???? I Wanted to Share Our $5 Turkey Lunch Before This Lunch Meat Goes to Waste

David has been home the past couple days so we’ve been able to have lunch with Bradley and Charlie. I wanted to share our $5 lunch idea with you today, or really just what we’re having for lunch, which is one of our $5 meals and under as we finish the turkey that’s left in the lunch meat package so nothing goes to waste in our home.

Because when you have teens, if they eat something once there’s no guarantee they’re going to want it again, and a week later that same package is still sitting there half open in the fridge looking like it needs to be used but nobody really wants to touch it because it doesn’t look as fresh as it did in the beginning.

So that turkey lunchmeat just becomes one of those things you keep seeing every time you open the fridge and thinking we really need to go ahead and use that before it gets pushed back and forgotten. Which happens more and more.

That’s really how a lot of lunches happen around here. Not from a plan or a menu or anything written out, but just from opening the fridge and figuring out what needs to be used up and what can be turned into something quick without overthinking it.

Today it was turkey, and even though we might have already had a turkey sandwich earlier in the week, I don’t really stick to the idea that it has to be the same thing every time because the goal is just to use it before it goes to waste, not to make it feel like we’re eating the same lunch over and over again.

So instead of repeating the exact same sandwich, I just change how it shows up depending on the day. Some days it becomes a warm turkey melt in the skillet, other days it’s wrapped up in a tortilla, and sometimes it’s just rolled up with cheese when I don’t feel like turning anything on or standing in the kitchen any longer than I have to. It’s all the same ingredients, just put together in whatever way fits the moment.

Today Charlie, Bradley and David went with a turkey melt because they wanted something warm and filling but I also didn’t want anything complicated, just something I could put together quickly and still feel like I made an actual lunch instead of grabbing random snacks and calling it a meal.

So I took bread, turkey, and cheese and put it in a skillet until everything melted together and the bread got golden on the outside, and it turned into one of those simple lunches that doesn’t take much effort but still feels like something real when you sit down to eat it. Why they enjoyed there sandwiches I had Turkey, Cheese and Crackers.

And that’s really what I keep coming back to most days, that it’s not the complicated meals that make life run smoother around here, it’s the simple ones that don’t take a lot of thinking or planning or steps, the ones you can make while you’re still doing something else and just need to get food on the table without it turning into a whole production.

???? SAVEABLE RECIPE: SIMPLE TURKEY MELT

For this recipe you will need bread of your choice, any variety or brand of turkey lunch meat, sliced cheese any variety again, and a little butter or mayo if you want the bread to crisp up in the skillet.

You start by building a simple sandwich with turkey and cheese between two slices of bread. If you want that golden outside, you lightly butter the bread or spread a thin layer of mayo on the outside. I will stick with butter I think. What about you?

Then you place the sandwich into a skillet over medium heat and cook it until the bread turns golden brown and the cheese inside melts completely, flipping once so both sides toast evenly. Once it’s done, you just slice it and serve it warm.

And if you don’t want bread that day, you can use the same turkey and cheese and roll it up in a tortilla instead for a quick wrap, or roll the turkey around cheese sticks for a no-bread version, or even serve it with crackers if that’s what you’ve got in the fridge. It all comes from the same idea of just using what’s already there and turning it into something quick that actually gets eaten instead of wasted.

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates