Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1183643 times)

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1350 on: February 18, 2017, 01:26:29 PM »

A reflection:  I understand now, really, why I've never managed to keep up with eating down my stores for very long.  It's because with just one person, and with food coming home from work on a semi-regular basis, it just takes SO long to see any noticeable difference.  One box of cereal from among many.  One package of rice from among many.  A little dent in a bag of split peas.  One container of mystery food comes out of the freezer, but I put two more split pea stew meals back in so I don't have to eat it every day for a week.  I am really hoping that the next couple of weeks will tip the scale between "Eh, still looks the same in here," and "Oh, there's light at the end of the tunnel.  Or at least, at the back of the fridge."  In any case, my budget is definitely showing the difference.  The money I take out of the bank is lasting longer, since I'm not popping in and out of Tim's or other fast food places more than once a week or so, and also, since I'm only spending about half of what I normally would on groceries.  Hopefully that will help me keep going even in the face of the seemingly self-replenishing shelves.  :-)

I definitely share your experience with the difficulty of eating down your food stores as a single person.  I feel like year-round I'm planning my meals based on what's in my pantry & freezer, but my total amount of food never seems to go down.  I did up my effort by a notch starting in Uber Frugal January, and have noticed a decrease in my grocery bill at least, though I still seem to have just as much food as before. 

This weekend my focus is finishing up all of my stored produce from last fall - specifically by making potato-leek soup with my aging potatoes and applesauce with my hopefully not all rotten apples in the back of the fridge.  After those are gone, I think I might finally see my freezers slowly start to empty out.

LindseyC

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1351 on: February 18, 2017, 01:31:45 PM »
I bought some meats today that were on crazy sale. In my defence with the exception of bacon and meats in already cooked and frozen homemade meals, I have eaten up my meat stores! I am down to basically oodles of frozen veggies, hummus and some pasta. Woohoo! My pantry is also beginning to look a little cleaned up, but I still have lots of things to use up.

Pretty sure my March grocery budget will be about 50% of my regular monthly budget because I have meal planned most of the foods I have and have become quite organized. Totally pleased with myself, can you tell?  ;)

PJ

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1352 on: February 18, 2017, 04:10:27 PM »
I definitely share your experience with the difficulty of eating down your food stores as a single person.  I feel like year-round I'm planning my meals based on what's in my pantry & freezer, but my total amount of food never seems to go down.  I did up my effort by a notch starting in Uber Frugal January, and have noticed a decrease in my grocery bill at least, though I still seem to have just as much food as before. 

This weekend my focus is finishing up all of my stored produce from last fall - specifically by making potato-leek soup with my aging potatoes and applesauce with my hopefully not all rotten apples in the back of the fridge.  After those are gone, I think I might finally see my freezers slowly start to empty out.

Yes!  That is exactly my experience.  I started UFJ late, so have just hit about the one month mark, and with one month of really diligently buying only produce and milk/cream, I can see a difference in my grocery bill, but no really obvious movement in the cupboards and freezer.  I know there has been, indiscernible though it is, and that the reason it isn't more obvious is because small amounts of ingredients have become larger amounts of cooked food into the freezer.  But like you, I have a plan.  With the next couple of things that I'll be taking out of the freezer, I expect to see a little corner open up.  And I think there are a few more smallish quantities of things in there that will be finished up soon too.  That's what I'm aiming for, anyway!

I bought some meats today that were on crazy sale. In my defence with the exception of bacon and meats in already cooked and frozen homemade meals, I have eaten up my meat stores! I am down to basically oodles of frozen veggies, hummus and some pasta. Woohoo! My pantry is also beginning to look a little cleaned up, but I still have lots of things to use up.

Pretty sure my March grocery budget will be about 50% of my regular monthly budget because I have meal planned most of the foods I have and have become quite organized. Totally pleased with myself, can you tell?  ;) 

Well done, LindseyC!  50% budget savings is nothing to sneeze at!
__________________________________

In other news, I ate half of the mysterious yellow dish.  It was indeed rice based.  With split peas.  And some other beans.  And some veggies.  It was ok - not awful.  Sogginess was the biggest problem.  When I made it, I probably put too much water in for the rice, to compensate for the addition of the split peas.  So it's not like rice.  And it's not like soup.  And it's not creamy enough to be risotto.  It's just ... soggy rice.  Eh.  At least the flavour was ok.  I melted a little cheese on top (freezer stash of reception salvaged cheese - one of the things that will probably get used up in the next couple weeks) and ate it with some toast on the side (because everything is better with toast).  And I will do the same again, tomorrow or the day after, to finish it up.  (Unless, horrors!  I could uncover more as I continue working my way through the freezer!)

plainjane

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1353 on: February 18, 2017, 07:10:47 PM »
In other news, I ate half of the mysterious yellow dish.  It was indeed rice based.  With split peas.  And some other beans.  And some veggies.  It was ok - not awful.  Sogginess was the biggest problem.

