Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2

[MountainGal]

Thank you for the reminder, @okisok.  I put making overnight oats into my calendar.

Random things:
~Used the remaining avocado as a fry bread side
~The remaining iceberg was used as a bed for my cheeseburger patty
~Drizzled strawberry balsamic onto my salad yesterday.  Just one more serving of it remains.
~Ate the rest of the macadamia granola for Friday night's snack
~The remaining half cucumber was diced into two salads for this week
~Leftover enchiladas from May were pulled from the freezer so DH can eat them for lunches.  Yay more freezer space!
~Salmon cream cheese was schmeared onto low carb tortillas to make turkey wraps.  About 1/3 container remains.
~Grilled portobello mushrooms were served under last night's grilled burgers
~Discovered a package of little smokies in the back of a fridge drawer with a use by date of NOW, LOL.  So, I'll wrap them in bacon and air fry them tonight.

~The remaining fresh vegetables:
Tonight, baby spinach and spaghetti squash with alfredo sauce and canned chicken
Wed., a skillet of zucchini and yellow squash with beef sausage, air fried artichokes on the side
Thurs., broccoli slaw will go on top of cod tacos, and the remaining zucchini will be made into air fried fries

[Dutch Comfort]

4.5 weeks to go before our holiday and the freezer definitely needs to be emptied. Fridge is doing OK-ish and I'm trying to finish one thing every day from the pantry. So far, I managed to get from the pantry:
- Saturday: some couscous, a can of corn
- Sunday: flour and sugar for baking cakes
- Monday: a bag of prawn crackers
- Tuesday: last few of the chocolate easter eggs
- Today: a can of lentils, pasta and tomato sauce

I have stocked up on a few easy-to-make-items for dinner next week, since we will have no time for dinner preparations during the week due to the teens activities (end of school year evening walking event for 4 evenings....).
Cakes and chocolates from the weekend are gone, salads are almost gone (DD had pasta-salad for breakfast, DS took some to school). I made a nice lunch salad from the last of the celery sticks, half a cucumber, a leftover part of smoked chicken and a small can of lentils.
As from this weekend, I will start doing to-the-point groceries, so there will be no buildup of inventory somewhere and we will just use what is in the pantry/fridge/freezer. It might make some strange combinations, but it usually helps emptying the cupboards.
I have checked the pantry and we will definitely have a few rice-dishes (found 3 opened packages of brown rice....), some pizza-like things (I found 2 cans of pizza-tomato-sauce), soup (there is broth and frozen veggies in the freezer) and pancakes (found maple syrup, icing sugar and pancake-mix) in the next couple of weeks. Now I just need to plan these meals, so I do not buy any groceries for those days. 

[fuzzy math]

Used up old italian sausage, an unloved can of black refried beans, an unloved can of enchilada sauce and an old brick of colby cheese (which i personally dislike) to make layered enchiladas. it turned out great except that the enchilada sauce really kinda sucks. still got eaten

Eating up some out of date fancy salad mix and cherry tomatoes

Ate the last knockwurst from a package

Kids are cooking and required 8 oz of baking chocolate. Between all the odds and ends, candy, and chocolate chips we found enough.

Giving DH instructions to eat other leftovers

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Used up the leftover fried rice as lunch, by adding eggs & warming it back up in the pan. (Did this twice, and the fried rice is now gone).
-Kept on top of leftovers, and ensured the teens were eating the freshest food first
-I'm flying solo with the teens this weekend, so meals have been a bit scrappy. Smoothies (using up lots of things) + corn dogs from the bottom of the freezer were served last night
-More smoothies today, and we're making good progress on the giant bag of protein powder
-I picked a bunch of lettuce from the garden, & used that for a salad bed for dinner last night.

Tonight will be taco quesadillas, using taco meat from the freezer, as well as tortillas & cheese that I need to use up.

[okisok]

@MountainGal, I made overnight oatmeal after I posted, too! It's so lovely to just pop that glass jar in the microwave and have a hot, filling breakfast ready with almost no effort at the time.

I still haven't made the cornbread muffins. With last weeks fridge cleanout I had enough to skip the grocery shop, so no eggs. Now I have eggs but it's really hot here and I don't want to fire up the oven. Maybe the air fryer....

After several events at work, I ended up with lots of free meals and some leftovers. I have a bag of fresh fruit from a platter that I might end up freezing for smoothies. When it's this hot I don't feel like cooking or eating much.

[MountainGal]

Right on, @okisok!  I also made two jars last night utilizing the rest of some very sad looking frozen raspberries, some honey that needs some loving and about a tablespoon of flaxseed.  Only one more tablespoon of the latter remains.

@fuzzy math, I love your children's resourcefulness!

