Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1186032 times)

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2650 on: March 25, 2020, 11:45:07 AM »
Now I need to get the kids to eat the approximately 1 million cheese sticks they insisted we buy a few weeks back at Costco.

If you have a waffle iron, it seems you can stuff them in there and turn them into a crispy, melty treat!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2651 on: March 25, 2020, 12:10:32 PM »
@horsepoor - love that idea!

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2652 on: March 25, 2020, 01:52:14 PM »
Last weekend I poked around the bottom freezer drawer.  I tossed an unlabeled mystery freezer bag, and discovered one lone 1 lb chicken breast which I plan on making chicken tenders out of.

Recently:
~Finished the last of the salmon
~Used two more pork chops, the cream honey I don't care for and trying to use up, reduced sugar ketchup and soy sauce in this https://diethood.com/honey-garlic-baked-pork-chops/ recipe
~Been eating salads every day for lunch to get through the bag of baby spinach
~Tonight we'll have tacos which will use up a pound of ground beef.  We have about 6 or so pounds left of ground beef from the 1/4 beef we bought last year.
~When fresh chicken was unavailable at the store, I bought a 6 pack of canned.  I'll use one can tomorrow, along with a can of beans, tomatoes, and whatever else I find in a Crock Pot soup.  Looking forward to the comfort it will bring.

I've also been drinking lots of the tea packets we have on hand.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2653 on: March 25, 2020, 04:16:02 PM »
I'm doing a pretty good job eating my fresh ingredients to prevent waste.  I've made chicken paprikash, beef stroganoff, and mushroom pizza, and am almost done with the cream cheese from my CSA. 

Planning out all my meals is a good reminder of exactly how far each homemade meal stretches for me (1 person).  I really don't need to cook that often, and can take that into account when assessing my food stores. 

I'm going to continue to use up my older ingredients as I plan my next few meals.  I found a recipe for spaghetti with capers, sardines, and breadcrumbs (all of which I need to use up) that I'm going to try.  And then I think I'll make some sort of broccoli-potato-cheddar soup to use my potatoes in the pantry, broccoli in the freezer, and opened package of sharp cheddar in the fridge.

My goal is to make it past April 8th without going to the store.  (That's the duration of our non-essential business shutdown just enacted, which is kind of arbitrary but it doesn't hurt to have a goal.)  At that point I'll probably do a grocery store run to stock up on milk, almond milk, and frozen fruit.  I don't know that I'll need much more than that, though it won't hurt to make sure my pantry stays fully stocked.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2654 on: March 25, 2020, 09:31:41 PM »
My husband just came back from Costco, so we are restocked. But, I used two cheese sticks in a quesadilla, & picked through the cilantro to find just enough for dinner. Our local shop hasn't been able to stock it recently due to a shortage. I've also been drinking a ton of tea!

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2655 on: March 25, 2020, 10:06:12 PM »
I'm trying to use up stuff that's recently expired or not in regular use to free up space in my teensy tiny kitchen, since I've been stocking up on food for the coronapocalypse. I came up with a fairly successful bar cookie recipe that used up some expired-but-fine oats, half a cup of last summer's freezer jam, some rock-hard brown sugar (which I melted with a bit of water) and some chopped walnuts that I'd bought for another recipe last month.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2656 on: March 29, 2020, 05:52:56 AM »
My broccoli-potato-cheddar soup turned out quite well yesterday.  Of course, now I have 6-7 more servings of it to eat.  The recipe said it doesn't freeze well but I'll probably risk it.

So far I feel like I haven't even made a dent in my pantry and freezer supplies while avoiding grocery trips.  It'll be a fun project (since I like that sort of thing, haha) to figure out what staples I now want to always have on hand and in what amounts, for when I do my next shopping trip.  My attitude about keeping the pantry stocked up has definitely changed with recent events.

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2657 on: March 29, 2020, 08:03:43 AM »
Used the last jar of frozen pesto (at least 2 summers back), which has been on my target list forever. And, the last bag of frozen bananas. Hurrah! At one point, we had 20+ bananas in our freezer. They are all gone now.

Next up is to use the whipping cream before it goes bad, and use up that Liptons spice mix.

Zoot

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2658 on: March 29, 2020, 08:16:58 AM »
I made sure my food inventory spreadsheet is up-to-date and mapped out meal ideas for the next few days.

I love the idea of a food inventory spreadsheet--I work in inventory control for my company, and can't believe I've never thought of doing something like that for my own pantry! 