Could you puree it and call it soup?  Eat it with grilled cheese?

Today we finished the freezer bag of corn, some of the freezer avocado & peppers, and some matzoh meal in a fish taco salad.  I am sweetening my evening tea with small spoonfuls of maple whisky caramel sauce.

4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1354 on: February 18, 2017, 07:41:29 PM »
small spoonfuls of maple whisky caramel sauce.
The sauce wouldn't make it to my tea...straight to my mouth!

I've picked out the recipes for the big bake-fest tomorrow.  We are leaving for a few days next week, so I don't want to buy any excess groceries. 

SimpleCycle

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Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1355 on: February 18, 2017, 08:04:53 PM »
We cooked up a big batch of chili for our church's chili cook off.  It was vegetarian black bean chipotle chili, and I used 4 cans of tomatoes, 3 cans of green chilis, and all the black beans left in the house.  Quite the use up success.

I also had tuna and crackers for lunch and used up two tiny portions of crackers, plus another box of those drink mix packets.

Meal planned and my wife shopped for the week.  I don't love it when she shops because she doesn't pay much attention to prices.  She came home with expensive organic yogurt and brand name Parmesan, but it was $49 including a 12 pack of beer, so not bad.  I plan to use the following this week:
-two lbs of great northern beans
-a bunch of odds and ends from the fridge
-some chicken thighs from the freezer
-arborio rice
-a bag of frozen peas
-half a jar of marinara

SimpleCycle

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1356 on: February 18, 2017, 08:10:13 PM »
PJ and SquashingDebt, I have a hard time seeing the progress I'm making even feeding three people.  I imagine one person is really hard.  I feel like every meal I cook creates freezer leftovers and I'm totally out of freezer space.  We should eat some of the freezer meals, but I'm pregnant and want to save them for when baby is here.  It feels like moving a mountain one rock at a time.

PJ

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1357 on: February 18, 2017, 08:16:38 PM »
Thanks plainjane, for the suggestion.  Probably not quite soggy enough to make into soup, without adding some more liquid.  But just enough for there to be a puddle of liquid on the plate, circling the pile of rice/split peas. I can't be bothered doing anything special with it - I'll just eat it up in one more sitting with lots of cheese melted on the top again, and pray there's no more in the freezer!  It's obviously got all kinds of "good for me" ingredients, including zucchini, red peppers, tomato, and the rice and split peas.  So it's a bit like taking medicine with jam or a spoonful of yoghurt.  Not particularly tasty, but made more so by what you add to cover the taste :-)

In other news, I had to go into the office for a bit and I have been eating up mint M & M's leftover from Christmas.  Way too many in one sitting, and am starting to feel sick.  So right now, I'm going to roll up the bag and wrap an elastic around it, and stick it back in my purse to take home.  And then end my little forum break and get the last few things done so I can go home!

And thanks, SimpleCycle.  That's exactly what's happening!  So I'm going to eat up some freezer meals, to free up some space to cook more of the ingredients that are in the cupboard, which will fill up the freezer again.  Check with me in a month or two to see if I'm seeing more progress?!?  A few more cycles of that should make a visible dent, I think!

(Just goes to prove that I/we really needed to do this challenge, right???)

SAfAmBrit

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1358 on: February 19, 2017, 03:43:20 PM »
I have been slowly eating down the house and doing pretty well. Today is a good day. I am making fish pie to use up the odd pieces of fish I have in the freezer.(a lemon here) We made lemon drizzle cake to use up the lemons that needed to be used now or thrown away, I made spicy tuna cakes but using some salmon (thanks for the recipe swick) (another lemon) and the dogs will eat royally off some very old bacon and rice tonight. The only thing I needed to accomplish this was the potatoes to put on top of the pie. I call this a win day! Thinking about it - can I add Farro to the fish pie?????

PJ

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1359 on: February 19, 2017, 11:19:11 PM »
So, as usual, I brought home some food from work.  I haven't even opened all the containers to see what's there, but I know there's some soup, and some fruit.  I ate a plate of salad and cheese and cucumber sandwich right away for lunch.  Later, had some of the fruit, plus a bowl of cereal.  I usually do really well with eating my stash of cereal within best before dates, but I did get carried away with buying Weetabix (on sale, and with a coupon) a while back.  So I have almost 2 full boxes expiring this month.  I'll try to focus on eating mostly that until it's gone, whenever I'm in a cereal mood.  But it doesn't always strike the spot, because I like my Weetabix with warmed up milk and mushy, and sometimes I want that cold flakey crunchiness of cereal for breakfast or an evening snack.

