Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2

[MountainGal]

Welcome to the thread, @Rosy.  :)

[Rosy]

Welcome to the thread, @Rosy.  :)

Thx:) - Thanks for the reminder about the walnuts, I still have some from X-mas baking - I think I'll use those with the chicken breasts in the freezer.
Maybe bake an apple cake with walnuts over the weekend.
Then next week I could make dessert - a Southern caramelized (praline) peach with walnuts with a splash of Grand Marnier. 

I just realized that I have older soups I could have used for the last big batch, but I am partial to beef parley soup.
But OK, it is supposed to get cold again this weekend - so I'll do a potato and celery combo using the leftover ham in the freezer and whatever else appeals or needs to be used.
Mr. R. is lobbying for Chili - if it stays cold long enough I will make a batch.

So tomorrow may become pasta night since I have frozen meatballs and some truly good Parmesan cheese. Quick and simple - just the way we like it.
I like parsley in Italian-style dishes and I have enough in the garden to use both fresh parsley and fresh (strong flavor) garlic chives).

[Dutch Comfort]

Just made the first batch of banana-oatmeal-nut muffins...... these things are delicious when right out of the oven. As 1 of the teens is in quarantine right now, she is getting a few to snack on. Think I need a second batch as well, since I do not expect that these will make it to the freezer.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

made cheaterr chicken curry - used up the last jar of Tikka masala simmer sauce and the last red pepper. Leaving a fridge/freezer stocked with cooked food for DH while I'm away for the next 10 days.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Made lunches for the teens. They are normally on their own, but when I make lunch, I use up all of the "need to go" items. ;-)
-Made fruit smoothies, x2. Used up bananas, apple juice that's been lingering in the fridge, two garden strawberries, & frozen fruit
-Made two boxes of Trader Joes mac & cheese that came with a Buy Nothing item I really wanted. It was a "take all of this" type of thing.
-Used up the rest of the sandwich bread in grilled cheese sandwiches

We've also made progress on other lingering items:
-I wrapped up the last of the soba noodles for lunch
-The picky teen had a bagel with his chicken, as he doesn't like coleslaw
-Coleslaw was made to use up the last of the whipping cream (it actually calls for heavy cream, but the whipping cream was unsweetened, and worked just fine)
-Got a bag of coconut shrimp out of the freezer, by serving it with noodles earlier in the week
-Tonight we're having chicken fajitas, which will use up chicken in fajita marinade (freezer), opened containers of cheese & sour cream, and tortilla shells.

[Psyche]

We made coleslaw this week, too, @MaybeBabyMustache!  (As for the cream, I believe heavy and whipping are synonymous.)

I had a slight wrist injury a couple of weeks ago, so no posting or cooking for a while : P  Now I'm reporting on weeks 7 & 8.  While I was out of the kitchen we ordered a lot of takeout. (I'm technically only on cooking duty once a week, but I guess no one was in a mood to cook.)  We still managed to make some meals and eat some things down—including, amazingly, the last of our freezer meat!  Farewell, tilapia, you were delicious.

Now I've started to restock the freezer (with meats we'll actually eat, God willing).  We are still in the challenge because we're not yet done with the pantry (or fridge—random condiments).  It's exciting to see the very long list of those foods we've already eaten, though!  The days of restocking the pantry are not far away!

Meal/etc made:
- Spicy Noodles
- Egg McMuffins
- Smothered Pork Chops (the first new meat we've bought!)
- Tuna Noodle Casserole
- Quesadillas
- Fish Tacos & Coleslaw
- Tuna Salad
- Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients used up:
- Shrimp
- Tilapia
- Peaches
- Hot cocoa
- Mexican cheese
- Bread crumbs (so, so very far past expired)
- Egg noodles

Not finished but we made progress:
- Noodle kits
- American cheese (blech... have made mcmuffins, now guess I'll make hamburgers)
- Popcorn

I wasn't excited to eat the tilapia, but my SO finally decided to try this fish taco recipe I pulled a few weeks ago, and it was delicious!  https://carlsbadcravings.com/blackened-fish-tacos-recipe/  (We made a different coleslaw and didn't try the avocado crema this time, just the fish itself.)

