Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2

[Dutch Comfort]

Made a grocery list with my pantry-inventory list next to it. It is surprising how little you need for a week when the pantry is still full......

We're good on keeping the fridge nice and clean. Not too much stuff in there that does not get eaten, just some condiments, so this seems to be more or less in control. Freezer is still full (but working on it, no icecream weather.....). Pantry is starting to show a few dents after the half-term school holiday last week when the teens were eating all meals at home. Keeping the countertop clean (and thus having room in the pantry to store stuff) is my challenge and this is getting better by the day!

Wins:
- snacks are getting eaten. Finished some December chocolate things and December gingerbread cookies......
- used some leftover tomato-salsa and some balsamic vinager in the pulled chicken last week. Came out delicious and was approved by the whole family, so will add that to the next round of pulled chicken.
- DD finished the holiday sprinkles in her yoghurt

To work on:
- condiments in the fridge (garlic sauce, BBQ sauce and others)
- 2 jars with leftover salsa-dip
- 1 jar of marmelade of a non-defined fruit (might be blackberry or another berry....)
- 1/2 jar of pesto
- more snacks........ many many more snacks (I definitely need some teen help here)
- oatmeal
- maple syrup
- brown palm sugar that I found in the back of the cupboard
- microwave popcorn (more teen help needed!)
- cheese scraps (will grate these and use it in a tortilla recipe that I planned for this week)
- milk...... I have too much soy and regular milk on hand

[Josiecat22222]

Making some headway here....

Finished off:
potato corn chowder from the freezer
canned tuna
goat cheese
pumpkin seeds

Made progress on:
lavash wraps
risotto
lentils
protein shake stockpile

goals for this week:
eat package of curried squash (got as a freebie from store...I have my doubts so it's been on the shelf a while, but tomorrow I'm going to bite the bullet and try it)
work on granola stash
make SOMETHING with coconut flour

[Josiecat22222]

made some progress:

ate the rice packet in the back of the pantry as part of a stir fry with tempeh, tofu, mushrooms, broccoli and carrots
ate the curried squash
ate some of the granola and muesli
made a coconut flour pizza crust (which only uses a 1/3 of a cup, but still progress!)

Have meal planned out at least the next 7-10 days to continue to utilize pantry stores and incorporate fresh produce

How's everyone else doing?

[Poundwise]

We have a bad habit of putting bread in to toast, forgetting about it, then finding it hours later when rock hard.  I usually make the old slices into breadcrumbs, but I just discovered milk-toast!  Put the old toast (can and has been weeks old) in a shallow bowl, put on a spoon full of sugar, a pat of butter (optional), and a shake of cinnamon or nutmeg. Cover with milk, and nuke for a minute in the microwave. What you get is something like eggless french toast or bread pudding... very mild and comforting. A good food for people not feeling well.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

My husband bought a huge package of pepperoni at Costco a while back. It's been in the freezer forever. I use it to doctor up his cauliflower crust pizza. We're making some progress there, but again, it's a huge package. And, was a very head scratching purchase to start with.

I used up the last of the frozen breakfast sandwiches, purchased for a hungry teen, but didn't like that it was low carb.

We managed to use all of the bananas before they had to go into the freezer of doom.

Picked up a bunch of citrus fruits from neighbors (we had a huge storm, and the trees lost their fruit), so those need to be eaten, and/or juiced for future salad dressing. I also now have 10 avocados, thanks to neighbors, and need to ripen them slowly & ensure DH eats those.

I also want to use up the last of a jam jar this weekend. Most likely, in a teen smoothie.

[Catbert]

We have a bad habit of putting bread in to toast, forgetting about it, then finding it hours later when rock hard.  I usually make the old slices into breadcrumbs, but I just discovered milk-toast!  Put the old toast (can and has been weeks old) in a shallow bowl, put on a spoon full of sugar, a pat of butter (optional), and a shake of cinnamon or nutmeg. Cover with milk, and nuke for a minute in the microwave. What you get is something like eggless french toast or bread pudding... very mild and comforting. A good food for people not feeling well.

You're bring back happy memories.  My mom used to do that with cold toast long before microwaves were a thing.  Just heated up the milk on the stove.

[seemsright]

My preteen just woke up after 15 hours of sleep, so far this morning, she has ate a breakfast sandwich, a bowl of cereal, and now is eating the last pear.

