Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1183667 times)

halftimer

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #200 on: December 11, 2014, 06:47:49 PM »
Over the summer I made quite a large batch of gingered rhubarb marmelade.  I halved the sugar and didn't up the pectin enough so it came out sorta runny and then I never found/made the time to re-do it with more pectin.  I was wondering what to do with it all and have finally figured out that it's the perfect way to spice/sweeten up my oatmeal in the mornings.  Score!  The slightly runny consistency just means that it's easier to stir into the oatmeal.

Hmm, now I've learned that mincemeat and gingered rhubarb marmelade can both get used up as great oatmeal toppers. I think oatmeal may be the cure-all for pantry clean ups.

Kaivalagi

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #201 on: December 13, 2014, 12:06:15 PM »
Really enjoying this thread! We are trying to spend less in the run up to Christmas and want to use up some bits in the cupboards and freezer so will join too :) I made a HUGE batch of veggie chilli which utilised a number of tinned beans/tomatoes and it is lovely!

I have a lonely tin of mushy peas which I have no idea what to do with! I'm really not a fan... I inherited them from an American friend who was moving back to the states who apparently loved them, but not enough to eat that last can :S Perhaps I could put them into a split pea soup and hope for the best.

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #202 on: December 13, 2014, 04:57:59 PM »
In part of Australia they have something called a 'pie floater' - which is a meat pie resting on a bed of mushy peas or pea soup. It is quite nice as a novelty, and tomato sauce hides a multitude of sins.

Otherwise I say pea soup all the way. How about a pea and ham soup? That is generally quite forgiving and you could add some extra frozen peas to even out the taste and texture.

Dinner plan for next three nights is chilli and cornbread, Vietnamese rice paper rolls, and minced pork and green beans over rice with miso soup. All I will need to buy is some ground pork and veggies, the rest will come from the cupboards.

lizzzi

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #203 on: December 13, 2014, 05:02:53 PM »
I saw a restaurant review for a British Columbia place that catered to Australians, so made a lot of meat pies. They had this one where they put mushy peas on top of the meat pie, and then poured gravy over the whole thing. I've never eaten anything like that, but it looked appetizing. (Full disclosure: I'm a Yank…have never eaten a mushy pea in my life.)

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #204 on: December 14, 2014, 02:08:17 PM »
Meal plan changed slightly due to boyfriend requesting some sausages (from the freezer yea!) which I will serve with rosemary and parmesan polenta chips and beetroot/rocket/feta salad.

Cornbread muffins turned out only so-so, I should have put more mixture into each one but I wasn't sure how much they would rise. Taste good though, and those and the chilli will be great for lunches.

Polenta is almost used up already! I found a good looking recipe for polenta pancakes which I will probably make this week to eat with the stewed apples I prepped yesterday from the last 2 Granny Smiths that were getting a bit old.

Took the container of egg whites out this morning to make some macaroons when I'm home by myself this week.

Freezer is looking pretty empty!!!

Shropskr

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #205 on: December 14, 2014, 11:01:17 PM »
Husband gave notice de 31 is his last day. 

He is dissatisfied with the beans and I mean all beans :(

Easy freezer food this week I think.  Frozen Italian wedding soup leftovers, canned tomato soup(or frozen clam chowder),  frozen leftover white bean chili might make corn muffins, frozen chicken pot pie.    Think I'll take the week off.  lol

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #206 on: December 27, 2014, 02:17:07 PM »
How are we all going on the Christmas leftovers?

We didn't even host Christmas here, but somehow have managed to accumulate quite the collection. Of course, since we hate waste (and love food) this must be USED UP ASAP.

So far we have managed:
2 lunches using up chicken and salads
1 dinner using up prawns, salads, and some rolls from the freezer
1 dinner using up antipasto type stuff and old cheese from the fridge with homemade pizza dough (Jamie Oliver's simple recipe, worked much better than the one I used last time).
Leftover fruit salad, chocolate, pies and biscotti for snacks.