Also, to make the pork chops my SO used spinach and lemon juice I had frozen a few weeks back : )  First time I managed to not throw away spinach!! (Thanks to a poster earlier on this thread who suggesting freezing it)

Happy eating, everyone!

[MountainGal]

Hope this finds everyone well.

@Psyche, I love blackened fish!

For a few reasons, I didn't get to the pesto over the weekend, and will do so this upcoming weekend.  So, both Saturday and Sunday's suppers have been rescheduled.  I did cook up the onions for the patty melts, and the artichoke dip utilized the sad jarred artichokes, and the remaining bit of bottled garlic.  Oh, and a half cup of the aforementioned huge tub of sour cream.  The dip goes well with both crackers as well as vegetables.

This week's suppers, barring any unforeseen changes:
~Tonight's stir fry will use up more of the dehydrated cherry tomatoes, a bag of frozen broccoli, and some chicken breasts, shrimp and teriyaki sauce
~Tomorrow's fish tacos will use the remaining bag of cod

[YellowCat]

I finished up a whole bunch of ingredients last week making baked blueberry oatmeal, enough that the pantry shelves are once again emerging from the clutter.

I also baked a brownie mix we’d had in the pantry for a while, adding in the last of a bag of walnuts from the freezer. They were supposed to be for dessert after a dinner with friends, but our toddler got sick and we had to cancel. Oh well, more brownies for us. There were no complaints from anyone in my household :)

Today's cooking project is daal with random bits of lentils from the pantry plus canned tomatoes and spices. Maybe I’ll throw in some frozen sweet potatoes for interest.

[Dutch Comfort]

We're making progress:

Last saturday: made 2 batches of oatmeal-banana-mixed nut muffins from things I had in fridge/pantry. Also made a nice cake to snack on. No need to shop for one, since I had all ingredients at hand. Dinner were burgers for us / noodles for the teens, finishing the bread rolls and burgers from the freezer.
Sunday: homemade pizza..... my parents came over and joined us for dinner. But during some drinks we also went through some snacking material like chocolate......
Monday: had some leftover unions, bell peppers and mushrooms. Added some potatoes and made a tray bake with some sausages.
Today: finished some leftover meats on a sandwich. Dinner will be potatoes, cauliflower and some meat.
Tomorrow / Thursday: baked potatoes, green beans and some meat or fish from the freezer and a pasta night
Friday: leftover tortilla's to finish off any veggies / cheeses that are in the fridge with some ground beef from the freezer.
Saturday: grilled cheese/ham sandwiches, since we are planning some major home redecorations and do not want to cook

Breakfast and lunches still come from the pantry or freezer, so I'm not complaining! Teens are doing their best. DS suddenly took a bag of cheese/rice crisps which was already lingering in there for ages and decided this would be a good (addition to his) lunch. I'm actually starting to see shelve space in my pantry!!!

[Linea_Norway]

I finished my pot with pickeled cherrie tomatoes (store bought). Next year, hopefully I will have my own cherrie tomatoes to pickle.

[FragglesRock666]

I work for a restaurant group, so often times that means eating out instead of in... Which means that I had food out for lunch Friday, and pretty much all day yesterday. So not much progress the last several days. 
So I plan on making up for it today!  Helps that it's snowy and cold outside, so cooking and warming up the kitchen sounds kind of nice.
For dinner tonight, I'm going to make a black bean chili type of thing using the following:
Black beans from last winter's CSA
Frozen roasted red peppers, probably from last year's CSA, too, though might be from this winter's?  Who knows, man!
A bag of frozen tomatoes, again don't know if it's from this winter or last...
Chorizo I had taken out for tacos on Saturday, but my kiddo decided she didn't actually want tacos so I made chicken and rice instead.
A little bit of chicken that's in the fridge that I need to cook

I think I might put some winter squash in the oven to roast tonight, too, so it will be cooked and ready to go for later this week.  Also, I have some beets that need cooking and using up...

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Over the weekend, I took a large Costco pack of ground beef (6.5 pounds or so) & made it into roughly half each taco meat, and spaghetti sauce. I kept 1/3 of each out for dinner this week, and froze the rest.

Our freezer is again looking full, but I've made good progress on the pantry. I can now see almost everything. The teens have polished off the remnants of a bunch of things, I've organized a bit.

