Recipe Brainstorming From My Cuban Bodega Haul

I’ve been avoiding any big box grocery store buying, ordering produce and eggs from local farms offering no-contact pick-up. Which leaves us to get creative about staples like citrus (not available from the South Florida farms right now) and non-perishables. I hadn’t needed to venture out yet, but when we finally decided to do a restock we went across the street to the local independent grocer, a small Cuban market, kind of akin to a bodega.

I picked up this stuff and thought I’d share some of my brainstorm about what I might make with my new goods:

tostones

arroz con frijoles (with sofrito using the peppers from my garden)

tuna pasta salad (times like these call for cafeteria-style staples that I can make for lunch and eat the leftovers for three days in a row)

those baby bananas turned out to be a kind of starchy mini plantains - going to try and fry them in butter and cinnamon, like why not? served with rice and beans.

picadillo (this is one of my homestyle favorites and I have some ground beef in the freezer and olives and raisins in the pantry - oh baby!)

margaritas! and spicy margaritas with peppers from my garden!

lots of sardine rice in my donabe with that short grain valencia rice. Spain meets Japan vibes.

grabbed that frozen sweet corn fritter batter because I was intrigued, but have no plan. maybe I’ll add some of the scallions I’ve been regrowing on my window sill and some feta cheese? or serve them with some shrimp, southern style? I have some greens in my garden I can throw in if I go that route.

canned caldo gallego soup for an easy lunch or dinner maybe top it with popcorn, something I learned in Ecuador

the frozen fruit pulp has already been turned into piña coladas and the passionfruit will also become a frozen drink for hammock lounging on the weekend, pretending that my friends are here to enjoy them with us