Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1186047 times)

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3900 on: November 22, 2022, 09:20:07 PM »
I'm facing down a leftover emergency... which is unusual two days BEFORE Thanksgiving ;-)  I knew I was planning on skipping the family holiday and I wanted a low-stress week, so I made a big pot of soup to have throughout the week. I also bought ingredients to make turkey, cheese and avocado sandwiches. I also had extra meat hanging around so I made some meatballs and figured I'd do something with them later. Complicated family stuff happened and I went out to my parents' house to help out with some things and my mom foisted some food on me because they were going out of town and none of us wanted it to be wasted. So now I have a loaf of bread, her leftover spaghetti and meatballs, a bunch of crackers, and some plain cooked pasta. So many carbs. So many meatballs. (The soup is a take-off on Italian wedding soup and has, yes, meatballs.) I turned down her cherry tomatoes because they upset my stomach and they are probably going to rot in her kitchen. Sorry :-(

I am not asking for help so much as requiring witnesses to my struggle! LOL. I live alone. My freezer is already pretty full. I'm a little bummed I'm going to be mowing through tired leftovers on Thursday instead of coming up with a nice dinner for myself as I'd originally planned. But... we Do Not Waste Food In This House so I'll probably be having four-day-old soup and toast.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3901 on: November 23, 2022, 03:33:47 AM »
Yesterday the only fresh stuff in my fridge were an opened bag of carrot, 3/4 broccili, garlic and homegrown chilipepper, as well as a ham. We also had more than a littlebit yesterdays bread left. So I made a soup of all the veggies, served with diced ham (most of it) amd homemade croutons from the bread. I also added some dried mushrooms and a bit of dried seaweed, both foraged.

Now the fridge is really empty. No veggies, milk or juice left. So I really need to go shopping.

We could have survived for a week or 2, maybe 3 on stuff in the freezer, in case of an emergency.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3902 on: November 23, 2022, 08:27:19 AM »
@Dollar Slice - can you find ways to dial the leftovers up into a slightly nicer meal on Thanksgiving? Perhaps panini one of the sandwiches, add some grilled onions & serve it with a nice glass of bubbly? I'd freeze as much as I could. Sometimes just reorganizing my freezer gives me a bit more space, to allow me to then jenga a few more items inside.

Make yourself a fancy french toast? Share with a friend or neighbor, who might appreciate an easy meal, even if it's not fancy?


seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3903 on: November 23, 2022, 08:56:39 PM »
@Dollar Slice ...slice those meatballs in half, and pan fry them for a few minutes, add to the bread and make a killer sandwich...add some grilled onions and cheese, or just mayo with a glass of wine...would make a fancy dinner.

Hubby and I decided that we both need to drop some weight. So we are both eating less but thankfully the preteen is in a growth spurt and boy she is eating nonstop.

Tonight's dinner was a pressure cooked beef heart that I found for way cheap. I put it in the pressure cooker with some frozen garden leftovers, some peppers, onion, some fresh sauerkraut, a can of tomato paste, some hot sauce we are trying to finish, a bit of water, and random from the spice cabinet. I made a slaw out of some sad broccoli and a carrot and boy it was good as tacos. The preteen did not like the tortillas but finished off the beef heart.

I still have a full fridge door to work through and the spice cabinet is overfilled.  So I am going to have to find a roast to cook to try to use some of those things up.

I am also learning that as much as I like options...I really do not need 3 or 4 kinds of salt in this house. And the amount of mustard types in my fridge door is absurd.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3904 on: November 24, 2022, 11:35:07 AM »
I made an omelet for dinner that included beside fresh ingredients, a jar of homemade kimchi that had been stirring at me from the fridge.
One jar left to go.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3905 on: November 24, 2022, 10:07:46 PM »
Update: I was able to find space to freeze the meatballs. I added the extra leftover pasta to my soup (which was actually perfect because the soup only had meat and veg, with no carbs at all). I have eaten turkey/cheese/avocado sandwiches or soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day this week (but I got some extra treats for Thanksgiving, like a chocolate turkey). All I have left is about one sandwich left of deli turkey, some bread, and some apples and carrots in the crisper drawer which will aren't in immediate danger but should be used soonish. If nothing else, it was a pretty inexpensive week of food!