On the freezer side, I find myself irritated, because there is so much food in there! On the flip side, I prep a lot of things, and store them in the freezer until we need them (dinner options, single serving lunches, & muffins). But, clearly the right balance is to have less than we currently have. ;-)

-I also dug out two containers of lemon curd from the freezer, and turned those into lemon muffins
-I convinced a teen to have a freezer cheeseburger

We've done a good job of eating through our prepped food this week (spaghetti sauce, chicken curry, taco meat).

[seemsright]

Slowly working through all of the garden produce that I froze from this last summers group garden.

Cooked a massive Hubbard squash for pumpkin pie oatmeal and pumpkin pancakes.
Working through garden tomatoes made enchilada sauce and will make ketchup tmrw.
made some more crockpot pork for tacos for two or three nights. Was able to use up more of the random in the fridge door, some spices that have been around for a long time and some hot peppers frozen from the garden.

I still have a bunch of stuff from the garden in the freezer to use up.

With food prices as high as they are I really trying to use up what we have. I am struggling to keep our food bill around $600 a month for hubby I and our preteen.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We've done a good job eating leftovers, and weaving items into meals lately:
-Frozen bananas & berries into fruit smoothies
-The last of the overly ripe bananas also into smoothies
-Bagels for breakfast sandwiches for a hungry teen
-Bagels to replace buns to make a chicken sandwich
-Continuing to use the last of a giant bag of shredded cheese. We've used it for tacos, quesadillas, chicken sandwiches, eggs, & taquitos. Still have about a cup left.
-Tossed a couple of rotten pears, but cut the rest of the ripe fruit & served it with lunch for the kids
-Unearthed a bag of edamame (freezer) & paired that with a light dinner
-Made green beans for one of the kids, as his favorite side dish. This is only notable because we have a bunch of canned green beans, & I always forget about them
-Kids are making their way through a Costco sized bag of cheddar/caramel corn that a neighbor gave to me
-I have a bit of lemon curd left from the muffins, so I've been topping the muffins with lemon curd, & it's...amazing

For dinner tonight, we're having the other half of a bag of ravioli, meatballs (freezer) & a new pasta sauce I'm trying from Trader Joes. Attempting to broaden the palate of a picky eater.

[okisok]

I made a big batch of chili with some meat substitute I got for free with coupons & rebates. No recipe, just added some black beans I made from scratch in the crockpot and had frozen. A handful of chopped, frozen onion, some canned tomato sauce, and a can of tomatoes & green chilis. Turned out delicious and the whole slow cooker-full (6 servings?) was less than $2. I got three cans out of the pantry, a bag & a box out of the freezer, and emptied a spice container. Meals for days!
 

[Dutch Comfort]

Right now, everything is FULL again, since we had to quarantaine Saturday for 2 COVID cases in the house...... So, next week will be no groceries and everything from fridge/freezer/cupboard. Fortunately groceries were done just before and since I already suspected that the teens would test positive, I took some extra's while grocery shopping on Friday night!
So here we are, being creative with what we have.......... till quarantaine is over next Saturday.

[MountainGal]

Covid and chili seem to be the theme lately!  DH and I both are recovering from Covid, and there is a large batch of chili in the slow cooker for tonight.  Eating is still a bit unsteady, but I am trying to get some vitamins into us.  The chili used up 2 pounds of locally raised beef, a can each of dark and light kidney beans, a large can of whole tomatoes, and a can of tomato paste.

While down, I also remembered to toss a few bananas into the freezer DH didn't get to, and I cooked up a pound of ground beef I'd thawed, but we didn't get to due to having no appetites.  I portioned them off into patties, cooked, cooled, and tossed them back into the freezer for future consumption.

~Sauteed yellow squash and broccoli went into two suppers.
~A bag of cauliflower was turned into mashed cauliflower and was eaten last night, and I had leftovers for lunch today.
~We ate the remaining chicken soup we had on hand, so I stocked up via a pickup order last Friday.  We're now flush in chicken soup, applesauce, yogurt and macaroni and cheese cups.
~Cooked up the remaining bag of shrimp with shirataki noodles, and served it with the remaining breaded shrimp.
~Much to my chagrin, because we were ill and vegetables didn't sound appetizing, I ended up throwing away an English cucumber, 2 portobello mushrooms, 1/3 bag baby spinach, and some fresh basil.

