Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1183411 times)

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1100 on: January 05, 2017, 06:31:18 PM »
Wow, I am actually down to my last can of tuna! Today I topped a green salad with a tuna salad featuring artichoke hearts and capers I have in large supply (CostCo) and a little bit of diced ham.  Used up the last lettuce in the fridge.

Tomorrow I'll use up the last 1.5 cabbages making Unstuffed Cabbage.  On the weekend, the last chicken from the freezer will get roasted along with a big pile of root veggies.

Used up some milk kefir, egg protein and coconut flour in paleo pancakes this morning.

Just have two servings of homemade kombucha, which I'll drink before leaving as well.

Feels like I'm leaving DH with a bare cupboard, but I doubt he'll miss much of it (except maybe his mustards I threw out the other day because they had expired in 2015 - I know they were still probably fine, but he hoards mustard, so we always have like 7 kinds in the fridge).

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1101 on: January 05, 2017, 08:04:46 PM »
*Made blueberry juice today with 5 lb of frozen berries purchased 3 or 4 years ago. Tastes fantastic.

*Baked a very large gluten free blueberry crisp for dessert. Our house guest is gf. 

*Used up most of the Buttermilk Oatmeal Pancakes I froze over Christmas. They freeze great. Reheated thawed Pancakes in microwave and they tasted almost fresh off the griddle.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1102 on: January 06, 2017, 01:28:24 PM »
Just froze a litre of tomato juice (also leftover from NYE cocktails), and got out some taco mince to defrost for dinner.

While in the freezer I found two little dinner rolls with bad freezer burn, so I (guiltily) tossed those.

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1103 on: January 06, 2017, 03:25:04 PM »
I am leaving on Monday morning, so it is getting down to triage time.  I had half a Costco bag of garlic left, so peeled, minced and froze all of it in olive oil in ice cube trays.

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1104 on: January 06, 2017, 03:43:35 PM »
Used up the last of the turkey and some celery in a salad. Decided to use some gourmet flavored olive oils we were gifted to make a mayo dressing. I probably should have tasted the oil first it is HOT. I should have used 1/2 or less and more reg oil. Nope. Still going to eat it all. Darn hotness.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1105 on: January 06, 2017, 04:35:49 PM »
I have deli-bought semi-dried tomatoes (in oil) leftover from NYE.

I've read a couple of posts online that says they should last in the fridge for up to six months stored in an air-tight jar.

Anyone have experience to the contrary?

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1106 on: January 06, 2017, 04:49:04 PM »
I have deli-bought semi-dried tomatoes (in oil) leftover from NYE.

I've read a couple of posts online that says they should last in the fridge for up to six months stored in an air-tight jar.

Anyone have experience to the contrary?

Becuase there are all sorts of different options for contamination for deli foods, and oil isn't that great for preserving, it would be better off if you use them. They can be blended into any tomato sauce, chopped up and added to stews (I always add a few to my lamb stews) added to the chickpeas to flavour a batch of hummus.

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1107 on: January 06, 2017, 11:33:10 PM »
Used up the cranberry sauce I made at Christmas with the two whole chickens I made for dinner tonite.

Tomorrow I need to cut up a bunch of apples and make apple dip for the kids. (Cream cheese, a little brown sugar and vanilla)

HappierAtHome

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1108 on: January 07, 2017, 12:04:38 AM »
I have deli-bought semi-dried tomatoes (in oil) leftover from NYE.

I've read a couple of posts online that says they should last in the fridge for up to six months stored in an air-tight jar.

Anyone have experience to the contrary?

I've found that they smell funky well before six months.

Why not just freeze them?

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1109 on: January 07, 2017, 01:14:15 AM »
I've got a version of the lentil loaf above in the oven :)

Was going to use buckwheat flour & rice crumbs but there were weevils and larvae, yuck! Great reasons to use up the pantry. I made normal breadcrumbs and used wheat flour.

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1110 on: January 07, 2017, 05:48:28 AM »
I have deli-bought semi-dried tomatoes (in oil) leftover from NYE.

I've read a couple of posts online that says they should last in the fridge for up to six months stored in an air-tight jar.

Anyone have experience to the contrary?

I've found that they smell funky well before six months.

Why not just freeze them?