Now off to google and see if there's such thing as a hybrid apple-carrot cake...

Trifle

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3906 on: November 25, 2022, 03:29:17 AM »
Joining in.  We do this a few times a year, try to eat everything down to almost nothing.  It's a bit harder with a family than alone, so I can use the inspiration. 

Up for today -- I've got two packages of fresh spinach and two zucchinis that absolutely need to be eaten up.  For dinner I'm leaning toward gnocchi with spinach and mixed vegetables from the fridge.   We had a vegetarian Thanksgiving yesterday, so we have quite a few already-cooked veggie things to use up as well. 

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3907 on: November 25, 2022, 07:59:43 AM »
Post Thanksgiving, & our fridge is packed! We have  mostly side dishes, as we don't eat turkey for Thanksgiving, & made steak. It was almost exactly the right amount, with just a few slices left.

I'm thinking of making a butternut squash soup for dinner tonight, using up a bunch of roasted squash from the garden. We'll have to see what else to start serving, to keep the food in rotation.

Josiecat22222

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3908 on: November 25, 2022, 06:14:12 PM »
@Dollar Slice - look up morning glory muffins!

They are muffins with grated apple, carrot, raisins and walnuts that are spiced with ginger and are delicious. I make mine w almond flour but there are traditional flour recipes. If you are interested DM me and I will find a link.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3909 on: November 25, 2022, 11:54:00 PM »
@Dollar Slice - look up morning glory muffins!

Thanks for the suggestion! I found a couple of recipes but I was missing some of the extra ingredients, so I went with something a bit simpler. I found one where I had everything except coconut, and it only called for a little bit so I just left it out. I altered the recipe a bit so it would be more like a quick bread and less like a cake (hopefully - it's in the oven now!).

Josiecat22222

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3910 on: November 26, 2022, 07:08:23 AM »
@Dollar Slice - I omit the coconut as my family doesn't care for it (I've been accused of putting shreds of cardboard in their muffins!).  I also sub overripe bananas for the sweet potato....I hope you like it!  This is the recipe I use.

https://www.theroastedroot.net/paleo-morning-glory-muffins/


MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3911 on: November 26, 2022, 08:15:41 AM »
-Used the last of the loaf of sourdough from Wednesday's dinner to make more goat cheese crostini. (The crostini spread is a Thanksgiving leftover).
-Ate leftovers for lunch
-Made custom leftover dinners for everyone, that used up things from the fridge. I served a taco bake over mashed potatoes for myself & it was delicious.
-Made a double batch of cranberry muffins, to use up some of our leftover fresh cranberries. Didn't have any orange juice, so subbed some sort of mango juice my teen brought home. I also used oat milk in place of the regular milk, as we have lots & lots of oat milk to get through.

fuzzy math

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3912 on: November 27, 2022, 10:56:00 AM »
Ended up with all MILs Thanksgiving leftovers. So far I have managed to finish (or pawn off on family members) all of the brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, ambrosia salad (gag). DD made 3 desserts and we still have 2 left (I can't eat either). I also thawed out an allergen free cheesecake and we're finishing that off for brunch.
Working on the smoked turkey by adding bbq sauce. At this point we have tons of mashed sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce that will be my responsibility.
DH finished off some leftover Thai mixed with a piece of fried chicken and some asian sauce packets. I thought it looked horrible, but he has a habit of mixing stuff together and enjoying it.
Also finished off some weird chili I had thawed out before Thanksgiving.

Fridge space is being reclaimed!!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3913 on: November 27, 2022, 12:57:16 PM »
@fuzzy math - I'm with you on that ambrosia salad. Gag.