I'm going to make some healthy fruit and flax seed smoothies to go with tonight's chili.  The smoothies will use up a can of coconut milk, a yogurt, some honey, and berries frozen during season.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Hope you both feel better soon, @MountainGal

[MountainGal]

Thank you very much, @MaybeBabyMustache!  We are getting better day by day.

I'm wrapping up what fruits and vegetables we have on hand as I am heading out of town soon.  Last night's 3-types of berry smoothies hit the spot.  With tonight's cod I'll serve asparagus which was frozen during season, and Alfredo spaghetti squash.  I looked up the nutrition for both and am pleased.  While I'm away, I'll focus on seafood and fresh veggies.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We used up two bags of taco meat today (one chicken, one beef). The chicken one is from the rescued crockpot chicken, where I'd inadvertently subbed cayenne pepper for taco seasoning.

[draco44]

I'm trying to eat down my pantry before an upcoming move. I was very pleased yesterday by the number of containers I was able to finish off yesterday by making a casserole and a batch of granola. A can of corn, a can of green beans, a can of soup, a big tub of oats, a tiny sample jar of orange marmalade, some honey, AND the last of a jar of wheat germ - all gone. Nearly finished off some panko crumbs too but will have to come up with one more meal to get rid of those.

[MountainGal]

Good luck with your move, @draco44.

My trip got postponed until next month, which is fine with me as I didn't feel 100% until yesterday.  Still tired, however.

Because I hadn't planned on being home, finding fruits and veggies at home were a bit of a stretch.  We had takeout a few of the nights (sub sandwiches loaded with veggies, and Chinese for a belated Lunar New Year celebration, also containing veggies). Saturday, I made smoothies out of berries frozen last fall, one of the bananas I froze during our Covid weeks, and a can of coconut milk.  Yesterday for a snack I thawed a container of the Alfredo spaghetti squash I made last week, and last night I steamed up a bag of broccoli from the freezer for supper.  Here's to this week's grocery pickup.  :)

[FragglesRock666]

The day after my last post, I came down with a really bad stomach bug, and was really not ok for about a week.  So, i lost some things that I just couldn't eat.  Sad! 
Since then, though, I have been mostly keeping up with my weekly veggie CSA, and have focused on using the older beef in my freezer first where I can.  Also, the farm where I get my CSA had a VERY slow week in their retail store, which meant they had a ton of shiitake mushrooms that weren't sold.  My farmer friend hates mushrooms, so she sold them to me at cost. So I saved a bunch of money!  But that means I have a ton of mushrooms to use up.  Made a giant pot of cream of mushroom soup the other day, first time making it and it was super yum, but now I have to get the rest chopped up and either cooked or frozen for later. 
Haven't even thought of what I will do for dinner tonight, will have to be something easy or some sort of leftovers because I am just NOT in the mood to mess around with that stuff tonight! 

[seemsright]

spent the morning cooking. Still had to go to the grocery store but my bill was only $50 total.

I cooked more squash for pumpkin cake and pancakes this weekend.
made some veggie stock to make congee this weekend using some leftover cooked rice.
ground some buckwheat for the pancakes to change it up a bit and get one more thing out of my pantry.
cooked up the last of the potatoes. We will have hash browns some time this weekend
made some hummus for hummus bowls and snacks for this next week.


I need to make some english muffins this weekend as hubby and the preteen seem to be going through them and the cost of them at the store keep going up. I dont mind making the dough but rolling them out and cooking just takes a long time. It is not hard just annoying.

I am going to have to do much more work than I normally do in the kitchen as food costs keep going up and I really do not want to change my budget this year. I have other goals for the money like fun trips and doing things.

[Zoot]

I need to make some english muffins this weekend as hubby and the preteen seem to be going through them and the cost of them at the store keep going up.

Would love a pointer to your go-to English muffin recipe, if you're willing to share!  I've never made them and would love to try.

That said, if you have Lidl groceries in your area, give their store-branded English muffins a try--they are $1.15 for six when I last bought them a week ago, and they are hands down the best store-bought English muffin product I've ever tasted.  WAY better than the national brands!