Would you be willing to share your spreadsheet--not for the data, but for the format, and how you use it?  I'd love to have that as a springboard for something similar in my own world! 

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2659 on: March 29, 2020, 09:23:27 AM »
I made sure my food inventory spreadsheet is up-to-date and mapped out meal ideas for the next few days.

I love the idea of a food inventory spreadsheet--I work in inventory control for my company, and can't believe I've never thought of doing something like that for my own pantry! 

Would you be willing to share your spreadsheet--not for the data, but for the format, and how you use it?  I'd love to have that as a springboard for something similar in my own world!


Sure!  I had been meaning to make a copy so I could show my friends who like chuckling at all the food I've managed to store up.  Some context:  I buy local meat, sometimes in bulk, which is why I have a good amount of it in the freezer.  I also get free veggies at work in the summer, which is where almost all of those came from.  I live alone, so definitely have enough food for a long time, haha.

I attached it as a spreadsheet since I think sharing in Google Docs will show my email?

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2660 on: March 29, 2020, 12:42:10 PM »
Right now I'm glad I didn't go too extreme on eating down all our stocks, but also glad I've gotten rid of most odds and ends of things we don't really use so the pantry is uncluttered.

Right now I'm working on the 5-6 quarts of frozen blueberries a co-worker brought me from her husband's small farm.  Today a bag of them went into a keto lemon ricotta cake, which was handy since I had an open container of ricotta to be used up.  Last week I did something similar with a coconut flour cake.  Makes for a nice weekday breakfast with coffee (still teleworking here, so trying to have ready-to-eat food for weekdays).

I've had a gallon bag of green chiles in the freezer from a bumper crop in 2018.  I ran short on time to process them all properly and just stuffed this giant brick of roasted chiles in the freezer "for later."  Getting them chopped up and canned is a perfect project for a rainy Sunday in social distancing land.

There are also lots of random bones in the freezer, so I think I 'll chuck them in the Instant Pot and cook down to a demi glace consistency.

I still have several 4-oz jars of carrot top pesto in the freezer if anyone has ideas for that.  I'm planning to use one as the sauce for a green pizza this week.  I've used it in soups and on fish.

Zoot

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2661 on: March 29, 2020, 02:58:48 PM »
Sure!  I had been meaning to make a copy so I could show my friends who like chuckling at all the food I've managed to store up.  Some context:  I buy local meat, sometimes in bulk, which is why I have a good amount of it in the freezer.  I also get free veggies at work in the summer, which is where almost all of those came from.  I live alone, so definitely have enough food for a long time, haha.

I attached it as a spreadsheet since I think sharing in Google Docs will show my email?

This is super-awesome--the Excel nerd and inventory control person in me are having emergency meetings to determine how to make something like for my own household.  ;-) 

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2662 on: March 29, 2020, 04:02:44 PM »
My broccoli-potato-cheddar soup turned out quite well yesterday.  Of course, now I have 6-7 more servings of it to eat.  The recipe said it doesn't freeze well but I'll probably risk it.

Was it this? https://www.cookingclassy.com/cheesy-vegetable-chowder-aka-broccoli-cheese-potato-soup/

I made it a few days ago. Delicious but took so long to make.

I looked at that recipe but ended up with this one:  https://www.food.com/recipe/broccoli-cheese-and-potato-soup-139511

Very similar but no heavy cream, which I figured was for the best, haha.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2663 on: March 29, 2020, 04:03:25 PM »
Sure!  I had been meaning to make a copy so I could show my friends who like chuckling at all the food I've managed to store up.  Some context:  I buy local meat, sometimes in bulk, which is why I have a good amount of it in the freezer.  I also get free veggies at work in the summer, which is where almost all of those came from.  I live alone, so definitely have enough food for a long time, haha.

I attached it as a spreadsheet since I think sharing in Google Docs will show my email?