Yes, pop them in the freezer.  Botulism can be a problem with things stored in oil, so I wouldn't keep them around for ages.  More of a problem for garlic in oil, but still not worth it.  https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/4385e/

Rural

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1111 on: January 07, 2017, 09:29:50 AM »
Took it too far with a tortilla past the expiration date last night and regretted it, though only in a discomfort way, not an oh-my-God way. But the rest of that package goes out. Actually thinking about it, it's the first time in a couple of months I've thrown food out (other than scraps to the compost when chopping veggies), so I'm proud of that progress.


Now I need some new tortillas so I don't throw out any black beans or sour cream in a couple of days. May try my hand at making some.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1112 on: January 07, 2017, 09:45:55 AM »
Made "fit for you" bars- a modular granola bar recipe. Pick one ingredient per category.
https://www.hy-vee.com/mobile/curtis-stone-recipes/recipe-detail.aspx?recipe=7843

We also added toasted quinoa, because we had it.

These are always fun to make to use up a few pantry items.

frugalfelicia

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1113 on: January 07, 2017, 12:33:03 PM »
Have a box of bran cereal expiring soon. Think I will make up a batch or two of muffins and freeze them.

SingleMomDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1114 on: January 07, 2017, 02:33:36 PM »
Thanks to the inspiration from this thread, I listed food contents in my kitchen and meal planned around that. $21 spent on groceries this week.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1115 on: January 07, 2017, 03:15:05 PM »
Made a smoothie for lunch. Although the bananas were new, the strawberries have been in the freezer for over a year and used some pantry milk powder.
Also ate another container of leftover stir fry.

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1116 on: January 07, 2017, 04:29:45 PM »
iowajes, Thanks for the tip on the Fit for You bars. I had a similar base recipe but it required not-fit -for-you marshmallows!

In the last two days, we used up a giant 3 litre tin of olive oil, a bottle of avocado oil and a container of sunflower oil but now I actually have to buy oil :-/ since I make my own salad dressings and bread products every week plus a little baking here and there.

ETA: Tonite I made a dessert that used up a 1/4 bag of chocolate chips, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, and 1/2 a bag of graham crumbs. Also amalgamated a bag and storage box of coconut into just the box. Pantry is finally looking reasonable which is now motivating me to get in there and organize it! Organized = frugal because I'm using up what I already have instead of buying new stuff
« Last Edit: January 07, 2017, 09:39:34 PM by 1967mama »

seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1117 on: January 08, 2017, 12:25:47 PM »
The weather and roads have been questionable during this winter storm. I really do not want to change out of my Pjs and fight the roads to go to the store. So this morning I worked in the kitchen to make food for the week.

I made some (stale) corn flake cookies using peanut butter and random chocolate chips I had in the pantry.

I made some lunch box snacks using up some oatmeal and other bits and random in the pantry and made it all stick together using coconut oil. My 6 year old should love them in her lunch this week...I used sprinkles and every little girly loves sprinkles.

I started a roast yesterday in the crock pot for dinners this week.

Baked up some sweet potatoes, some random frozen veggies.

Made a pot of lentils and will cook some salmon for my lunches for the next few days.

I need to figure out what to do with some corn and zucchini that are in my freezer.   

My pantry and bank account are both looking much better by this challenge.

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1118 on: January 09, 2017, 06:48:59 AM »
Sitting at the airport, so I'm done with this challenge for awhile, except for ensuring that I only buy what I can use up over the next eight weeks.  Here are fridge and pantry pics.  The large containers just have a serving of leftovers each, which DH will probably eat for dinner tonight.  Feeling pretty good, though we didn't get through as many parsnips and sweet potatoes based I would have liked.

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1119 on: January 09, 2017, 06:56:13 AM »
Not sure how to attach two pics to the same post

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1120 on: January 09, 2017, 08:30:50 AM »
Yay for empty shelves, horsepoor!

Been working things down. Starting another round of Whole 30 today, so yesterday went through and gathered a box of stuff up (mostly given to us over Christmas) that we will not eat and giving some to the food bank and some to family members who will eat it.

We also boxed up anything that isn't Whole 30 complaint for the next month. That was another tote of food that we'll be moving to our cold room - but it was much less than I expected, so we are making progress!

I've got some chicken stock going in the crockpot so emptying a bit of freezer space.

I have a bit of a weird one I need some help with: Lamb Fat. We purchased a lamb from the farmer and it came with some fat. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I rendered it and threw it in the freezer, I still don't know what to do with it :) Anyone have any suggestions?