[Josiecat22222]

@Zoot :  I have not made English muffins per se, but James Beard's English muffin bread is AMAZING (link:
https://www.mastercook.com/app/Recipe/WebRecipeDetails?recipeId=18161564)

We make it as a loaf, then slice it and toast it.  It's ok just as a bread, but as a toast it is AWESOME!

[MountainGal]

@FragglesRock666, glad you are feeling better!

@seemsright, great job cooking!

@Josiecat23503, thank you for the recipe.  That is one I will try, as DH eats an English muffin almost daily.

Kept the monthly grocery/HBA order to well below our usual $300 at just $180.  I've been keeping a laser focus on using the fresh produce, and huge bottle of lemon juice I bought several months ago.  Along with various proteins, I made:

Mon:  Side salads with baby spinach and iceberg lettuce, used lemon juice on scallops
Tues:  Corn cobs
Wed:  Zucchini, yellow squash, and side salads with cherry tomatoes and diced cucumber
Thurs:  Asparagus, and used lemon juice on shrimp
This weekend:  Eggplant fries and more side salads.  And I think I'll make some homemade salad dressing to expedite the lemon juice usage.

[seemsright]

@Zoot :  I have not made English muffins per se, but James Beard's English muffin bread is AMAZING (link:
https://www.mastercook.com/app/Recipe/WebRecipeDetails?recipeId=18161564)

We make it as a loaf, then slice it and toast it.  It's ok just as a bread, but as a toast it is AWESOME!

Zoot. This is a very basic traditional english muffin recipe. Back in the day I decided I was going to learn how to make bread and now I 'just' make bread. So I really do not have a recipe. Bread is very much what I want out of it and what am I eating with it. Hubby and the preteen use english muffins as breakfast sandwiches with sausages so depending on the type of sausages we have I will add pepper or make it a richer dough by adding a egg. My preteen does not like to take the time to eat so if I can add a touch more protein in anything I can get her to eat I will.

If you decided to make the english muffins I really enjoy making them more on the sourdough side. I just make the dough the night before and let it sit out all night then roll them out and let them rise and then cook them. With some homemade pear butter nothing better.

[slackmax]

Finished off a jar of preserves, washed it out and will sell it at flea market. Also, still eying
a small box of tapioca flakes(?) that has been on my kitchen counter for ages. I keep it out,
to remind me to use it up, lol.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Finished off a jar of preserves, washed it out and will sell it at flea market. Also, still eying
a small box of tapioca flakes(?) that has been on my kitchen counter for ages. I keep it out,
to remind me to use it up, lol.

If tapioca flakes are aka tapioca flour/starch, then you could make a batch of Pao de Quiejo. Mmmm. https://hilahcooking.com/pao-de-queijo/

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We are heading out of town today for a ski trip, so we made an effort to use up a bunch of stuff:
-Chocolate almond milk used to make lots of smoothies. I thought the kids would drink it on its own, and I was mistaken. They loved it in smoothies
-Last of the apple juice, used
-All fresh bananas were used in above smoothies, and we even made a dent in the freezer stash
-My son ate two English cucumbers yesterday, sliced with salt. I'm not sure what brought on the snacking (he does love cucumbers, but this is a lot, even for him), but I'm glad they are not going to go bad in the fridge
-I wrapped up some baked chicken as breakfast, and had a few bites of mac & cheese (leftovers from the teens) as lunch yesterday
-We baked the last of the potato skins, & served those along side barbecued burgers.

We've made a ton of freezer progress, so it's nice to see some space open up there.

We rented a condo for our ski trip, and have a plan to go to Costco & the grocery store. I have one Keto eater (food allergies) & one teen who pretty much lives off of carbs, so it's pretty tricky to plan a menu that: has limited ingredients, is easy to prep after a day of skiing, suits all dining needs, won't generate leftovers. Fingers crossed that I've come close. Either way, it will be significantly cheaper than eating out for our meals.

[MountainGal]

@MaybeBabyMustache, I hope you had luck with your Costco results.

Still working on the dehydrated cherry tomatoes.  I added some to Monday's meatballs and will add more to Friday's stir fry and Saturday's enchiladas.