~Poking around the back pantry food storage shelves, I discovered two boxes of crackers are nearing their expiry dates.  Apparently I ordered just a bit too much during the holiday season.  They went with DH to the shop today.
~Another box of crackers expires next month, so I put DH on alert.
~I finally remembered to check the baking ingredient tote and discovered an unopen bag of melting chocolate (cannot remember why I bought them during holiday baking season? They aren't as tasty as melted chocolate chips), a HUGE half used bag of chocolate chips, and another unopened regular sized.  All nearing expiration.  I used half the bag of melting chocolate to dip strawberries and blueberries and will use the rest next weekend for macadamia nuts.  Because it's so hot outside, I'm not utilizing the oven, so I'll bake pumpkin chocolate chip cookies on the Traeger.  The cookies will utilize a can of pumpkin, some of the chips, and brown and granulated sugars.
~The remaining parmesan and pork rind breading I blended last week was used on air fried artichokes.
~The rest of the sour cream will go on tomorrow's tacos.
~Last week's alfredo spaghetti squash served as my Thursday supper, and lunch Saturday and Sunday.
~We used a few dabs of creamy horseradish on last night's steaks.  Condiment baby steps, LOL.
~Last week I did use up the last of the ranch and balsamic dressings here at the office.
~The remaining bit of cream cheese went into DH's lunch for his celery.

Speaking of unopened things, a few months ago I bought some apple cider vinegar with the mother per a friend's suggestion for health reasons and haven't yet utilized.  I'll use some in tonight's pork chop and tomorrow's shrimp taco recipes.

[okisok]

DP wanted tacos last night so I did a batch cook. The tacos cleared out a pound of hamburger, a can of roasted tomatoes, and some frozen peppers. DP used the last two tortillas and I made a taco salad.

Two boxes of cornbread mix turned into 1) plain cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet and 2) a batch of muffins with the frozen apple and some coconut. Way more coconut than I intended because a big clump fell out of the jar, but they turned out delicious! I mixed up both boxes in the same bowl, then poured half into the skillet and dumped the fruit & coconut into the rest.

Since the oven was on for the cornbread, I put some black beans in the oven. Then I found the last packet of falafel and put it on a cookie sheet instead of frying it in oil. That made four pans in the oven at once.

Two boxes, two cans, one frozen package, and two pantry packages out. Two dinner servings last night and a lunch salad for me today, with two more servings and two more snacks.

I love the way this thread helps me keep on top of my grocery spending and pantry organization. It was so nice to crave tacos and have everything we need and be able to prep for other meals.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Used up the last of some sliced cheese on taco quesadillas
-Made up a double batch of chicken fajitas, using cilantro & peppers from the garden. We have enough leftover for dinner tomorrow as well. Bonus, we'll also use up the tortillas I want to finish off.
-My 16 y.o. is working at a summer camp, and doesn't feel the need to bring a traditional "lunch". As a result, he's been lazily packing protein bars that have been sitting untouched in the pantry for months. I think they are part of a variety pack, and this is the undesirable flavor. Whatever works.
-Made spaghetti with meatballs tonight. Combined a bolognese sauce (freezer) with a $1 jar of sauce and meatballs (freezer). Made enough for two dinners.

I need to seriously stay on top of the garden produce. That's my new challenge.

[MountainGal]

Glad your garden is successful, @MaybeBabyMustache!

As of last night's HOA meeting, I'm going to double this Friday's pumpkin chocolate chip recipe.  Half will be for a group gathering Saturday, and half I'll take to a new sub-contractor the HOA board hired.  We want them to stay happy with us, LOL.  If there are any left, I'll take them to the local VA center.

And because our social plans were cancelled last weekend, I still have two pasta salad kits to utilize.  I'll cook them up, and some extra goodies to them, and bring them to this Saturday's gathering.

[Dutch Comfort]

Managed to stay away from take-out this week (so far), which is a big win with all the end-of-school activities.
Made a salad of 1/2 cucumber, a few lingering tomatoes, some leftover meat and some leftover cooked veggies for lunch.
Added a few slices of sugary bread as a desert and I was good to go.

DD and DS are doing their best to finish all random snacks in the pantry in these last few days of school before summer holiday. I stated that I'm not buying new, so they have to work around what we have! So far, they are making good progress.
Only 3 more weeks to go before our holiday. It's getting hot here, so I think I will start eating some icecream from the freezer with DS, who will get home in 30 mins. Somebody has to finish those goodies!

[MountainGal]

@Dutch Comfort, I've also been focusing on pantry and office snacks.  Yesterday I finished the bag of pecans here at the office.  In the past, I would've added other nuts to the grocery list.  Instead, last night I packaged up some almonds to bring.

Last night we had queso on top of our shrimp tacos.  About a 1/4 cup is left.  Yay!

I brought leftover ribeye to serve on top of today's salad.

Instead of buying pre-made or a mix, Sunday I am going to use more baking ingredients to make DH some birthday brownies.  It is HOT here, so I'll use the air fryer or Traeger in lieu of oven.

I'll refrain from buying the salad dressing my mom recommended until we use up more of what we currently have.

This month's food, HBA and cleaning spending is about half of last months, so the inventory laser focus is working.

[Dutch Comfort]

@MountainGal Good that you managed to half your spending!

I'm already thinking about next week's family gathering (will host around 10-15 additional people for dinner) and decided that the pantry rice supply will be turned into a nice big batch of fried rice with veggies (my easy, big batch recipe that will need some preparation, but on the day itself will be done in 15 minutes). We will grill some chicken to go with it (also preparation, but only needs 10-15 minutes cooking time (or, when the weather allows, BBQ by DH), make spring rolls (can be prepared the day before and fried on the go) and make some vegetarian side dish for the non-meat eaters. This will use up a few opened bags of rice, the tempeh that is in my freezer and various condiments in the fridge to go with the spring rolls.