I walked to the store yesterday and bought only milk and bacon (requested by boyfriend, bacon is an essential item in our household). I think that should last us for another day or two, as we still have plenty of bits and pieces and will be attending a family BBQ today.

The leftover alcohol will be 'decluttered' at New Years :)

I also spent a few hours making stewed apricots and apricot jam with the excess harvest from our tree, and will give some of this away to the family today.

Right now it's looking like I will be moving out of my apartment in a month. I need to schedule a dinner party to get rid of that frozen duck!

4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #207 on: December 27, 2014, 04:29:40 PM »
I cooked 7 pounds of the 10 pounds of potatoes we have that are starting to sprout.  I have another 3 pounds.  My DH is loving all of the potatoes. 

I have a few pounds of chicken and beef in the freezer.  I'll defrost it next week. 


Rural

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #208 on: December 27, 2014, 05:04:03 PM »
Hoping to feel well enough to throw it all out tomorrow (weeklong stomach flu).

ETA I mean all the leftovers from last week's early celebration - the only one we attended thanks to the flu - I don't have anything else to be thrown out.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2014, 05:06:16 PM by Rural »

alleykat

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #209 on: December 27, 2014, 05:45:46 PM »
I would like to join this thread. I have one more meal left from Christmas dinner and then I need to start attacking my cupboards and freezer.  I have so much stuff that I am overwhelmed.  From here on out, I will only buy essentials at the market until I use what I have.

As far as junk food, I have a ton. First up under attack will be the Christmas desserts. I am hoping I can polish them off in the coming week and then I will identify something one by one for elimination.

I need to be more mindful in the grocery store each week.  I have great intentions for what I buy, however, it never ends up the way I plan and, I shamefully admit, I end up tossing too much.  I will attempt to put a stop to this in 2015.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2014, 06:01:22 PM by alleykat »

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #210 on: December 27, 2014, 05:57:33 PM »
I'm with ya, @alleykat! I need to go on a grocery store fast until we get some of these mountains of food used up! Made a turkey curry for dinner tonight. It has mashed potatoes, frozen veggies and sweet potato in it!

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/25053/christmas-leftovers-turkey-curry.aspx

tracylayton

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #211 on: December 27, 2014, 05:58:33 PM »
My son is visiting his dad for 8 days, so it is just me at home. I am planning not to buy anything from the grocery store until the day he gets back. I have a couple of mystery shops at restaurants (totally reimbursed) that will help.

lizinbmore

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #212 on: December 31, 2014, 09:42:20 AM »
Not quite eating everything in the house, but I declared this past December to be no-grocery month other than picking up a little fresh produce at the farmer's market each week to have fresh vegetables.  It was shockingly easy to do even including a holiday dinner party for some coworkers.  Obviously, I had a lot of food in the pantry and freezer. 

But it got me doing more scratch cooking including making homemade pasta, quiche crust, baking bread, etc.  It also helped me be more careful of foods that are going bad.  For instance, I had a lot of bread that was getting stale at one point that I might have thrown away at another time.  Instead, I made bread pudding for dessert that was excellent with homemade chocolate sauce. 

The amazing part is that there is still so much food around so I am thinking of doing this every other month for the next few months.  It started some better habits for me that I will definitely be thinking more about in the future. 

GardenFun

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #213 on: December 31, 2014, 10:41:54 AM »
The amazing part is that there is still so much food around so I am thinking of doing this every other month for the next few months.  It started some better habits for me that I will definitely be thinking more about in the future.

Same here.  Thinking about doing every 3rd month as a "cleanse the pantry/freezer" month.  With the rate of food sales around our area, it can be done without missing out and having to buy items at full price.  As always, insane clearance items are an exception to the rule.  ;-)

In regards to Christmas, we received bags and bags of candy - from friends, in the kids' Christmas socks, in our socks, etc.  I want to keep it to eat throughout the year but don't want it sitting around tempting us.  Any ideas?  Freeze the extra?  It is mostly candy like tootsie rolls, skittles, gum, Mary Jane caramels, etc. 

wintersun

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #214 on: January 01, 2015, 05:27:57 PM »
Garden Fun,

I like your idea of  "doing every 3rd month as a "cleanse the pantry/freezer" month".  I am going to see how well I do with that and let you all know.

