Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1186145 times)

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3800 on: September 23, 2022, 02:34:19 PM »
-Finished the roasted potatoes
-Ate the rest of a leftover sandwich
-Organized the extra space in the freezer, to make it easier to find everything

Tonight will be: wings, gyozos & salads. We somehow ended up with 3 bags of gyozos, so hopefully can wrap up one tonight.

Josiecat22222

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3801 on: September 25, 2022, 04:18:34 PM »
Made a chicken pot pie for dinner for DS and sent one home with visiting nephew, clearing out 2 boxes of nearly freezer burned pie crusts and all the bits of roasted carrots and potatoes from Friday night's dinner

Made a huge vat of chili using up a 3lb log of ground beef languishing in the freezer and several cans of beans/tomatos etc (for DH and DS)

Made a pot of pumpkin/butternut squash soup for me....because it's fall and I wanted it!!! 




MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3802 on: September 26, 2022, 03:40:11 PM »
-Finished the last of the sliced provolone, having a breakfast wrap this morning. I also used copious amounts of (incredible) garden tomatoes, in the wrap. I don't know if I can go back to store tomatoes again. This summer, in particular, the garden tomatoes were super sweet.
-Took the ground beef that didn't get dealt with this weekend (soccer tournament that went long, due to making the finals) & made it into taco meat, and popped it in the freezer. Tacos are a top choice at our house.
-Defrosted a bolognese sauce, to go with ravioli my 16 y.o. picked out at Costco
-I was home alone for dinner on Saturday night, which is a super rare occurrence. I found a small container of chicken curry in the freezer, and that was dinner.
-Finished one of the bags of gyozos. We now have a much more manageable two in the freezer.

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3803 on: September 27, 2022, 11:56:24 PM »
Our Sunday plans changed and we had dinner at my parents. DS took leftovers (my mother made his favorite dish) with him to our house and ate these for lunch yesterday.
So yesterday, we had a nice "sunday roast" for dinner. Together with salad that came from the garden of my inlaws, it was a good one!
Also finished the last of the baked goodies yesterday as dessert (some chocolate cake and some apple pie)


Plans for the rest of the week:
Tonight: sports night, so pasta to the rescue with some leftover salad
Tomorrow: green beans, baked potatoes and meatloaf
Friday: wraps filled with everything left in the fridge (bell peppers, tomatoes), canned corn, beans and chicken from freezer
Saturday: burgers and soup from freezer

Still need to use up all kinds of leftovers in the fridge. Let's see if I can make the teens some snacks out of what is in there.......

cats

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3804 on: October 02, 2022, 08:41:45 AM »
I need to get back into this challenge.  We moved recently so don't have a huge amount of food, but I've been noticing that I'm not doing *quite* as well on using up leftovers as usual.  Also we did move some pantry odds and ends so I need to get on with using those.

Most recent pantry-raiding recipe was a "persian multi bean soup" from a cookbook I got years ago.  Used some dried lentils, chickpeas, white beans, and pinto beans (was supposed to be red kidney beans, I used the pinto instead rather than buy more beans).  Also a bit of farro from a small packet we've had for ages.  It got positive reviews from spouse and child, despite some initial noises of skepticism.  I have been trying to work a wider variety of legumes into our diet so was happy to find this recipe!

Right now my most pressing thing to use up is a couple of large zucchini. I had vaguely thought I might make zucchini noodles and mix with spaghetti.  But could use some other ideas.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3805 on: October 03, 2022, 05:03:20 PM »
@cats - you could always shred the zucchini, and freeze it. Defrost it later for a zucchini bread or something. I also sometimes make zucchini fritters, similar to these. https://natashaskitchen.com/zucchini-fritters-video/

Our kids have a Soda Stream that they rarely use, and we have lots of those Bubly flavorings, that came with it. I've been using a few drops of the Bubly in my water bottle, and enjoy it for a very light flavor. And, it's slowly working through the mini containers of flavoring.

seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3806 on: October 03, 2022, 08:27:11 PM »
I need to get back into this challenge.  We moved recently so don't have a huge amount of food, but I've been noticing that I'm not doing *quite* as well on using up leftovers as usual.  Also we did move some pantry odds and ends so I need to get on with using those.

Most recent pantry-raiding recipe was a "persian multi bean soup" from a cookbook I got years ago.  Used some dried lentils, chickpeas, white beans, and pinto beans (was supposed to be red kidney beans, I used the pinto instead rather than buy more beans).  Also a bit of farro from a small packet we've had for ages.  It got positive reviews from spouse and child, despite some initial noises of skepticism.  I have been trying to work a wider variety of legumes into our diet so was happy to find this recipe!

Right now my most pressing thing to use up is a couple of large zucchini. I had vaguely thought I might make zucchini noodles and mix with spaghetti.  But could use some other ideas.