4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1360 on: February 20, 2017, 10:15:54 AM »
I'm slowly eating down my pantry.  I've used half of a bag of dried fruit that we were gifted.  The biscotti turned out well, so I might make more to give away (and get rid of all of the dried fruit).

Things I used up in my bake-a-thon yesterday:
Carrots (I had a bag and a half)
Box of cornmeal
One bag of flour (we still have 3 more)
1 can of chickpeas
Bottle of vanilla extract

I'm planning to make pasta for dinner tonight, which will finish off a box of pasta. 

recklesslysober

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1361 on: February 20, 2017, 10:31:58 AM »
Made chicken curry over rice with coconut milk on Saturday. I have one more can of coconut milk and just enough spices for another round.

Also used up the last bag of pasta from the Costco 6 pack!!! I made the beef pasta dish we like with mushrooms, broccoli, mushroom soup, and sour cream. We're down to one meal each of spaghetti and fettucine, a bag of egg noodles, and I bought another 12 pack of ramen from Costco since they dropped the price.

I'm also learning to bake my own bread. Round one wasn't quite right but still delicious enough that we ate the whole loaf yesterday.. ;) Maybe this wasn't such a great idea..

I made another batch of salad with the leftover cabbage from last week. Trying to finish that up this week, plus the leftovers from the weekend.

SimpleCycle

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1362 on: February 20, 2017, 10:42:45 AM »
I had a false start yesterday on some baked beans when the beans cooked way faster than the recipe indicated and they came out as mush before I even put the sauce on them and baked them.  So I turned two cups into hummus and froze another 4 cups for future hummus or something else that takes overly mushy white beans.  Am trying the baked beans again today with another pound of white beans.

DD had overnight oats for breakfast this morning and seemed to like them.  It only uses up a tiny bit of oats at a time, but at least she's eating stuff we have in the house rather than baby cereal I have to buy.  And I had two single serve cups of mandarin oranges that were past their "best by" date with breakfast this morning.

Does anyone else use a pantry inventory app?  I have a smartphone (for shame!) and I've been using one I am happy with, but it doesn't have multiple "places" to put things, so I've only done the pantry and not the freezer and fridge.  Thinking about checking out a few other choices.

DTaggart

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1363 on: February 21, 2017, 01:04:18 PM »
I did it you guys! I finished off the bottomless bag of stale puffed rice cereal! Yesterday I made a double batch of granola bars which finished off the cereal (yay), the last of a jar of crunchy peanut butter (yay), and the last of the oatmeal in the house (kind of sad about that, I'll have to buy more soon). I put a bunch in the freezer so hopefully we'll have snacks for a couple of weeks.

Other accomplishments for the week:

  • Finished the enormous bottle of chocolate protein powder and several bags of frozen bananas making smoothies. Since then I've been trying to make smoothies using some unflavored whey protein, frozen berries, and frozen bananas, but finding it tastes like ass. Then I remembered I used to make these types of smoothies using OJ, not milk, and they tasted much better, so I think I need to get some OJ.
  • I still had a bunch of lemons I'd harvested the week before, so I took a whole chicken, stuffed it full of lemon and garlic and threw it in the crockpot.
  • Still had more lemons, so I used one making honey garlic pork chops.
  • Made a batch of chicken and wild rice soup in the crock pot, using up a partial jar full of wild rice mix, 2 partial tubs of cooked chicken from the freezer, the last of the Christmas turkey broth from the freezer, and some leftover chicken broth from the freezer.
  • Made another batch of chicken broth (since I was now out) using the chicken carcass from the crockpot chicken in point #2 above and other chicken bones and veggie scraps that have been stuffed into the freezer.
  • Used some of that chicken broth to make Tortellini Soup, which used up a bag of tortellini from the cupboard and the last of the frozen celery (along with additional fresh vegetables). Also pulled a package of rolls leftover from Xmas out of the freezer to have with the soup.
  • Used the last 2 slices of colby/jack cheese, which hubby decided he doesn't like on his sandwiches, and made myself a grilled cheese for lunch.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2017, 03:54:41 PM by DTaggart »

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1364 on: February 21, 2017, 02:14:19 PM »

  • Finished the enormous bottle of chocolate protein powder and several bags of frozen bananas making smoothies. Since then I've been trying to make smoothies using some unflavored whey protein, frozen berries, and frozen bananas, but finding it tastes like ass. Then I remembered I used to make these types of smoothies using OJ, not milk, and they tasted much better, so I think I need to get some OJ.

Awesome progress! Could you approximate your own chocolate flavored pp using cocoa powder and your sweetener of choice?

