on Saturday night among our camping group (we own teardrop camping trailers. Look them up, they are awesome!) There were two vegetable trays left over from dinner.

One of the people in change of the gathering, who reads my blog, gave me the vegetable trays and said she wanted to see a post on how I used them. I gleefully accepted the challenge and am excited to show you all the couple of dishes those vegetable trays provided!

Easiest thing to do is to use the veggies for veggies and hummus for lunch, so I started there.

I took the rest of the celery, broccoli and carrots, cut them up and added them to a pot(s) of more veggies. I added a container of vegetable broth and a container of water to the pot(s) and simmered for 2 hours.

I then stole my mother’s cheat for making a thick soup broth without using cream, and I added a small package of instant mashed potatoes to the pot(s).

This was my first time doing it, so I wish I would have had more liquid – and I would have if I was at home! I have a witches cauldron at home for making soups and stews. I cackle and call myself a modern day witch as a stir it and add more spices. My husband stays clear of the kitchen. Any way… I made a veggie stew! I LOVED IT! The whole pot(s) had roughly less than 1,000 calories!

Tuesday is Taco Tuesday! I took 1 butter packet that you can find at a continental breakfast and warmed it in the pan. I added an onion, bell pepper, celery and some carrots and let those cook up. Once these veggies were softening, I added the rest of the cherry tomatoes from the veggie tray, halved. Once again, I cooked those down a bit. Then I added a can of black beans, drained and rinsed. I warmed them. I used this as my “meat” for my tacos for Taco Tuesday! I ate mine in burrito form, but this is the dish I made for my daughter:

I know, I know – Curry rotates on Thursdays, but because I wanted to use the food in my fridge, I made curry on Wednesday this week. We used Thursday as a leftover day so I could use up the food we have here and not have to transport it. The peas in the pod were the only thing that was left in the veggie tray (as I did not use the dip. I questioned the integrity of the dip after it had been sitting out). And here is a secret about peas…I do not like raw peas. I think they are nasty. So I cook them! Just one of my oddities! The peas got thrown in to my slow cooker curry.

I cooked all of the veggies, the can of drained and rinsed black beans and the jar or curry sauce on low for 7 hours.

It turned out really well. We served it over a package of microwaveable rice.

So there you have it! I used the veggies in the veggie tray! 4 meals worth! It was fun getting creative with the cooking process (Taco Tuesday) and making the peas work (curry).

My daughter did get a treat for breakfast while we were here. She got a donut one morning for breakfast and she got cereal a different day. Here is her Happy Breakfast:

And this brings us to a close. I had a great time cooking with a real kitchen this week in my spacious “Chicago Condo”. : ] But now I must pack up my room and load all of our belongings into our wagon, in the rain, with a 3 year old.

What is a treat for your children when traveling? Let me know in the comments! Have a great one people!