I find that this kind of planning really helps in using up the various pantry items.

Today we will have the last veggies from the fridge and some ground beef to go into tortilla's, together with a can of diced tomatoes, some leftover corn and a can of beans. Will check if there are some cheese-endings in the fridge which I can turn into grated cheese to top it off!

Tomorrow will be freezer time...... we just eat odds and ends which are in the freezer and see how the meals turns out......

[fuzzy math]

Had some rescued tomatoes and onions... used them to make a giant pot of vegetarian chili, which I must now be diligent in eating, and diligent in harassing DH to consume.

Managed to find a leftover partial sleeve of crackers for one of the kids who was requesting crackers to accompany some sliced cheese.

Decided for the meantime to cream my coffee with milk instead of half and half, so I haven't been buying (and wasting!) half and half for the past few weeks. It also makes there be less things to think about buying, watching levels on, taking up space etc.

MIL dropped some vegan butter off a while back and its almost gone. I'm not eating it yuck!

[okisok]

I've had luck with freezing portions of half & half in an ice cube tray. I don't drink it and DP doesn't always go through it fast enough in his coffee before it goes bad. I keep an eye on the date and the smell and pour it into an empty ice cube tray before it goes bad. When it's frozen solid, I dump the cubes into a plastic bag and keep them in the freezer. DH can toss one into his coffee and none gets poured down the drain. He says he prefers it, so I should probably start freezing it all as soon as I bring it home from the store...

[Dutch Comfort]

Saturday, two frozen pizza's made it our of the freezer.
Sunday, DS requested a tray bake, which took care of various veggies and a piece of spicy sausage which lingered in the fridge.

This week mainly lunches and breakfast will come from pantry/freezer/fridge items. I found my grocery bill yesterday to be smaller than usual, so this gives me hope that we will get to the inventory items! Kids still manage to find snacks in the pantry. No complaints so far and I start to see some empty space here and there.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We had barbecued chicken last night (using barbecue sauce dregs from the fridge) & forgot to pick up a veggie side to go with it. I went to the garden & picked tomatoes & basil. Would have been great with fresh mozzarella, but we don't have any. So, just let chopped tomatoes & basil marinate with olive oil, balsamic, salt & pepper for about 20 minutes. It was amazing!

Using lots of lettuce from the garden.

Tonight - planning to make a new crockpot chicken recipe, subbing fresh tomatoes for canned (we're out), and using again lots of basil. We'll see how it turns out. I also have a mystery squash (garden) in the fridge that I'll roast as a side.

[MountainGal]

Thanks, @Dutch Comfort!  And your post reminded me about the large quantity of rice we have.  I'll cook up some tonight for DH to go with our ground beef tacos.

Regarding coffee accompaniments, a few years ago I switched to unsweetened almond milk.  It is also good for smoothies, recipes, and pouring it over keto granola satisfies my cereal craving.

~6 dozen homemade cookies used up a can of pumpkin, the opened package of flour, and most of the large bag of chocolate chips.
~I ended up "baking" the brownies in the air fryer.  They turned out SO good!  Put the rest of the above chips in them, and they also used some cocoa powder and 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate.  Baby steps!
~Boxed crackers #3 went with DH to work today.
~Slowly using the apple cider vinegar via a faux (cauliflower) potato salad and in a vinaigrette poured over salmon. I'll use some in tonight's homemade salad dressing and in Thursday's slow cooker pork shoulder sauce.
~Packaged up the remaining green olives to bring to the office.
~Condiments:  Finished a large bottle of BBQ sauce, DH put chipotle ranch on his eggplant fries the other night, and we are going to give the leftover bottle of relish and ketchup to the neighbors.  The latter two are from a recent group event, and the neighbor kiddos LOVE ketchup.

[fuzzy math]

@MountainGal I'm intrigued by cauliflower potato salad!

At the fuzzy household we've used up

- a squirt bottle of curry masala sauce
- some older rice in a fried rice dish which also finished off the remnants of a bag of peas. Managed to sneak a 2nd egg into it after "egg hating child" demanded only one egg in it :D
- we have a gallon size zip lock bag of restaurant condiment and salt and pepper packets. I try to exclusively pull from there because it gets filled at an alarming rate. don't think we'll ever have to buy soy sauce, ketchup or hot sauce again
- some frozen chicken thighs... out of frozen chicken now yikes!
- have used up over 10 lbs of free onions... down to the last 2 now. should coincide nicely with our vacation in a week
- a small weird cauliflower head that my MIL gave us

Ultimate goal is to unplug the garage fridge before we leave next week. This is complicated by me having found some great deals on frozen pizzas and Brazi bites and refilling our primary freezer. Its always such a balance buying deals vs having too much food!

[MountainGal]

Thanks, @fuzzy math!  The faux potato salad recipe I follow is so old it no longer pops up on an internet search.  If you do a search, however, there are many different variations to choose from.  My time saving tip is to use frozen cauliflower florets instead of fussing with an entire head.  :)

[GardenBaker]

I'll join in. Clearing out our freezer & pantry of some things I stockpiled during Covid; I obviously over purchased and prefer to eat fresh foods. Made a pasta dish this week using what was left of a partial box of pasta, a partial jar of leftover marinara sauce and several open bags of mozzarella. Added fresh basil from the garden. Tonight I've thawed a steak and will likely eat fresh okra from the garden. Trying to stay out of the grocery store and using up what we have.
Taking leftovers all week to work to create less food waste.