I too need to get back into this challenge. My friend and I have canned a few things in massive quantities, because she does not do anything small.  I have a gallon of fresh sauerkraut in my fridge now. We made 5 gallons, we will can the rest next week. i have a ton of pickles and loads of veggies stashed in my freezer for winter soups from out garden. So much to use. It is crazy and on top of that my interest in cooking and eating in general is very low. I just do not really care...but the family needs to eat so i need to cook.

cats

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3807 on: October 04, 2022, 01:56:09 PM »
@cats - you could always shred the zucchini, and freeze it. Defrost it later for a zucchini bread or something. I also sometimes make zucchini fritters, similar to these. https://natashaskitchen.com/zucchini-fritters-video/

Our kids have a Soda Stream that they rarely use, and we have lots of those Bubly flavorings, that came with it. I've been using a few drops of the Bubly in my water bottle, and enjoy it for a very light flavor. And, it's slowly working through the mini containers of flavoring.

Yes, I found some guidelines for freezing zoodles so I think I will spiralize and freeze one of the large zucchini, and the other I will freeze for turning into a currried zucchini soup at some point.

We finished off the rest of the multi-bean soup for lunch yesterday and DH commented again on how delicious it was.  Since our pantry still contains most of the ingredients, I'll definitely be making it again soon.  Today I am making a batch of butternut squash soup, blending in the cores and leaves from some cauliflower we got last week.  I have been trying to make sure we really get the maximum use out of any produce we buy and cauliflower leaves are an easy one.  My default is to use them in a blended soup, but you can also grate them up and mix in with stuff like fried rice, or put a small handful into salad for some different texture (definitely just a small handful though).  Broccoli stems are another thing that can be used like this, though at the moment I'm finding it's much cheaper to buy frozen broccoli ($1.35/lb) than fresh ($2-3/lb), so haven't been using that option much!

My next item to figure out is some frozen orange juice concentrate.  I got it to use in making popsicles for my son but 1) the weather is turning cold and 2) it turns out once there are popsicles on demand available he doesn't want them so much.  Hrmph!  I think I have some muffin recipes that call for orange juice so will probably whip up a batch of those soon.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3808 on: October 05, 2022, 02:19:51 PM »
@cats, for the orange juice, mimosas come to mind.  Yum!  And count me in with the zucchini crowd.  So far this season I've made a batch of banana zucchini bread which used up some old bananas, made two loaves, one of which was given to a neighbor.  I've also made sauteed zucchini with a few other vegetables, as well as zucchini fritters twice.  As @MaybeBabyMustache mentioned, I'll probably freeze the remaining one of two for winter use.

Lately:
-A ham hock and leftover sliced ham from earlier this year were slow cooked with pinto beans
-A can of the stockpiled chicken was seasoned and warmed up for tacos
-Tonight, we'll have leftover burger patties from the freezer with leftover zucchini fritters from last night
-Tomorrow I'll make a canned chicken crust pizza with some of the homemade pizza sauce from last month
-Speaking of zucchini, this weekend I'm going to attempt tempura zucchini fries for the first time in the air fryer
-Side salads using romaine, cherry tomatoes and baby spinach will go with the latter two entrees

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3809 on: October 06, 2022, 12:05:10 AM »
Inlaws came over yesterday and brought endive with them. So tonight DD and I will enjoy fresh endive with mashed potatoes and bacon (typical Dutch dish), while DH will help himself with some leftovers from the freezer.
Tomorrow, DS will be back from camp and he demanded leftover pasta as lunch, so happy to oblige to that!

The fridge is quite empty, not much fresh produce left and the leftovers will be gone tomorrow.

Tonight: endive mash / leftovers
Tomorrow: meat from freezer, sweet potatoes from pantry and canned veggies / cucumber salad
Saturday: burgers and soup (this one I planned for last weekend, but things got frozen, because we were having "italian buns with everything from fridge" as dinner).


seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3810 on: October 06, 2022, 11:48:13 AM »
Just put on a pot of red lentil curry. Was able to use up a jar of home canned tomatoes from last year, some salad greens and a couple carrots that were on their last leg, and some frozen garden produce from the freezer. This pot of soup should last us for at least two meals.

I am trying to get back into this challenge, my life is just simpler with less food in this house.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3811 on: October 06, 2022, 01:18:42 PM »
Good job, @seemsright and @Dutch Comfort.

DH indicated last night we have a lot of ground beef in the deep freeze.  In the next few weeks, we'll have:

Slow cooker meatloaf
Meatballs with riced cauliflower for me, white rice for DH
Slow cooker meatballs in sugar free BBQ sauce
Cheeseburgers

Tomorrow is clean out the office mini fridge day consisting of blueberries and a cheese stick, LOL.  I'll supplement with a protein bar from the cupboard.

My new goal is to strive to make less complicated suppers hopefully resulting in less dirty pots, pans and dishes.

Runrooster

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3812 on: October 08, 2022, 06:31:07 PM »
I have been AWOL from this thread since my initial posts about a year ago. I made an excel spreadsheet with everything I needed to use down. In the intervening year I used up about half. Some cases I was gifted more than I used up - pasta e.g. There was some falafel batter which I used up after x years (it was made as part of baby shower celebrations, the twins haven’t started school but yeah). It was delicious but barely one meals worth. I listed 12 ice cream pints, one is left and 6 were added this summer. My sister always brings us granola bars but refuses to take them on the plane for a snack. I was also given 18 Kodiak bars, not as high protein as I expect, better than a cookie.