This is super-awesome--the Excel nerd and inventory control person in me are having emergency meetings to determine how to make something like for my own household.  ;-)

Glad to be helpful!  I've definitely been channeling some of my nervous energy into meal planning - something I actually have control of right now.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2664 on: March 29, 2020, 08:06:05 PM »
Lipton's spice mix has been added to ground beef (along with other pantry stuff) for meatloaf tonight. Also realized I as out of mayo, so subbed Greek yogurt into my coleslaw dressing recipe. Thrilled to get rid of the last of a giant tub of Greek yogurt

Serendip

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2665 on: March 30, 2020, 09:39:56 AM »
My refrigerator was running extra cold & froze the celery I recently bought--so I tossed it a bag & then into the freezer and plan to make this celery soup today. I don't think I've ever eaten celery soup before so will do a half batch to start :)
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/celery-soup-51246210

I also found some frozen chiles in abodo sauce ---so plan to make some a spicy bean soup with those maybe later in the week.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2020, 09:42:18 AM by Serendip »

PMG

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2666 on: March 30, 2020, 10:41:00 AM »
I made this Kale and Potato soup again today and finally used the last of a huge bag of kale from our neighbors garden.  It's ridiculously simple and surprisingly delicious and that's why I'm sharing it here. The author describes it as, not soup you'd serve to guests, but soup you'd eat standing at the kitchen counter. 

https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-simple-kale-potato-soup-weeknight-dinner-recipes-from-the-kitchn-13802

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2667 on: April 01, 2020, 11:54:31 AM »
-Used up the last of a tub of Costco spinach
-Ate two chicken "snack" sandwiches, that my husband bought & the kids didn't like (one to go)
-Using a recipe with cream in it, to continue to use up what we have. It will also use up the last of our chicken, and we haven't been able to find it for three weeks, so that makes me a bit anxious.
-Froze the remaining meatloaf, other than what I'll have for lunch
-I've been planning ahead a bit with kid snacks, defrosting uncrustables (we had these for skiing, they aren't a regular purchase) to have at eye view in the fridge, and ensuring we're rotating through things.


Serendip

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2668 on: April 01, 2020, 06:12:30 PM »
Had some sour milk so made a 'sour milk spice cake'..with mixed results (let's just say, I wouldn't serve it to guests:))
 It is very dense/but will do well as a warm breakfast loaf, soaked in oat milk. I added lots of extra cardamom so am sure to enjoy it regardless.

Freedomin5

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2669 on: April 02, 2020, 12:44:00 AM »
Previous tenant left a 5 kg bag of cocoa powder sitting on a kitchen shelf. We’ve had it since last summer. So today we made brownies. They were delicious. I still don’t know how anyone can go through that much cocoa powder.

Zoot

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2670 on: April 02, 2020, 05:10:28 AM »
Previous tenant left a 5 kg bag of cocoa powder sitting on a kitchen shelf. We’ve had it since last summer. So today we made brownies. They were delicious. I still don’t know how anyone can go through that much cocoa powder.

Not saying that this is what your tenant was doing, but one of my favorite gluten-free cookie recipes uses a cup of cocoa powder per batch.  Here's a link:  https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/flourless-fudge-cookies-recipe

I don't do the gluten-free thing myself, but a frequent guest does, and I often make these for dessert when she's over for dinner.  I actually LOVE these cookies, gluten-free or not!  Give them a try--if nothing else, they can help you use up some cocoa!

They're a bit tricky to make; here's a link which discusses the recipe and some potential watch-outs for executing it:  https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2015/04/06/flourless-fudge-cookies-2


seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2671 on: April 04, 2020, 03:58:33 PM »
COVID-19 has me spooked. I have been waiting to go to the store for as long as possible. To buy my self a few more days till I have to go I got busy in the kitchen this morning. I made some barley raisin and hazelnut bread. I took barley as I had a bunch in the pantry and threw it in the blender to turn it to flour. Put it in the mixer and added some yeast one cup of regular flour, a few handfuls of raisins and some chopped hazelnuts and some yeast. Mixed it till it looked right. And baked it at 350 till golden and man it is great with a bit of butter and molasses. Should be great with a cup of tea in the morning.

I also had a bunch of quinoa in the pantry. I do not like quinoa but my family does. So I made some quinoa balls, with PB and coconut oil. And a banana bar thing that I hate but I am thinking my 9 year old might like it. If not I may try to turn it into a granola type thing.

I have a pot of boston baked beans in the oven. I will whip up a batch of corn bread to go with it tonight.

I am working hard to use what we have.     

PMG

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2672 on: April 04, 2020, 05:46:23 PM »
We’re approaching the end of fresh food and most fun food. We have plenty that we won’t go hungry but we might get bored and it feels worrisome. We’re especially vulnerable and have been seriously avoiding stores. We expected a veggie box delivery Wednesday... but it’s now Saturday and fed ex still says “by end of day!”  So, when it does get here I’m not counting on it being very edible. So we’ll have to go out sometime soon...

But! Some successes today making something out of nothing.