4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1121 on: January 09, 2017, 10:18:23 AM »
I have no idea what to do with lamb fat, but I'm sure you'll get great recommendations.

I used up a bag of egg noodles (chicken noodle soup) and a few containers of spices (we still have way too many).  I've also been drinking down my tea collection. I also grabbed a large bottle of Perrier from the back of our fridge that we have from a party last fall.  I'll drink it today during a boring meeting (bubbles make water fun!). 

I also made banana bread with 3 bananas that were past their best by date. 

I made stock with the chicken bone collection in our freezer.  Now I have delicious chicken noodle soup made with homemade stock and more room in my freezer! 

I also made a chicken and rice casserole (chicken breasts, rice, cream of soup, paprika and a little pepper).  I wasn't sure I'd like it, but my husband loves it.  We still have 4 cans of cream of chicken soup (WHY?!). 

DTaggart

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1122 on: January 09, 2017, 01:08:58 PM »
RE lamb fat - I've never personally cooked with any kind of rendered animal fat, but I've seen other people just use it for normal frying... maybe some sautéed onions or other vegetables, or potatoes?

I had another good week in my pantry challenge and have done minimal grocery shopping:

  • Ate the last of the frozen spaghetti sauce. Now I have two bags of homemade turkey meatballs to work on, will combine these with jarred sauce (I have a shelf full of it!)
  • I knew I was working late last Thursday, so for dinner Wednesday I made the last meatloaf from the freezer and baked potatoes. Made extra potatoes and salad that night and had half the meatloaf leftover, so Thursday night dinner was just re-heated leftovers. +1 for planning ahead!
  • I decided that Saturday night we would eat the 4 hot dogs that came in our Omaha Steaks package Xmas gift. I almost never eat hot dogs, and buy uncured ones on the rare occasions I do eat them (camping usually), but I figured one meal wouldn't kill me. I had a bit of a conundrum though with the buns, since we only had 4 hot dogs and buns are pretty much universally sold in packs of 8 or more. I did not want to get stuck with 4 extra buns to try and use up, and frankly I didn't want to buy buns at all if I could avoid it. So, I used a recipe I have for home made hamburger buns, and just made 4 burger and 4 hot dog shaped buns. They didn't look perfect, but they tasted just fine. I have plenty of uses for the remaining 4 buns. I also had one last sweet potato lying around, so I made fries to go along (and salads too, so it wasn't completely a nutritional mess of a meal).
  • I had one small russet potato left from a 5-lb bag, so Sunday morning I grated it up and fried it into glorious hash brown perfection for breakfast.
  • Sunday night I was originally going to make Chicken Chow Mein, but found that I had 2 oranges left from last week's shopping, so I used one of them and made orange chicken with rice and some frozen vegetables instead.

Of most significance this week is the fact that HUBBY PITCHED IN! I explained to him at the onset that I'm trying to eat down what we have on hand and not buy anything more than absolutely necessary, and he said he was onboard. But what he says and what he does are often different things. But at the start of this week he asked if we had fresh celery so he could mix up a batch of tuna, and when I told him yes there was celery, he actually made tuna! And then he made another batch last night! This may not sound like a big deal, but believe me, it is. Usually he will go to great lengths to avoid exerting effort in the kitchen - putting pre-sliced lunch meat onto pre-sliced bread (he doesn't even use condiments, and only seems to want lettuce if someone else is making the sandwich) is about the extent of it. Two batches of tuna is pretty monumental.

Yesterday's shopping was very successful - I stuck faithfully to my list and got only eggs, produce, yogurt (bought enough for the rest of the month because it was on sale), and cheese sticks (on sale and I eat them every day in my lunch), and a couple of things I had free e-coupons for (tortilla chips, a sports drink for hubby, and salad dressing). I decided not to buy milk even though we're almost out - I have powdered milk at home so I'll just mix up a batch of that.

I added up my grocery totals and so far I'm at $57.44 for the month, which is awesome (my regular grocery budget is $300/month). I'm right on track for 50% of normal which is my goal :)

I had some plans to make hummus and do some baking to use up crap from the cupboard but as usual didn't get around to it :( I have a 3-day weekend coming up so maybe I can get to it then.

seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1123 on: January 09, 2017, 02:35:05 PM »
With the lamb fat I would make soap.