My last 8 months I’ve worked jobs with kitchens stocked with snacks, including chocolate and drinks. This one has coffee and tea but everyone has their own snack drawer. I try not to take in really junky food because I will inhale it when stressed. Somehow it’s easier to eat one piece of chocolate if I have to walk to the kitchen than if it’s in my drawer. I guess I could take in a baggie of 5-6 every week.

I was surprised to see couscous on last year’s spreadsheet, apparently I bought it exactly a year ago. Two boxes left. I thought I put a big dent into the brown rice but then I found a second bottle, back to square one.

FWIW, I’m not buying things, it’s either stuff we stopped using or stuff I’m being given. Oh I did buy some spring rolls in 2021 when we thought there would be a potluck but then pandemic again. I really just forget about them.

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3813 on: October 10, 2022, 03:17:07 AM »
Did a good check on the freezer before grocery shopping and made a meal plan to incorporate the meats that are in there. We are fine till at least Wednesday, but probably for the rest of the week as well when counting leftovers. Just need to buy some fresh produce for Thursday/Friday/Saturday.
At this moment, the fridge and freezer are having an "in control" status. Now just for the pantry, where I get complaints from the rest of the family that they cannot find anything.......

@MountainGal good work on planning the ground beef dinners.


Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3814 on: October 10, 2022, 03:47:18 AM »
Yesterday I used the last frozen trout, caught by DH. Together with frozen broccoli roses that were probably left over from some other time.
Today half a bag of elm nuts that I gathered in spring.
Earlier this week I used a pot of confit mushrooms that I picked last year.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3815 on: October 10, 2022, 01:43:06 PM »
Good to see you @Runrooster.

Thank you @Dutch Comfort.  There is currently a meatloaf in the slow cooker.

@Linea_Norway, I love your posts as I often learn new things.  For instance, I'd never heard them called broccoli roses.  :)

Lately:
~Rotated several canned goods from the back pantry to the kitchen pantry
~Brought 2 packages ground beef and a package of beef ribs from the deep freeze to the kitchen freezer
~Grated 4 cups zucchini and froze them into 2 cup packages for zucchini bread over the winter
~Baked the cheesy bread kit with the neighbor kiddos
~Baked the rest of the cookie dough for the neighbor kiddos
~Divvied up the package of broccoli for DH's lunch and steamed as a side last night
~Speaking of last night, a few months ago a neighbor gave us several packages of a bear he harvested and processed.  It was DH and my first time working with that protein, and it made for tender bacon cheeseburgers.
~I'll make baby spinach salads with warm bacon dressing as a side this evening.  The bag will yield one more meal after that.  I'll toss in a few cherry tomatoes from the garden.
~I baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies yesterday which used up the rest of the chocolate chips and random dark chocolate bars.
~Made avocado crema which yielded three servings
~Boiled up one of two cartons of local eggs for breakfasts this week
~Processed celery, strawberries and blueberries for lunches this week

After the spinach is consumed, the produce drawer will be empty, just in time for going out of town.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3816 on: October 10, 2022, 01:50:19 PM »
~Grated 4 cups zucchini and froze them into 2 cup packages for zucchini bread over the winter

Thanks for the reminder. I have two really fat zucchini hiding in the veggie drawer that I never cooked last week because I had an upset stomach. I need to freeze them or bake them or something.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3817 on: October 10, 2022, 01:54:58 PM »
~Grated 4 cups zucchini and froze them into 2 cup packages for zucchini bread over the winter

Thanks for the reminder. I have two really fat zucchini hiding in the veggie drawer that I never cooked last week because I had an upset stomach. I need to freeze them or bake them or something.

Of course, @Dollar Slice!  Hope you're feeling better.  I shredded the zucchini while the neighbor kids were there.  They wanted to work the food processor so badly!  I told them no, as it's a bit dangerous even for me.  I did pull my two box graters from the cupboard to teach them the difference between slow, arm and hand operated graters vs. food processor.  They then wanted to manually grate something, so I gave them both ends of the zucchini.  When I turned on the food processor, one of the boy's eyes got huge, LOL.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3818 on: October 11, 2022, 01:01:11 AM »
@Linea_Norway, I love your posts as I often learn new things.  For instance, I'd never heard them called broccoli roses.  :)

@MountainGal
"Roses" is how we call the parts of broccoli and cauliflower that are not the stem in Dutch and in Norwegian. I just presumed I could translated the expression literally.

Yesterday I used up chicken thighs as well as young ground elder and caraway leaves. All from the freezer.
Edit: and added it to a homemade soup that we had stored in the freezer.

I added 2 pieces of home made brioche bread and some bags of frozen peas and beans.