I made a curry using an onion and the last bag of turnip greens from our neighbors garden. Used some red lentils and chicken bullion and added some black beans, garbanzos and some coconut milk I had stashed in the freezer. For very little actually fresh ingredients it’s got a lot of variety and turned out tasty. Not amazing. But satisfying.

This evening I used the pulp dregs of homemade grape juice from last summer to make icees. I am usually to squeamish to drink all the pulp.  There’s quite a bit in each jar. Why did I never think of this before?  It was seriously delicious. Half a tray of ice cubes, two spoons of yogurt and about 3/4 a cup of grape pulp. Mhmm.

We also got some garden planted and hope that in a few weeks we’ll have our own salad greens and radishes.

« Last Edit: April 04, 2020, 06:49:12 PM by PMG »

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2673 on: April 05, 2020, 05:32:54 AM »
Previous tenant left a 5 kg bag of cocoa powder sitting on a kitchen shelf. We’ve had it since last summer. So today we made brownies. They were delicious. I still don’t know how anyone can go through that much cocoa powder.

Not saying that this is what your tenant was doing, but one of my favorite gluten-free cookie recipes uses a cup of cocoa powder per batch.  Here's a link:  https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/flourless-fudge-cookies-recipe

I don't do the gluten-free thing myself, but a frequent guest does, and I often make these for dessert when she's over for dinner.  I actually LOVE these cookies, gluten-free or not!  Give them a try--if nothing else, they can help you use up some cocoa!

They're a bit tricky to make; here's a link which discusses the recipe and some potential watch-outs for executing it:  https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2015/04/06/flourless-fudge-cookies-2

Thanks for the recipe suggestion - I had 3 egg whites AND cocoa powder AND excessive amounts of powdered sugar to use up so this recipe was just about perfect for me.  I burned them a little bit and the cocoa powder was pretty old so they're not my favorite, but tasty enough to eat and so perfectly used up my ingredients :)

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2674 on: April 05, 2020, 09:21:55 AM »
It sounds like we should really avoid grocery shopping if at all possible for the next two weeks. So, I'll need to be very thoughtful about spreading out the fresh ingredients. We will for sure get through, but the salads will start to look very interesting.

Today I'm making crockpot carnitas, and will likely use a very old jalapeno in place of a can of diced chiles (don't have). I won't have any cilantro (sad face), but will thinly dice sweet pepper to serve with it instead. I'll also use tortillas to make tortilla chips.

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2675 on: April 05, 2020, 12:54:54 PM »
I have an open bottle of wine I don't love, and a bunch of prunes I dried from a friend's plum tree.  Just pulled out a couple packages of lamb stew meat so I can make this, though I'll probably pressure cook it in the Instant Pot:  https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015744-braised-lamb-with-red-wine-and-prunes


PMG

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2676 on: April 05, 2020, 08:24:44 PM »
Another dinner from almost nothing! Lentil tacos topped with lime honey cabbage salad.  Served with sun tea and then jello for dessert.

We had just a liiiittle wedge of cabbage and this was a great way to maximize it. Now we only have an onion and small wrinkly piece of ginger.   That veggie box better show up!

I’d been saving those tortillas to help make this meal special and different. I’ve got corn chips from last weeks non perishable order that will make nachos with leftovers tomorrow a different experience.

We’ll have to do a grocery trip and hope we find enough to allow us to hunker down for another three weeks.

Ooh!  I started sprouts this evening.  Why did it take me so long to remember sprouts??  We just do lentil sprouts. Cheap and easy.  I can’t eat them right now due to health concerns, but my partner will really enjoy them.

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2677 on: April 06, 2020, 09:15:22 AM »
We're hoping to go two weeks without a grocery shop. My husband tends to get a little anxious when things run out, so let's see how we do.

-I tried to make cornbread yesterday, but there were bugs of some sort in my open cornmeal. So, that went to the garbage
-Made two loaves of quickbread (no yeast) & made cheese bread & chocolate chip bread. Both were quite good
-We made chicken tenders out of a couple of packages of chicken breasts
-I made crockpot carnitas out of a package of pork, and have that ready to go tonight. All leftovers to the freezer

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2678 on: April 07, 2020, 01:55:54 PM »
Finding cooking and baking is helping to keep me grounded over the past few weeks.