[Dutch Comfort]

@fuzzy math , I totally agree. The balance between having too much food and stocking up on deals is extremely difficult.

Today, I do not have a specified meal ready. So I need to explore the pantry, fridge and freezer to come up with something. It might be homemade pizza, since I think I will have most items on hand for making the dough. Just the toppings need some exploring. I know there is some mozzarella, some grated cheese, a bell pepper and some salami in the fridge. And a can of tomatoe sauce and some fresh unions in the pantry. So I think this should do it for tonight.

Yesterday, it was hot here. DD wanted a snack and before they could think about going to any fastfood chain to get icecream/milkshake, I talked them into making our own shakes at home. So this finished the last bag of strawberries, emptied a leftover vanille ice-cream bucket (Jay for freezer space!) and used up some milk from the fridge. Double win (no money left the house and more space in fridge/freezer) for me!

Tomorrow, I will start the preparation for a family gathering on Sunday where about 15 adults will have dinner in our house. Last week, I found chicken thights on sale, so I'm turning those into Indonesian-style BBQ-chicken. Together with a large pan of Indo-style fried rice and some side dishes (Indonesian peanut sauce, spicy tempeh, cucumber salad, fried unions, shrimp crackers), this should be sufficient! Any leftovers will be taken into next week's menu options.

Only 2 weeks to go before our holiday. Fridge is quite OK, freezer is still loaded, but after Sunday, I expect to see some empty spots.

[fuzzy math]

Things I'm excited about:

- bought a clearance white board that has magnets that say things like "chore list" "meal planning" "shopping list" and I plan to make it my home base next to the fridge telling people what leftovers need to be eaten and have everyone write down their grocery needs there too
- finishing off the vegetarian chili and some rice for lunch
- have discovered the lowest prices for some things that were accidentally rotting when we'd buy larger quantities and now I'm buying smaller packages of those items so no waste going forwards hopefully!

[MountainGal]

Welcome, @GardenBaker!

@Dutch Comfort, those homemade shakes sound tasty!  I'm doing something similar tonight by serving taco pizza.  It'll use one of the prepared cauliflower crusts in the freezer, a can of tomato paste, the rest of the taco meat, a portion of the cheddar wedge, and hopefully, finally, the rest of the queso.

I like the white board idea, @fuzzy math.

Brought the two condiments to the neighbor's yesterday.

Speaking of taco meat, other than the aforementioned pizza, the two pounds of ground beef I cooked Tuesday yielded supper for two that night, leftovers for two the following night, and lunch for me today.

Per my request earlier this week, DH brought with him to work for lunches the leftover frozen ham from I cannot remember how long ago.

Instead of putting more snacks onto the grocery list, I've continued to nibble on almonds, keto cheese crackers, and as of last night, a bag of flavored pork rinds.

This weekend's focus:  Brunch tomorrow will be smoothies to use frozen strawberries.  Sunday will include some of the not so tasty sausage links I bought several months ago.  Silly me thinking they would be good just because they are maple flavored.  And, naturally, it's a rather large bag.  I'll also make a stack of blueberry pancakes to use up some of the frozen blueberries and tasty blueberry preserves.  Oh, and perhaps some of the chocolate chips which need to be consumed?  The homemade pancake mix recipe I make and keep on hand is very convenient.  https://thesupermomlife.com/homemade-pancake-mix/

[okisok]

Oven is broken, so I'm cooking around it until I can get it repaired.

Breakfast was a smoothie with the frozen berries and the last of the thawed plant milk that separated and looked weird but tasted fine.

Mixed berry cobbler in the air fryer, using up some of the endless frozen berries, some of the almond flour, and a butter stick scrap.

Rice pudding in the crock put, using up half of the coconut milk and some bulk rice.

Thawed out the rest of the local sausage and fried it up. Half of it went into some breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs.
The last bit that wouldn't make a full burrito got tossed into some meh fried rice I'd frozen a while ago to jazz it up.
The other half got tossed into some chickpea penne and jarred garlic alfredo sauce.

Next up is some chicken salad to use up the last of the cut green onions. The bulb ends were rooted out in water for the past two weeks and planted in a pot for continued onion harvests.

The cornbread is all gone. I chopped up the last serving that had gone stale into croutons. Put the pieces in the air fryer with a bit of olive oil and some Herbs de Provence. They came out so delicious I ate them all as a snack before they made it to a salad.

[Dutch Comfort]

Not that much left from the family gathering. Fried rice only has 1 serving left together with the vegetarian dish. BBQ chicken has about 4 servings left, so enough for a hot day where I do not feel like cooking. I only need to add some bread or rice and a salad.

For the fridge, I have a lot of veggies left, so a lot of lunch/snack opportunities this week. I decided that I will check on a daily basis what is left and only buy the needed groceries to make meals for 1-2 days. This will involve some trips (by bike, so exercise!) to the supermarket, but will leave me with a hopefully empty fridge before we leave for our summer holiday. Only 12 days to go.......

