Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2

[Dutch Comfort]

School is starting again, so we need to start clearing out pantry, fridge and freezer before the Christmas break (8 weeks to go!).

The weekend was good for polishing off the remaining french blue cheese, some crackers and leftover snacks. Just 1 leftover of french cheese remaining. We also finished the leftover pizza on Saturday.
This week we need to focus on the leftover baked goodies (apple pie, apple/pear/nut cake, lemon/almond cake) that I made for our friends meetup yesterday. It was so good, but a little too much. I already left part at our friends house, but still enough for us to munch on this week.
I further need to focus on the fridge and eat the diary products that are getting near the expiry date.
Today I work from home and DH is here as well, so I will try to incorporate some leftovers into our lunch today (thinking about making italian bread rolls: there are some buns, cheese, italian sausage, tomatoes and olive paste in the fridge).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Got back from a week vacation, while my parents were at our house, staying with the kiddos. We are working our way through the random leftovers. I'm not sure I needed the tortilla chips or chocolates, but here we are.
-Had to toss a bag of chopped romaine that my mom bought
-Salvaged the majority of a cucumber that I found in the back of the fridge
-Used up ALL of the fruit in the drawer. This is an accomplishment, and rarely happens before a grocery run. Of course, we skipped a week, and my parents just filled in with what they wanted/needed for meals. Apparently, that didn't involve much fruit.
-My mom made several meals for us that are now in the freezer.
-I made chicken & dumplings this weekend. Leftovers for lunch today, and a few servings into the freezer.
-I also finished off: orange chicken, an orzo salad, and some chicken curry, all of which were found in the fridge. It was nice not to have to cook for a few days.

[MountainGal]

Welcome home, @MaybeBabyMustache!

@seemsright I've also been looking to easier meals, especially for weeknight suppers.  I researched one sheet pan meals and put several into rotation.  So far, I've made salmon and asparagus, andouille sausage and our garden veggies, and oven roasted neighbor garden beets and carrots.  Tonight, I'll make another pan of the latter which will finish this year's garden harvest unless our neighbor brings more.  Thursday I'll make a one pan beef and broccoli supper and Saturday a one pot cheesy taco skillet.

It's been a while since I've checked in:
-Last weekend I used cupcake liners I've had for quite some time for cornbread muffins.  Need to bake more muffins to finish the current cornmeal stock.
-This past Saturday I used more liners to make devils food cupcakes for neighborhood kiddos
-Used more of the Halloween sprinkles from 2+ years ago on said cupcakes
-Slow cooker meatballs used up two half empty bottles of BBQ sauce
-Leftover fresh veggies from two different parties were divvied up for our lunches
-Leftover meatballs and dip supplemented work lunches
-Leftover taco meat topped Friday's pizza crust and Saturday's nachos
-Baked the rest of the bacon and diced it up into a veggie dip
-The rest of the unsweetened chocolate from last holiday baking season went into Hallowmas cake dough for tonight.  I didn't have enough of the chocolate, and we live a distance from the nearest store, so I substituted with some unsweetened cocoa powder.  The cakes will use a cup of powdered sugar as well.
-Bought a head of iceberg for last night's 7-layer taco dip, and I'll incorporate the remaining 2/3 of it into this week's lunches.

The fresh produce bin is nearly empty again which I'll take care of later this week.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@seemsright - we typically have a system where we cook on weekends (usually Friday, but Saturday & Sunday almost always) & then have leftovers during the week. It doesn't work for everyone, but our kids have very busy schedules, as do we, & it helps make weeknights go smoothly. For the weekends, I often do a large batch of taco meat, a bolognese sauce, chicken curry, etc. We try to get at least two dinners out of every recipe we make. We also have quick freezer options for nights when we can't get anything else together. Sometimes those are things we've cooked ahead & froze, other times it's a Trader Joes option.

Thanks, @MountainGal - and, your sheet pan meals sound delicious! We've been making skillet dinners here & there, and they are always a hit.

[seemsright]

Thanks for the tips. I will try sheet pan dinners. This weekend I put a pork roast in the crock pot with some mustard and homemade fresh sauerkraut. It was so dang good. Tonight hubby made a take on Rubin sandwiches and made a homemade thousand dressing that had home fermented pickles in it. It was so good...we might make it again this week.

I am working on taking the emotion out of food. Which is a whole process in itself.