~Saturday I made cupcakes and frosting from scratch.  I have about a cup of leftover frosting which I'll turn into:
~Leftover Frosting Cookies (there are recipes online)
~Still working through that meh cream honey purchased late last year.  DH put some on the ribs he smoked, and I used a bit on top of roasted root vegetables
~Yesterday I put leftover frozen beef roast and spaghetti sauce into the Crock Pot before work.  It was nearly annihilated, but I was able to save enough for 2 servings which I put on top of Birds Eye veggie pasta sprinkled with shaved parmesan

I'm focusing on increasing daily veggie intake, up to at least 6 servings, which has been fun and challenging.  Very happy our grocery store offers a variety.
 

okisok

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2679 on: April 07, 2020, 03:09:22 PM »
Leftover frosting cookies!! What a great idea. Frosting is just butter and sugar creamed together, so why not? I found a great recipe I can't wait to try out.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2680 on: April 08, 2020, 10:20:13 AM »
I made crockpot carnitas over the weekend, which I've made quite a few times before. My cut of pork must have been quite a bit bigger than normal, because there wasn't enough sauce & the pork got VERY dried out. I was so sad when I pulled it out of the crockpot. I decided I would attempt to save all of that meat. I left it (in the fridge), in all of the juice it was cooked with. Normally you drain, and then crisp the meat on broil. I couldn't shred the pork, so I finally chopped it.

We had it last night, and while it wasn't exactly the same, it was still good, and the extra soaking in the juice gave it a nice flavor that mostly offset some of the dryness. Whew! I would have been super upset to toss that much meat.

I also sketched out a loose menu plan for the next few weeks. Things we will run out of first include milk, bananas, and cucumber. Cucumber is my youngest son's favorite food, so we'll have to see if we need a small trip. I'd love to do a delivery, but there are no delivery windows. I'll keep checking.

Zoot

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2681 on: April 08, 2020, 07:25:13 PM »
I made crockpot carnitas over the weekend, which I've made quite a few times before. My cut of pork must have been quite a bit bigger than normal, because there wasn't enough sauce & the pork got VERY dried out. I was so sad when I pulled it out of the crockpot. I decided I would attempt to save all of that meat. I left it (in the fridge), in all of the juice it was cooked with. Normally you drain, and then crisp the meat on broil. I couldn't shred the pork, so I finally chopped it.

I absolutely LOOOOOOVE making carnitas in the crock pot; I have a bunch of leftover meat in the freezer from the last batch (big pork shoulder + 2-person household = lots of leftovers). 

One thing I've done when the flavor or texture has been less than inspiring (or when I just get tired of the existing profile after eating it for several days) is to mix it with barbecue sauce and pretend it's pulled pork barbecue.  Maybe give that a try if it needs any more "rescuing."  :)

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2682 on: April 08, 2020, 08:22:30 PM »
Thanks, @Zoot ! I'll give that a try.

Trudie

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2683 on: April 09, 2020, 10:18:22 PM »
I’m buying lots of asparagus these days.  I finally decided to keep the ends from two bunches to make into a soup.

We’re also making a dent in our very tasty, but ginormous bag of frozen veg in the freezer.

I’m very proud of losing over 20 pounds since January.  I find that this forced at home period reinforces good habits.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2684 on: April 11, 2020, 08:54:07 AM »
@Trudie - that is amazing! I've lost about 5 lbs since January (2 during the quarantine) & agree. I have to work really hard not to let stress impact my eating, but I don't have any business trips or vacation eating to contend with, and both of those throw me off track.

As for eating what's in our house, I was able to use the last of a small amount of takeout marinara sauce in a bolognese sauce I made yesterday. And, my son used a very fancy chocolate bar (a Christmas gift?) in the peanut butter cup recipe he made yesterday.


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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2685 on: April 13, 2020, 02:19:01 PM »
Ok, today is self-quarantine/work from home day 1!  I stocked up on groceries over the past week with the goal of not needing to go back to the store for a least a month.  We'll see how it goes!

I made sure my food inventory spreadsheet is up-to-date and mapped out meal ideas for the next few days.  I also highlighted some items I want to make sure to eat soon - mostly related to potential spoilage.  First up for lunches are the bagels & cream cheese I got from my CSA, then switching over to salads with frozen veggie burgers.  I have cheese curds from my CSA which I'll have for snacks.

I've started maintaining my spreadsheets so that the order of food items is roughly the order I procured them, so it'll be helpful as I try to use up my older ingredients first.

Since I'll have more time to cook (and can use the distraction/reason to move around and not just sit down all day), I think I'll also focus on trying to stock up more frozen meals that I can eat all summer when my work is busy.

I would love to see what your spread sheets look like and how easy this is to do. I found myself with way more canned food than I usually have and am having trouble mapping meals. It would be cool to see something like this in action.