I've been using a splash of some specialty balsamic vinegars we were gifted into bubbly water from our soda stream to make a sort of shrub. Very pleasant. I've been at a loss what to do with them. Espresso, Vermont maple, and Cara cara orange and vanilla flavours.


mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1365 on: February 21, 2017, 03:22:49 PM »
Last night I finished the last piece of the birthday cake I made for marty998.

That counts, right?

Also, the cake helped use up a few baking ingredients: eggs, dark chocolate, bourbon...

Secretly Saving

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1366 on: February 21, 2017, 03:47:19 PM »
We need to get back to this.  The pantry is overflowing.  Consider me back on the bandwagon!

DTaggart

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1367 on: February 21, 2017, 03:57:20 PM »

Awesome progress! Could you approximate your own chocolate flavored pp using cocoa powder and your sweetener of choice?


That's a good idea, but we'll have to see how ambitious I'm feeling at 5:45am before drinking my coffee :)

PJ

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1368 on: February 21, 2017, 04:05:52 PM »
I did it you guys! I finished off the bottomless bag of stale puffed rice cereal! Yesterday I made a double batch of granola bars which finished off the cereal (yay), the last of a jar of crunchy peanut butter (yay), and the last of the oatmeal in the house (kind of sad about that, I'll have to buy more soon). I put a bunch in the freezer so hopefully we'll have snacks for a couple of weeks.

Congrats on conquering the puffed rice!  And, you don't live anywhere near me, right?  'Cause I got some oatmeal you could have!

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1369 on: February 21, 2017, 04:07:09 PM »
I got a tub of creme fraiche marked down 85% to 50c, which means I need to summon the motivation to make another blueberry creme fraiche cake. That will use up the wholemeal flour, the hazelnut meal and some almonds. Then if I do one more batch of coconut biscuits and some muesli bars and that's all the ancient nuts and nut products finally used up.

I found a pantry moth in my rice the other day - bleurgh. Used it anyway - if it was moth larvae that would have turned my stomach, but a moth I can deal with! I reckon people somewhere probably eat fried maggots and moths so they are unlikely to kill me. The rice is in an air tight jar but for a while it was in a not well sealed bag so I guess that's how it got in. I REALLY need to find something suitable to store my breadflour - I buy it in 5kg bags so I need something big. I think Bunnings have food grade buckets.

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1370 on: February 21, 2017, 04:20:55 PM »

Awesome progress! Could you approximate your own chocolate flavored pp using cocoa powder and your sweetener of choice?


That's a good idea, but we'll have to see how ambitious I'm feeling at 5:45am before drinking my coffee :)

I was actually thinking pre-mix it ahead of time so you don't have to balance it without having had caffeine :)

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1371 on: February 22, 2017, 04:20:35 PM »
I'm only here for nine more days and starting to get worried that I won't be able to eat everything (first world problems).

I'm working on one of eight beers leftover from the weekend. Three of them are barleywine that DH bought, and I question the wisdom in drinking any of those on a weeknight, or more than one on a weekend.  This beer might just go up by the apartment mailboxes with a "FREE" sign, but it's fancy shit and  I hate to give it away!

My house guest left a box of green tea that I gave away to a co-worker today (I have a nicer container of green tea I'll bring home, but my suitcase capacity is limited)

Big batch of chili is going in the Instant Pot with a package of ground beef an onion, beans and two cans of tomatatoes.  That will be lunches the next two days, and I'll pretty much eat nothing else over the weekend.

Next week will be more of a beef curry type stew using a butternut squash, frozen peas and pearl onions and can of coconut milk.  Much of the remaining rice can be eaten with that.

Still have eggs, fancy cheeses (can come home in suitecase), nuts (ditto) and the veggies I bought yesterday (green onions, salad, bell peppers, avocados, canned tuna/sardines/kippers.  I've done a pretty good job on the oils and spices I brought with me though, so I should have some space to bring home the less perishable things.

Crap, there are three sausages left in the fridge too!  They're uncooked, so I think I'll take them out of their casings and cook up breakfast sausage patties or make a fritatta with the eggs or something. 

Apparently I over-bought on the protein.  It seemed the first 3 weeks I was here, I was constantly running out of everything and spending a shit-ton at the grocery store, then suddenly, I had way too much despite making smaller shopping trips.  Kind of baffling how that works, but there it is. I think partly it's because I was doing Whole30 at first, and then decided to add back in rice and beans to reduce food costs, and that really stretched out all the other ingredients.  Welp, no excuses for going out to eat at all before I leave!

LindseyC

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1372 on: February 22, 2017, 04:43:26 PM »
I rarely eat cereal but a few months ago I bought two family size boxes of Cheerios that were on a crazy sale and I had a coupon. I am only now almost done box number one. Lesson learned, not really savings if I don't eat the food.