[MountainGal]

Thanks @MaybeBabyMustache.

@seemsright that pork roast does sound delicious as does that homemade dressing.  I'm also a fan of our slow cooker, especially when it comes to large cuts of meat.  Coming home after a long work day to a yummy smelling house is delightful.

[Serendip]

My hubby made a spicy side-dish using up some coconut cream, spicy sambal, tomatoes and frozen green beans from the garden. It was delicious with pulled-pork & rice-- and a good thing since we have heaps of frozen green beans so necessary to come up with new ways to cook them :)

He also baked a pie with frozen blueberries & haskaps..so delicious.

There are a pile of lemons that need to be utilized so I will make a lemon cauliflower dish tomorrow and maybe lemony dal.

[Catbert]

There are a pile of lemons that need to be utilized so I will make a lemon cauliflower dish tomorrow and maybe lemony dal.

Make preserved lemons if you want to spread out the use of tangy, salty lemons.  I make it every year with limes bc I have a lime tree but not a lemon one.  Lemon + salt + time.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We have way too much food in our house, and I need a plan.

-I picked up two large free pumpkins at the grocery store after Halloween. Roasting them now, and will puree & freeze the majority of it. I'll keep one batch out to make muffins with.
-We have 2.5 Costco sized boxes of tomatoes, due to a shopping list sync problem. This is the downside, I suppose, of using a shared digital shopping list. I may take the easy route & freeze most of them, if I can't get up the energy to puree them. We shall see.
-I also have 1/2 a burger (leftover from a work meal), a few spring rolls (sent home from an anniversary party), ravioli & meatballs, 1/2 a French dip sandwich, taco meat & a few other random items I've since forgotten.
-1/2 a large container of mixed greens that are about to go bad
-So, so many lemons. And, I need to pick the tree again.

I have made a lot of progress, but some days you just have too much food & it doesn't feel like I'm making a dent. I ate leftovers for lunch the last two days, and we've been plowing through things, but have been eating out a lot (work dinners, anniversary party, etc) & that meant not eating our planned food.

[okisok]

Used up the last two tablespoons of yeast I found in a jar in the pantry to make bread. The recipe called for honey but I was out. I substituted brown sugar and the bread came out delicious. The honey was just to feed the yeast-the recipe called for white sugar that I did have.

Made a batch of muffins with some leftover pumpkin puree. Had lamb stew out of the freezer for dinner with homemade bread. The last of the stew and a few slices of bread will be lunch tomorrow.

[fuzzy math]

Finished off some sauteed cabbage / carrot / onion mixture that's been in the fridge for over a week. Put some eggs on it and a slice of American cheese (I know YUCK - but it was brought home from a camping trip with communally purchased food)

Used up more of the giant hot sauce bottle when making some taco meat the other night. Used these markdown ground turkey patties. DS had accused me of making "boring taco meat" last time so I seasoned the hell out of it.

Secretly helping the kids go through their Halloween candy :)

Bought some markdown chicken drumsticks, managed to get them cooked before they went bad and DH finished the last of them this morning. He also opened a jar of ghee and fried them in it. That ghee has been an irritation of mine. It was an aspirational purchase, definitely something I've avoided using.

Taking a moment at the grocery store every time to put something back that I've chosen on a whim. Lots of "I can get this next time" or substitute X kinda thinking. Its working out.

Put a centerpiece on the dining table with a condiment and spice caddy. The kids have already tried a few random things. Score!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I need pesto for a recipe I'm making tomorrow. I didn't have pine nuts, so subbed walnuts that I found in the pantry. Used up a small amount of parmesan from dinner earlier this week, as well as parmesan leftover from a bagged salad. Found 1/2 a lime in the fridge, and squeezed that in as well. The basil was from the garden, so other than the olive oil, it was as close to "free/on hand" as I'm going to get.

I also used some taco meat on a salad for lunch, made muffins out of the pumpkins I pureed yesterday, and encouraged my husband to finish off the last of the chicken curry. Tiny progress!

[Josiecat23503]

@MaybeBabyMustache, re the glut of tomatoes...Have you tried oven drying them?  You can make "sundried" tomatoes by halving them and then cooking on low heat for 2.5h.  They can then be frozen then added to pasta dishes or pesto or other dishes as needed.  Just a thought from someone else who occasionally over buys produce!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Josiecat23503 - I love dried tomaotes, but we have a large jar of sundried tomatoes in the fridge already. I'm hoping to use up some of them tomorrow in a recipe.