A while back I got annoyed with all of the bacon fat DH saves and I was determined to use it. With some effort I was able to turn it into wonderful soap.

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1124 on: January 09, 2017, 04:38:19 PM »
Made muffins with 2 c of leftover oatmeal. Froze 1/2 for an outing over lunch that we have on january 25 with 4 of the kids.

Put the rest "under glass" for snacking for the kids. My
Mom gave me this handy dandy thing a few years ago. It's great for the kids and teens to actually see what is out for snacks rather than digging through Rubbermaid containers in the fridge.

pbkmaine

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1125 on: January 09, 2017, 04:43:11 PM »
Lamb fat: roasted potatoes or any roasted vegetables.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1126 on: January 09, 2017, 07:47:43 PM »
This thread is getting to me.

Last night I dreamed that I found mould on some hard cheese in the fridge and I was trying to work out if it could be salvaged.

SAfAmBrit

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1127 on: January 09, 2017, 07:54:22 PM »
Got some odd flour to use or old banana's? These are good with almost any flour - they have not flopped on me yet (I have a lot a different flour). Tonight I used garbanzo bean flour.

Banana Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
 3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.
Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1128 on: January 09, 2017, 10:29:53 PM »
Got some odd flour to use or old banana's? These are good with almost any flour - they have not flopped on me yet (I have a lot a different flour). Tonight I used garbanzo bean flour.

Banana Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
 3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.
Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

This is similar to my banana cake recipe.

With that I've found I can freeze the old bananas (I squeeze them into a ziplock first) if I don't have time to bake before the bananas completely disintegrate. Then just defrost and toss into the mixing bowl.

nessness

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1129 on: January 10, 2017, 08:13:31 PM »
Doing much better this week - only spent $35 on groceries! Dinner tonight was some parmesan pasta that had been in the pantry for way too long and some green beans from the fridge that were on their last legs. And finished up a bit of ice cream that had been in the freezer for a few weeks - quite a sacrifice, I know ;)

My mom's favorite kind of tea is only sold in my state, so last year I bought some for her and some for myself. I decided I don't really like it though, so it had just been sitting in the cabinet. She came to visit this weekend so I gave it to her and she was thrilled. Win/win!

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1130 on: January 11, 2017, 12:06:50 AM »
Used up a bag of frozen corn today in a chicken chili. Hubby organized our two deep freezers for me and found multiple bags of frozen peas and corn ... at least I know this now and won't be buying any more for quite some time!

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1131 on: January 11, 2017, 07:32:15 AM »
I am almost done eating all the meat in the freezer. It is good to refresh the food in the freezer from time to time. We do write dates on the packages, but some types of meat just keep laying in the drawer for a long time. Our bread though, is always ass to the back of the freezer, so that the bread that was there comes to the front. That is a good working system.

We also need to get started on all the other stuff that is not in the fridge. I recently had to throw away some powders and stuff that was getting very old (were are talking a decade here). Which also reminds me that I should start baking bread from the bags of flour that have been standing in the same drawer for over a year of so. I usually presume that I can still eat stuff that isn't too much too old.

Catbert

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1132 on: January 11, 2017, 10:33:12 AM »
With the lamb fat I would make soap.

A while back I got annoyed with all of the bacon fat DH saves and I was determined to use it. With some effort I was able to turn it into wonderful soap.

The next time your stash of bacon fat gets too large, mail it to ME.  The fat is almost as good as the bacon.

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1133 on: January 11, 2017, 11:11:55 AM »
Thanks for the lamb fat suggestions! I guess I should just try roasting something in it for experiment sake. The only problem is I usually have too many other tasty fat sources kicking around that I know taste good. Nothing ventured, nothing gained though!

If it isn't as tasty (everyone always says lamb esp. the fat is gamey, I've never found it to be the case but I spent some time living in Turkey, so maybe I just got used to it) then I will make soap! I've done coconut oil soap, but not animal fat so it would be fun to try.

Made a Breakfast cobbler out of pantry/freezer ingredients that should feed as for breakfast for a couple of days. Emptied two bags of frozen fruit that had a bit left in each and used some of my poppyseeds we haven't been eating much since giving up added sugar.

Discovered that I had unknowingly used up my entire supply of frozen spinach, the horror!

My goal is to use up a lot of the "Ingredient" frozen things so I have room to add "Complete meal" frozen things.  Ideally, it would be great to have a blend of both.