I had a huge quantity of apples and I am down to 7 which will last me exactly a week with my current meal plan. 

This weekend I am planning on making some puffed quinoa peanut butter balls to use up a lot of quinoa I have. I also am planning on making a tuna casserole as I have the ingredients in bulk which I need to use up.

DTaggart

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1373 on: February 22, 2017, 06:04:46 PM »
I did it you guys! I finished off the bottomless bag of stale puffed rice cereal! Yesterday I made a double batch of granola bars which finished off the cereal (yay), the last of a jar of crunchy peanut butter (yay), and the last of the oatmeal in the house (kind of sad about that, I'll have to buy more soon). I put a bunch in the freezer so hopefully we'll have snacks for a couple of weeks.

Congrats on conquering the puffed rice!  And, you don't live anywhere near me, right?  'Cause I got some oatmeal you could have!

LOL no, I haven't fled to Canada yet (I'm in the US), but I'm keeping my options open... we'll see how things progress down here over the next 4 years 3 years and 11 months :) I am a huge Rush fan, so I think I get extra points on my application for that.


Awesome progress! Could you approximate your own chocolate flavored pp using cocoa powder and your sweetener of choice?


That's a good idea, but we'll have to see how ambitious I'm feeling at 5:45am before drinking my coffee :)

I was actually thinking pre-mix it ahead of time so you don't have to balance it without having had caffeine :)

Yeah once I figure out the right formula that could work, maybe I'll try and do that this weekend!

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1374 on: February 22, 2017, 11:15:33 PM »
A few successes:
 - Finished a box of tea
 - Bag of chia seeds
 - Bag of cashew pieces
 - Bag of pine nuts from the freezer (this took me 4 years to finish!)
 - Lamb roast from the freezer
 - Bag of frozen cherries
 - I'm actually starting to run out of some spices. Have been making a bunch of Indian-ish curries lately, and ran out of homemade spice mix and some of the spices to go in it. But I discovered some spice mixes we have been given that I forgot about and am aiming to use all of them up before I go buy and spices :)
 - Consolidated my stashes of dried fruit and found some I didn't even know I had. Making our own trail mix.

PJ

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1375 on: February 22, 2017, 11:25:15 PM »
I did it you guys! I finished off the bottomless bag of stale puffed rice cereal! Yesterday I made a double batch of granola bars which finished off the cereal (yay), the last of a jar of crunchy peanut butter (yay), and the last of the oatmeal in the house (kind of sad about that, I'll have to buy more soon). I put a bunch in the freezer so hopefully we'll have snacks for a couple of weeks.

Congrats on conquering the puffed rice!  And, you don't live anywhere near me, right?  'Cause I got some oatmeal you could have!

LOL no, I haven't fled to Canada yet (I'm in the US), but I'm keeping my options open... we'll see how things progress down here over the next 4 years 3 years and 11 months :) I am a huge Rush fan, so I think I get extra points on my application for that.

You sure do!

How funny, I was exchanging posts with someone over in the journals, about music.  Reminiscing about one of my fave teenage bands (Skinny Puppy!) and found someone else who likes them too!  And that got me started looking up videos on youtube, so I've been listening to all kinds of stuff I haven't listened to in years, while getting caught up on the forums after last night's enforced hiatus.

Anyway, yes to Rush as well.  I've been to a bunch of their concerts over the years, because I had a friend who REALLY loved them, and I liked them too, so he always made sure we went when they had a big tour.

But that doesn't have anything to do with eating down the pantry, so in order to drag myself kicking and screaming back on topic:

I haven't made much progress since I last posted, and eating out twice today didn't help.  Bought a bagel at Timmy's on the way to work, then ate leftover pasta from Mom for lunch.  Then Mom and sister and I went to see A Dog's Purpose, and I ate nachos at the movie theatre for dinner. 

Needed a big more produce in the house, but confined myself to just a couple apples and bananas, plus some berries, and one jar of peanut butter at my "buy now" price (2.99 for 1 kg of Kraft is as low as it ever goes).

Also, I'm host for a meeting in the morning, so applied my price matching and buying only what I need strategies to that shopping as well to keep the costs down.  Will get reimbursed for it, but still need to keep it reasonable, both for the sake of the organization's budget, and because I have to front the cost.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1376 on: February 23, 2017, 02:20:26 AM »
The last few days I ate another bag of selv picked wild mushrooms (Russula type) that I blanched and froze last autumn. With some garlic and pepper, it got a lot of good taste. I also poured in some self-made mushroom soya (made of Sarcodon Squamosus).