[MountainGal]

@okisok that bread sounds amazing.  Excellent job on the substitution.

@fuzzy math I love the condiment centerpiece idea.

@MaybeBabyMustache nice work on the pesto.

It was a weekend of a few substitutions at our house as well.  We went from too many opened bottles of BBQ sauce to not having any at all, so per my suggestion, DH made his own last night to finish the smoked ribs.  It was tastier than any bottled brand I've had, and he said he'll make it in the future.  Now I just need to buy more no sugar added ketchup for said homemade sauce, LOL.  Also, because we are out of said sauce, I put tomato sauce and a few other items on top of the roast currently in the slow cooker.

Other completed things:
-A bottle of brown mustard
-A bag of chips from Halloween
-A bottle of yellow mustard
-Carton of almond milk
-The remaining stick of butter, which has been added to the grocery list
-Bottle of smoked paprika, which is also now on the grocery list
-Package of pepperoni slices
-Bag of flour
-Package of little smokies
-Cottage cheese
-Jar of homemade taco seasoning and I blended up more
-I made fruit bars which used most of the remaining sliced almonds.  I'll make almond lemon bars next weekend to use them up.  This will mean all baking ingredients from last year's holiday baking will be finished.  Just in time for this year.  :)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

You are crushing it, @MountainGal

I made more inroads with random things:
-Ate the leftover French dip sandwich for lunch
-Last of the giant container of mixed greens, used for today's dinner salad
-Used bones from rotisserie chicken to make broth, which will go into a recipe tonight. Also, chopped all of the chicken & added what I didn't need to the freezer.
-Made pumpkin muffins with the puree, and froze the majority of that.

Our freezer will barely close, so there's still a lot of work to do!

For the week ahead:
-Use up/freeze grilled chicken
-Make pesto chicken dish, and add sundried tomatoes, hopefully emptying out the last of the jar.
-Figure out to do with all of our pomegranate. Our tree ripened all at once, and there are SO. MANY.
-Juice lemons
-Plan menu for next week, taking advantage of freezer items.

In positive news, our pantry looks amazing. Somehow, we've transferred all of those pantry items into the fridge & freezer :-)

[GardenBaker]

@MountainGal way to go on your progress!!

@MaybeBabyMustache So cool you have a pomegranate tree! The fruit in our grocery store is so expensive and I love to sprinkle pomegranate on salads in the fall and winter.

Over the weekend I used up the following:
Crushed tortilla chips left in the bottom of the bag to make Grilled Jalapeno Cheddar Meatballs
Used up 3 overripe bananas on the counter and frozen pumpkin to make banana pumpkin muffins
Thawed 2 frozen stuffed bell peppers for dinner one night
This evening I'm using up 2 chicken breasts and breadcrumbs pulled from the freezer for a baked breaded chicken recipe

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We do have a pomegranate tree (more like a bush, actually)! Getting the arils out is no small task, but my husband usually processes the fruit.

[Linea_Norway]

I will make a lentil aubergine salad, adding ingredients that I found in the cupboards that have past their best before date. White aspargus in a tin a few months past bb date. Black quinoa with a bb date in 2018. And I will add some parsley and mint from the freezer, as well as a fresh green plant I foraged this week.

In general, I am not so worried about best before dates for food for dried grains, powders and tins. But it is good to start eating the very old stuff. I also found 2 tins of watercress that are one and 2 years over their bb date. I placed them in a more visible position to be used some time soon.

[Linea_Norway]

There are a pile of lemons that need to be utilized so I will make a lemon cauliflower dish tomorrow and maybe lemony dal.

Make preserved lemons if you want to spread out the use of tangy, salty lemons.  I make it every year with limes bc I have a lime tree but not a lemon one.  Lemon + salt + time.

I make this too, with lemons. They do become very salty, but can be used.

Lemons can also be frozen. You can grind the skin of a frozen lemon, you jest get very cold hands doing it. And you can thaw them and juice them.

[Serendip]

There are a pile of lemons that need to be utilized so I will make a lemon cauliflower dish tomorrow and maybe lemony dal.

Make preserved lemons if you want to spread out the use of tangy, salty lemons.  I make it every year with limes bc I have a lime tree but not a lemon one.  Lemon + salt + time.

