30 Plant Monday: Fridge Foraging, Coffee Love, and Rescue Teddies

It’s Monday (well actually it was late Tuesday when I wrote this but we’ll skip over that detail), which means it’s time for a fresh plant count. Since I reset my 30 plant tally at the beginning of each week, Mondays are the perfect day to record my day on a plate (before the inevitable repeat offenders start sneaking in later in the week). While we usually stick to “Meat-Free Monday,” I had some chicken that needed using up, so dinner veered slightly off course—but hey, that’s real life. As always, my day featured coffee (obviously), some enthusiastic fridge foraging, and even a few rogue Tiny Teddies. This post is just my plate—I haven’t included the rest of the family’s meals yet (still figuring out how to capture that delicious chaos), and since I’ve been on the 30 plant journey a bit longer than they have, my habits are slightly different anyway. So for now, you get me, my coffee, and my crumb-covered notes.

Breakfast: Coffee and Quinoa

My food day began at about 6.30 am with a long black made at home by my beloved coffee machine. I am an on again, off again intermittent faster and I’ve found that my body works best if I hold off eating for a few hours after I wake up. My daily long black is the perfect way to hold me over until I am ready for the rest of my breakfast.

Then came breakfast: a colourful quinoa bowl that I like to call “Fridge Fruit Fiesta”. Each week I make a big batch of stewed leftover fruit—this week’s blend featured apples, pears, orange, and frozen blueberries with a good sprinkle of cinnamon and some mint leaves that were on the brink of a wilted death. I tossed that fruity compote over some fluffy quinoa that I made over the weekend and heated it all for about 2 minutes in the microwave. I then added a dollop of almond butter, a scoop of lactose-free cottage cheese (I have always loved cottage cheese and I am thrilled that what was once an almost embarrassing food choice has become popular thanks to the protein junkies), and sprinkled ground flaxseed and pumpkin seeds over the top like a crunchy little crown. It was warm, cozy, and tasted like someone who’s got their life together. (Spoiler: I don’t, but breakfast says otherwise.)

Plant tally so far: ~11
Coffee (it absolutely 100% counts and the experts all agree on this), quinoa, apples, pears, orange, blueberries, cinnamon, mint, almond, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds

Morning Tea: Oat Latte and Grocery Runs

Out and about doing the groceries (a heroic act that deserves a treat), I bought an oat latte but managed to resist the temptation of the delicious looking chocolate croissants in the cabinet at the bakery.

Plant tally… questionably creeping up:~12
Oats (I am on the fence about whether I can count commercial plant milks in my tally… more research is needed but for now I am going to let it slip in!)

Lunch: Fridge Soup and Fancy Baguette

Lunch was Fridge Soup—a concoction I try to make every Sunday afternoon (before the new groceries arrive) from whatever vegetables are threatening to expire in the back of the crisper. This week’s soup included: onions, carrots, sweet potato, spinach, sweet corn, broccoli, canned crushed tomatoes, and half a carton of vegetable stock I had leftover from another meal (waste not, want not, right?). I also chucked in a good sprinkle of oregano and some dried barley that had been in a container in the pantry for a very long time. After I reheated it, I sprinkled it with some lactose free grated cheese (my stomach does better without the lactose but I am not hardcore about it).

I served it with crusty baguette, slathered in real French butter (my avoidance of lactose does not extend to good butter!).

Plant tally looking strong: ~21
Onion, carrot, sweet potato, spinach, corn, broccoli, barley, tomato and oregano (I’m going to consider whether I should be allocating a full point to herbs and spices in a later post but again for now we will go with it)

Afternoon Tea: The Great Cookie Experiment

I fell victim to an Instagram trend (again) and made those 4-ingredient cashew-coconut-choc-chip cookies. I discovered these on Alexandra Lourdes’ YouTube channel here but have adapted them to include pumpkin seeds (a repeat for me after breakfast but it’s a good way to get a seed into the small humans in my family), so maybe they were more of a 5-ingredient rebellion cookie? Regardless, they were decadent, sticky, chewy, and looked like something a toddler would make at playgroup—but tasted divine.

I baked them for 25 minutes (the original recipe said 9-10 minutes, but unless you like cookie soup, I’d go longer). Were they healthy? Absolutely not. Were they planty? Yes, and that’s what counts today.

Plant tally bonus: ~23
Cashew, coconut (plant tip: all I had in the pantry was regular supermarket milk chocolate chips but if I had used 80% dark chocolate I would have been able to count this towards my tally)

Dinner: Marry Me Chicken (Veggie-Boosted Edition)

Dinner was one of our household favourites—Marry Me Chicken—but with a veggie boost. I grated zucchini into the sauce (you can’t taste it so I like to add it to any saucy meal as a vegetable boost), stirred in chopped cherry tomatoes and added extra spinach. There are loads of recipes for Marry Me Chicken out there but I love this one from Taming Twins as the basis for my adapted version. Sarah, from Taming Twins also has a slow cooker version of this which is great for those really busy days. Things were so chaotic by dinner time that I didn’t snap a photo of my plate but I managed to get a few of the cooking process instead.

The kids had broccolini on the side, while my husband and I made do with roast Brussels sprouts and cauliflower—the last remaining souls from last week’s veg box. I roasted them in olive oil, garlic, oregano and thyme until they were crispy little miracles.

Plant tally hitting peak: ~ 31
Zucchini, garlic, basil, lemon, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, olive oil, thyme

Dessert: Tiny Teddies and Fruit (Real Talk)

While the kids had vanilla ice cream with Ice Magic (nostalgia in a bottle), I enjoyed the slightly dry half mandarin that I discovered while unpacking one of the lunch boxes. I followed that with a chaser of uneaten Tiny Teddies from the next compartment. Waste not, snack more.

Plant tally: 32 achieved!
Mandarin

Final Thoughts

I definitely didn’t set out to hit my weekly plant goal in a single day—and to be honest, it’s a bit of a rarity (I can count on one hand how often it’s happened in the last few months). But little habits and hacks, like prepping fruit, grains, and veggies ahead of time, have made the 30 Plant approach feel much more doable. I’ve also learned that being flexible—rescuing fruit, clearing out the fridge, and confidently tossing extra veggies or grains into meals where they don’t traditionally belong—is where the magic happens. The cookies weren’t health food, the soup wouldn’t win any Michelin stars, and yes, there were tiny teddies involved—but somehow it all came together into a tasty, realistic, and plant-packed day.

Until next time!