Pity with Russula is that the pretty hat colours dissolves into the dish, so that the originally white stems and all the different colour hats all get the same vague colour, like mixing different paint colours.

plainjane

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1377 on: February 23, 2017, 06:59:11 AM »
So a kind friend gave us a container of Torani bacon syrup because the SO likes bacon.  I had considered doing something with banana & bacon syrup cheesecake, but this is a very smokey syrup, and I don't like the idea of potentially wasting a full brick of cream cheese.  Plus the SO is low carbing, so I'd be feeding the office.

Any other ideas?  Most of the things on the internet are for alcohol, and we don't drink.

My freezer is starting to look a bit bare.  I finished another container of frozen fruit.  Also used up the tamarind chutney & the orange bbq sauce by making braised chicken thighs. I started on the roasted garlic oil.  The list for pantry replacements now includes rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, fried onions, and baking soda.

PJ

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1378 on: February 23, 2017, 12:58:19 PM »
So a kind friend gave us a container of Torani bacon syrup because the SO likes bacon.  I had considered doing something with banana & bacon syrup cheesecake, but this is a very smokey syrup, and I don't like the idea of potentially wasting a full brick of cream cheese.  Plus the SO is low carbing, so I'd be feeding the office.

Any other ideas?  Most of the things on the internet are for alcohol, and we don't drink. 

I don't have a recipe, so this definitely falls in the category of an "idea."  At the movie theatre last night, I noticed that the Poptopia counter was featuring a maple bacon popcorn.  If one can make one's own caramel corn, then I suppose one could make one's own maple bacon popcorn?  Or at least, something similar?

PJ

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1379 on: February 23, 2017, 11:57:35 PM »
Well, happy to post that I have finished up the yellowish soggy rice, split pea and veg dish from the other day, and also, finished up one ziploc bag from the freezer of cheese that I had salvaged from a reception over a year ago.  Am almost finished another but it will probably survive one or two more meals.  Then I can start work on the bag of pre-shredded cheese I got for free with the purchase of an Old El Paso taco kit, which has also been in the freezer for a long time.  Or another package of mozzarella from the freezer, also from over a year ago.

In addition to the rice and split pea dish, and the cheese, I had to cook up the last little bit of a bag of broccoli slaw from the fridge, and feed it to the dog.  It was getting a bit too dried out for my taste, but she happily ate it! 

In other news, I'm making too good progress on some chocolate that is still around from Christmas.  Going to try to slow down on that one.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1380 on: February 24, 2017, 02:22:42 AM »
I'm unclear on how chocolate can last in the house from Xmas to end of Feb??!!

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1381 on: February 24, 2017, 02:45:03 AM »
I'm unclear on how chocolate can last in the house from Xmas to end of Feb??!!

There was a lot of it???

(And I've been trying to be good!  You know, eat a little bit at a time, savour it, rather than plowing my way through a whole box of Lindt in one night.)

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1382 on: February 24, 2017, 07:17:17 AM »
+1 on chocolate consumption. I don't think anything ever survives past the first week of January for us.. no matter what the amount!

I finished two boxes of pasta yesterday! Spaghetti for dinner and fettuccine for lunches today. I made a huge batch of sauce with veggies and lentils. It was a big hit, even with my former carnivore. Adding that into our recipe rotation. I'm excited to be done with all of that pasta. We still have one bag of egg noodles and one bag of ramen that I just bought, but that's it!

I have more lentils to get through so I think I'm going to make lentil tacos next.

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swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1383 on: February 24, 2017, 09:10:14 AM »
Finished up an open bag of brown rice pasta. My body was not a fan. Won't be restocking.

In restocking news, we are picking up a bulk order of nuts and pantry staples. The good thing is this time around we have stuck to staples and didn't add anything that we didn't have a specific purpose for. ...but....I still ordered a 25 lb sack of coconut. I know we'll use it up, I'm just not sure where I will store it...Lucky there is room in the pantry (somewhat!)

I have a cup or two left of herbal tea and I can get rid of the sampler box given from us from TJ's. It was a set of glass test tubes, cute...but takes up a LOT of room.  Once it is gone from the pantry I can reuse the test tubes for homemade Christmas presents, win!

What is everyone else working on using up?

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1384 on: February 24, 2017, 09:46:30 AM »
I'm aiming for a v. low spend march so am jumping on this thread!

Next week I'm planning to use up:
frozen beef stock
bag of frozen corn
and a few cans of beans to make some taco soup.