-Finished off the last of the mashed potatoes, & the remnants of a salad, for brunch.
-Made the teens lunch, which is almost always part of a secret plan for me to get rid of stuff from the fridge or freezer. Used up strawberries from the garden (smoothie), the last of a bag of pizza rolls, and two burritos from the freezer.
-Froze the other half of a pan of chicken alfredo. We were running super late last night, & picked up In & Out. It was a fail. However, I did finish the last of the sparkling wine in the fridge (paired with the In & Out, of course). Dinner of champions ;-)

okisok

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3914 on: November 27, 2022, 07:44:00 PM »
@MaybeBabyMustache at least you were able to use up the sparkling wine :)

Ysera

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3915 on: November 27, 2022, 10:36:35 PM »
I used up a sale item frozen spiral ham that had been in the freezer for quite a while. Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year. I knew I would be working that evening, so I didn't get stressed about getting our holiday groceries together on time. But I forgot that we usually have a potluck at work that night. Thanksgiving morning I woke up and realized this in an "oh sh!t!" moment. What could I make in a few hours? Was the local grocery store open? But I try to never shop on major holidays. After a few more "oh sh!t" minutes, I remembered hubby complaining about the big ham taking up space in the freezer. He can no longer eat very salty foods, so it seemed like we would never have a use for it. And that was the day I learned from Professor Google that you don't need to thaw a ham like a turkey to roast it. Fantastic. I also froze the drippings in small portions for future cooking.

Josiecat22222

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3916 on: November 28, 2022, 03:50:08 PM »
So, we had a freezer mishap which has led to an "Eat all the food in the freezer", top shelf edition. 

The plastic cover over the fan in the freezer got dislodged by a box of fish sticks....which then lodged against the fan on the top shelf preventing it from spinning and keeping that shelf cold.  I discovered this when I was checking my inventory and meal planning.  The food on the top shelf was cold, but no longer frozen solid, and the rest was fine.  To the delight of my DH and DS, the top shelf is where I keep the "junk" food.  So last night we HAD to eat the fish sticks and crinkle cut fries, tonight we HAD to eat hot dogs and knishes.   I did draw the line at pizza rolls.  Those are for Superbowls or NYE only.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3917 on: November 28, 2022, 03:55:50 PM »
@Josiecat23503 - ha! See my teen lunch of pizza rolls a few posts ahead of yours. ;-) When I want things out of the freezer, I will make it happen. I did serve them with fruit smoothies, to add some nutritional value.

@okisok - and really, using up that sparkling wine was the most important part!

-Finished the last of the mashed potatoes & stuffing
-Ate a leftover burrito for lunch
-Made the last of a few pieces of chicken for another lunch
-Used not super active yeast (it's been in the fridge for awhile) to make foccacia to go with dinner

Josiecat22222

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3918 on: November 28, 2022, 06:15:09 PM »
@MaybeBabyMustache - seems the joke's on me!  My teen had his dinner date plans fall through, so I got to serve chix nuggets, fries and pizza rolls to two teens tonight.  As will come as no surprise, there were no complaints!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3919 on: December 04, 2022, 04:30:38 PM »
One of the teens stopped by a bakery a friend works at, and came home with a ton of baked goods. Of course, it was the day I'd splurged & bought cupcakes. We certainly don't need this many treats! Luckily, one of the treats wasn't a Nanaimo bar, like I originally thought it was. I'd run an extra five miles for one of those.
-Teen had a huge slice of pumpkin bread for breakfast
-I'm making the last of the goat cheese crostini tonight, as an appetizer (and, bribe, for the teens sitting through calculus tutoring)
-I went through the freezer, and tossed a few freezer burned items
-I defrosted enchilada sauce that's been in the freezer forever, and will use it for tomorrow's dinner
-I made a large batch of taco meat. We will have tacos 2x this week, and I'll freeze the rest of the meat
-Served the other teen the last of the Persian cucumbers. We buy them, four packages at a time at Trader Joes. He's been obsessed with cucumbers since he was tiny. But, if they aren't super visible in the fridge, he will forget about them, and they will go bad.

GardenBaker

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3920 on: December 05, 2022, 09:20:59 AM »
Thawing a steak from the freezer for dinner tonight and will cook the last 2 baking potatoes in the pantry to go along with it.
Cooked some dried beans this weekend in the crockpot so we'll have those to go along with several meals this week. Added some diced ham and cooked hamburger meat to the beans for a little extra filler.

fuzzy math

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3921 on: December 05, 2022, 09:57:30 AM »
Oh no Josiebear! I hope you didn't waste the pizza rolls. Did you just refreeze them or did they get dumped?