I think today alone she will make progress in the food eat down.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@seemsright - when the mood strikes them, my 16 & 17 y.o boys can clean out the pantry in a day or so.

[seemsright]

@MaybeBabyMustache My preteen has always through eating was inconvenient. But this growth spurt is getting to both of us. Spring Break is right around the corner, so I am sure she will make massive progress in eating down the pantry.

I could not imagine 2 teen boys. Your grocery bill must be sky high.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@seemsright - both of my kids play year round sports, so they go through A LOT of food. We work hard to keep the grocery bill at $900/month, and my husband also has a food allergy, so eats a mostly Keto diet (not cheap).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Over the past few days:

-Used chocolate/sea salt oatmeal packets (picked up on BN, because the giver didn't like the flavors) in a protein bar recipe. I make the recipe regularly, and didn't have enough oatmeal for the full batch. I don't know if the rest of the ingredients masked the flavor, or I would have liked it either way, but I thought it tasted fine. Multiple people commented into the BN post that they tried it & didn't like it, so I was a little worried it would have a really off putting flavor.
-Used more jam in a smoothie for DS16
-Made myself a sandwich with the bread, meat & cheese that I picked up for DS17. We so rarely have this stuff, it feels like a treat.
-Used leftover fruit in my smoothie
-Finished off a jar of agave we've had in the pantry for close to forever. Used it for the protein bars (above). I typically use honey, but wanted to get the agave container out of the pantry

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-I used up some really ancient carrots, and coleslaw dressing we had in the fridge, combined with some cabbage for coleslaw.
-I ate 1/2 of a protein bar for breakfast. I'm trying to get rid of them before they expire, and one of the reasons I don't regularly eat them is that they have 300 calories (a lot), so I decided not to be a fool, and just have half of it at a time. Perfect.

[okisok]

Found a recipe for brown sugar pancake syrup to make syrup when I need it instead of buying a whole bottle. I really only use it for a breakfast oatmeal recipe. Now I have a full jar of the syrup to use up, but I know how to reduce the recipe in future. And I didn't have to go to the store just for a bottle of syrup.

Used a 25c butternut squash, homemade black beans, a can of tomatoes, and some spices to make a goulash sort of thing for lunches this week. Cleaned out the freezer broth bag and made veggie broth to cook rice in to go with goulash. That 25c butternut squash went a loooong way. DP pointed out that I am happier making dishes with a cheap squash than getting dressed up and going to a gala, and he's right!

Squash out of pantry, veggie freezer bag completely empty, and I did not buy an frozen meals for work lunches. Sometimes that's all I have the bandwidth for and that's ok. This weekend I had the time and energy to make lunches so I did.

Embarrassing fail--I found some flavored extracts in the pantry that had expired YEARS ago. I come from a family that never threw those things out and I didn't even realize they HAD expiration dates. I rarely bake any more and I prefer to use natural flavorings instead of extracts now. They went down the sink and the bottles went into recycling.

Expired cornstarch went into the compost and the can went to recycling. Cornstarch is one of the things I need to buy in small amounts at a time from the bulk bins. I never use up a full container before it's expiration date.

[Newday]

Finished the 2 boxes of spinach that was sitting in the fridge for more than 2 weeks.

[Dutch Comfort]

Had guests over on Saturday for dinner. Cooked on Friday night and Saturday morning with a nice full table of Indonesian-style dishes as a result. Now I have some leftovers, which we already almost finished on Sunday, just a couple of servings left which I will take as lunch during the week.

Wins:
- 1 pizza crust got eaten on Sunday, using up a few slices of ham, a few slices of italian sausage and half a jar of black olives
- coconut pie used up half a bag of shredded coconut
- butter-cookies used up a stick of butter
- Indonesian-style dishes used a lot of herbs and spices, all from the pantry!

Challenges this week:
- 2 mango's
- 5 bananas
- oatmeal
- dried abricots
- still that syrup and brown sugar..... (I think oatmeal-banana-breakfast muffins are the answer here.....)
- more condiments (although a few were finished while meal prepping and during meals in the last couple of days)
- the microwave popcorn is still there..., teens mainly munched on the snacks, so this is the next one on the list before I buy new snacks!
- salsa-dip, pesto and marmelade is also still in the fridge....
- 1/2 jar of humus

And I have 1 head of cabbage that I need to use, although not huge cabbage fans here. What can I do to get this eaten?????