When cooking I now search actively through the "best before" app to see what I can use from what we have.
« Last Edit: October 15, 2022, 01:53:49 AM by Linea_Norway »

Serendip

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3819 on: October 12, 2022, 02:17:00 PM »
Was visiting my parents who have a small orchard.

Came home with a paper bag full of dehydrated apples and a bunch of mint, etc.
.. now am using up some of the fresh apples I brought home-- an apple crumble is in the overn and also baked an apple-sauce cake this morning (to eat with some raspberry jam that my mother made)

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3820 on: October 13, 2022, 01:25:55 PM »
Sounds delicious @Serendip!

Headed out of town soon.  Last night's supper included leftover meatloaf and broccoli and the remaining American cheese slices, more baby spinach, and the last neighbor grown zucchini.  The latter was turned into air fryer tempura fries, and we ate half.  The other half will be eaten this evening with leftover parmesan and pork rind breaded cod and the remaining home garden yellow squash.  And yes, more of the baby spinach. :)

The fridge is relatively bare, which will be taken care of next week.

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3821 on: October 14, 2022, 01:07:07 AM »
2 half packages of brown rice were processed yesterday into an Indonesian fried rice dish. Teens absolutely loved it, DH is not a fan of rice, but he was out of town yesterday, so we had a go with this. Only 1 lunch leftover remained and will be taken care of today by either the teens or me. The dish also called for some sides of prawn crackers, fried unions, fried peanut/coconut mixture, which were all in the pantry and now all gone! The teens ate so much they didn't even want a desert!

Yesterday the groceries were delivered and the fridge is fully stuffed, so lots of choices for the next couple of days.

Still have to take care of the apples that nobody seems to like. Maybe an apple pie for the weekend can convince my picky eaters?

fuzzy math

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3822 on: October 14, 2022, 08:55:05 AM »
Used up an entire bottle of citrus teriyaki marinade on a giant pack of chicken thighs. Have had this bottle for probably 3 years and I always avoided using it for some weird reason.

We have pantry moths >:o
Can't seem to get rid of them. Somehow they got into a supposedly sealed container of bread crumbs and reproduced in horrifying numbers. DH opened everything, threw away some stuff and reorganized the pantry by item type. I'm thrilled with the results. I can see what we have, plan for meals etc. That's what lead to the teriyaki finally getting used.

Also used up a weird box kit of papadum crisps w sauces (not so great), finished off a different chutney from the fridge and opened a new chutney (not so great). I'm getting to the point where if something is gross I'm just going to throw it away instead of trying to find something to hide it in to make it palatable.

We are probably moving in a number of months. I'm going to be strategically finishing everything off and posting the results here! Told DH its not time for any out of the ordinary or aspirational grocery purchases. This weekend's list includes making a GF cheesy biscuit mix and eating some canned fish or chicken.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3823 on: October 15, 2022, 11:46:08 AM »
Made some good progress this week, with the exception of the salad I didn't fully get so, as I was unexpectedly out of town over the weekend:
-Made dinner last night, using the last of the taco meat
-Found a couple of bacon wrapped chicken breasts in the freezer, and made those, with a can of green beans. The beans have been on the shelf for a while, so it was nice to use those up.
-Used up the last of a small amount of coconut shrimp & sauce, that I also found in the freezer.
-Made chicken for lunch, and wrapped up the last few pieces with dinner, with a bit of the leftover sauce from the shrimp.
-I'm making banana bread, out of a bunch of overripe bananas.
-I'm giving away all of my unopened, flavored almonds. My husband doesn't love the flavored kind, and I have a newly discovered almond sensitivity. I LOVE almonds, so I have three cans, and one giant Costco bag. I'd rather pass them on to someone who will eat them, vs discovering them, expired & stale on our pantry shelf.

For dinner tonight, I'm making a stir fry, using a package of rice noodles I've had forever. It, and the chicken curry tomorrow, will also use up some very elderly carrots. I'll use cilantro from the garden, for both dishes.

cats

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3824 on: October 15, 2022, 04:22:13 PM »
Used up the last of my zucchini making zucchini bread. I also had a bunch of bananas that were super brown so it was actually banana zucchini bread. I used the Budget Bytes banana bread (https://www.budgetbytes.com/yogurt-banana-bread/) as a starting point but left out the yogurt and instead put in a medium shredded zucchini (I also shredded the zucchini the night before and left it wrapped in a cloth in the fridge to get out some moisture). Also, instead of all purpose flour I used half whole wheat flour and half oat flour, and I cut the sugar in half BUT added 1/4 c. mini chocolate chips (which have also been in the pantry for quite a while). So yes, I'm one of those annoying people who does not follow the recipe, sorry!

Other cooking/baking: I made a berry apple crisp. I bought a bag of frozen berry mix a few months ago because it was a great price for berries but then I've been reluctant to actually eat them because they feel like "special occasion" food. This is sort of stupid.