I make this too, with lemons. They do become very salty, but can be used.

Lemons can also be frozen. You can grind the skin of a frozen lemon, you jest get very cold hands doing it. And you can thaw them and juice them.

great suggestions. I've made preserved lemons before (love them!) but have never tried freezing. thanks for the tips

I made a big pot of celery potato soup and crisped up a few of the greens for the top (the recipe suggested it and it was delicious). The celery was from a local farm and had huge leafy green tops so I found a celery leaf pesto recipe to utilize....have been snacking on it with crackers much like a spread and will freeze half of it.

[MountainGal]

Thank you, @MaybeBabyMustache!  And good job on the pantry.

@GardenBaker, I like what you did with the crushed chips.

Regarding lemons, in the past I've poured the juice into silicone molds and after it's frozen put them into a freezer bag.

Last night's beef roast supper finished a container of leftover guacamole a friend brought to our Halloween party, the bottle of horseradish crema from St. Patrick's Day and another half cup of apple cider vinegar.

DH had the stomach flu late last week and didn't get to the fresh strawberries in his lunch.  Sunday, I tossed them into the freezer so they wouldn't go bad and tonight I'll add them to overnight oats for him.

My lunch salad today consists of the remaining iceberg lettuce and cucumber, and later I'll snack on the rest of the wedge of brie with a handful of blueberries.

[fuzzy math]

I'm super curious about your food habits @Linea_Norway . Do you cook similar to others in your country?

Finished off a jar of sourkraut, an asian marinade, some ready cooked grilled chicken breast slices, a 10 lb bag of rice, a package of gluten free mug cakes. I feel like the very hungry caterpillar writing this :D
Let the kids fruit drawer in the fridge dwindle to nearly nothing before buying more. Got a rotten mixed salad bag, going to try to get a refund today.

[MountainGal]

@fuzzy math, hope you received a refund.

I'm invited to brunch at a friend's house tomorrow and am going to bake a breakfast casserole and bring mixed fuzzy navel cocktails.  The goal was to choose items using ingredients on hand.  All I need to buy are the tater tots for the casserole.  Everything else I have including orange juice and peach schnapps leftover from our Halloween party.

Tomorrow night I'm going to make a one skillet dish to use more of the ground beef abundance.

Monday's meatless lasagna will utilize the yellow squash and baby spinach resulting in a completely cleared out produce drawer in time for grocery day.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@MountainGal - you are really speaking my language, with those brunch cocktails!

We made real progress on the fridge side of things this week:
-I ate the last of the chicken pesto pasta for lunch, days in a row. Done!
-I ate pumpkin muffins for breakfast 2x this week, minimizing what's in the freezer
-We finished off almost all of the grilled chicken, and I froze a small amount remaining.
-My 16 y.o. had the last of a bag of taquitos for lunch today. He serves them with ranch (gag). He finished off the last of a bottle of ranch dressing.

For dinner tonight:
-Using up a frozen pizza (kids)
-Making my husband a cauliflower crust pizza, with the crust from Trader Joes, and really needing to be used up. It will have the bonus of using up tomato sauce & cheese from the fridge. Additionally, we have pepperoni in the freezer that will also get used.

[Linea_Norway]

I'm super curious about your food habits @Linea_Norway . Do you cook similar to others in your country?
<... >

@fuzzy math

My habits are wholegrain bread (often homemade sourdough) for breakfast and lunch.
Homemade dinners with a lot of vegetables, meat/fish or egg/cheese and rice/pasta/potatoes/wraps. With mostly ingredients from scratch, little preprocessed food.

We try to eat vegetarian several times a week, for environmental reasons, but also because it is easy. We just found out that DH had too little B12 in his body, so we must take care not to eat vegan style dinner. DH was prescribed pills for a period.

We make partly the same food as others in Norway. But we also eat some Dutch traditional food. And Indian, italian, Spanish or Greek food. I also like making Turkish food, inspired by a Norwegian cookbook for Turkish cooking.

I prefer making stews and curries, food that is not meat, potatoes and vegetables served separately.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We are ever so slowly making progress with all of the food in our freezer. Here's what we've been up to:
-Finished off most of the pizza for dinner, although I had two small slices in between a million sporting events.
-Remembered that we had "fancy" cheese in the fridge, so served that as a happy hour on Friday, along with crackers I found in the back of the pantry. Ate a bit more of the cheese as a snack yesterday, along with an apple. It's almost gone, although I'll miss it, as it's delicious & a new to me variety.
-Defrosted hamburger patties & buns from the freezer, and my husband grilled those last night.
-I took out chicken & naan bread today to defrost, and I will make chicken shawarma.