I also have some cans of Skyline chili that someone gave me ages ago and I'm not sure what to do with them since I'm trying to really watch pasta intake - Maybe I can eat it over spaghetti squash?

re: bacon syrup. We're really into breakfast casseroles at our house so I would probably add some to an egg mixture in a breakfast casserole. I think it could work particularly well if you were actually out of meat but had lots of veggie odds and ends that you wanted to use up.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2017, 11:11:07 AM by StarBright »

PJ

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1385 on: February 24, 2017, 11:04:44 AM »
+1 on chocolate consumption. I don't think anything ever survives past the first week of January for us.. no matter what the amount!

Oh, I realized another (partial) explanation for how the chocolate lasted so long.  I was really sick.  From before Christmas, until past mid-January.  First the flu, then as I was recovering from that after 2 weeks, I developed bronchitis.  Antibiotics and the whole bit.  I distinctly remember one night, eating a couple of really nice chocolates, because I wanted to eat all the chocolate in the house.  I was craving them so much.  But I realized I couldn't taste them at all, so it really wasn't worth eating them until I got better.

Other than that, yes, I have just been uncharacteristically restrained! 

Semi-keeping track of everything I eat here helps too!

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1386 on: February 24, 2017, 11:20:43 AM »

re: bacon syrup. We're really into breakfast casseroles at our house so I would probably add some to an egg mixture in a breakfast casserole. I think it could work particularly well if you were actually out of meat but had lots of veggie odds and ends that you wanted to use up.

Good idea! The only thing I cold think of was bake something, cupcakes, sugar cookies, bars etc bring them into work with the rest of the bottle and challenge a coworker to take it, make something to bring in with whatever is left of the bottle and take turns seeing what you can all come up with.


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Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1387 on: February 24, 2017, 06:22:25 PM »

re: bacon syrup. We're really into breakfast casseroles at our house so I would probably add some to an egg mixture in a breakfast casserole. I think it could work particularly well if you were actually out of meat but had lots of veggie odds and ends that you wanted to use up.

Good idea! The only thing I cold think of was bake something, cupcakes, sugar cookies, bars etc bring them into work with the rest of the bottle and challenge a coworker to take it, make something to bring in with whatever is left of the bottle and take turns seeing what you can all come up with.

Hmm. Bacon syrup. Mac and cheese, bloody marys, eggs benedict, barbecue sauce, bacon-flavored mayonnaise, mustard or ketchup, caesar or ranch dressing.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2017, 06:46:25 PM by pbkmaine »

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1388 on: February 24, 2017, 07:14:44 PM »
I am struggling to imagine what bacon syrup *IS*....

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Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1390 on: February 24, 2017, 07:31:09 PM »
I am struggling to imagine what bacon syrup *IS*....
http://shop.torani.com/Bacon-Flavored-Syrup/p/TOR-431248&c=Torani@Syrups#sm.00001ayyf0fsj8flhu7ywj1swjfb3

Ok, more specifically, I'm struggling to imagine the flavour! This is like one of those 'only in america' moments!

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1391 on: February 25, 2017, 07:39:06 AM »
Finished up an open bag of brown rice pasta. My body was not a fan. Won't be restocking.

In restocking news, we are picking up a bulk order of nuts and pantry staples. The good thing is this time around we have stuck to staples and didn't add anything that we didn't have a specific purpose for. ...but....I still ordered a 25 lb sack of coconut. I know we'll use it up, I'm just not sure where I will store it...Lucky there is room in the pantry (somewhat!)

I have a cup or two left of herbal tea and I can get rid of the sampler box given from us from TJ's. It was a set of glass test tubes, cute...but takes up a LOT of room.  Once it is gone from the pantry I can reuse the test tubes for homemade Christmas presents, win!

What is everyone else working on using up?

Swick, is this like coconut flakes?  I assume you're making your own coconut milk out of it?  I might need to give that a go, but have several cans of coconut milk at home since I stocked up when I found a deal a few months ago.

In the last couple days, I've used up two tins of sardines in a simple pate.  I'll definitely be putting that in my lunch rotation since I would like to eat less tuna and more sardines, and it's pretty tasty scooped onto crackers or veggie slices.  I also used up the apple cider vinegar, frozen blueberries, coconut milk, lard and rooibos tea. 

I'm trying to decide what I'll want to restock when I get home.  I don't think there will be much.  Living with a limited pantry for several weeks has been good for me; there's still plenty of variety and very little going to waste.  Of course I was just adjusting to cooking for one and need to get back to cooking for two. 

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1392 on: February 25, 2017, 11:43:42 AM »

Swick, is this like coconut flakes?  I assume you're making your own coconut milk out of it?  I might need to give that a go, but have several cans of coconut milk at home since I stocked up when I found a deal a few months ago.


Yep, but I ended up getting the regular shredded coconut because it is cheaper (although  think it is common for desiccated coconut in the US to be sweetened? ours isn't) I've been looking for deals on canned coconut milk, but somewhere along the way my tastes changed and they all taste "dirty" to me, even the brand I liked. I am one of those people who are hyper sensitive to the taste of "Can" though. 