How is everyone doing? What are your wins and challenges?

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1134 on: January 11, 2017, 03:39:22 PM »
Husband is coming home tonight after working overseas for 10 days. I know he will be horrified by how empty the fridge looks, but I've only been buying/defrosting enough for me, and I've been using up a lot of pantry ingredients as well.

My win: zero food waste since the start of the year.

This morning I used up four garlic cloves by poking them in the potting mix of my house plants. Apparently it combats the tiny bugs that occupy the soil.

I'm planning mini pizzas for the weekend. They will use up any combination of:
- wholemeal English muffins (freezer)
- cheese (fridge)
- marinated olives (fridge)
- semi-dried tomatoes (freezer)
- caramelised onion relish (fridge)
- pizza sauce (freezer)
- baked pumpkin (fridge)
- chicken breast (fridge)
- salami (freezer)

dividend

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1135 on: January 12, 2017, 01:59:24 PM »
I think I need this challenge. 

I noticed that my freezer inventory google spreadsheet had drifted far from actuals as I got more and more lax about updating it, so I asked my husband if he would help me do a complete freezer and pantry inventory.  Last night we made it through the pantry (it took so long we gave up on doing the freezers and put them off until tonight) and it was eye-opening.  I've got 150 line items, and that's not counting the entire trash bag of expired stuff we threw away while inventorying it all.  SO MUCH dried pasta.  SO MANY dried beans and lentils.  We'll do the freezers tonight, and then onto the fun part - mapping out meal plans to use it all.  There's at least 3 months worth of home cooked meal ingredients in there - probably lots of lentil/bean soups and pasta or pasta bakes.  Plus whatever is lurking in the freezers (main fridge + garage chest freezer).  I am prepared to be horrified.

Getting in the spirit, I've made from our stash :
  • Tuna pita pockets for lunch yesterday with snack packs of Cheetos
  • Lentil black bean soup for dinner last night (with tons of leftovers)
  • Ramen noodles (from the Asian market, so in cakes, not packets) tossed with grilled chicken (from the freezer), garlic, and the last bit of a head of cabbage for lunch.



seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1136 on: January 12, 2017, 02:12:16 PM »


How is everyone doing? What are your wins and challenges?


I have had a few fails trying to use up random stuff in the pantry. Using almond and coconut flour to make banana bread was bad...very bad.

I am getting down to the bare bones in the pantry. The freezers are pretty much empty other than tomatoes. I am not a huge tomato fan so that will still take a bit to get through.

I am not sure my pantry has ever been this empty. It feels pretty good knowing that the money is going to Vanguard than the store. I am looking at this challenge as cashing in on the investment of food. This month alone I should be able to send $250 additional to Vanguard. I figure I have saved us about a grand (if not more) in the last 7 months I have been really trying to lower our food bill and use what we have instead of buying something else.

I will have to go buy some meat and veggies for this next week. But I am hoping to up the rest of the pinto beans and make a large dent in the rice I still have.


PMG

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1137 on: January 12, 2017, 08:02:58 PM »
I made chili tonight with tomato sauce and beans from the freezer.

I just got an instant pot in November and my first batch of beans came our really mushy and overdone. I have been avoiding them, but mushy beans are ok in chili.

I don't keep a pantry or freezer as full as many of you but I did find a container of cider I froze a couple weeks ago.  Now I'm looking forward to hot cider this weekend. I figure if I'm forgetting what I have it's time to reassess what I'm doing.


Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1138 on: January 13, 2017, 03:43:17 AM »
Yesterday I was a bit stressed about making food on short notice, because we had to leave soon. But I found some leftover mix of duck with mango and vegetables in the freezer. I also found frozen tortilla's. This was served with a left over portion of sweet and sour sauce from yesterday, to make it enough for 2 people.

frugalfelicia

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1139 on: January 13, 2017, 09:26:51 AM »
I need suggestions on how to make canned salmon taste good!

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1140 on: January 13, 2017, 09:36:30 AM »
I need suggestions on how to make canned salmon taste good!