I have a giant bag of yeast in the fridge, and I think I'll try to make homemade foccacia bread today. We shall see how it goes. My husband is going to make a tzatziki sauce, out of yogurt we have lingering in the fridge, to go with the shawarma.

[fuzzy math]

I'm super curious about your food habits @Linea_Norway . Do you cook similar to others in your country?
<... >

@fuzzy math

My habits are wholegrain bread (often homemade sourdough) for breakfast and lunch.
Homemade dinners with a lot of vegetables, meat/fish or egg/cheese and rice/pasta/potatoes/wraps. With mostly ingredients from scratch, little preprocessed food.

We try to eat vegetarian several times a week, for environmental reasons, but also because it is easy. We just found out that DH had too little B12 in his body, so we must take care not to eat vegan style dinner. DH was prescribed pills for a period.

We make partly the same food as others in Norway. But we also eat some Dutch traditional food. And Indian, italian, Spanish or Greek food. I also like making Turkish food, inspired by a Norwegian cookbook for Turkish cooking.

I prefer making stews and curries, food that is not meat, potatoes and vegetables served separately.

Thanks for taking the time to respond! Do you do more home preservation and foraging than others do? I'm always impressed when you list what you've caught, foraged or preserved.

[fuzzy math]

I rescued a ton of Panera leftovers and some produce from entering the landfills. The weekend was spent w the family eating tons of bagels and cookies. About 80% of the Panera rescue went to the free store in town. I have 15 bell peppers to work through.

Recent wins:
- found 2 pork steaks that DS didn't cook when he made family dinner. Cooked them using a hidden in the back of the cupboard southern marinade. It might be my new favorite marinade. Both steaks were eaten.
- Used half a can of lentil soup (past date yikes!) that I've been watching from the cupboard for apparently quite some time. Put some giant hated hot sauce in it.
- cooked some of the rescue bell peppers and onions with a spaghetti squash I'd started cutting on (one of our animals eats this raw as part of his diet - frequently i cut one and let it rot in the fridge)
- fed the kids some leftover penne noodles that were at the "use or toss" point in the fridge.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@fuzzy math - how did you find the Panera leftovers? And, nice work saving some from the landfills! My son worked at the food pantry yesterday, and was dismayed at how much comes to the bank already in moldy condition. I'm going to volunteer on Friday, and one of the goals is to figure out how to increase the optimization of the food, donations & pickup, to hopefully reduce the amount that needs to be tossed. I hate food waste, so this is right up my alley.

Gave away a huge bag of pantry items that we won't eat before they expire, as well as a brand new container of garam masala. I tried one recipe, and it wasn't our jam, so giving it away to someone who can use it, because it was pricey. For the rest of the pantry items, my parents were recently visited, and bought some things that we just won't eat, so I'm glad to give it to someone who will enjoy it.

[MountainGal]

Thanks, @MaybeBabyMustache!  I also made blueberry muffins for the brunch which used almost all of the leftover fresh blueberries, and a batch of sangria using a bottle of wine we've had for a while and a partial bag of frozen berries.

-Slow cooker brown butter carrots used two pounds (about half) the neighbors gave us.  I'll peel and will probably freeze half and save half for DH's lunches.
-Instead of the skillet dish, Saturday I made pasta with meat sauce which used up a container of angel hair pasta.
-Tonight, I'll make a mini lasagna which will contain leftover meat sauce above and will finish a box of lasagna and bag of baby spinach.
-Last night I baked a cornbread.  There is still a bit more cornmeal left past it's best by date.
-Also, last night I fried breaded artichokes.  We've 1.5 jars left of the latter.
-Made two jars of overnight oats for DH which utilized a small frozen bag of strawberries and the remaining fresh blueberries.

Added:  Saturday I learned while listening to two neighbors talking if your chickens won't eat the leftover Halloween pumpkin, the deer will apparently.  :)

[okisok]

@Serendip The celery pesto is a great idea! I had a bowl of celery greens go into the compost this week because I didn't use them up. I usually just toss them in the veggie broth bag but pesto sounds like a higher and better use.

