Making something out of nothing

I was out of town two weekends in a row and decided that for the week in between I could skip the grocery store. I did go by the market near my house for milk and a prepared meal once, but other than that I was digging through my pantry.

When I got back in town on Monday, I knew there was no avoiding the grocery store since by that point it had been about two weeks. I’m sure I will delve into this in another post, but I’m not good at grocery shopping. I rarely make a list because it seems like when I do I don’t actually make it into the store with the list, which defeats the point. But without a list I almost always forget something and I come home with something I already have three of in at home.

Anyway after eight hours in the car, this day at the grocery store was particularly random. Here’s what I came home with:

Ground beef
Taco seasoning
Shrimp
Yogurt
Grapes
Clorox wipes
Sharp cheddar
Bagel Bites
3 muffin mixes
Pizza crusts
Mozzarella cheese
Bisquick
Shampoo
Granola bars

(Clearly I intended to eat tacos this week, but I got home and realized that while I have five packets of taco seasoning in my cabinets, I don’t have any tortillas, nor did I buy lettuce for a taco salad. I also forgot contact lens solution.)
 
With this random collection plus what was already in my house, I didn’t have a clear plan for dinner on Tuesday. As I walked home from work I used my  AllRecipes iPhone app to find a recipe. 

I put in shrimp as a main meal (because my mom showed me that it can be a non-leftover meal), and I landed on Angel Hair Pasta with Garlic Shrimp and Broccoli and proceeded to leave out everything I didn’t like or have. But I came out with a pretty good meal that I just made in a smaller portion and therefore only had to eat once.

Here’s what I ended up using, sorry I didn’t actually measure anything a rare thing for me:
Butter
Flour
Milk
Heavy Whipping Cream
Pesto
Salt and Pepper
Garlic
Shrimp
Olive oil
Angel hair pasta

The final product:

I wish I could say that I came up with something great Wednesday and Thursday as well, but I had things to go to in the evenings and I resorted to cereal and Bagel Bites. Maybe next week I’ll pull together tacos.

What do you make when you seem to have nothing or nothing that goes together?