I have a lot of things that just sit and do not get eaten, it is almost as if they are invisible.  So my goal is to eat them up, including supplements.

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #215 on: January 02, 2015, 03:57:27 AM »
-Used up several cups of almond flour in a gf fruit crisp.
-Brought blueberries into kitchen freezer in ice cream pail to use for daily smoothies. Most of the berries are in the deep freeze which is far away from the kitchen.
-Found (!!) chia seeds in the back of my pantry and moved them into a jar in the fridge with the hemp seeds and ground flax for morning oatmeal.
-Found coconut flour and so need to research what I can make with it.
-Used up 4 lbs of ground beef from side of beef and took out 4 lbs of stew beef to thaw for a big stew this weekend


SailAway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #216 on: January 03, 2015, 04:34:37 PM »
I read this whole thread today and I'm starting tomorrow. My pantry and freezer have gotten out of control, DH teases me that I hoard food. In some ways it's good because I stockpile things when they're on sale, meaning I don't often have to buy one thing at full price (hello six cans of organic pumpkin for 25 cents per can)

But it's too much right now, I don't know what I have and stuff will expire/go to waste.

So tomorrow I'm making chili in the crockpot so I'll have time to do a little inventorying and meal planning. I will still be buying dairy, eggs and veggies. And let's be honest, bacon. But this should cut down on grocery spending. Good thing as this will be a spendy month with propane and car/homeowners insurance.


-Found coconut flour and so need to research what I can make with it.
I love coconut flour but it's supper dry and absorbent so it needs tons of liquid and eggs. I prefer it blended with almond flour for baking. You can also dust chicken in it for chicken nuggets. I can point you to my Pinterest dessert board if you are interested. :-)

Juslookin

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #217 on: January 03, 2015, 04:51:16 PM »
I'm going to join in on this. It will tie in nicely with the other thread, sticking to a grocery budget for 2015.

First of all we are a family of four, two adults, DS 16 and DD 14. I am a gluten free celiac which adds a little challenge but can be done. I have quite a large garden and grow a lot of our food. We have a LOT to use up. 

We also have a little farm so we do currently have some of our own meat in the freezer we will be using up as well.

Looking for new ideas for frozen strawberries and blueberries, anything but a smoothie.

Used up a big package of flour tortillas going stale by making egg and sausage burritos for the freezer for breakfasts. Eggs are usually from my chickens but we only have chicks right now so only store bought eggs until June. 

We also used up the bottom of a container of ricotta cheese by making gluten free raviolis for the freezer. Those suckers are expensive to buy, time consuming to make but DH helped me.

Made scratch bread, regular and gf and whipped up a broccoli, potato, carrot chedder cheese soup. I had some limp veggies in the drawer.

Great to join in, read almost all the posts, inspired already.

Fodder

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #218 on: January 04, 2015, 02:30:24 PM »
Working at getting through all the Christmas-influenced leftover groceries.

Today I made a cabbage soup using some beef bones that had been kicking around in the freezer, 1/2 head of cabbage, some sketchy celery, onions, can of tomatoes and some barley.  It's pretty tasty!

And tonight I'm making a spanish rice dish with some peppers, onions, cilantro, as well as some sausage and shrimp that have been sitting in the freezer for a bit.

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #219 on: January 04, 2015, 03:58:58 PM »
Made a test batch of  this soup: http://definitelynotmartha.blogspot.ca/2014/12/the-perfect-gift-in-jar-curried-lentil.html

Will definitely be making some for Christmas gifts next year! Used up some of two kinds of lentils, curried powder, dried apples and I threw in some dried shredded zucchini my mom had sent from her garden. Turned out great!

Still have lots of stoneground cornflour so that will be the next in my list of projects. Thinking of making a skilled corn and beer bread with some Whistler brewing company chestnut ale (which is amazing) left over from Christmas.

GardenFun

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #220 on: January 04, 2015, 05:24:33 PM »

Looking for new ideas for frozen strawberries and blueberries, anything but a smoothie.


