Review the item:
Todd is an amazing cook, he can look into a nearly empty refrigerator and
put together an interesting dinner;
yesterday, for example, he made a sliced pickle and mayonnaise sandwich,
using an old blueberry muffin as bread.
The semicolon between dinner and yesterday is entirely correct. At this spot, there are two main clauses legally joined together. He can look into a nearly empty refrigerator ... begins the first main clause. He made a sliced pickle and mayonnaise sandwich ... is the next main clause.
A semicolon is a strong enough mark of punctuation to join two main clauses.