Also continuing to work on the large bottle of lemon juice.  I'll squirt some on top of the stir fry, various veggies, and next week's cod and shrimp dish.

Sunday's lasagna resulted in about 8 servings.  The kitchen freezer is full again with containers of leftovers, and chicken breast and drumstick family packs.

A 2-pound bag of processed and breaded chicken tenders were used as a substitution for chicken breasts in last month's grocery pickup.  I don't normally buy them due to nutrition and sodium content.  I air fried some while we were down with Covid and finally wanting to eat, and more last night to go on top of baby spinach salads.  The air fryer cooks them up quickly and are actually quite tasty.  There's about half a bag left.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

On your lemon juice - if you'd like to keep it longer and are just trying to get the bottle out of the fridge, you could freeze it in ice cube trays and them have a dollop when you wanted, pre-measured.

Maybe that's just playing a shell game though.

[seemsright]

Lemon juice in some hot water makes a great lemon tea. I have been enjoying a slice of lemon and a bit of fresh ginger steeped in hot water as a tea. So good.

[Lunasol]

Hi I am new to this thread.

We have some proteins in the freezer and this is my reminder to make the frozen beef neck in the instapot before end of the month.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We are leaving tomorrow from our ski vacation, and have done a reasonably good job of using up what we can. It's pretty much impossible to buy exactly the quantity you need for everything. But, we've finished off all of the fruit (minus the two bananas that will go into tomorrow's breakfast), we've eaten all of the pizza (minus one of four), the teens have plowed through the coffee cake-like bread I splurged on at Costco. We used the extra tortillas from the street taco kit (Costco) for breakfast burritos, as well as the extra cheese & salsa crema. The eggs will be finished tomorrow as well.

We will also likely bring a few things back, that are easily packed:
-Remainder of the trail mix
-I'll bring a PB&J for the airport for myself, and the non-picky teen
-I'll bring cold pizza for the airport for the kids
-garlic salt

I hope the folks who clean/service the condo are able to take home & use the unopened items. We will likely have some hard seltzer leftover, a cube of butter, some salad veggies, etc

[MountainGal]

@SailingOnASmallSailboat and @seemsright, thank you for the lemon juice ideas.  I put them on my to do list for the weekend.

Welcome to the thread, @lunahsol.  :)

Well done, @MaybeBabyMustache.

Not much new to report except I did use more of the pepperoni slices and bacon bits as pizza toppers last night.

[Dutch Comfort]

We went away for a long weekend with friends and a visit to my parents. Now the fridge and pantry is stuffed with leftovers which we need to polish off.
So far the teens did their fair share:
- eating a pile of waffles
- eating the sweet buns and pastries
- finishing the last pieces of chocolate fudge
- finishing some sliced meats, humus and cucumbers with some bread as lunch

Now we have to make sure we eat the following before it goes bad:
- cheese
- some snack sausages
- carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes (will cut this into snack size for today and tomorrow)
- grated cheese (use over the pasta tonight)
- some more pastries
- another box of humus
- some soda and sweet drinks (we hardly drink any soda / sweet drinks, so I really have to serve this to the teens, because they usually only drink water/thee/milk)

[Dollar Slice]

Advice needed...

I had a stomach upset (ongoing GI issues since 2020, ugh) for the better part of a week which resulted in getting close to the expiration dates on a few things. I had a full quart of milk a couple days past due so I wanted to use it up all in one go. I've been doing a lot of mac and cheese/broccoli cheese soup type stuff in the last couple of months so I decided to do a milk-based dessert instead, and thought I would do a chocolate pudding/custard since I also had some chocolate chips that I kept running into in the back of a cupboard. I don't bake too much any more (see: ongoing GI issues, and I live alone) so they are a challenge to use.

Anyway, I got to the end where I would put in the chocolate chips to melt them into the hot mixture, and when I went to grab the chocolate chips, I pull them out and... they're white chocolate chips. Huh. I was sure I had a bag of regular ones. Looked everywhere. Couldn't find them. I must have brought them to my mom's house and forgotten about it. Must have gotten the white ones in a pandemic substitution or something early on? Can't remember that either. Figured I would make white chocolate/vanilla pudding, I have already pretty much finished it and I couldn't find any other plain chocolate that I could use (just stuff with nuts/etc.).