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Dutch Comfort - for cabbage, I typically make coleslaw, or egg roll in a bowl. Both are easy recipes. You could also shred it, and just add it in to salads, as a mix with lettuce & other veggies.

[seemsright]

@Dutch Comfort
Cabbage can be cooked so many ways. It is delicious sliced up with olive oil and salt roasted at 425 till it looks done. Time will depend on how much you are cooking on the sheet
We eat a ton of cabbage made into a slaw eaten on tacos. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Finished the other half of the protein bar (they are all now gone!)
-Ate leftover pizza for lunch
-Had a small "super food" cookie that showed up out of nowhere & was in our pantry

Kids are making progress on ice cream cake (16th birthday celebration).

[okisok]

Used up all the strawberries before they went bad. Put the tops in the freezer on a baking sheet, then tossed them into the frozen fruit bag for smoothies.

Bagged up some items from the pantry to take to a friend who's having a difficult time financially.

[Fresh Bread]

Used up all the strawberries before they went bad. Put the tops in the freezer on a baking sheet, then tossed them into the frozen fruit bag for smoothies.

Bagged up some items from the pantry to take to a friend who's having a difficult time financially.

Oh are the green leafy bits edible? Good to know if so.

[Poundwise]

@Dutch Comfort  Try slicing a quarter or half cabbage into thin strings, then sauté until tender with a knob of butter, salt, pepper, and three cloves. This is a very easy and delicious preparation.

[Josiecat22222]

Finished a loaf of bread from the freezer and a carton of tomato and roasted red pepper soup.

Today's goal is to make "buffalo cauliflower wings" and to eat the pickled carrots and cucumber I made last week. 
And some oven fries.  YUM.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Ate the last of the takeout pizza
-Finished off the curry that didn't turn out very well (I had it for lunches, vs serving it to anyone else)
-Used the last of the bread & deli meat to make a sandwich for DS17
-Used more cheese to make a quesadilla for DS16
-Finished off the last of some lettuce that was starting to turn

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Finished another container of non dairy milk. I stopped drinking coffee, so I've been using this up in smoothies. I have one more container to go.
-The teens finished an entire $.99 loaf of bread from the store. Much of it was eaten on the first day, as a snack. When the bread dried a bit, I made DS17 a sandwich with the rest of it (panini style)
-Used leftover fruit (freezer) in a smoothie.

Tonight I'll be using up more cabbage & carrots in an egg roll in a bowl recipe.

[seemsright]

spent the morning doing some meal prep.

Baked some potatoes we will use them for some breakfast hash this week
made hummus
peeled baby oranges with the hope that the preteen will eat them
made some orange sauce to make grilled chicken tonight
pressed some tofu to make miso soup to have with our chicken tonight
pulled out some frozen mixed veggies to throw into meals this week
put on a pot of pinto beans to eat with tacos this week
made some veggie stock to use for our miso soup tonight

I do not think we will have to go to the store this week.

A pot of rice and we should be good to go. I love it when I can be organized enough to pull this together.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

Successes:

:: Used a jar of peaches in a cobbler
:: Cooked another 1.5 cups of quinoa
:: Making our way through a container of crumbled feta cheese, which has way more than I realized
:: Ate another 1# of frozen diced sweet potatoes -- this has been harder than expected as they aren't well peeled and because of that don't work well in pureed soups, which is what I bought them for
:: got through the half gallon of half and half I bought 2/26 (used the last of it in the cobbler)
:: ate a few of the individual of soups I'd frozen
:: ate muffins and waffles from the freezer
:: DH has been cutting some lackluster apples and putting them into green salads
:: Got through the frozen gluten free cookie dough I made awhile ago
:: Realized we weren't going to eat the bacon or ground beef given to us by our neighbor any time soon and tossed them into the freezer ahead of the use or freeze by dates
:: DH finished the coffee leftover from college kid #1's spring break
:: got through the 3# of lemons I bought in November without any of them going bad

Failures:

:: Lost a bag of coleslaw mix.  To be fair, this is because I also had a cabbage and two heads of lettuce given to me by a neighbor (incorrect grocery delivery) and it was just too much get through.
:: Lost a container of baby spinach, also given to me by the neighbor and promptly forgotten because we don't usually buy and eat spinach -- I should have frozen it for smoothies
:: Lost three overripe bananas I was going to use to make muffins tomorrow because the adolescent puppy stole them off the counter
:: College kid #2 forgot to eat a leftover Polish sausage

[Dutch Comfort]

Wins in the last week:
- Mango's were eaten as desert
- Banana's were turned into banana-oatmeal-nuts-breakfast muffins. Using up more ingredients that were on hand.
- Have not bought more snacks, so teens are still munching on the snacks in the pantry
- 1/2 jar of humus was eaten as a dip with cucumber

Failures:
- tried an oatmeal-cookie recipe that also used the maple syrup and found that the cookies were just not tasty..... have to try another recipe.....
- some leftovers were not eaten (which is not common in our household), so had to throw them into the organic waste bin.