[MountainGal]

@okisok, I don't use the oven in the summer so as to not heat up the house.  Instead, I also use the air fryer, along with the slow cooker and Traeger.  Those croutons sound delicious!

@Dutch Comfort, I also have been focusing on clearing things out before an upcoming holiday.

~Making an actual dent in the apple cider vinegar.  Last night a 1/4 cup or so was used along with a bit of strawberry balsamic (bought this last fall, so close to being finished), olive oil and basil to make a marinade.
~Nibbled on half a bag of pistachios Friday night.
~Fresh lemon juice frozen months ago:  I used one cube in Saturday's smoothie and will use another with tomorrow's seafood meal.
~Cooked half the remaining bag of sausage links.
~Organized the back pantry, put a few things into current rotation, and tossed a jalapeno sliced potato boxed mix which expired two years ago.  Oops.
~Yesterday's pancakes utilized the rest of the homemade pancake mix, so I'll make more.  We didn't have any blueberries left, but I did add about 1/3 bag of the remaining chocolate chips.  Still have ample pancake syrup.
~Going to make protein balls which will use up the crystalized honey.
~One of many cans of chicken will used tonight along with spaghetti squash, baby spinach, and homemade walnut pesto.  I finally have some fresh basil so I can make the latter.  Only a few more cups walnuts to go. Yay!
~There are several random freezer bags full of elk sticks and sausage, so I'll ask DH to start packing them in his lunches.
~Tomorrow's 7-layer salad will use most of the remaining bacon, the romaine, the rest of the blue cheese and cherry tomatoes.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We have so, so, so much garden lettuce. This is a wonderful problem to have, of course, but I hate waste, & lettuce doesn't exactly freeze. We have salads every night with dinner, so that's a given. Other creative options?

I'm also going to start offering bags of it to our neighbors.

Things I want to use up this week:
-Chicken enchiladas (freezer). My mom is awesome, and made these when she was visiting in April. I need the pan back, and the space in the freezer.
-Barbecued chicken (freezer). Will have over salads. ;-)
-Chicken fajita kit, purchased at Costco. The price was super misleading, so I want to use this before it goes bad. It was $$$, & I should have just made it myself.
-Tomatoes & peppers (garden). Planning on making at least a triple batch of pico de gallo, and then want to pickle the rest of the peppers. They are everywhere.
-Must eat/freeze the blueberries

[Dollar Slice]

We have so, so, so much garden lettuce. This is a wonderful problem to have, of course, but I hate waste, & lettuce doesn't exactly freeze. We have salads every night with dinner, so that's a given. Other creative options?

Maybe ssam/lettuce wraps? I haven't made them at home, but I'm sure there are easy homemade recipes.

[okisok]

@MountainGal I don't like to use the oven much, but today would be a nice cool day to make a huge batch of granola or some cookies! I can make those in the 2 QT air fryer, but that would take a very long time.

I've been working on the condiments. The hot mustard got used up in marinades and dressings. The Caesar salad dressing  has been drizzled over fresh broccoli as a side and will continue to get used up that way. It's super thick and doesn't 'dress' so much as 'slather' so it makes a great dip. Next will be the TWO bottles of fancy balsamic vinegar that I just can't use fast enough in dressings.

I had so much veggie broth from my scrap bag that I poured some in an ice cube tray to freeze into smaller portions. I can toss a cube into savory dishes that need a little liquid but not a whole pint. DH came out of the kitchen saying, "Honey?? There's something wrong with your ice cubes..." because they were a rusty brown instead of clear. I had a good laugh explaining that it was broth, not water. I dumped the of frozen cubes into a plastic bag so that we could free up a tray to make actual ice cubes.

[Josiecat22222]

@okisok - at least he didn't try to use the "funny" ice for a cocktail!  That would have been....interesting....

[MountainGal]

@okisok, good call on the granola or cookies.  If you did indeed make them, I bet your home smelled delicious!  And LOL at the ice cubes.

@MaybeBabyMustache, regarding the lettuce, maybe make a 7-layer salad?  There are many beautiful, inspirational pictures on the internet.  As I posted yesterday, mine will use up odds and ends in addition to the romaine.  And I'm going to add leftover black olives and half a cucumber to ours and make a dressing out of some of the apple cider vinegar.

Last night I made chocolate covered almonds (instead of the rather old macadamia nuts) to use up the rest of the Christmastime baking melting chocolate and the protein balls turned out well.  Tonight will be the last of the cod until grocery shopping next month.

[seemsright]

@MountainGal I don't like to use the oven much, but today would be a nice cool day to make a huge batch of granola or some cookies! I can make those in the 2 QT air fryer, but that would take a very long time.

I've been working on the condiments. The hot mustard got used up in marinades and dressings. The Caesar salad dressing  has been drizzled over fresh broccoli as a side and will continue to get used up that way. It's super thick and doesn't 'dress' so much as 'slather' so it makes a great dip. Next will be the TWO bottles of fancy balsamic vinegar that I just can't use fast enough in dressings.

I had so much veggie broth from my scrap bag that I poured some in an ice cube tray to freeze into smaller portions. I can toss a cube into savory dishes that need a little liquid but not a whole pint. DH came out of the kitchen saying, "Honey?? There's something wrong with your ice cubes..." because they were a rusty brown instead of clear. I had a good laugh explaining that it was broth, not water. I dumped the of frozen cubes into a plastic bag so that we could free up a tray to make actual ice cubes.