So I used them and when I tasted it, it had a little bit of a weird flavor. Chemically tasting, almost. I thought maybe it was too much vanilla extract and I was tasting that, or the alcohol. But I looked at the white chips bag just in case, and the expiration date was 2018 :-/  Is this super rancid and I shouldn't eat it? Does anyone know anything about white chocolate expiration dates? I tasted one of the chips and it seemed... OK? Not amazing, but not obviously horrible either. I'm a little more tentative about eating sketchy food since my stomach has problems. The milk was 100% fine when I opened it.

[MountainGal]

@Dutch Comfort, well done everyone!

@Dollar Slice, I understand where you are coming from.  As much as I don't like to throw it away, I concluded risking stomach upset or worse isn't worth keeping/consuming expired and/or questionable food.

It's Friday clean out office fridge day!  I just ate the last of the celery, cream cheese, and sliced turkey.  If I am hungry later, I'll have cashews and the remaining cheese stick.

This week I finally made the homemade lemon juice dressing I've been meaning to get to.  We ate more of the baby spinach (why must it come in such big containers?) and another bag of frozen cauliflower.  We finished the cherry tomatoes, and there is about 1/4 cup of the dehydrated tomatoes left.  All that remains in the fresh produce bin is the baby spinach, half a cucumber, and a lime.

[seemsright]

Another productive kitchen day. My goal today was to delay going to the store till monday. Today I rendered some lard, made sweet potato brownies, and homemade coffee creamer for the hubby. Started some beef broth and Sunday we will have some French Onion Soup.

We will have random from the freezer for meals. Things like breakfast skillets, hummus bowls, burritos and what ever else my preteen can find in the pantry that she will eat.

Nothing exciting. I think I still have a cold beer in the back of the fridge and some stale box wine that I will drink this weekend.

With food prices I am trying to drag out going for as long as I can. I am almost out of rice and chickpeas so I will need to go soon.

[MountainGal]

Loving the longer days!  Since my last post:

~Ladies' night leftovers were added to leftover taco meat for Saturday night nachos.
~More baby spinach, blueberries and strawberries frozen during season last year, the other frozen banana we didn't get to during Omicron, a can of coconut milk were used in Sunday smoothies.
~Raspberries frozen last year went into two jars of overnight oats for DH.
~I'll make another jar of fresh dressing with more of the lemon juice.
~The remaining dehydrated tomatoes will go into dirty rice Thursday.
~Finished bottles of teriyaki sauce, blue cheese dressing, and mayo.
~Ate the remaining imported cookies from Christmas last night and am slowing getting through a bag of dark chocolate squares.
~Sunflower seeds and bacon bits have been tasty salad toppers.
~Speaking of, tonight I'm going to bake maple bacon almond flour bread to use more of the bacon bits as well as some maple syrup.  We still have 2 large bottles, and a small bottle of real maple syrup to consume.
~Tonight, we'll have breakfast for supper to use some syrup
~Next week I'll make fudge from white chocolate chips leftover from Christmas baking.  I'll dye it green for St. Patrick's Day.

[okisok]

@MountailGal, I'm loving your inspired uses of leftovers! Dying white chocolate chips for St. Patrick's Day fudge is a great plan.

I was tired of the vegetarian chili, so dumped the last of it over some corn chips and called it chili pie.
Made an omelet with the last of a package of cheese and some bacon remnants.
I'm still fondly remembering the chicken pot pie I made last week with freebie items. I may need to make another one.

[MountainGal]

Thank you, @okisok.  And your chili pie sounds delicious and comforting.  :)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Below is the opposite of the "eat all the food in your house" thread, but keeping it real.

I'm in a giant rut with cooking & meal prep. I have one really picky teen eater who prefers everything separated, and carbs are his primary food choice. I also have a Keto eater, who eats that way due to a food allergy. Food allergy happens to be in almost everything Keto rules out, so it's a shorthand for his allergy requirements. Other teen & I will eat a wide variety of food. Time is pretty limited these days (I'm going back to the office, husband & I are both about to start traveling for work on different weeks, kids have a ton of activities). I'm not enjoying the menu planning, meal prep & cooking.