Challenges:
- dried apricots
- brown sugar (will probably use this in the next batch of oatmeal cookies)
- some ginger that came into my fridge...... DD already requested ginger-cookies, so I might look into this
- condiments......
- those boxes of microwave popcorn........ (*insert big sigh here*)
- the cabbage.......

[Josiecat22222]

Some wins some losses this week on the challenge.  Managed to get a serving of peanut noodles out of freezer and into DS. Ate a serving of lentil vegan Bolognese from the freezer, but I was a bit too heavy handed w the crushed red pepper and it is spicy!! Maybe I can mix in a can of regular crushed tomatoes to dilute it. Or maybe just declare it a loss. Only 1-2 servings left, but I really hate to waste food.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

I know we've been quiet on this thread, but I thought I would post how we are (mostly) eating what we already have for our Easter dinner.  Here is the menu:

:: Greek Butterflied Leg of Lamb
:: Greek Tofu
:: Lemon Rice Pilaf
:: Roasted Peppers & Onions
:: Greek Salad
:: Pita Bread
:: Easter / Birthday Cake (yellow cake with caramel icing)
:: Iced Tea
:: Lemonade

We had the lamb in the freezer so I started with that, choosing a Greek marinade.  We have a family member who doesn't eat lamb, so my kid asked if we had any tofu we could make (kid really wants lamb and didn't want me to completely change the main course).  We do have tofu, and need to use it soon anyway.  I always have rice on hand.  The roasted peppers and onions are a frozen blend that we really like.  One reason the Greek theme came up was I have some feta we need to get through, so Greek salad it is.  Pita bread is made from pantry staples.  The cake will be a doctored up gluten free mix slightly past it's best by date, with from scratch icing.  We have tea in the pantry as well as a bottle of organic lemon juice to make lemonade with.

I had to buy the following: lemons (I used the last of mine a couple of weeks ago), garlic (was also out of fresh garlic and didn't want to use powder in the marinade), red onion, parsley, tomatoes, cucumber, a green bell pepper, unsalted butter, powdered sugar, a box of pudding mix (for the cake), and milk.  I spent about $25 but will have lemons, garlic, tomatoes, butter, sugar, and milk leftover.  If I'd been able to buy exactly the amount of each item I needed I would have spent under $10.  Not bad for a holiday meal!

[Anette]

Made Paska for Easter and was able to use almonds and raisins which were getting old in my cupboard.
Used up meats from the freezer and made a few inexpensive but glutenfree side dishes like Quiches without crust one of them with red beets and feta. Also made Portobello mushrooms baked with olive oil, garlic and thyme (from the garden) and egg and was able to use up leftover homemade garlic butter in them.
Made salad dressing from scratch and was able to use up back of the cupboard dried cranberries.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@K_in_the_kitchen - your menu sounds fantastic!

[Dutch Comfort]

I just love greek food!!!!! It sounds delicious.

We need to get into warp speed eating from the fridge/freezer/pantry, since we will leave for holiday in 2 weeks time!
So, here we go for the menu of this week:

Breakfast / lunches from the pantry/fridge (loads of bread, cereal, granola, milk and yoghurt available, so no excuse). I will not buy anything new!
Dinner:
Tonight: fresh pasta (from fridge) topped with bolognese sauce (ready to go tomato sauce from pantry and ground beef from freezer) and a side salad
Tomorrow: green beans (from fridge), baked potatoes (pantry) and pork from freezer
Friday: chicken (from feezer), rice/couscous/potatoes (pantry) and canned veggies
Saturday: leftover-day! There will be soup from freezer with bread, but also all kind of leftovers will be tabled.....