Have you ever tried making your own jam with the frozen fruit?  Tried it last winter and was shocked how good it tasted. 

Maybe strawberry muffins?   

Juslookin

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #221 on: January 05, 2015, 06:34:45 PM »

Looking for new ideas for frozen strawberries and blueberries, anything but a smoothie.


Have you ever tried making your own jam with the frozen fruit?  Tried it last winter and was shocked how good it tasted. 

Maybe strawberry muffins?   

Thank you. I didn't mention, part of my "use it up stockpile" is 1 1/2 dozen jars of strawberry jelly.   I grow them and had a bumper crop last year.  I did find a gluten free strawberry bread recipe I tried that everyone loved.  DH said you couldn't even tell it was GF so I'm going to start making it for the weekends and anytime I need to take a little something somewhere.

Today I ate a couple of ever so slightly freezer burned pieces of chicken, a barely soft apple and a leftover zuke/potato pancake for lunch.

Dinner was more exciting with a pork loin I had marinated and frozen, home canned applesauce, pretzel buns for them (I have no idea when or why I even bought those) and a roasted butternut squash.

My lunch tomorrow will be dinner again.

I'm also going to get up 5 minutes earlier to make french toast for my teenagers. I have half a loaf of homemade bread to use up, some frozen pumpkin purée to toss in and no cereal left in the house.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2015, 06:36:46 PM by Juslookin »

4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #222 on: January 06, 2015, 09:30:37 AM »
I have been eating down frozen food in our freezer.  Today I'm eating sweet potatoes with cranberries (leftover from Thanksgiving).   Yesterday, I ate some chicken pieces with champagne mustard for dinner and leftover chicken taco bowl for lunch. 

My breakfast smoothies were made on Sunday.  I used up the last of my frozen spinach (buy a large bag of baby spinach and freeze it), frozen raspberries, frozen blueberries, and milk.  I still have frozen strawberries and mangoes left. 

We have a lot of condiments.  What do you do with excess jam or lemon curd? 

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #223 on: January 06, 2015, 09:52:04 AM »
We have a lot of condiments.  What do you do with excess jam or lemon curd?

I have used leftover plain white rice to make a cheaters rice pudding - sprinkle some sugar or coconut sugar over leftover rice while warm, spread out into a pan to cool off. Make some whip cream and flavor as you like (usually I just do a bit of vanilla and almond extract, powdered sugar if you want it sweeter) and top with a quick fruit sauce. You could slip some jam into the sauce. I have folded in leftover lemon curd into the whip cream and it is awesome! fold the rice in. Pretend it is a fancy dessert that took all day to make.

Also I use a dollop of jam or jelly in savory dishes that call for sugar or a sweet element. It adds a whole bunch of flavor. Apricot jam goes well in tangines and Middle Eastern Dishes. Grape or apple jelly really adds to tomato dishes (especially spaghetti sauce) and helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

Any fruit jam + vinegar of choice + cold pressed oil of choice + seasoning (clove of crushed garlic, salt, pepper, herbs) + squirt of Dijon or grainy mustard = awesome vinaigrette.

Basically if you consider it a form of sweetening you'll find lots of places for it :)

4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #224 on: January 06, 2015, 11:00:25 AM »
We have a lot of condiments.  What do you do with excess jam or lemon curd?

I have used leftover plain white rice to make a cheaters rice pudding - sprinkle some sugar or coconut sugar over leftover rice while warm, spread out into a pan to cool off. Make some whip cream and flavor as you like (usually I just do a bit of vanilla and almond extract, powdered sugar if you want it sweeter) and top with a quick fruit sauce. You could slip some jam into the sauce. I have folded in leftover lemon curd into the whip cream and it is awesome! fold the rice in. Pretend it is a fancy dessert that took all day to make.