Fuzzy household has eaten:
 
- mostly the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers that will get eaten - cranberry sauce, some turkey and some cheesy tapioca biscuits (not gonna lie I was a bit anxious I was going to have stomach distress from eating it, but I prevailed!)
- last of a bag of chicken nuggets that was mostly freezer burn ice and loose breading
- the last of an open bag of pre cooked chicken breast slices
- some old buns in the fridge
- more american cheese (due to DS's friend sleeping over again)
- lots of condiment and spice packets that seem to keep appearing no matter how vigilant I am about using them up first
- passed on an open bag of Honeycomb cereal to DS's friend's family. Lots of ppl in that home


My birthday is this week and it gives me the perfect excuse to cook a gluten free cake mix I've had for forever.
I'm also going to pickle some onions today.

Keep up the good fight MMMers!

Josiecat22222

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3922 on: December 05, 2022, 01:27:42 PM »
@fuzzy math, don't worry....pizza rolls are very resilient!  None were wasted!!

Tonight is  butter chicken meatballs for the fellas and leftover veggie taco salad for me.

Still eating through a TON of leftovers after the freezer fiasco.  Still to be eaten are homemade black bean burgers, acorn squash pasta sauce and butternut squash pasta bake. 

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3923 on: December 05, 2022, 01:32:02 PM »
-Finished off the last of the goat cheese spread, and baguette (I made goat cheese crostini for appetizers last night). The teens appreciated the snack, after calculus tutoring. Bribes work well at this age. :-)
-Ate soup from the freezer for brunch
-Froze a package of bagels that appeared in the fridge, so they won't go to waste.

I'll make the enchilada chicken rice skillet tonight, which should use up: the defrosted chicken, enchilada sauce, the last of a container of salsa, the last of the shredded cheese, and a few other things. We'll top it with sour cream & fresh tomatoes, and hopefully use up the last of the sour cream container.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3924 on: December 05, 2022, 02:12:05 PM »
Was out ill for several weeks resulting in no out of town convention, Thanksgiving at my sisters, or one other planned trip.  Feeling much better now.  Lately:

-Ate many Thanksgiving leftovers DH brought home from my sister's
-Leftover taco meat was used as a taco salad topper
-Leftover beef rib was shredded and made for tasty nachos
-I topped the last Caulipower pizza crust with the rest of the homemade BBQ sauce DH made a few weeks ago, and the remaining package of pepperoni slices
-Blueberries and strawberries went into coconut milk smoothies along with a few handfuls of baby spinach
-The remaining bag of baby spinach was sauteed and served under sole

This week's suppers will feature a slow cooker rump roast topped with more of the creamy horseradish we need to use, and a slow cooker meatloaf and oven-baked Frito pie which will each contain 1.5 pounds of locally raised ground beef.

Am pleased to announce food waste included just one head of Romaine lettuce we didn't get to last month.  I bought a bit of fresh produce via grocery pickup when I felt better last week and am doing a good job at incorporating it into meals.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3925 on: December 09, 2022, 01:09:00 AM »
Yesterday DH fried prawn crackers (those sheets that swell up in hot oil). They must have been in the cupboard for 10 years or so and be way past best before date. Now the pack is finished.

Edit:
I will today made a dish with dried limes. I finally have a use for some of those dried limes I bought ages ago. This is the second time the ingredient is used.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2022, 07:14:12 AM by Linea_Norway »

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3926 on: December 09, 2022, 08:41:02 AM »
Glad you're feeling better, @MountainGal!

I'm trying to go through our freezer, and use up one random ingredient per week. Last week was easy, as I made a recipe that used up enchilada sauce. I need to decide on an ingredient for this week. I'm thinking of the frozen spinach. Maybe I'll make a spinach dip?

-Froze the remaining taco meat, so we can have it again for another dinner
-Froze 1/2 of the enchilada skillet
-We'll eat the remaining fridge leftovers for dinner tonight


MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3927 on: December 09, 2022, 03:08:35 PM »
Thank you, @MaybeBabyMustache.