Sunday: freezer/fridge/pantry check before grocery shopping for only fresh produce!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We are leaving on a trip tomorrow, so we need to clear the fridge. So far:
-I had a small amount of chicken leftover from dinner last night, as breakfast
-I'm adding an egg to some leftover fried rice, and having that for lunch
-We will all be eating burgers or the delivery service meals (an experiment, thanks to an almost free offer from work), and/or freezing the rest.

I also had to toss some pasta that was in the back of the fridge, & didn't get eaten.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

I took a peek into the fridge today and realized I need to get going on several things if I want to avoid food waste!

:: I used a package of zucchini for our midday main meal, paring away some areas starting to decay
:: I cooked two small steaks (5 oz.) that have been in the freezer since last summer, eating around some gristle and giving those bits to the dog.  Even DH remarked on the gristle, which is one reason we gave up ButcherBox
:: I cooked another batch of quinoa --the funny thing is that working my way through this jar of quinoa from January 2022 has rekindled a love of quinoa
:: I chopped up the leftover lamb and froze it in small batches for kid #2 to use in fried rice

Looking ahead:
:: there's a quart of milk that needs to be used soon -- I'm thinking of some sort of chowder
:: there's also a cup or so of heavy cream on the verge of souring
:: there's a small amount of shredded coleslaw mix -- I'll probably cook it and serve it with eggs and sweet potato
:: I hard cooked two dozen eggs last Saturday and we haven't gotten through them as quickly as I expected (in part because our Easter guest, who usually takes home eggs, didn't want to this year).  With the dairy, I could make creamed eggs and serve them on toast or biscuits
:: I bought 5# of small potatoes and forgot about them

Losses:
:: half a bunch of green onions
:: a small amount of chopped red onion
:: a pint of broth leftover from making a pot roast that got shoved to the back and forgotten about
:: about 1 cup of cooked rice pilaf
:: 1/4 of a package of smoked wild salmon (this one hurts, but is also a lesson in not buying it if the family isn't going to eat it even though they say they will)

[Josiecat22222]

@K_in_the_kitchen, how about a frittata or baked egg dish?  That's my favorite (tasty) way to use up eggs, milk, potatoes and any other bits of vegetables! 

https://aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com/crustless-quiche/

this is a basic recipe I use, but it is endlessly customizable!

[Dutch Comfort]

One week to go before our trip. Breakfast and lunches still from fridge/pantry.

Dinners:
- Monday: cauliflower, sausage and potatoes
- Tuesday: more potatoes, green beans and meatloaf
- Wednesday: pasta
- Thursday: hopefully last of the potatoes, spinach, eggs
- Friday: leftovers (or whatever is in the fridge/freezer)
- Saturday: leftovers (or whatever is in the fridge/freezer)

Wins:
- made a large batch of coleslaw yesterday from that large cabbage head I still had around. Also used some mustard for the dressing. Used half of the cabbage and gave half of it to my mother who will use it this week. 1 serving of coleslaw remaining.
- yesterday's pulled chicken used up some condiments (BBQ sauce) from the fridge and fed a party of 8 with leftovers in the freezer for probably 4 servings.
- made apple pie from flour/eggs/butter I had in the pantry (just had to buy the apples). There are leftovers, which will be desert for today/tomorrow.
- DS wanted some pasta after soccer game on Saturday. This used up a leftover of pasta sauce which was in the fridge and 1 serving of special shaped pasta (either Halloween or Christmas) from the pantry.

Hoping for an empty fridge on Sunday when we will leave for a week in Portugal and enjoy the great food there......

[Treedream]

I spend way too much on groceries and take out in April, so I am gonna try to do better in May.

I have enough in the house for
- pita with shoarma and vegetables x2
- Pasta tomatosauce x2 (pasta sauce needs to be used, or it will get moldy)
- Bami (only need to buy noodles, vegetables need to get eaten, otherwise they go off) x2
- 3 bean curry (need to buy rice)

I really need to eat some vegetables (and I have a ton in the fridge), cause I think I ate pizza 5 days in a row (I was ill this week, but still)

I have enough for breakfast for weekdays till Wednesday, and if I buy some bread I have enough for lunch as well. But I could use some fruit.

So the plan is:
Friday: Bami
Saturday: Pasta with tomatoesauce
Sunday: massive pot of 3 bean curry for leftovers

This should give enough leftovers for Monday and Tuesday and to freeze some.

All I need to buy is:
- rice
- noodles
- fruit
- bread

Besides that, does anyone have any ideas what to do with a random jar of barbeque sauce?