I was out of town for the weekend, so my usual plan of meal prep on weekends, and then leftovers during the week hasn't been happening. Instead, it's been a lot of really questionable meal choices. Let's hope I get inspired next week! I also need to adjust our system to reduce the mental load on myself. For the next few weeks, I've ordered HelloFresh (facepunches galore) with an extreme discount code. It won't be a regular thing due to the package waste, but I'm looking forward to someone dropping off all of the items we need, and me just throwing them together.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to do more experimenting with freezer meal prep, and perhaps big batch cooking, so I at least reduce the kitchen time during the work week.

[MountainGal]

@MaybeBabyMustache, things get so hard when life becomes busy!  I hope HelloFresh works out for you.  Excellent job finding the discount code.

The fudge using the white chocolate chips was a hit.  I had just a taste while making it, and people raved about it at our party.

Other things used up:
~A can of whipped cream-they went perfectly on top of Jello shots at a recent party, LOL
~More bacon bits went into a dip for the aforementioned party
~Leftover deli turkey, summer sausage, cheese, celery, and olives have been eaten a few times for a light lunch
~A container of leftover lasagna frozen in February
~A jar of mayo
~A four pack of chicken drumsticks
~Leftover restaurant carne asada went on top of nachos the next night
~There's currently a container with 2 slices of keto blueberry cheesecake from last year thawing in the fridge
~Last night's dinner consisted of the remining corned beef and pork belly, along with some leftover potatoes I air fried
~A friend graciously gifted us several cartons of eggs, which I'll share with folks in the office building.

Headed out of town soon, so suppers will be fresh vegetable heavy focused.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@MountainGal - I'm heading to your house, where apparently there is fudge & jello shots! Sign me up.

[Dutch Comfort]

Some progress last weekend:
- put 1/2 jar of lemon curd into a cake with a delicious outcome (so delicious, that I bought a new jar of lemon curd especially for replicating this in the near future.....)
- instead of getting take-out last Saturday, talked the teens into Turkish pizza and "breakfast for dinner" (eggs and bacon) for which ingredients / ready to grap items were all lingering around in freezer and fridge.
- made a highly appreciated grilled cheese lunch for the teen who is working through her "school-test-week" which took care of a few slices of ham, some cheese and some bread from the freezer

The freezer needs a deep clean, so next couple of weeks will be "empty-the-freezer" weeks where I will need to meal-plan around the bits and pieces that are still there. Already started doing this on Monday by finishing a bucket of cinnamon-ice cream........ (somebody has to do the hard work here....).

[okisok]

Y'all are so inspiring! I made some pasta for dinner with a box from the pantry and an opened jar from the fridge. I tossed in a small package of pepperoni and it was delicious. And it kept me from ordering takeout pizza.

I had a package of venison that had been thawed out but I had no plan for. There was a half full bottle of salad dressing in the fridge door so I'm marinating the venison in the salad dressing with a bit of pickle juice for tenderizing. We'll see how it turns out.

[MountainGal]

LOL, @MaybeBabyMustache, you are welcome anytime!  ;)

@Dutch Comfort, that ice cream flavor sounds refreshing!  I've never heard of it.

@okisok, how was the venison?

The cheesecake I mentioned was delicious, despite the fact it was from last summer.  I love the art of freezing food to save for later and to save money.

As mentioned, I'm heading out of town soon, and have several snack items packed in order to save money at my destination.  Once there I'll have groceries delivered in lieu of dining out.

Last night we ate the rest of the leftover dip and veggies from last week's party alongside the remaining sliced ham.

4 cartons of eggs given away, 4 more to go, LOL.  We'll keep 2.

March spending:
$214.62 Food
$13.96 HBAs/cleaning/paper products (napkins, facial tissue, slow cooker liners, cupcake liners)
$10.90 Tax
$239.48

Buying the half pig and quarter cow really cuts down on the monthly grocery bill.  I do buy other protein such as chicken, fish, shrimp, and the occasional Cornish game hen.  I buy family packs when possible, including chicken breasts, drumsticks, fish, and 60-count boxes of eggs.

Last year I spent a rounded monthly average of $368 on food and $82 on HBAs, etc.  I am loving this year's reduction in spending.