Great use of the fridge door is to make pulled pork, BBQ beans, or anything else like that. I have some pork in the crockpot, I used a bit of BBQ sauce, a bit of raspberry jam, sun dried tomatoes, and some random salsa. It has been cooking all day and it smells so good. I call it fridge door roast. The preteen loves it. I am serving it over some potatoes, and some random veggies from the fridge for dinner tonight.

I stocked up at the start of summer, and no again starting a no buy for the next while. We will see how this one goes I have way two much in my pantry.

[Dutch Comfort]

Fried rice with vegetarian dish and last of the prawn crackers were DD's and my lunch yesterday. So this is gone!
DS and DH finished the last frozen pizza as a lunch on Monday.
Freezer is still stuffed, but hoping to get through some items this week.

Fridge is quite good. Still a lot of fresh produce in it that needs to be finished:
First bag of carrots gone, two to go.
First bag of snack tomatoes halfway, two and a half to go.
Still a few cucumbers lingering in the fridge, this will be turned into salad/side dishes at every meal

Found a few brown bananas at the fruit basket. This will turn into banana pancakes or banana bread/muffins. Might be good for a snack during our trip to France!

DS took some bell pepper and some leftover sausage as a snack to school. He also wanted sandwiches with the leftover cheese to go with the snack as his lunch. I happily agreed!

Hoping to talk my parents into a family start-of-the-holiday BBQ this weekend. This is something we usually do before the summer holiday and everyone brings the BBQ dishes that are still in the freezer/fridge to clean out. Makes a nice interesting BBQ every year!

[MountainGal]

@seemsright, what a brilliant condiment usage!  I'll keep that in mind next time I'm working with a large protein.

@Dutch Comfort, thank you!  You inspired me to make some sort of comfort bread for our upcoming trip.

I put Monday's chocolate covered almond clusters into cupcake liners similar to the color of DH's company and sent them to work with him today.  Ingredient odds and ends leftover from last night's 7-layer salad also went with him for side salad purposes.  When he said they only had light (gasp!) ranch at the shop, I remembered we had a fast-food leftover container of ranch, so he took that, too.  The produce scrap bag for the neighbor chickens is getting full.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We haven't gone shopping in 10 days or so, and the fridge is looking great! My husband has some food anxiety, and typically needs the fridge to be constantly stocked. However, our teens are out of town, so he is very relaxed about inventory & fridge fullness right now. Maybe this is a good sign for when it's just the two of us. :-) I love a fridge where you can see exactly what needs to be used up.

-Baked a pan of chicken enchiladas that my mom made for us in April (freezer). We have some leftovers of that, and a chicken fajita dish that need to be eaten.
-We're having barbecued chicken tonight (freezer) over salads, using up more of that copious amounts of lettuce, & other garden goodies. @MountainGal - I'll take a look at Seven Layer Salad - haven't had that for years! @Dollar Slice - lettuce wraps are a great idea! I'll try that out with some of our larger leaf lettuce varieties.

Still on the list:
-Blueberries
-All of the peppers. Still have plans this weekend for pico de gallo & pickled peppers.

[okisok]

Savory cocktails with veggie broth cubes, anyone? They might be delicious in a Bloody Mary!

I love the fridge door BBQ idea. I'm not a big BBQ fan, but DP is and that would be a great way to use up some meat scraps and condiments.

I overcooked the rice pudding so it was dry. I tried a spoonful in a smoothie as a thickener and it worked. So now I have many many smoothies worth of rice pudding. I may try mixing it in pancakes or muffins. I put some in the freezer so I don't have to use it all up so quickly. Now I'm hungry for pancakes...

[Josiecat22222]

@okisok , how did you make your rice pudding?  I found a recipe to make it in a instapot that I want to try this weekend.  Because, it's always a great idea to try out new recipes when you have houseguests, right???

Unfortunately, I don't have an Instapot brand, I have a Crockpot Express brand pressure cooker.  I love the thing, but it doesn't have the "porridge" button described in my recipe....so I think I'm going to do Manual for 20 based on a quick google search, but if anyone has tried this before and has ideas, I'm all ears!!!

This is in an effort to use up some of the pandemic hoard of rice we've accumulated.  (so on-topic-ish)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Made grilled cheese to go with a box of tomato/red pepper soup that I've been wanting to use forever. It expired six months or so ago, but is still fine. One box down, one to go. I love soup, but my husband doesn't, so we rarely have it.
-Picked a bunch of lemons off of our tree. Next up will be to juice all of them. We use lemon juice as salad dressing, so the lemons will go well with all of that lettuce! ;)

[okisok]

@Josiecat23503 Just a random recipe I googled that used coconut milk. The directions said to put the ingredients in a casserole dish inside the crockpot and cover with foil. I laid foil on top instead of wrapping it around the bowl, so all the moisture escaped into the crockpot bottom.

So today I took a cookie scoop and scooped smoothie-sized portions of the dry rice pudding onto a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer. Now I can drop one or two in a smoothie instead of dealing with a whole bowl of frozen not-good rice pudding. That way I won't waste the rice, milk, and fruit that went into it. I usually put a little scoop of oats in my smoothies, but I may make oatmeal cookies instead.