Also I use a dollop of jam or jelly in savory dishes that call for sugar or a sweet element. It adds a whole bunch of flavor. Apricot jam goes well in tangines and Middle Eastern Dishes. Grape or apple jelly really adds to tomato dishes (especially spaghetti sauce) and helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

Any fruit jam + vinegar of choice + cold pressed oil of choice + seasoning (clove of crushed garlic, salt, pepper, herbs) + squirt of Dijon or grainy mustard = awesome vinaigrette.

Basically if you consider it a form of sweetening you'll find lots of places for it :)

Thanks!  I'll try to make a vinaigrette this weekend!  I want to stop buying salad dressing, but I've been hesitant to try to make my own. 

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #225 on: January 06, 2015, 12:58:34 PM »
4alpacas There are some GREAT dressing recipes online -- once you switch to homemade, you'll never go back! The taste is far superior -- and no preservatives and weird, unpronounceable ingredients!

4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #226 on: January 06, 2015, 01:18:47 PM »
4alpacas There are some GREAT dressing recipes online -- once you switch to homemade, you'll never go back! The taste is far superior -- and no preservatives and weird, unpronounceable ingredients!
Awesome!  All of this encouragement is going to make me feel guilty if I don't try it out this weekend.  I regularly eat salads, so the reduction in salad dressing will carve about $3-$4/month off my grocery bill. 

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #227 on: January 06, 2015, 01:19:58 PM »
Thanks!  I'll try to make a vinaigrette this weekend!  I want to stop buying salad dressing, but I've been hesitant to try to make my own.

Salad dressings are a great place to start to learn how to freestyle in the kitchen. You can experiment and make as much or as little at a time as you like. The basic ratio is 3 parts oil to 1 part acid (vinigar, lemon juice etc) I usually do enough for just a couple of servings or a serving bowl  at a time so it is always fresh and can be changed depending on what you are making.

Have fun experimenting, the ingredient cost is so minimal, if it isn't perfect, it isn't a huge loss. Keep tasting as you go, trust your tastebuds, if it needs a crack of pepper, a little more acid, a bit of salt, a  hint of sweetness. I add the ingredients and shake them up in a mason jar. It takes seconds and allows you to control your ingredients. besides being really expensive a lot of salad dressings have crap ingredients.

One of my favorites: Balsamic Maple Dijon Vinaigrette
3 parts cold pressed oil (usually olive, but any nut oils are very nice too)
1 part Balsamic Vinegar
1 squirt of grainy/dijon mustard (this primary acts as an emulsifier and makes the oil and vinegar blend into a silky dressing instead of separating like they naturally do)

To taste:
Maple syrup
Cracked black pepper
Salt (a little garlic salt is nice if you do not use fresh garlic)
Minced fresh garlic - I like the freshness a little goes a long way but makes it yummy

Shake it up, taste, adjust seasonings, taste again until you like it :)


GardenFun

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #228 on: January 06, 2015, 01:55:32 PM »
We have a lot of condiments.  What do you do with excess jam or lemon curd?

I make crockpot yogurt and use jam and homemade granola in the individual servings.  We also put jam on pancakes or waffles in place of syrup.  One of my favorite breakfasts came from watching Mr. Food - he took two frozen waffles, put PB&J on them, put the two waffles together, then slowly toasted the combo in a skillet.  Melts the PB&J while creating a crispy outside.  My gosh I love that meal!     

gopackgo2

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #229 on: January 06, 2015, 02:47:18 PM »
This is a really inspiring thread!

Today I made a big crockpot of sauerkraut from my cabinet and some frozen chicken/apple sausages.

I found a petite ham (2 lbs) in the freezer and am making it in the crock tomorrow with a sugar free apricot jam glaze.

I usually buy a two-pack of broccoli cheese soup from Costco (I do the vast majority of my shopping at Costco and Aldis) for the weekend, but I have all of the ingredients to make a roasted red pepper and tomato soup.

I also have a lone package of cream cheese, and a freezer full of grass-fed ground beef, so I'm going to make a Mexican dip this weekend (with pork rinds for dipping, we're low-carbers) to go along with the soup.

dorothyc

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #230 on: January 06, 2015, 07:50:14 PM »
I still have half a jar of mincemeat (spiced fruit mix) that I can't seem to finish off - any ideas?   We already made a curried chicken sauce with some of it, but it was not a family favorite.  Maybe a spoonful would add some flavor to hot oatmeal?