I also made a sheet pan chicken recipe from NYT, using chicken leg quarters from the freezer: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023551-roasted-chicken-with-crispy-mushrooms. Once again, I made modifications! I used 4 onions instead of 3, and also put ~4c each chickpeas and white beans (from the pantry) in below the onion/mushroom mix. Goal was to extend the chicken a bit. And, since we did not have sherry, I used the lime/orange juice mix suggested as a substitute, so used up a (very little) bit of my orange juice concentrate. Progress.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3825 on: October 17, 2022, 11:52:36 AM »
The freezer is really full. Our freezer exists of in total 6 drawers in 2 combi fridges.

We have been eating meat from the meat drawer for weeks. I added very little new meat to it, but I did add 2 bags of grown vegetables from the garden. And today a box of icecream that was on sale.

I also need to make a plan to making stock from the meat bones that are in the freezer. But with todays electricity prices I am sceptic to do it. I will wait to the next cheap price day.

There is also a bag of frozen picked blueberries in the meat drawer. They is not completely clean, as there are still stems on the berries. The berries were originally meant to making wine, but we had too many bags of berries. I want those stems removed before making jam, which can then be stored in a normal cupboard. I guess I need to clean them little by little so that they don't thaw too quickly. On the next rainy day. Maybe I can even do one jar of jam at the time, so that it isn't as big a job as it seams now.

Otherwise I am filling up my storage of dried mushrooms because it is the time of year for that. I will make a plan for eating them during the rest of the year. And I also prepare many of my freshly picked mushrooms for dinner already. It's just that I tend to pick many different species several times a week. = Free food.


Serendip

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3826 on: October 17, 2022, 05:44:35 PM »
ohmy goodness--we have SO many apples. I barely brought any home compared to the boxes & boxes at my parents house but now I'm cooking with apples, baking with apples and stewing apples to freeze :) Think I have it under control now.

We will eat the last of the fresh pac choi from the garden tonight and yesterday I made spaghetti squash with kale, chickpeas & roasted tomatoes. We still have 3 more spaghetti squash and my SO has decided that I should eat them since he doesn't love them. ha


MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3827 on: October 17, 2022, 09:21:24 PM »
Jealous of all you lovely folks with apples... I love apples, and used to live in a place where they are abundant (Washington). They are not nearly as fresh/good in California.

I defrosted a hunk of delicious sourdough, and the last remnants of soup that had been in my freezer since spring. Had that for lunch today. Our freezer is packed, but I need to organize it, because I've eaten almost all of the actual meal leftovers.

cats

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3828 on: October 19, 2022, 05:56:44 AM »
Well, my freezer is *somewhat* more under control than it was a couple weeks ago, thanks to this challenge :)  Other stuff I have been cooking:

-Salmon chowder.  I used  this recipe as a starting point. I used canned salmon, and also used about half as much cream and bacon as called for.  I also found a couple half empty bags of frozen corn hiding in the freezer and was able to use them all up. Result was (I thought) quite tasty but even with half as much cream it still really sat in my stomach a little too much afterwards, so when we eat leftovers tomorrow night I think I will have to have a smaller bowl.  DH thought it needed "more flavor" so maybe I should have used the full amount of bacon, but then he also said he probably could have made it meet his flavor expectations by adding more black pepper, so...that doesn't really sound like a lack of bacon problem.  DS gobbled it up.  Overall I think I will make it again, and serve with a pepper grinder at DH's plate.  It's definitely a good winter meal and one of the better ways of using canned salmon that I have found so far.

-lots of rice and legumes.  DH and I are now having a lunch bowl most weekdays that consists of assorted vegetables (either roasted on the weekend or pulled from the freezer), beans+rice, seitan or a fried egg, and a spoonful of this delightful chili crisp oil from the local asian grocery.

-Oatmeal & oat bran.  We started ordering both of these in bulk at the beginning of the pandemic as part of an effort to reduce grocery trips.  As time has gone on, we've also found that purchasing in 25-50 lb increments is also a fair bit cheaper.  But, every time 50-lbs of rolled oats or oat bran appears at the house, I do have a moment of "shit, this is a lot of oats for us to get through, what was I thinking".  Our most recent shipment arrived in September and we've definitely made a noticeable dent in it already.  Oatmeal with mixed seeds and peanut butter is a breakfast staple, and I also make some very tasty oat waffles on the weekends.

-More cauliflower leaf/stalk soup.



Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3829 on: October 20, 2022, 01:04:34 AM »
Last night I started to make stock from a bag of calf bones from the freezer. First I roasted them in the oven and then cooked them in a large pan. Overnight I put the pan under a blanket instead of cooking on the stove all night. It was really warm in the morning and I had to warm it up only a little before it started boiling again.
Now (in the morning) I added vegetables, including some parsley root and some homegrown celeriac stem, both from the freezer. Brought it back to boil and put it under the blanket again.

I had to buy leek and more carrots for this dish. And I forgot to buy tomato puree. That is supposed to be a staple in this household and for reasons unknown it is not in the cupboard.