I've been making my own baked goods since the prices are so high. A 5 lb. bag of flour is $2.19 at Aldi. I've gotten four loaves of bread, a dozen muffins, and six giant tortillas out of the bag that still isn't empty. That versus $4 for one loaf of bread or 8 tortillas!

I put some leftover almond flour in the last batch of bread and it was delicious. The bag had been opened in the fridge for a few months while my oven was out of commission.

The half bottle of stir fry sauce and half bottle of Greek dressing were used (separately) as marinades for a bag of chicken thighs I got on special. I baked them in the oven and served the stir fry chicken over rice with a few freezer veggies. The Greek chicken was diced and put in the freezer for future salad toppings. DP said the stir fry chicken meal was one of the best I've ever made 0.o

This challenge has gotten me to the point where I felt comfortable restocking the pantry. Now I know what I use and what I don't and can stock up on things that won't go to waste.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Made foccacia out of yeast that had been in the fridge for quite a while. The teens thoroughly enjoyed it.
-Used up four bags out of the freezer (two bags of orange chicken, one bag of veggie fried rice, and one of edamame). We keep these as backup meal options, but our freezer was so full, I intentionally planned a meal with everything. It really helped open up some space.
-We finished off the last of the grilled burgers
-We will have the rest of the chicken shawarma tonight, which will also finish up the naan bread.

I still need to menu plan for the next couple of weeks, and see what else we can use up.

[MountainGal]

@okisok and @MaybeBabyMustache, well done on the baking.  You both are on a roll!  (See what I did there heh-heh.)

Last night's cauliflower crust pizza was topped with the remaining homemade pizza sauce I made and froze in September.  For a side, I made another batch of fried artichokes breaded with the rest of the pork rind parmesan blend I made a few weeks ago.  We also had more cooked carrots.

Tonight's salmon will be served with the remaining carrots and sauteed yellow squash and zucchini.  The latter two are the only remaining items in the produce drawer which is fine as we are headed out of town.  Speaking of, because of this, except for blueberries, last night's monthly grocery order didn't include any fresh produce for the first time that I can remember.  Extremely odd not having a full bin.

Today was clean out the office mini fridge day which was Saturday's remaining spaghetti sauce with cheese.

[SunnyDays]

I just came back from the grocery store with a new resolve - don't buy anything unnecessary until the cupboards are bare.  The price of groceries has increased a LOT in recent weeks.  $5.00 CAD for a head of ice burg lettuce!  Apparently there's a shortage, so that's all the store had.  $1.00 each for small chicken thighs with skin on.  $7.00 for a 3 pound bag of Gala apples.  So I want to see how far I can get without buying anything that I don't absolutely need.  I'm expecting to make it to Christmas with very minimal purchases. 

Tonight is leftover hamburger/veggie casserole and a salad.  Maybe the same tomorrow if it stretches that far.

[Dutch Comfort]

Came home to find that the freezer is getting too frosted to close properly. One big message to clean it out ASAP.
Started immediately and defrosted some BBQ sausages which I will put on a tray bake this evening.
Hope to be able to use up as much as possible so everything left will fit in the small (2nd) freezer so I can defrost the large freezer (hopefully this weekend).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I once again had a late meeting, so I threw together a random dinner. But, it did use up some items we needed to get rid of: 1/2 a box of open pasta (one teen diner), a package of ravioli (second teen + myself, & husband had a few bites) + chicken from the freezer (all of us).

Tonight will hopefully use up a bunch of leftovers in the fridge. I also used the last of a really needing to go pepper in the salad. Glad those are all gone.

[Ysera]

A co-worker gave me a giant pumpkin that I need to use soon. After stopping in here, I am thinking I will make some pumpkin bread, freeze the rest, and feed the odds and ends to our mule and donkeys.

I have some why-did-I-buy-this-even-on-sale-for-$1.50 chocolate flavored oatmeal packets that I will add to a brownie recipe. Sometimes I mix 1/3 of a fruit flavored packet in with my regular rolled oats, but I am not digging the chocolate flavor. I may also add some underwhelming peanut butter chips to the mix.

I also have a big head of cauliflower to use up, which I will roast. I overheard a produce guy at the grocery store saying there is a cauliflower shortage in my area right now, as well as lettuce.

