Almost every time I hop out on the bike, I think about what I’m going to have for lunch when I get home. That’s actually a good part of the fun while I ride.

Here’s how some of that thinking goes and what I do about it – all about putting “imagination is your only limit” to practice.

The other day, while I was out with a good group of Hickory Velo Club buds, it all started with a quiet monologue. “Shrimp’s gone. Finished beef last night. Want something quick. I do have cooked pasta in the fridge. Eggs…cheese… That’s a start…”

Here’s how I put that to action, all on the fly (aka, improvised as I was putting the dish together).

I chopped cooked pasta, cracked 3 eggs, added shots of chili lime powder, ginger sauce and teriyaki sauce to the eggs and mixed it all up.

While the pan warmed over medium heat, I grabbed a fully ripened plantain and garlic from the top of my fridge and cut and chopped them as shown below.

When the pan warmed, I added a slab of butter, swirled it in the pan to cover the pan surface,…

…and added the cut plantains and topped them with a good shake of ground turmeric and ground ginger. I let the plantains brown on both sides for a few minutes, as shown below, and then added the pasta and scrambled egg mix.

I then added chopped garlic and some sliced cheese and let that all cook until the bottom of the eggs just started to firm (about a minute).

Once the eggs started to firm up, I scooped and turned the egg mix every 30 seconds or so to let them cook cook evenly until the eggs were just about solid, and then turned off the stove heat.

I slid pan off the warm burner, let the eggs finish cooking on their own and chopped both a piece of dried spiced mango and half a small avocado.

I finished by scooping a spoon of the cooked egg, pasta and plantain into a bowl and topped it all with the cut avocado and spiced mango, a shot of parmesan cheese, salad dressing and a tiny spoon of a spice mix called Harissa (big time kick), until what I had looked like…

…this.

Killer flavor! Something I’ve never had before. And all a terrific exclamation point to a fun ride with good buds!