I am still in doubt about what to do with the stock. The recipe says to filter it and reduce it to 1/3 of the volumn to make a sauce basis, which can then be put in the freezer again in portions. But I think I will also make a bit of vegetable soup from some of it. Or maybe a risotto. The goal must be to not have it all back into the freezer for another year.

Edit: I am making soup with beetroot and carrot. And I will add mushrooms, green plant leaves and some grain product later. Let's call it Borscht (soup with beetroot).

We also finished all portions of brioche bread that I made recently.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2022, 05:06:58 AM by Linea_Norway »

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3830 on: October 21, 2022, 08:45:20 AM »
aaaaaaaaaaaa food waste emergency!

Not sure what the right place to ask this, but.... I woke up this morning to discover the fridge had not quite shut when I got a glass of water last night - my rental apartment's fridge loves to do this; I've successfully remembered to push it all the way shut for the last 8 years, but I had a migraine yesterday and things have been hectic and I guess I finally forgot. It was open about two inches for about 7 hours. As soon as I saw it I temped the milk (and closed the fridge). The milk, and presumably everything else in the fridge, was about 46F.

Trash or no trash?? Sniff and use immediately? I dunno? I'm not too worried about stuff like juice or vegetables but: eggs, raw meat, hummus, milk... ? The internet generally is kind of useless because everyone just says "anything over 40F for two hours is bad" but there must be a spectrum... I don't think the fridge could have been THAT warm since the door was mostly closed and the milk was only 46F. (The door is open two inches but the shelves block most of the opening.)

NB I do have kind of terrible GI problems so I'm more concerned about food poisoning than most people would be :-(

Catbert

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3831 on: October 22, 2022, 10:31:07 AM »
I worry less than most about intestinal issues so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.  I wouldn't worry about milk and eggs - it's pretty obvious when they go bad.  Use up as quickly as possible obviously since their shelf life has at least been shortened.  Make ice cream for dinner?

Meat is harder to decide.  I would definitely toss any ground meat bc it has space between morsels meaning more surface to get contaminated and warm up more quickly.  A large solid piece of meat I'd immediately cook thoroughly and call it good.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3832 on: October 22, 2022, 11:28:59 AM »
I worry less than most about intestinal issues so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.  I wouldn't worry about milk and eggs - it's pretty obvious when they go bad.  Use up as quickly as possible obviously since their shelf life has at least been shortened.  Make ice cream for dinner?

Meat is harder to decide.  I would definitely toss any ground meat bc it has space between morsels meaning more surface to get contaminated and warm up more quickly.  A large solid piece of meat I'd immediately cook thoroughly and call it good.

Thanks - but 24+ hours later, I already made my choices :-)  I had gone back in to get something to drink while I was deciding and realized it seemed pretty warm ... so I temped something near that and it was 65F. So obviously there were hot spots and cold spots and the milk was in a cold spot. I tossed the meat and eggs since you can't temp the eggs and the meat was ground turkey. The hummus went too, it was already open/half eaten so probably had bacteria in it ready to grow in warmer temps. The milk stayed since it was cold-ish and seemed fine.

I'm just really grateful I hadn't done a big batch cook or something, I would be so mad if I had half a dozen prepped meals in there! Everything else seems like it should be fine - condiments, pickles, apples, juice, flour tortillas. The only other dairy I had were hard cheeses which should be OK, especially since I had just finished my previous cheese and hadn't opened a new one yet.

seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3833 on: October 22, 2022, 07:24:00 PM »
Last night I started to make stock from a bag of calf bones from the freezer. First I roasted them in the oven and then cooked them in a large pan. Overnight I put the pan under a blanket instead of cooking on the stove all night. It was really warm in the morning and I had to warm it up only a little before it started boiling again.
Now (in the morning) I added vegetables, including some parsley root and some homegrown celeriac stem, both from the freezer. Brought it back to boil and put it under the blanket again.

I had to buy leek and more carrots for this dish. And I forgot to buy tomato puree. That is supposed to be a staple in this household and for reasons unknown it is not in the cupboard.

I am still in doubt about what to do with the stock. The recipe says to filter it and reduce it to 1/3 of the volumn to make a sauce basis, which can then be put in the freezer again in portions. But I think I will also make a bit of vegetable soup from some of it. Or maybe a risotto. The goal must be to not have it all back into the freezer for another year.

Edit: I am making soup with beetroot and carrot. And I will add mushrooms, green plant leaves and some grain product later. Let's call it Borscht (soup with beetroot).

We also finished all portions of brioche bread that I made recently.

I typically always have some sorta broth in my fridge. You can do all kinds of things with this broth. From making soup, chili, cook some potatoes or rice in it. Man nothing better than some homemade broth steamed rice, some grilled fish and roasted veggies with some olive oil on top. Some fancy salt sprinkled on top just to make it fancy. I will even use both instead of water when making bread.

I used my broth this week to make a pumpkin black bean chili. it was amazing. i have enough to feed us for a couple more meals. When i serve the leftovers this week I think i might make some pumpkin cornbread to go with it. I grew a bunch of winter squash this gardening season. And all of it in my world is pumpkin.