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Treedream - do you have access to a grill? If so, I'd marinate chicken in the barbecue sauce, and then grill it. If I didn't have access to a grill, I'd bake the chicken, and baste additional barbecue sauce on top during grilling.

April was a wild month for us, and that's evident across pretty much every dimension of our lives. But, we're getting back into the action! Today was a really productive day, which felt nice, after a month of minimal productivity. I also used very inexpensive meal plan offers (some sort of arrangement through our work) & we have a lot of food from that.

We currently have too much food available, so:
-I froze the leftover grilled chicken that we won't finish
-Ate orange chicken/fried rice for breakfast
-Had leftover enchilada meatballs & rice for lunch. I have about one more serving of this (food delivery meal) & I may need to freeze it
-We have at least three tacos work of turkey taco fillings, and shells. May need to freeze the fillings. The shells will get used up quickly
-I have, very unusually, both pita bread & sourdough bread in my fridge. I was jet lagged & very hungry when I went to Trader Joes this week. Fed one teen a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner last night
-I wrapped up the last of the Trader Joes chicken salad as a light dinner with crackers & fruit last night, and my husband had the curry version (I didn't really like this) with breakfast this morning. Both are finished
-Teens finished all of the blueberries, and two containers of strawberries. My husband bought two bunches of bananas! These are the bane of my food managing existence. He is really insistent on buying them, at the end of every week, we usually have 3-4 from one bunch. This week, we have at least 10. We have plenty of banana bread in the freezer already ... ;-)
-And, I still have some fried rice that I need to use up. And 1.5 bags of salad. And, all of the salad greens growing in the beds. Plus, I desperately need to trim back all of the herbs, and offer all that we won't use to our neighbors.

Tonight I'll be making a meal delivery dinner of chicken with broccoli & peppers. I thought this delivery service was very meh. However, it cost $19 for a week, and that came with three dinners, serving three people. So, it was really cheap & easy to prepare, which was welcome during my very jet lagged week. We have it again next week, and then it will be canceled.

I also have a ton of Factor dinners in the freezer. Similarly, I purchased a meal delivery service a few weeks ago, and then promptly got sick, and didn't eat much for just over a week. We were heading out of town, so I froze the remainders. Those need to get eaten as well.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We made some progress on the food:
-Finished the enchilada meatballs/rice, & froze the rest
-Had turkey tacos for dinner, froze the rest
-Made three grilled cheese sandwiches for hungry teens, and used up almost all of the sourdough bread
-Had to toss the fried rice :-(
-Dinner of chicken & broccoli/peppers was all eaten, no leftovers
-Bagged salad one is complete, and there is about 1/4 of the last bag available.

I made 3 pounds of taco meat today, and froze 2/3 of it. 1/3 of it will be dinner for myself & DS16, and we will have another taco dinner during the week. DS17 & DH are likely stopping for In & Out on their way back from a far away soccer game, with friends.

My husband made a huge dinner of kebabs & rice last night, and one teen was late for a birthday party (skipped dinner) & the other fell asleep before we ate (got up early for soccer, still jetlagged). So, we also have a giant amount of rice & kebabs in the fridge to eat this week. Oh, and the delivery dinners. .. . what have I done?!

[Treedream]

@Treedream - do you have access to a grill? If so, I'd marinate chicken in the barbecue sauce, and then grill it. If I didn't have access to a grill, I'd bake the chicken, and baste additional barbecue sauce on top during grilling.

I probably should have mentioned I eat plantbased. So I am looking for veg or legumes or other to pair with it. I am thinking roasted cauliflower might work with BBQ sauce?

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Treedream - do you have access to a grill? If so, I'd marinate chicken in the barbecue sauce, and then grill it. If I didn't have access to a grill, I'd bake the chicken, and baste additional barbecue sauce on top during grilling.

I probably should have mentioned I eat plantbased. So I am looking for veg or legumes or other to pair with it. I am thinking roasted cauliflower might work with BBQ sauce?

Yeah, I'd go with cauliflower, portobello mushrooms, tofu, or what about halloumi? Use in a baked bean recipe?

[Josiecat22222]

@Treedream , I also eat plant based and I like this recipe for lentil meatballs which goes with BBQ sauce:

https://veganwithcurves.com/bbq-lentil-balls/

Hope this helps!