I finished off a remaining pint of frozen custard and bag of gluten free crackers.  (Not in the same sitting.) :)

Speaking of freezer leftovers, DH and I each had a slice of leftover stuffed crust pizza I'd put in the freezer in October.  DH was pleasantly surprised as he didn't know leftover pizza could be a thing in our house LOL.

A bag of Romaine mix yielded 5 side salads.

Yesterday's meatloaf yielded two servings last night, and another three for upcoming lunches.

The remaining jar of artichokes was drained and bagged up for DH's lunches, and jar of green olives for mine.

Speaking of lunches, today is clean out the mini fridge day featuring leftover rump roast, cucumber slices, and strawberries. 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

okisok

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3928 on: December 09, 2022, 08:09:20 PM »
Finished a jar of strawberry 'jam' that was really just runny fruit puree by using it in pb&rfp. Lesson learned and won't buy that brand again.

Catbert

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3929 on: December 10, 2022, 11:23:50 AM »
Yesterday DH fried prawn crackers (those sheets that swell up in hot oil). They must have been in the cupboard for 10 years or so and be way past best before date. Now the pack is finished.

Edit:
I will today made a dish with dried limes. I finally have a use for some of those dried limes I bought ages ago. This is the second time the ingredient is used.

The mention of dried limes sent me down that rabbit hole.  My lime "bush" is loaded with limes. I'm using them as fast as I can, but am losing that battle.  I still have frozen margaritas from last year lol.  I've got 2 quart jars of preserved limes in my fridge plus juice in the freezer.  Now I'm off to dry some in my food dehydrator.

Ysera

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3930 on: December 10, 2022, 08:33:23 PM »
All Thanksgiving leftovers were eaten and none had to be frozen, hooray! (We celebrated much later this year due to work.)

Much of the meal incorporated things from the freezer (pecans from last year, pie crusts, pineapple for the sweet potato bake, Rhode's frozen rolls from last year) as well as canned goods that I already had.

Several salad dressing containers were finally used up, as well as a bag of Craisens that had been around a long time.

I made a huge batch of roasted Brussels sprouts and cauliflower since they were on the edge after not using them for Thanksgiving. I'm eating those up for work lunches this week.

I also finally hacked into the big pumpkin gifted to me a month or so ago and roasted it. We made seasoned pumpkin seeds, two pumpkin pies, and pumpkin bread, plus I still have some slabs of roasted pumpkin for lunches. Pupper has also been enjoying the leftover pumpkin. I'm guessing it wasn't a Jack O' Lantern variety, since it tastes great and has a smooth consistency.






MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3931 on: December 11, 2022, 07:31:19 PM »
@Catbert - you just need to have a little party, to clear out those margaritas. ;-)

I made spinach dip this weekend, which cleared out my second freezer "hard to use" item for December. First was enchilada sauce. My goal is to get rid of 5 items. DS16 y.o crushed the spinach dip, so I have maybe two tbsp left in the fridge. He was a big fan.

I made pulled pork for dinner tonight, which used up the last of some whole grain mustard, as well as a bunch of other fridge condiments. I used the last of a baguette, to make DS15 his favorite appetizer- goat cheese crostini.

I need to decide on the last 3 freezer "hard to use" items for December. More to come!

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3932 on: December 12, 2022, 07:23:36 AM »
Christmas plans are final, so I can start the pre-holiday cleaning, since we will not hosting any Christmas or New Year parties at our house. So I just need to have breakfast/lunch options ready and the items that I will bring to parties. I will try to incorporate pantry-items in there as much as possible.

We had 2 family gatherings at our house the last couple of weekends and the fridge is overflowing with leftovers. I think I should plan a few WFH days to finish the leftovers at lunchtime.
The pantry if overflowing as well, since I stocked up for these gathering and had loads of extra's just in case some more people would come over......
Anyway, time to plan around the inventory we have.......

Plan for this week:
During the day (breakfast/lunch/snacks): finish the homemade apple pie (which took care of some apples which nobody seemed to like), chocolate pie, and leftover Indonesian dishes including prawn crackers (yes...... hot lunches!). I already managed to put a piece of apple pie in my DS's lunchbox today. He did not complain!