If you like fruitcake this is a good recipe:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/sweet/christmas-sherry-mincemeat-cake.html

gopackgo2

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #231 on: January 07, 2015, 09:24:59 AM »
I successfully made curry!  Originally was going to be veggie curry but I cheated and put some chicken in it and used chicken stock.  The visual chicken enabled DH to eat it without complaining.  Bag 1 of lentils is gone.  Bonus was that the curry tasted even better the next day - similar to how stew seems to taste better after sitting for a while.

On to researching what to do with rice noodles....

I just noticed your tagline - you can't even get away from us here :)

gopackgo2

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #232 on: January 07, 2015, 09:28:56 AM »
I'm going to join in on this. It will tie in nicely with the other thread, sticking to a grocery budget for 2015.

First of all we are a family of four, two adults, DS 16 and DD 14. I am a gluten free celiac which adds a little challenge but can be done. I have quite a large garden and grow a lot of our food. We have a LOT to use up. 

We also have a little farm so we do currently have some of our own meat in the freezer we will be using up as well.

Looking for new ideas for frozen strawberries and blueberries, anything but a smoothie.

Used up a big package of flour tortillas going stale by making egg and sausage burritos for the freezer for breakfasts. Eggs are usually from my chickens but we only have chicks right now so only store bought eggs until June. 

We also used up the bottom of a container of ricotta cheese by making gluten free raviolis for the freezer. Those suckers are expensive to buy, time consuming to make but DH helped me.

Made scratch bread, regular and gf and whipped up a broccoli, potato, carrot chedder cheese soup. I had some limp veggies in the drawer.

Great to join in, read almost all the posts, inspired already.

Regarding the strawberries/blueberries:  I take them out of the freezer, pour some coconut milk over them and have them for dessert a couple of nights per week. 

Juslookin

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #233 on: January 07, 2015, 12:16:23 PM »
Gopack2: That sounds good. Wish I could get my teenagers to eat more berries.

I had the best success today with using up. I had a smidgen of frozen pumpkin leftover and thawed in the fridge and a little bit of roasted butternut squash left over from dinner. I didn't have a full cup of squash and I wanted to make pumpkin cookies. I boiled up some partly limp carrots, puréed them and added them to the recipe. 

Voila....the best "pumpkin" cookies ever, even made them gluten free.

I had one little piece of cod in the freezer, I made three fish cakes, ate half today, half tomorrow for lunch.  Loving this game!

gopackgo2

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #234 on: January 07, 2015, 12:54:41 PM »
I started my small 2 pound ham in the crockpot this afternoon using a sugar free apricot jam I melted up in the microwave with some added dry mustard as a glaze.

I normally put a small amount of orange or other citrus juice in the bottom of the crock to keep the ham from drying out, but I didn't have any citrus.

I did, however, have some Harvest Tea teabags from Trader Joes that contain cinnamon, cloves and citrus, so I popped that into the slow cooker along with a smidge of water.  It smells heavenly!

WESTOFTHEHUDSON

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #235 on: January 07, 2015, 01:06:25 PM »
Back!  My comp finally died and our baby came and houseguests left. I  kept up the challenge until freezer was emptied ( except for our bread supply). It was very liberating!

We bought a lamb and half a cow and are back to eating out of our now replenished stash. I am grateful to have everything we need except for lettuce in the house, particularly in these frigid Canadian temps....

irishbear99

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #236 on: January 07, 2015, 02:28:08 PM »
Hi, I'd love to join in on this challenge. I've just recently committed to actual meal planning and shopping from a list, and I think this thread will help me stay accountable. Tonight I plan to take an inventory of the pantry and then plan next week's meals around what's in there. I know we'll have to shop for fresh produce and a little meat, but I should be able to cut down on what we have to purchase.

