So this casserole...

...involved a conglomeration of ingredients found amongst the various sundry goods given to us by my good friend Lynne, who recently moved to Florida (or is trying to, rather, as they are currently stuck in Canada) and my sister-in-law Jen who is moving back to California. Frankly, it is always a thrill to receive food. Thank you, Lynne and Jen! We maintain a pretty tight food budget and having 5+ boxes of new foods, ingredients, condiments, and cookware is such a treat.

That being said, Lynne gave us this gyro meat. Hmm. What to do with such a thing? There was a huge amount of it, and gyros themselves required the purchase of pita bread which wasn't going to happen in the short time I had to create a meal.

I tend to cook sporadically. Meal preparation doesn't necessarily happen right before the meal itself. In this particular case, I had a spare half hour and a whole bunch of random ingredients to throw together for the next day's lunch or dinner.

I greased my glass baking pan (which made no difference, by the way, as my soaking pan will attest--globs of tortilla currently struggle to get off) and used scissors to slice up a bunch of whole wheat flour tortillas into small strips, lining the bottom of the dish. I then found a random can of white kidney beans and poured them on top, spreading them out.

Out came the gyro strips, which I arranged in a lovely multi-layer crisscross pattern, sort of like a quilt made of lamb and beef (sorry...couldn't resist the bizarre visual there). Out came the three bags of frozen veggies, all scanty in and of themselves but together a nice combination of onions, corn, and an assorted blend.

Then delved into the mashed potato box. I have never made mashed potatoes from a box. However, the sad and pathetic end that befell my electric mixer (another story for another time) has made mashed potatoes a rarity in our home, as I have not replaced the poor thing. So I whipped up a batch, peppered it to the extreme, and glopped it on top of the other ingredients. Upon serving, I topped the plates with feta cheese. (gyro meat, feta...ya know)

YUMMY!!!

It's so strange to write a blog without having fun little happy faces and emoticons to insert here and there. If I could right now, I'd add a happy face with a big tongue hanging out while jumping up and down! It was so good!

Speaking of which, since I'm on the subject of intense kitchen drama (I know you're feeling it), we almost had a tragedy befall our fish, who managed to survive a collision with the glass baking dish used for this very meal. The dish took out a whole chunk of glass from their bowl, pouring icky nasty fish water onto my lovely orange countertop.

Humorously, my own pet fishies when I was a child all met their doom when my stepfather grabbed a pot and filled it with water, getting the fish into it after their tank shattered and drained from a similar collision. Unfortunately, the water he tried to save them in was inadvertently scalding hot and killed them instantly.

As for our fish, they are still kicking, now hanging out in a rather stylin' kombucha tea jar (which looks much prettier with fish in it, rather than kombucha tea).

Also, I just had a bit of inspiration hit about the future of our floor here in our longsuffering townhouse. Must price some fancy schmancy linoleum which our future tenant will eye suspiciously.