I also use the pulp to make paleo oatmeal so no waste. If you make a lot of nut milks, This thingy is awesome: http://www.chufamix.co.uk/ I got it as a gift, thought it was totally silly and didn't see the point...but I use it everytime I make milk, which is a few times a week at least.

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1393 on: February 25, 2017, 11:56:21 AM »
Any ideas for using up these items?
-Dijon mustard
-Rice vinegar
-Worcestershire sauce

I love using canned black eyed peas, chopped onions and peppers and rice vinegar. It makes a great salsa type dish.

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1394 on: February 25, 2017, 12:17:09 PM »

Swick, is this like coconut flakes?  I assume you're making your own coconut milk out of it?  I might need to give that a go, but have several cans of coconut milk at home since I stocked up when I found a deal a few months ago.


Yep, but I ended up getting the regular shredded coconut because it is cheaper (although  think it is common for desiccated coconut in the US to be sweetened? ours isn't) I've been looking for deals on canned coconut milk, but somewhere along the way my tastes changed and they all taste "dirty" to me, even the brand I liked. I am one of those people who are hyper sensitive to the taste of "Can" though. 

I also use the pulp to make paleo oatmeal so no waste. If you make a lot of nut milks, This thingy is awesome: http://www.chufamix.co.uk/ I got it as a gift, thought it was totally silly and didn't see the point...but I use it everytime I make milk, which is a few times a week at least.

Thanks!  Yeah, there are some brands of coconut milk that really have a funky can flavor.  It's getting easier to find coconut flakes/shreds here that aren't sweetened, but they aren't cheap enough to warrant buying them to make coconut milk, so buying in bulk piqued my interest.  That device looks kind of neat, but also sort of like a glorified strainer?  Maybe I will experiment with using my cold brew coffee pitcher for straining a small batch.  I do use coconut flour now and then, so if the pulp can be dried out and ground finely, that could be a double win.

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1395 on: February 25, 2017, 01:06:32 PM »
Ha, yes glorified strainer it is. But it allows you to do it fast since you squeeze it with the plunger thingy and it is much easier to deal with and clean then nut milk bags or cheese cloth. If I wasn't dairy-free and had to buy it I wouldn't have. But since I have it and I am, I love it.

It's like anything, for us a high powered blender is worth it, but we use it every day or two. You can definitely dry out coconut pulp and use as flour. I tend not to bother since we make the paleo oatmeal a few times a week for breakfasts, I just pop the pulp in the fridge for a day or two until I'm ready to make the next batch.

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1396 on: February 25, 2017, 03:33:18 PM »
So this section of the board includes the only people who will understand the shame I felt this morning when I went into my freezer for one of my cornmeal & cranberry muffins and discovered there was a full bag of frozen corn that had fallen behind the frozen fruit.  On the plus side, I had been looking for a sale, because I do like having corn in the freezer, so at least I didn't buy a duplicate.  A whole bag!  This is a normal NA sized fridge with top freezer - there is no excuse.

Tonight is polenta (using up more of the old cornmeal & 2 cups of stock), balsamic beef (from the freezer), and some spinach (freezer).

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1397 on: February 25, 2017, 04:13:39 PM »
I cleaned out and inventoried the regular freezer and the deep freeze.  Honestly, I can't believe how we came to have this much food in the house.  Apparently we're food hoarders!

We ended up eating leftovers and odds and ends a lot this past week, so some of our planned meals got bumped to this week.  Things on the plan to use up:
-pasta
-half a jar of pasta sauce
-italian sausage from the freezer
-some vegetable baby food
-some canned pumpkin
-a box of coconut milk (the beverage kind not the super rich kind)
-some super dark chocolate bars
-a bunch of random frozen foods for "appetizer night" on Friday
-some frozen meals for lunches this week

I also pulled a loaf of Ezekiel bread out of the freezer and will use it for breakfasts and maybe some lunches.  And the toddler is so close to finishing up a batch of frozen meatballs.

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1398 on: February 25, 2017, 06:08:58 PM »
I have several large freezer containers of rich turkey stock, courtesy of our Thanksgiving turkey. Any suggestions for using it that do NOT involve carbs? DH needs to control carbs for his blood sugar.

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #1399 on: February 25, 2017, 06:31:22 PM »
I have several large freezer containers of rich turkey stock, courtesy of our Thanksgiving turkey. Any suggestions for using it that do NOT involve carbs? DH needs to control carbs for his blood sugar.

Maybe soup that is heavy on the vegetables and has a bit of brown rice or wild rice?