Dinner:
Monday: cauliflower, potatoes and sausage
Tuesday: brussels sprouts, baked potatoes and meatloaf
Wednesday: pasta
Thursday: tortilla's with ground beef, bell peppers and unions
Friday: leftover day........
Weekend: mostly out of the house, so no plans. Otherwise more leftovers which are in the fridge/freezer. There is always soup and/or grilled cheese as a last resort!

First thing tonight will be a reality check on the fridge, since it is way overstocked! So plans might change later in the week.

seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3933 on: December 12, 2022, 08:48:57 AM »
I go on vacation next week. I am using what I have on hand. Last night I made dinner using canned sardines, a can of tomato paste, a bit of garlic, onion and red pepper and warmed it through and then ate it with rice and topped with a bit of green onion.

This is my new fav meal. It was so darn good.

I am learning through this eat all of the food in my house project. I no longer am willing to keep loads of food in our house. It just is not needed. I can make really good meals with very limited ingredients. This will just make our life so much simpler. And I am all for it.


lentil

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3934 on: December 12, 2022, 04:50:17 PM »
I found five(!) bags of frozen peas in my chest freezer last month. All I can think is that this is left over from some kind of early pandemic frozen veggie stock-up, obviously done at a moment when we forgot how rarely we throw peas into anything. Or maybe I just put "frozen peas" on my shopping list one time and forgot to take it off again?

Anyway, a half cup of frozen peas will get used up tonight, along with some of the innumerable dried pulses that lurk in my pantry. I'm baking lentil fritters, which uses up a half cup each of masoor dal & chana dal, plus various spices, an onion, a jalapeño, and the aforementioned peas.

Got inspired to make a yogurt sauce to dip them in, which also uses up some of the free food I picked up last week. Yogurt, scallions, horseradish, juice of one lime, various spices. I tasted it just now and it's...pretty limy. Kind of hoping the flavors meld a little better after resting in the fridge for a couple of hours, but I think the problem may actually be that it's a fat-free yogurt (i.e. not enough fats to balance out the acids). Hmm.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3935 on: December 12, 2022, 05:07:59 PM »
Oh, @lentil , that would kill me. I'm not a fan, and also think i have one lonely bag in my freezer, that I can't figure out how to use up:

So far:
-Ate a single serving container of leftover chicken curry (freezer) for lunch today
-Had a couple of slices for a holiday bread that failed, when taking it out of the pan
-One kid ate a chicken patty & the last of the spinach dip for breakfast this morning. Odd combo, but I don't judge anyone who will eat leftovers

I have a "get five random items out of my freezer) goal for December. I've chosen the third item tonight - it's some sort of green onion pancake flat bread that was a choice from a teen. I'll heat that up to go with some grilled chicken tonight.

seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3936 on: December 12, 2022, 08:32:42 PM »
Maybebabymustache. Frozen peas make a fantastic pesto. Make just like you would pesto but sub the basil for the peas. My preteen eats it up with a spoon. Good on toast with a poached egg, or in pasta. Or top grilled chicken.

I have a bag of frozen peas in my freezer I may just do this for dinner tmrw. Thanks for the inspo. 

Josiecat22222

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3937 on: December 13, 2022, 01:13:18 PM »
@MaybeBabyMustache, my favorite ways to use up frozen peas are in shephard's pie, fried rice, or creamy pasta.  My mom used to put them in homemade chicken pot pie, but I prefer carrots and potato.  Hopefully one of these ideas works!!

This week I made split pea soup and carrot ginger soup to use up a glut of carrots (also made spicy pickled carrots, which are great on a charcuterie board/cocktail hour).  This helped kill a girlfriend's 10lb bag of carrots ordered by mistake and cleared out a package of split peas. 

Tonight DH is having flatbread pizza to use up an opened jar of pizza sauce and a package of mozzerella cheese....I am not anticipating any complaints....

Serendip

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3938 on: December 13, 2022, 07:20:36 PM »

This week I made split pea soup and carrot ginger soup to use up a glut of carrots (also made spicy pickled carrots, which are great on a charcuterie board/cocktail hour).  This helped kill a girlfriend's 10lb bag of carrots ordered by mistake and cleared out a package of split peas. 