My preteen loves a bowl of pumpkin puree with maple syrup and  a sprinkle of oats on top.

fuzzy math

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3834 on: October 23, 2022, 05:16:08 PM »
Have been working on a 32 oz bottle of Tapatio hot sauce that no one likes. DH bought it and refuses to eat it. Its not that its super hot (although it is) the taste is just kinda ICK. I discovered that if I cut it with sour cream (like on my morning eggs) its fairly enjoyable. Bottle is half empty. Also discovered that the dog has been chewing on her lead while outside and we cannot find our bottle of spray spicy chew deterant stuff so now I'm pouring some Tapatio on a q tip and rubbing it on the place where doggo secretly chews. She's a coonhound (excellent sense of smell) and is horrified so I'm pretty sure the chewing is done. Also achieving the goal of getting the stupid hot sauce gone sooner.

Used up half of an unopened ancient Asian marinade from the pantry on some grilled chicken. Now to spend the rest of the week eating said chicken.

Organized the freezer - its one of those bottom 2 drawer types. There are 4 areas, now its split into fruits and veggies, meat, dessert items and ready made random stuff. Its going to help a lot with not overbuying items (found 3 bags of peas).

Cooked some garbanzo bean noodles, put some thawed freezer pesto on it and some reject pepperoni the kids have been ignoring.

Going to feed DH all those little fancy salad topping packets on his salad tonight. I don't like most of them (dried corn, quinoa crunchies, sunflower seeds etc). I just like the cheese and bacon.


Poundwise

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3835 on: October 23, 2022, 07:14:11 PM »
@Dollar Slice The milk will probably go sour sooner but sour milk makes a great substitute for sour cream and buttermilk in baking. Have been using it for decades and nary an upset tummy.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3836 on: October 24, 2022, 02:14:44 AM »
@Dollar Slice , some comments for a next occasion.

I wouldn't have tossed the eggs. My mother used to store eggs in a drawer under the fridge. They would keep long, but they lasted a few weeks. Eggs can be tested by putting them in a cup of water. As long as they don't float, they are good to eat.

Meat, especially ground meat, is indeed best to be careful with as ai think it is a bacteria bomb.

For milk, I think you can use your nose to decide. And even milk that has gone sour or is past it's best before date, can be used for pancakes and stuff.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3837 on: October 24, 2022, 10:27:11 AM »
I wouldn't have tossed the eggs. My mother used to store eggs in a drawer under the fridge. They would keep long, but they lasted a few weeks. Eggs can be tested by putting them in a cup of water. As long as they don't float, they are good to eat.

You may not be aware, but eggs in America and in the EU are processed differently. In the US you must refrigerate them, like milk and meat. Smelling them or floating them will detect old/rotten eggs but you won't know if there is salmonella growing in them, which is the main worry for unrefrigerated eggs.

I spent a month on specialty antibiotics for my intestinal problems last year, and it didn't fully cure me, so I'm not looking to mess around with something like salmonella, even if it's a small chance.

Poundwise

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3838 on: October 24, 2022, 07:46:45 PM »
We have a chest freezer with a mysterious lower region.  I dug deep and emerged with a couple of packages of sale drumsticks, which were tossed with oil, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper before meeting the air fryer (10 minutes a side at 400 degrees).

I also found a ziplock of pumpkin puree which will be reincarnated as a loaf for tomorrow's potluck, and a packet of powdered milk which will enable us to get through another day before going to the grocery store. Thus I can combine trips and do my shopping on the way home from the potluck.

@Dollar Slice, have you considered shimming the front of the fridge up so the door's natural tendency is to close? Or often they have those rotating front legs that can get longer if you turn them the right way...

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3839 on: October 24, 2022, 08:57:00 PM »
@Dollar Slice, have you considered shimming the front of the fridge up so the door's natural tendency is to close? Or often they have those rotating front legs that can get longer if you turn them the right way...

If I didn't live alone I probably would have done that, but I can't lift a fridge by myself and I never cared enough about it to organize strong people to come over and help me... :-) I've lived here since 2014 and since I noticed it just after moving in, I've remembered to close it properly every time until now. I had a migraine for 4-5 days straight and I think my brain went on power-save mode or something. I can't even remember what I got out of the fridge late at night when I left it open.

Serendip

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3840 on: October 25, 2022, 03:37:29 PM »
Continuing eating up the great harvest!

We still l have so much kale so made coconut, lentil & kale soup-- then I also stewed up a chickpea, kale & tomato pomodoro. Made the last apple crumble with fresh apples from my parents house and baked another batch of spaghetti squash.

Discovered a nice recipe which used fresh sage combined with lemon zest and almonds to make a paste for a decadent grilled cheese. VERY tasty.

okisok

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3841 on: October 27, 2022, 05:47:36 PM »
@fuzzymath I belly laughed at your horrified coonhound! I woke up the lab mix next to me who used to chew on stuff. The spray bottle bitter deterrent didn't work for me, she just grew out of it. What a great use for meh hot sauce!