Also, there's half a Costco-sized bag of Quaker instant oatmeal stored in the pantry that needs to be eaten. I like oatmeal just fine, but won't usually choose it if there are other breakfast options in the house. There's also about a half-dozen English mufins and some cereal left, but I'm committing to not buying more of either until the oatmeal is gone. (I do have a Costco-sized bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer that'll help with depleating the oatmeal.)

We usually do our grocery shopping on Fridays, so I'll be sure to post our menu for next week and how the shopping goes this weekend.

GardenFun

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #237 on: January 07, 2015, 02:49:37 PM »
I successfully made curry!  Originally was going to be veggie curry but I cheated and put some chicken in it and used chicken stock.  The visual chicken enabled DH to eat it without complaining.  Bag 1 of lentils is gone.  Bonus was that the curry tasted even better the next day - similar to how stew seems to taste better after sitting for a while.

On to researching what to do with rice noodles....

I just noticed your tagline - you can't even get away from us here :)

I know!  It's like a bad dream.  ;-)

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #238 on: January 07, 2015, 03:17:00 PM »
Love this thread! With so many social obligations, return to work and getting the house ready to rent out we've eaten out a lot the last few weeks, but continue to plug away at using up. I took my own advice and made pie floaters with some frozen baby peas on Sunday and we loved them. Easy back up meal for the future. The rest of the peas and some frozen oven chips will get used up tonight in fish and chips. Also working through some preserved peaches and wheat bran in the morning oatmeal.

Am confident now that I will be moving out with an empty freezer, yay to no food waste.

Juslookin

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #239 on: January 07, 2015, 06:26:32 PM »
My DD14 was giving me a hard time today.  "Please go buy cereal moooooom." Don't you love it when they say Mom that way?

No, I will not. Eat the frozen waffles, frozen pancakes, other kind of cereal you had to have, grab a homemade breakfast burrito, scramble an egg, a scoop of yogurt, fruit and granola or any one of the dozens of options here in the house. I can't stand it when she just eats dry cereal anyway, she won't even put milk on it, there is no nutrition to that. Problem solved.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2015, 06:28:12 PM by Juslookin »

savedough

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #240 on: January 09, 2015, 06:52:59 AM »
I have a 21 lb Hubbard squash.    Ideas?    I haven't even moved it from the garage because I have no idea what to do with it.   My son guessed the weight and won it.  He's 4 :). 

GardenFun

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #241 on: January 09, 2015, 08:26:18 AM »
I have a 21 lb Hubbard squash.    Ideas?    I haven't even moved it from the garage because I have no idea what to do with it.   My son guessed the weight and won it.  He's 4 :).

Had to Google Hubbard squash.  Wow, those things are big!  Looks like they are best used as a pumpkin substitute. 

One of my go-to squash recipes is to peel off the rind with a knife, cut squash into 1" cubes, mix together with some olive oil, salt and pepper, then roast in oven at 400F for around 40-50min, or until they are cooked and a little brown on the outside.   

Other options include pumpkin muffins, cakes, pancakes, soups.  I've seen quite a few lentil/pumpkin/curry soups floating around a few threads. 

lizzzi

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #242 on: January 11, 2015, 06:40:14 AM »
So I'm leaving to go out-of-state today…am out of everything, but didn't want to grocery shop…had some little dibs and dabs of lentils and split peas…not really enough for a recipe…combined them, added some leftover vegetables…used L.B. Jamison chicken soup base…made myself a sort of vegetable soup/stew for supper. Had enough leftover to freeze for when I get back.

alleykat

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #243 on: January 11, 2015, 06:54:25 AM »
Bagels in the freezer gone.  Half bags of frozen vegetables gone.  Few muffins in freezer up next and a giant bag of 5lb corn up next. It will be nice to clean out the freezer. Today, I am going to organize my pantry and put things in order to use.

wintersun

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #244 on: January 11, 2015, 08:59:23 AM »
I am inspired by this thread too.  I found a hidden Excel meal planner in my computer by mistake (looking up the word MEAL) and am trying it.  I have listed what I have in the house including sauces, canned goods, frozen meals and have made a menu until the end of the month. 