KBCB

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2686 on: April 13, 2020, 02:20:54 PM »
I’m buying lots of asparagus these days.  I finally decided to keep the ends from two bunches to make into a soup.

We’re also making a dent in our very tasty, but ginormous bag of frozen veg in the freezer.

I’m very proud of losing over 20 pounds since January.  I find that this forced at home period reinforces good habits.

Congrats on the weight loss and more importantly the good habit :)

How do you make frozen vegetables. I realized I don't like them, and the only thing that works making them edible is loads of butter or lots of salt..?

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2687 on: April 13, 2020, 03:32:25 PM »
Since the last update, we've
-Used up two small, 1/2 used containers of powdered sugar (hot cross buns)
-Finished the remaining small jar of tahini (hummus)

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2688 on: April 13, 2020, 03:41:30 PM »
How do you make frozen vegetables. I realized I don't like them, and the only thing that works making them edible is loads of butter or lots of salt..?

I've found that some frozen vegetables just aren't very good, but the ones I like I tend to mix into things instead of cooking them up alone. Like this week I made chicken and vegetable enchiladas and used frozen cauliflower and broccoli in it, mixed with all the enchilada sauce. Plenty of flavor. I also add frozen veg to spaghetti sauce, or soups (e.g. adding frozen peas to a beef stew or frozen cauliflower to minestrone). The ones I try to keep on hand are peas, corn, broccoli, and cauliflower. Carrots are OK frozen, but I'll only use them where I want them to be cooked thoroughly (they're a little weird if you cook them 'al dente'). Frozen pearl onions are also good for soups and stews, but that's kind of a niche vegetable that I only use once or twice a year.

KBCB

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2689 on: April 14, 2020, 05:57:21 AM »
How do you make frozen vegetables. I realized I don't like them, and the only thing that works making them edible is loads of butter or lots of salt..?

I've found that some frozen vegetables just aren't very good, but the ones I like I tend to mix into things instead of cooking them up alone. Like this week I made chicken and vegetable enchiladas and used frozen cauliflower and broccoli in it, mixed with all the enchilada sauce. Plenty of flavor. I also add frozen veg to spaghetti sauce, or soups (e.g. adding frozen peas to a beef stew or frozen cauliflower to minestrone). The ones I try to keep on hand are peas, corn, broccoli, and cauliflower. Carrots are OK frozen, but I'll only use them where I want them to be cooked thoroughly (they're a little weird if you cook them 'al dente'). Frozen pearl onions are also good for soups and stews, but that's kind of a niche vegetable that I only use once or twice a year.

That's a great way to use them. I don't know why I didn't think of that. :)

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2690 on: April 14, 2020, 05:59:55 AM »
Ok, today is self-quarantine/work from home day 1!  I stocked up on groceries over the past week with the goal of not needing to go back to the store for a least a month.  We'll see how it goes!

I made sure my food inventory spreadsheet is up-to-date and mapped out meal ideas for the next few days.  I also highlighted some items I want to make sure to eat soon - mostly related to potential spoilage.  First up for lunches are the bagels & cream cheese I got from my CSA, then switching over to salads with frozen veggie burgers.  I have cheese curds from my CSA which I'll have for snacks.

I've started maintaining my spreadsheets so that the order of food items is roughly the order I procured them, so it'll be helpful as I try to use up my older ingredients first.

Since I'll have more time to cook (and can use the distraction/reason to move around and not just sit down all day), I think I'll also focus on trying to stock up more frozen meals that I can eat all summer when my work is busy.

I would love to see what your spread sheets look like and how easy this is to do. I found myself with way more canned food than I usually have and am having trouble mapping meals. It would be cool to see something like this in action.

If you scroll up, I posted my spreadsheet file on March 29 :)

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2691 on: April 14, 2020, 06:06:18 AM »
I've made progress in this challenge in a sad and frustrating way - I was without power in my apartment for 57 hours this weekend.  By the time I woke up and realized the power was out, it was already past the safe interval for the food in the fridge (at least according to the FDA, and I'm not feeling inclined to be risky right now).  Around hour 40, I was able to bring some things (with a socially distanced driveway drop-off) to a friend's house to put in her empty chest freezer.  But, I was combining two small chest freezers and my fridge-top freezer into her one slightly larger chest freezer so I had to prioritize.  I was pretty stressed/frantic at that point, so I'm not entirely sure what I saved or kept, but I think I did a pretty good job getting rid of the things that have just been sitting in my freezer for a few years.  I'll be getting it back from her tomorrow.