Tonight we are having cobb salads with avocado, red onions, tomatos, english cucumbers, bell peppers etc with red lentil patties for me and crispy chicken for the lad.  DH is working through the freezer abundance by making an eye round

[Dutch Comfort]

Back from a great trip and back to the challenge!
The fridge is in good condition. We emptied it before the trip, so that was good and it is nice and clean now.
The freezer is still quite full. Will work on that this week.
The pantry is getting in shape. The best thing is that DH mentioned yesterday that there was nothing good to snack on in the pantry and I could just reply that he had a choice: eat what's in there or not eat snacks, which is better for his health.....

Challenges:
- Freezer contents: icecream popsicles, spinach, various meat varieties, leftovers
- Pantry: few pasta varieties, microwave popcorn, herbs and spices
- Fridge: some condiments and sauces

Teens are home this week, so they will help on finishing several items for breakfast and lunches (and snacks...... don't forget snacks with teens!).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Made protein bars for DS17, using up some Trader Joes instant oatmeal packs (sea salt & chocolate variety) that I picked up off of Buy Nothing. Definitely didn't enjoy the flavor on its own, but they are great in protein bars. I have one package left from the box, so I'll add that to my next round of protein bars as well. In related news, I heated up some very crystalized honey, and used that in the bars, and had a tiny bit of leftover Trader Joes spring Easter mix mini chocolates, and dumped that in as well, in lieu of chocolate chips.
-Defrosted bread for garlic bread, vs buying more.
-Convinced DS17 to eat the dill pickle popcorn that's been lingering
-Finished off all of the bananas that were fine to eat, froze the rest. Because, of course, bananas

[Dutch Comfort]

Wins last week:
- teens managed to get through a lot of food. Unfortunately, still a lot remaining in the pantry.
- had leftover/freezer dinner on Saturday: burgers, soup and a lingering Turkish pizza made its way out of the freezer!
- spinach dish on Friday. Happy teen since it is her favorite.
- did a good grocery run. Only took produce and other fresh items. Rest will come from pantry/freezer

This week we need to go through some fresh products because we will be out next weekend:
- yoghurts
- all kinds of cheese scraps (if not eaten this week, I will grate them and freeze the grated cheese)
- 2 zuchini
- fresh produce (cucumbers / tomatoes / bell peppers / lettuce)

[Josiecat22222]

Wow.  I have some work to do on this thread....  The past month or so has been a big restock of the pantry and freezer and I may have overdone it after a very successful eat through the freezer winter.  I also hit some really good sales on bread and meats, so the freezer is stuffed. 

Today I will eat a bagged salad and some produce drawer scragglers and a piece of avocado toast (the hardship!!) for lunch and leftover parmesan polenta with roasted veg for dinner.  DH will eat some of the pork chops and DS will have a sandwich for dinner (which is weirdly one of his favorites---I think because they get hot meals at lunch at his school) which will use up some of the bread and remainder of lunch meats, and have some salad or carrot sticks with it.

[Josiecat22222]

made coconut flour cookies to try to work through the stockpile of coconut flour

made peanut noodles to use some of the rice noodles

made homemade kind bars to finish off the almonds and chocolate chips and make a dent in the shredded coconut

slow but steady progress through my dry goods.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We ate all of our leftovers this week, which was a nice surprise. We also ate through almost all of the produce, so we'll stock up again today. I have a work trip & leave tomorrow am, so we'll see how my husband & the teens do with not creating waste.

[GardenBaker]

Made a loaf of bread to work through a flour and yeast stash. Actually, I made one failed loaf realizing that the yeast I had bought during COVID and stored in the freezer was obviously no longer viable. Threw that out and found some packages of yeast that "expired in Dec 2022," so I used one of those and it was successful. We have an abundance of lunch meat DH brought home for a trip, so we'll pack sandwiches on homemade bread this week to use all of the lunch meat.

I have an abundance of garden produce so I'm trying to come up with the freezer meals to both preserve the harvest and make creating a dinner a little easier using things in the freezer. Tonight I'm going to make a green bean casserole for the freezer using an abundance of fresh green beans. When I'm ready to serve, I'll thaw, bake and then top with the fried onion pieces right before serving.

Now, I need to find a freezer friendly yellow squash recipe; my standard squash casserole contains a lot of dairy so I don't believe it will freeze well.

[seemsright]

I learned today that you can make pesto out of frozen basil. I have been trying to figure out what to do with a gallon of frozen basil from last years garden.

My preteen is going to be so dang happy. She loves pasta with pesto and peas.