I have varied it so that each frozen dish appears once a week alternating with something freshly made.  I have made three shopping lists, one for each week.  Yesterday we used up yams and fish.  To use up disparate sauces we will be having sweet and sour stir fry plus lots of curries and chinese dishes.

I will be making some veggie chill and then adding a few bits of sausage from the freezer to my DH's bowl.  We will be having dip to use up the frozen spinach, lipton's soup and mayonnaise.

Any ideas for mung beans? They are dry and in the freezer.

GardenFun

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #245 on: January 11, 2015, 03:42:49 PM »
Any ideas for mung beans? They are dry and in the freezer.

My gosh, thought I was a well-versed cook but am starting to doubt my cooking skills.  Had to look up mung beans on google!  I'm starting to feel like Penny on BBT where she has to go home and look up words in the dictionary after conversations with Leonard. 

One interesting option was to soak them in water and sunlight, then put them in darkness for a week to get bean sprouts.  Thought that was kind of cool - but not sure it will work on dried ones.

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #246 on: January 13, 2015, 02:07:41 AM »
Made a chicken tagine tonight which used up some olives, preserved lemons and a good bit of the burghal, along with some wilty veg from the fridge. Didn't have the white wine the recipe called for so subbed some sherry that has been hanging round for YEARS. I think it was originally bought for a paella recipe that turned out gross anyway.

Also had some friends over for a 'free garage sale' on the weekend and offloaded some doubles of herbs, spices etc onto friends who will use them.

savedough

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #247 on: January 13, 2015, 07:45:11 AM »
I've only ever had mung bean soup.   Soup seems to be the cure-all for how to use up ingredients.   You could use them to make a hummus type dip too, or soak, cook, grind and make cracker type snacks.

We made pizza this weekend and cinnamon rolls.  I was able to use some of a giant coconut oil container, tomato sauce from the freezer and a can of artichokes that had been around for a while.  The best part was that my little ones ate every bite on their plates and asked for more.   They are pretty adventurous - ate okra, sausage and tomatoes last night but needed some coaxing - but it is still nice to not have to ask them to eat all of their dinner, not just the fruit and peas.

I'm trying to get through my tea and hot liquid stash (we don't do coffee) while it is cold because I don't drink tea in the summer.  However, I copied down the chai concentrate recipe and think this could be a great way to use some tea during the summer to make cold chai.  I'd never thought of doing this, and I'm usually pretty creative in the kitchen.

Thanks so much for the ideas.    I still haven't cracked open that Hubbard - I have a 6 lb pie pumpkin to use as well, but after finishing up a butternut squash, several acorn squash, little pie pumpkins and one I cant remember the name of - my kids and husband are a little squashed out right now.

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe for muffins or other baked goods made with squash?  I've made (incredible!) cinnamon rolls using sweet potato, so I might try that too.   I've also made potato foccacia bread, so I might play around with the recipe and make savory squash bread.   It only uses 1/2-1 cup though and I'll have a lot of cups from that 21 lb beast.     We have another baby coming in April, but it will be Christmas before I'd need baby food and I'll probably have next years crop to make baby food from.     I may just bake it and freeze it and let the ideas come later. 

Shropskr

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #248 on: January 13, 2015, 11:32:25 AM »
I've been using up our Halloween pumpkin and some frozen butternut squash no on liked in the kids morning smoothies.

I do have a pumpkin muffin recipie but like you said it only calls for a can 19 oz? Of pumpkin.  I've even made gf pumpkin loaf turned out ok.


MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #249 on: January 14, 2015, 03:20:51 PM »
Throwing away about 0.50 worth of food a month.  So far this month it is 3 slices canned pineapple.

I made a low carb taco bake Monday using ground turkey which was on sale last month, and used a coupon.  I utilized 1/2 can leftover chilies from DH's chili Saturday, and about 1/4 cup tomato sauce from the freezer from September 2014.  DH bought me a roll of freezer tape, and I mark Rubbermaid food containers w/ the contents and date using a Sharpie.

There is something reassuring and calming about the waste not want, not effect of using up things. :)

 

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