- Used up the last of some spinach, roma tomatoes, and eggs in a taco pie casserole last weekend, which we just finished as leftovers yesterday.
- Also used up our last frozen cauliflower pizza crust, a partial bottle of leftover pizza sauce, mozzarella, and various other odds and ends for toppings.
- Pupper just had the last of a freezer burned salmon fillet. I cooked it up and re-froze it in portions for her, thawing out a little bit every day. I have at least a couple more freezer burned fillets to do this with.
- Finally tried a frozen Broccoli Beef entree that had been languishing in the freezer for months. I usually don't buy premade frozen meals because the ingredients typically bother my food sensitivities. But this one was actually fairly good for what it was, and no health issues came of it. Winco brand for the win. <3 
- Tonight's work lunch features my last (frozen) cup of potato vegetables soup, which had cleaned out the fridge a couple weeks ago. I was scrounging for something to bring at the last minute today and was happy to find it. My lunch salad also has the last of some bottled dressing.

[fuzzy math]

@MaybeBabyMustache I will dumpster dive (dumpster reach?? I don't go in!) on occasion. The produce came from Aldi, I haven't been in ages because the weather was warm. Now that its cold I'll take a peek. The Panera stuff gets left out on a cart on the back side of the store after hours at random intervals. There are a lot of food rescue groups, some I know and I've seen them picking up bags at 8:50 pm to take to some of the local emergency resource places in town. The items go out on the cart if no one claims them at closing time.  They generally have about 3 giant yard bags worth of items that would otherwise go into the garbage every single night. That amount of waste astounds me. There are homeless in the area, I don't know if they're out at night in this awful weather but I'd imagine sometimes they get to it too. The organization I took the leftovers to are in the next town over where they can't feasibly send people out to claim it. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Thanks for the details, @fuzzy math . I feel sad they haven't partnered with something like, "Too Good To Go", or another options. People buy end of day bakery leftovers for $5/bag via the app. Quite a few place participate.

-We've eaten pretty much all of the leftovers from previous night dinners
-Picked a bunch more pomegranates, and my husband pulled out the arils
-Found three lemons on the curb (lots of citrus trees in our neighborhood, & they roll into the streets), so will use those in salads (lemon juice + olive oil, for salad dressing)
-Had a random lunch of mashed potatoes & chicken from last night. It was delicious, and cleared some more space
-Making sesame chicken for dinner tonight, which amazingly, uses up sesame seeds that have been lurking in the pantry

I've also defrosted a few easy lunch options, for meals this week, and plan to use a tube of pureed roasted squash (from the garden) to make a squash soup on Wednesday. I'm all about making the most out of our freezer space, to try & free it up a bit more. We've made some progress, but then I noticed that the teens picked up various ice cream bars for "Thanksgiving" (in reality, just an excuse for them to have splurges around ;-)), so the freezer looks pretty stuffed again.

[fuzzy math]

- Worked through a lot of condiment packets
- Found part of a bagged salad dressing packet that I'd opened, finished it off
- Down to 9 of the 15 free bell peppers
- Made a tray of layered enchiladas and used up some corn tortillas, a can of mark down enchilada sauce, a can of flavored pinto beans, some frozen meat, some peppers I pickled, 2 cheese odds and ends and the rest of the lentils. Enjoyed it heartily
- still working on sliced bread from the Panera haul
- Fed a kid's friend some american cheese in a grilled sandwich (none of my kids will eat that cheese)
- encouraged DD to use up some frozen fruit
- had a tunafish sandwich (the tuna has been languishing in the cupboard)

For Thanksgiving I'm going to try to find uses for a box of corn flake crumbs

[Josiecat23503]

@fuzzy math, my mom used cornflake crumbs to stretch the amount of beef for both burgers and meatloaf.  My grandmother used them to bread chicken in a dish we called "nana's fried chicken" which involved rinsing off chicken parts and pressing crushed cornflakes to the skin with onion powder/garlic salt/ground pepper and baking in the oven.  These were family favorites growing up!  Hope one of these ideas helps!

[Linea_Norway]

I'm super curious about your food habits @Linea_Norway . Do you cook similar to others in your country?
<... >

@fuzzy math

My habits are wholegrain bread (often homemade sourdough) for breakfast and lunch.
Homemade dinners with a lot of vegetables, meat/fish or egg/cheese and rice/pasta/potatoes/wraps. With mostly ingredients from scratch, little preprocessed food.