When the power came back on Sunday I started defrosting and deep cleaning my fridge and freezers, so that's one small silver lining - a nice clean fridge to fill up again.  Now I have to figure out what the heck to buy when I go grocery shopping on Thursday.  What condiments do I replace?  How do I stock a fridge when I want to try to go another month before shopping again?  Very overwhelming.

On the bright side, this happened 3.5 weeks after my last grocery shop, so I lost far less than I would have if the timing were different.  And now I don't have any really old condiments in my fridge door!

Zoot

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2692 on: April 14, 2020, 09:08:29 AM »
How do you make frozen vegetables. I realized I don't like them, and the only thing that works making them edible is loads of butter or lots of salt..?

I've found that some frozen vegetables just aren't very good, but the ones I like I tend to mix into things instead of cooking them up alone. Like this week I made chicken and vegetable enchiladas and used frozen cauliflower and broccoli in it, mixed with all the enchilada sauce. Plenty of flavor. I also add frozen veg to spaghetti sauce, or soups (e.g. adding frozen peas to a beef stew or frozen cauliflower to minestrone). The ones I try to keep on hand are peas, corn, broccoli, and cauliflower. Carrots are OK frozen, but I'll only use them where I want them to be cooked thoroughly (they're a little weird if you cook them 'al dente'). Frozen pearl onions are also good for soups and stews, but that's kind of a niche vegetable that I only use once or twice a year.

That's a great way to use them. I don't know why I didn't think of that. :)

To expand on Dollar Slice's excellent ideas (some of which I will be stealing!), here are a couple of formulas I often use in my own kitchen:

Leftover sauce + leftover starch + frozen vegetables = dinner
Leftover sauce + leftover starch + frozen vegetables + cheese and/or breadcrumbs on top = casserole

This is a great way to clean out the fridge, and it produces unique combinations that may never exist again.  ;-)  The leftover sauce and starch may of course be either replaced or supplemented by newly-constructed items, depending on what you have.  You can also add sliced/shredded leftover meat for more protein or bulk, or just to use up something else, or just because you like it. 

Ways this plays out often in our house:
Leftover rice + mixture of sauce ingredients (soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, sherry, ginger, hoisin sauce, etc) + frozen veggies = vegetable stir-fry (add meat if you like!)
Leftover pasta + leftover sauce (or can of cream-of-whatever soup) + frozen veggies + panko, cheese and herbs sprinkled on top = casserole

I will often intentionally make a double batch of sauces in recipes I'm making, or make extra rice or pasta to have on hand in the fridge, so that I will have leftover items on hand to use for just this purpose.  It is often a feature of my weekly meal planning--like I'll say Friday night is a "clean out the fridge dinner" night, where we see what the fridge has to offer that night and create dinner around it.  It helps that my husband is very open to consuming the results of this application of my creativity--it helps that 99% of them are edible, of course, and that many of them are actually qualitatively GOOD.  Even when we do have the occasional dud, we have fun talking about what went wrong and how we might avoid it next time.  ;-) 

I tend to keep big bags of Costco stir-fry veggies in the freezer for this very purpose.  I do occasionally buy other single-item frozen veggies for some recipe or other, but then use up little bits of leftovers from those bags in the same way described above.

Have fun!  :)


MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2693 on: April 14, 2020, 12:31:36 PM »
Leftover frosting cookies!! What a great idea. Frosting is just butter and sugar creamed together, so why not? I found a great recipe I can't wait to try out.

True!  And I made them Sunday with added mini marshmallows leftover from hot cocoa season.  They were delicious!  I had 1.5, and gave the rest to DH to take to work.

Trudie

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2694 on: April 14, 2020, 09:57:52 PM »
How do you make frozen vegetables. I realized I don't like them, and the only thing that works making them edible is loads of butter or lots of salt..?

I've found that some frozen vegetables just aren't very good, but the ones I like I tend to mix into things instead of cooking them up alone. Like this week I made chicken and vegetable enchiladas and used frozen cauliflower and broccoli in it, mixed with all the enchilada sauce. Plenty of flavor. I also add frozen veg to spaghetti sauce, or soups (e.g. adding frozen peas to a beef stew or frozen cauliflower to minestrone). The ones I try to keep on hand are peas, corn, broccoli, and cauliflower. Carrots are OK frozen, but I'll only use them where I want them to be cooked thoroughly (they're a little weird if you cook them 'al dente'). Frozen pearl onions are also good for soups and stews, but that's kind of a niche vegetable that I only use once or twice a year.