I used up a to-go packet of dressing today on my raw broccoli at lunch. I liked it and will work on the bottle of Caesar dressing next.

The last of the carrot sticks got chopped up and put in the stir fry/air fryer bag in the freezer.

A real win--today I harvested the potato crop! A few months ago I had some forgotten potatoes sprout in the pantry. I dumped them in an old plastic bin with some potting soil and watered them occasionally. I think its about a 1:1 on the potato volume that was going bad and the potato volume I took out, but they were edible and the original ones werent any more.

The repair person is supposed to come fix my oven soon and I am craving cookies and granola. Can't wait to use up a bunch of stuff in some kitchen sink cookies and granola.

[Dutch Comfort]

Yesterday, DS wanted to join the school BBQ at the last minute. He needed to bring a side dish, so I turned a load of veggies into a Polish style cole salad and added some dressing to it which was lingering in the fridge. This used up a lot of the fresh produce that I had in the fridge.

Tomorrow will be the BBQ with my parents. We will bring whatever is in the freezer. So far I found a few burgers and some chickenwings. I also have some bake-off bread in the pantry and will make a pasta salad or couscous salad. This will definitely help cleaning out!

Only one week to go. The fridge is OK-ish. The freezer is starting to show a few dents, so hopefully we can get through more freezer stuff in the next couple of days.
First one is today..... I need to dig some meat/fish from the freezer for tonight's dinner. I still have one meat-serving in the fridge, so need to find 2-3 servings.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Leftovers for dinner last night, which used up 1/2 of the remaining fajita chicken (I had it over salad) & 1/2 of the remaining chicken enchiladas. We'll have everything finished by today.

I also defrosted the last two packages of shredded zucchini (from last season's harvest) & made zucchini fritters to go with our otherwise boring dinner.

Oh, and lots of garden lettuce & tomatoes used in the salad.

[MountainGal]

@MaybeBabyMustache, I love zucchini fritters!

Chocolate covered almonds feedback from one of DH's co-workers:  "There's no better combo than almonds and chocolate."  Yay!

Still focusing on that apple cider vinegar!  For tonight there is currently a chuck roast beef stroganoff in the Crock Pot.  It used a tablespoon of the vinegar, LOL.

I decided to bake Traeger chocolate chip cookies this weekend and bring them up to neighbor friends who are camping.  This will use the rest of the chocolate chips from last Christmas.

Tomorrow's salads will utilize a can of tuna and the remaining cherry tomatoes and avocado.

Sunday smoothies will feature another bag of frozen strawberries, fresh blueberries, a can of coconut milk, some baby spinach, another frozen lemon juice cube, and the rest of the flax seed.

I hope to use up more of the syrup on top of Saturday breakfast pancakes and Sunday's breakfast-for-supper country pork sausage and almond flour biscuits.

For the holiday, if we don't BBQ something fresh, I'm going to thaw the leftover ground beef and pork burgers from last month and serve them with shrimp to use a small container of frozen dipping sauce, and steamed broccoli topped with the rest of the queso that just doesn't seem to want to be finished, LOL.

Happy 4th of July to those in the states.  :)

[okisok]

Finished off the veggie rice with sausage and scrambled egg and it wasn't half bad! The local sausage made such a difference. Meh-verging-on-bad became almost-tasty. The rice and sauce were left over from a boxed frozen meal and the veggies had been in the freezer since Easter from crudite platter leftovers. The entire dish was scraps or left over and, by gum, I wasn't going to waste it.

Almost done with giant bag of frozen fruit I swear I've had for months. I've been having a smoothie every day either for breakfast or snack. Refreshing and a great way to use up odds and end like the dribble of coconut milk and the Nutella jar scrapings. And all the dry rice pudding! :P

Finished up the last of the party crackers from Father's Day with some hummus last night. Now the bulky plastic container is out of the pantry.

More of the boring tea is out of the drawer. I've been mixing one blah blag with two plain bags to make iced tea. Now it's a refreshing hint of mint or citrus instead of a hot tea I don't want to drink.

One of my coworkers was in line at the cafeteria today when she remembered she had some leftovers she'd brought.  She explained it was going to go bad soon so she really wanted to eat it even though it wasn't that great. Solidarity, sister!

[Ysera]

@MaybeBabyMustache Zucchini fritters are so awesome!

I had some riced cauliflower and broccoli in the freezer that I made into fritters last week. Not as good as zucchini, but still tasty. I have more frozen veggies that I will probably turn into fritters of some sort.

I made a few smoothies out of frozen fruit that has been languishing. It was hot out and I had been out of ice cream for a few days, so it was also a good way to resist shopping. I may turn some of the frozen berries into a nice sauce.

I also found some old jello pudding boxes and made some chilled pudding. It was underwhelming, though, so I may bake the two remaining boxes into some sort of muffins or bread. I also have some oats I would like to use up by making it into flour for baking. I may combine the two into an interesting mad science experiment recipe.