I finally have a working stove, so I've been using up all the stuff I bought when I didn't. I was going to buy groceries today but came up with enough meal ideas to get through to the weekend. I have $20 left in this week's budget so I might buy a loaf of bread and some eggs but not a full grocery shop.

I used up the last of the fake chicken nuggets and romaine in a Caesar wrap for dinner last night. I'm almost done with the bottle of Caesar dressing.

Today's lunch was some jarred butter chicken sauce, pantry rice, and canned chicken. I tossed in some frozen onion and a bunch of the celery that needs to be used up. Not bad for improvised Indian food. There's enough left for another meal even after I ate three bowls of it.

One of the two big containers of oatmeal can become granola. I'm in the 'big chunks' camp, so I'm following the suggestions from earlier in the thread. Granola is such a good way to use up random bits of pantry items.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3842 on: October 28, 2022, 01:17:48 AM »
I wouldn't have tossed the eggs. My mother used to store eggs in a drawer under the fridge. They would keep long, but they lasted a few weeks. Eggs can be tested by putting them in a cup of water. As long as they don't float, they are good to eat.

You may not be aware, but eggs in America and in the EU are processed differently. In the US you must refrigerate them, like milk and meat. Smelling them or floating them will detect old/rotten eggs but you won't know if there is salmonella growing in them, which is the main worry for unrefrigerated eggs.

I spent a month on specialty antibiotics for my intestinal problems last year, and it didn't fully cure me, so I'm not looking to mess around with something like salmonella, even if it's a small chance.

@Dollar Slice
I grew up in Salmonella country. We learned to never eat eggs raw, as cooking breaks down the bacteria. I still have that habit, even though Norway doesn't have salmonella.
I store eggs in the fridge myself, as they last much longer that way.

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3843 on: October 28, 2022, 03:44:40 AM »
How come that when you do not pay attention on a daily basis, your fridge become a big mess??????

After a nice dinner with friends on Saturday, we invited my inlaws on Sunday to take care of the leftovers. They were more than happy to oblige and most leftovers were gone!
The teens were both at home for the full week due to half-term holidays, but this seems to ruin my fridge. After a sleepover party with 6 teens in the house, I have loads of pizza-leftovers, snacks and suddenly a load of salad and tomatoes..... don't know why they bought it, while they do not eat it (*insert teen-eye-roll*).....

So I started yesterday with a big clean of the fridge and menu planning:

Yesterday: BBQ-sausages (out of freezer, barely recognisable, but still good), baked potatoes and brussels sprouts
Today: salad with tomatoes, bell peppers, boiled eggs and some condiments, fried potatoes and I need to dig out some (surprise)meat from the freezer.....
Tomorrow: leftover pizza and if not enough just breakfast for dinner items (eggs, bacon, ham etc).
Sunday: we're invited to come over at our friends house. I offered to bring cakes, so I need to do some baking, trying to incorporate all kinds of leftover fruits (apples, pears, lemon)

The snacks/lunch/breakfasts for the coming days need to include some french cheeses that are lingering in the fridge.
I also need to incorporate parmesan cheese to every meal, since I found a big block of it in the fridge and this should be used up.

Pantry is getting better, so let's see if I can keep it this way.

seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3844 on: October 29, 2022, 09:26:00 PM »
Man I am trying darn hard to simplify food in our house. This has been such a process. And we still have a bunch of work to do. Hubby and I are starting the process to really minimalize our entire house. This includes food and how we eat. I am beyond excited.

I am not buying any food for the month of November other than milk, bananas and a few onions., I have a bunch of garden veggies I froze from the summer garden that I want to use. I also have a half of a cow on order. So i need to work on clearing out the freezer. Half of a cow is a lot but it is more to help out a friend more than anything. She has a friend who raises them and we are going to split one. It should feed us for a very long time.

Sundays dinner will be a pork roast in the crock pot covered in some mustard (I have a few containers in the fridge) and some homemade krout that needs to be used up. I will roast some potatoes, and we will have a simple side salad with it.

I need simple quick meals.  .

okisok

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3845 on: October 30, 2022, 08:41:02 PM »
Made Halloween treats with themed sprinkles I bought on clearance after last Halloween (they didn't expire until next May, I checked before I bought them). There weren't enough to decorate all the cookies so I chopped some nuts for the rest.
Then I used to leftover nuts and loose sprinkles to flavor some overnight oatmeal for breakfast later in the week. There are a few cookie decorations I can carry over to holiday cookies but they're almost all used up.

Finished up the vaguely Indian food when DP had a craving after driving by our favorite Indian place. It was even better the next day, of course, and I used up the last of the tortillas as substitute naan.

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3846 on: October 31, 2022, 01:37:01 AM »
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

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3847 on: October 31, 2022, 04:30:48 PM »
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

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3848 on: October 31, 2022, 04:39:02 PM »
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.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2022, 04:46:12 PM by MountainGal »

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3849 on: October 31, 2022, 04:52:04 PM »
@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.