We try to eat vegetarian several times a week, for environmental reasons, but also because it is easy. We just found out that DH had too little B12 in his body, so we must take care not to eat vegan style dinner. DH was prescribed pills for a period.

We make partly the same food as others in Norway. But we also eat some Dutch traditional food. And Indian, italian, Spanish or Greek food. I also like making Turkish food, inspired by a Norwegian cookbook for Turkish cooking.

I prefer making stews and curries, food that is not meat, potatoes and vegetables served separately.

Thanks for taking the time to respond! Do you do more home preservation and foraging than others do? I'm always impressed when you list what you've caught, foraged or preserved.

@fuzzy math
Yes, I think I forage a lot more than others. I pick almost all the edible mushrooms that I find, all year long. And in spring I also pick edible plants. At the end of summer I forage wild berries. I have started to grow food myself, but only in small quantities. DH likes to fish and at our cabin he is good at catching trout and sometimes other fish. And at sea things like cod. He is also a free diver and sometimes harpoons fish. Or picks up crayfish.

I dry lots of food, mostøy mushrooms and plants, sometimes berries. We freeze a lot. And I also pickle or confite food.

[Linea_Norway]

I bought a few packs of dried tortellini, as an easy campside food, and also as a preparedness food. But unfortunately, the best before date was very soon. I have now eaten one of them, one month past the best before date. I am still alive.

In the past week I have tried to always use up some of the frozen or otherwise preserved foods. Mostly just some frozen plant leaves in a mix of other food. As I have been washing up lots of empty jam jars, I must have finished a lot of homemade jams, or preserved mushrooms in those jars.

Today I made a quiche where I used my own kale which is still growing, despite the cold. I sowed them at the end of summer. The plants are still really small, but they have gotten fresh leaves several times.

The day before we at a salad with our homegrown chicory, growing under a bucket in the living room. The white leaves were quite bitter, but it went well in combination with many other ingredients.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

My parents were visiting recently, and made pork chops for dinner. They froze the leftovers. We're not huge pork chop eaters. Any suggestions on how to best (re) serve them, to give them new life? Any dos & donts for reheating them more generally? We rarely cook with pork.

[okisok]

@MountainGal , yes, I see what you did there and I approve ;)

DP and I made holiday cookies with the kids over the weekend. The first batch was homemade sugar cookies with a tub of icing that wasn't used for a party earlier this year. We went through all our baking items and only lacked a one item for decorating. We used food coloring, colored sugar, and other toppings we already had. We even used some decor from other holidays and birthdays.
The second batch was from a mix we bought on clearance after xmas last year. I had some treat boxes leftover from a work event so we were able to gift some nicely wrapped. The whole shebang cost about $5 total, to make dozens of cookies and spend hours together mixing, rolling, baking, and of course cleaning up the mess. We put on our silly holiday aprons we already had (one gifted, one thrifted, one homemade), tuned the radio to a holiday station and had a grand time for less than a fast food meal.

[shadesofgreen]

@MountainGal , yes, I see what you did there and I approve ;)

DP and I made holiday cookies with the kids over the weekend. The first batch was homemade sugar cookies with a tub of icing that wasn't used for a party earlier this year. We went through all our baking items and only lacked a one item for decorating. We used food coloring, colored sugar, and other toppings we already had. We even used some decor from other holidays and birthdays.
The second batch was from a mix we bought on clearance after xmas last year. I had some treat boxes leftover from a work event so we were able to gift some nicely wrapped. The whole shebang cost about $5 total, to make dozens of cookies and spend hours together mixing, rolling, baking, and of course cleaning up the mess. We put on our silly holiday aprons we already had (one gifted, one thrifted, one homemade), tuned the radio to a holiday station and had a grand time for less than a fast food meal.

That sounds both fun and amazing.

[fuzzy math]

My parents were visiting recently, and made pork chops for dinner. They froze the leftovers. We're not huge pork chop eaters. Any suggestions on how to best (re) serve them, to give them new life? Any dos & donts for reheating them more generally? We rarely cook with pork.

Do you have a crock pot or pressure cooker? You could always cook it until it falls apart and make it bbq meat

[Josiecat23503]

@MaybeBabyMustache, you could dice up the pork and make homemade pork fried rice. Budget bytes has a good base recipe.  Fried rice is a good way to use up all sorts of leftovers.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I should have clarified, the pork chops are already cooked. I may try the fried rice route. Thank you!