That's a great way to use them. I don't know why I didn't think of that. :)

My favorite frozen veg are from Costco— Normandy Mix.  I have found that if I let them thaw and drain off the water, then toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper, then roast them on 400 degrees until they carmelize they’re quite good.  This veg mix has huge chunks of cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots.

Trudie

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2695 on: April 14, 2020, 10:19:45 PM »
We’re doing grocery pick up these days.  I’ve found that it’s really helpful when making my lists to actually get in the fridge and start pulling stuff out to come up with meal ideas.  I also do a ton of prep at once.  Today, for instance, I took out carrots and celery and prepped them for snacking.  Some of the peelings and odd bits went in my freezer bag o’bits that I use when I’m making broth.  Some of the yuckier bits went into a freezer bag o’bits where I put everything from egg shells to onion skins to yucky potatoes...this is for my neighbor’s very productive worm composting system.  There was zero waste from this process.  I’m not hardcore about composting, but I found this very satisfying.

Within a very short period of time I had managed to roast potatoes, green beans, and a pan of sweet onions and peppers.  All will keep just fine until we eat them this week.  We love roasted veg.

I then decided to hard boil a half dozen eggs — again, an easy snack.  We’re getting more fresh eggs tomorrow.

Now I’m going to work on the carbs in the house.  I’m cutting down on simple carbs and heavy starches, so I happily donated my box of Arborio rice to my sister who needed some.  This week I think I will donate my unopened white rice to the food pantry.  Then I need to make some recipes with pearl and regular couscous.

I have Italian sausage and spinach in my freezer to use up.  Tonight I’m soaking white beans, and tomorrow I will riff on pasta fagiole soup and toss it all together with some chicken broth and a bit of Orzo pasta to make a soup.

KBCB

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2696 on: April 15, 2020, 11:37:41 AM »
Ok, today is self-quarantine/work from home day 1!  I stocked up on groceries over the past week with the goal of not needing to go back to the store for a least a month.  We'll see how it goes!

I made sure my food inventory spreadsheet is up-to-date and mapped out meal ideas for the next few days.  I also highlighted some items I want to make sure to eat soon - mostly related to potential spoilage.  First up for lunches are the bagels & cream cheese I got from my CSA, then switching over to salads with frozen veggie burgers.  I have cheese curds from my CSA which I'll have for snacks.

I've started maintaining my spreadsheets so that the order of food items is roughly the order I procured them, so it'll be helpful as I try to use up my older ingredients first.

Since I'll have more time to cook (and can use the distraction/reason to move around and not just sit down all day), I think I'll also focus on trying to stock up more frozen meals that I can eat all summer when my work is busy.

I would love to see what your spread sheets look like and how easy this is to do. I found myself with way more canned food than I usually have and am having trouble mapping meals. It would be cool to see something like this in action.

If you scroll up, I posted my spreadsheet file on March 29 :)

That's pretty amazing! Thank you.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2697 on: April 15, 2020, 02:15:40 PM »
Leftover Easter ham:
Mon: ham tater hash
Tues: crustless ham spinach quiche (this also used up a wedge of mozzarella, and a half bag of baby spinach)
Tonight: eggs and ham

~Leftover prime rib (I know, life is rough!) went on top of two lunch salads this week. Yum!
~Sunday for brunch I made cauliflower hash patties with leftover riced (in the food processor) cauliflower.

Trudie

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2698 on: April 20, 2020, 12:04:29 PM »
I have some leftover diced turkey breast in the freezer.  I’m also roasting chicken breast and making broth in my crockpot today.  My plan was to make a rice casserole.  Should I combine the two meats, or just make two separate casseroles?

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2699 on: April 20, 2020, 04:18:06 PM »
Odds & ends that have been eaten up lately:
-1 chicken nugget (???, teens)
-1 hot pocket that was cooked but not eaten (see above). The kids really do generally eat healthier than this
-1/2 of a pizza
-the ends of a bagged salad
-the remainder of a jar of red curry paste

Things that need to get used up quickly:
-3 bagged salads. We had a shopping list mix up
-a bag of coleslaw
-leftover coleslaw dressing
-pears (ditto shopping list mix up)
-A lot of carrots (see shopping list mix up)

Our shopping app didn't sync, so my husband was shopping off of a blend between our actual list, and a more outdated one... carrots & salad for everyone! ;-)