Nomnom Paleo Spicy Tuna cakes, just sub in Salmon! If the idea of sweet potatoes are weird to you, you can use reg mashed potatoes too. http://nomnompaleo.com/post/91332244628/spicy-tuna-cakes

recklesslysober

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1141 on: January 13, 2017, 07:04:46 PM »
Used up all of our canned soup: mushroom soup in a casserole-ish dish with mushrooms, broccoli, quinoa, nutritional yeast, and some dried herbs; tomato soup mixed into rice with spices and served with red kidney beans. We're trying to cut back on the processed food so glad to be done with those. We have a couple of cans of refried beans to use but lots of options there.

Other than that, we're mostly through the things I wanted to use up in the pantry. I do want to make sushi at some point and there are a few jars of pickled beets to eat. Plus a massive jar of pickles in the fridge. Everything is so minimal and clean and organized. I love it!

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1142 on: January 13, 2017, 07:10:16 PM »
Had awesome mini pizzas last night, as discussed above.

Then stretched the leftovers for breakfast this morning - smashed pumpkin and wilted spinach on a wholemeal English muffin. So good.

... massive jar of pickles in the fridge.

Time for cubanos!

It's a never-ending cycle in my house.

Buy pickles. Oh, we have a heap of pickles. Time for cubanos. Eat all the pickles. We need more pickles. Buy pickles...

Lyngi

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1143 on: January 15, 2017, 02:32:52 PM »
Made chocolate chip cookies.  Used old chocolate bars no one was going to eat(bittersweet), ground them in the food processor.   And old chocolate chips that were hidden.   

LMBB

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1144 on: January 15, 2017, 02:38:44 PM »
This is a great thread for me. I have a lot of food in my pantry and my freezer so I will be trying to get creative.


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plainjane

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1145 on: January 15, 2017, 04:35:08 PM »
I need suggestions on how to make canned salmon taste good!

My mother used to make a salmon quiche with cheddar, but I think she and I were the only people who actually liked it.

Today for lunch we were going to have grilled steak that I picked up at the grocery store for 50% off yesterday, but it was nowhere to be seen.  We must have left it on the conveyor.  I hope someone took it, and it didn't just end up in the garbage.  So instead we finished off the chicken meatballs that were in the freezer in a taco bowl with frozen corn, frozen spinach, onions, roasted tomato, cheddar, avocado, and a lime-sour cream sauce.

And this morning I used some more of the cranberries in an almond-flour & sour cream muffin recipe.  And for dinner we finished off the open bag of brussel sprouts and used a couple of the pork tenderloin pieces.

I know I'm doing a good job, because the freezer was feeling a bit bare, so I picked up a bag of frozen broccoli and one of mango because they were on sale. :)

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1146 on: January 15, 2017, 05:04:46 PM »
I need some ideas for mint sauce. I've got two bottles in the fridge, probably both years old. We rarely eat lamb. It's good on boiled potatoes and veg if you're having a meat and two veg dinner but that's pretty rare too. I've used a little bit of it in yoghurt for a potato salad and a minty dip.

Any ideas for using a large volume of the stuff?

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1147 on: January 15, 2017, 05:51:58 PM »
Made a banana bread in the bread machine with a very sad, squishy banana that was in the fridge and one from the counter that was spotty. We made this sign a few weeks ago to help us be more mindful of food waste:

PMG

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1148 on: January 15, 2017, 07:57:53 PM »
I need some ideas for mint sauce. I've got two bottles in the fridge, probably both years old. We rarely eat lamb. It's good on boiled potatoes and veg if you're having a meat and two veg dinner but that's pretty rare too. I've used a little bit of it in yoghurt for a potato salad and a minty dip.

Any ideas for using a large volume of the stuff?

Is it like mint jelly?  Could you do a dessert with it? Chocolate and jam cookies?  Or use it with ice-cream, mint milk shakes? Those aren't exactly healthy options.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1149 on: January 15, 2017, 08:35:30 PM »
I need some ideas for mint sauce. I've got two bottles in the fridge, probably both years old. We rarely eat lamb. It's good on boiled potatoes and veg if you're having a meat and two veg dinner but that's pretty rare too. I've used a little bit of it in yoghurt for a potato salad and a minty dip.

Any ideas for using a large volume of the stuff?

Is it like mint jelly?  Could you do a dessert with it? Chocolate and jam cookies?  Or use it with ice-cream, mint milk shakes? Those aren't exactly healthy options.

I've just realised it might not be something eaten in the US. It's like vinegar and chopped mint, but with sugar added. If you can have balsamic vinegar with strawberries maybe I should try a drizzle of mint sauce with them.