I had a bag of dates that I kept forgetting about, so I put them into single serve snack baggies and have been taking them to work. They are disappearing slowly but surely, and are nice to have when I sometimes pack my lunches a little too light.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I have done all of the things with our garden yield. Mostly, because I'm stressed that my teen has COVID, and my husband is doing a 24+ hour round trip drive to pick him up at my parents house. Being in the kitchen helps me when I'm anxious.
-Made a 4x batch of pico de gallo, using up oodles of tomatoes, cilantro & jalapenos
-Made a double batch of macaroni salad, using up some celery that was about to be composted, and a bunch of other fridge/pantry ingredients
-Picked up a 5+ lb bag of tomatoes at the produce stand, because they were calling to me from the $1/bag markdown area. They needed to be used ASAP, so I turned them into tomato sauce, and then added them to the freezer
-Made caprese salad out of tomatoes & basil
-Picked about 1/10 of our mint plant (it needs to be cut WAY back), washed everything, pulled all of the leaves off, and have them drying in the oven.
-Made a chimichurri sauce, out of our enormous overgrown parsley bush, as well as some fresh oregano I found in one of the rolling beds

For tomorrow, I'm making a cake with strawberries from the garden, and a watermelon/mint/blueberry/feta salad, using up more of the very prolific mint.

I also stress ate Ben & Jerry's, and sadly, I don't make grow any of that at home.

[GardenBaker]

Avoided the grocery store on Friday in preparation for the holiday weekend and ate from what we had on hand. On Monday we smoked a frozen tenderloin from the freezer, cooked green beans from the garden and a watermelon for dessert which was also from the garden.

Going to the grocery store today, but only buying some fill in items. Tonight we're making some chicken breasts I thawed from the freezer and roasting okra from the garden.

[Dutch Comfort]

Fresh produce is almost gone. Start thinking about what we can bring on our trip. We're leaving Saturday morning, so only 3 days left.

Today, DS has his last day of school and they are having a potluck picknick. I turned eggs, bell peper, unions and herbs into egg-muffins. This cleared out 20 eggs out of the 26 I still had in the fridge! The last 6 will be used up in preparing snacks for our trip.
Milk is almost gone (only 1/2 liter remaining), other diary products and veggies are close to gone.

Dinners for tomorrow and Friday will be interesting...... let's see what we can make from the remaining scraps.

@MaybeBabyMustache hope your teen is feeling better.

[MountainGal]

@MaybeBabyMustache, I, too, hope your kiddo is doing well.

~Saturday, I used half a bar of dark chocolate from last Christmas in the chocolate chip cookies
~Saturday night's supper used the remaining 7-layer salad and remaining bag of frozen mozzarella sticks
~A rinsed and chopped head of broccoli will be eaten by DH for lunches
~Used the leftover frozen sauce packet as a breaded shrimp dip
~Used several cups each cornbread in Friday's air fried bread, and a cup of rice for a side last night
~Last night's tacos used the remaining romaine leaves as shells
~Just finished the rest of the cucumber as a lunch side
~Tonight, we'll finish Monday's sauteed yellow squash, zucchini and baby spinach
~Tonight, will also use some of the apple cider vinegar in a sauce for air fried pork chops
~And I am pleased to report, the jar of queso is finally finished
~Tomorrow is clean out the fridge night which will include a zucchini, cherry tomatoes, baby spinach, and some mini mozzarella balls which will go on top the remaining cauliflower crust to make a pizza.
~Munchies lately include more almonds, taco seasoned protein chips, cheese sticks, and pepperoni slices.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Thank you, @Dutch Comfort and @MountainGal ! He's past the fever/chills/body ache portion, and is pretty much just bored silly, in his room. He loves gaming & electronics as much as the next teen boy, but even he is maxed out. I'm guessing he'll start testing negative by tomorrow, and can get outside for more walks, and perhaps a bike ride.

Also, @MountainGal - congrats on wrapping up that queso! I would have helped, had I been around, because I heart queso.

I made baked oatmeal to use up a couple of enhanced jams I'd used for my 4th of July poke cake. I'm impressed that I thought to do this, because it normally would have sat in the fridge until it spoiled, or I got tired of looking at the mini containers, and I would have tossed them. Fingers crossed the baked oatmeal is a hit. I'll likely top it with the "frosting" for the cake, which was actually sour cream, lemon juice, & a bit of agave. My teen will like that addition.

Teen's appetite is recovering, so he's plowing through the macaroni salad leftovers. I feel like that salad has reproduced inside of the fridge.

Made 5 baking sheets of mint into dried mint, then crumbled & added to our spice jar. My husband uses it as seasoning for a few Persian dishes. Five baking sheets of mint adds up to very little crushed spice. It's amazing to see! I need to work through more of our fresh spices, & preserve them.

Making a coconut curry chicken dish tonight, which will use up a few other garden items: basil, cilantro, jalapeno. Trying to make the most of our produce while we have it.

[Josiecat22222]

@MaybeBabyMustache, a good way to use up mint is to make "Sassy" water.  You use 12-15 leaves of mint, 1/2 a thinly sliced cucumber, 1 thinly sliced lemon and 1 TB of grated ginger and 8.5cups of water.  Let it sit in the fridge overnight, then strain and drink.  It is supposed to help with bloating as most of the contents are mild diuretics.  I don't know about all that, but it is certainly very refreshing on a hot day!

Hope your son is feeling better.  Teenage boys want to lay in bed and play video games all day until they *HAVE TO*.