I just spent the afternoon trying to deal with a similarity huge bag of carrots @Josiecat23503 :)

Made a ginger carrot soup, carrot lox (for bagels), blanched some carrots for freezing, and a double batch of baked carrot cake oatmeal. And still...more carrots!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3939 on: December 14, 2022, 07:58:46 AM »
Thanks for all of the suggestions on peas! I have a few fried rice ideas I'll try out soon, and I don't mind peas in that type of recipe.

-Used up a couple of the dim sum like pancakes on Monday, and they were tasty. Still have a few to go.
-Made pulled pork on Sunday, and liked the flavor, but it was a little runny, even with multiple draining attempts. For the second dinner, broiled it for a few minutes, and really liked it. I followed the same process for crockpot carnitas, so it worked great.
-Used a bagged salad that I wasn't going to finish in time, in place of coleslaw, using up extra dressing. It went great with the pulled pork.
-Defrosted a lasagna (my dad made it, when he was here), to have for a late dinner tonight

Josiecat22222

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3940 on: December 14, 2022, 10:20:43 AM »
Finished a serving of split pea soup for lunch.

Dinner tonight is leftover London Broil for DH, leftover butternut squash pasta bake for me and leftover chicken parm for the lad.  Will steam some broccoli and clear out 3 tupperware containers from the fridge!

Going out of town in a week, so excited to see the freezer open up as we eat it down!

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3941 on: December 14, 2022, 11:33:14 AM »
So far, so good:
- apple pie and chocolate pie will be finished tonight with a nice cup of tea
- DD was home for lunch today and happily finished a leftover noodle dish
- My lunch was leftover rice with chicken curry and eggs. Delicious and 1 lunch serving left for tomorrow!
- Just 1 leftover portion from pasta dinner tonight, which DS already claimed as lunch for Friday (I just love it when teens claim leftovers...... 1 item less to think about)!

Items to be used up: leftover piece of cheese, leftover piece of sausage (I might sneak in a few pieces into a lunchbox for DS as school snack.....) and loads of other snack items. I already gave DS some chips when he got home, but there is still more in various bags/containers. But I also have two teens in the house...... I do not think the snacks will make it after the weekend!


MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3942 on: December 14, 2022, 03:38:48 PM »
Am a bit late to the game, but party at the @Catbert residence!

A neighbor gifted us some nice-looking carrots which I'll glaze and roast in the oven tonight.


fuzzy math

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3943 on: December 15, 2022, 07:10:39 PM »
Well I wouldn't say its been the best week at my home, we had 2 birthday meals out (all leftovers eaten!) and did one of those home delivery cook your meals services (70% cash back on Rakuten for Cyber Monday). The last of the delivery meals was cooked tonight and overall it was a really enjoyable experience. We'd never pay full price at ~$8-10 per serving regularly but maybe after a period of inactivity they'll send me another worthwhile deal.

DH bought some eggs for Thanksgiving (weird since we have chickens) and then left them on the counter overnight. I hard boiled them, ate a couple then got afraid of getting ill so I've been feeding a half an egg per day to my dogs, who think eggs are the craziest thing ever on the planet. So its not really a fail. I did have a HUGE FAIL though... I cooked the last of some markdown ground turkey, made taco meat of it using my expensive taco seasoning, then put it in the tupperware cabinet instead of the fridge. DH found it 2 days later. I was very sad.

The only real other highlights I have are that some things got "used up" as in cooked, determined to be gross and tossed in the trash. Better to try and toss than have it sitting in my pantry forever. The fridge is looking hollow again which means I can dig deep and get back to my normal routine of using scraps of this and that to make masterpieces :)

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3944 on: December 16, 2022, 10:05:26 AM »
Our weekend plans changed, so most of the meals we will have at home instead of in restaurants/at friends house. Time to eat a lot of things from the fridge / freezer / pantry!
We will start tonight with some snacks. We had an early dinner, so I think some teens will be hungry (again) around 9..... time for a monkey platter of cheese, sausage, cucumber and tomatoes. This will already use up a few fridge items!




MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3945 on: December 18, 2022, 09:39:02 AM »
@fuzzy math - which food service did you try? I'll keep an eye out for an offer, if you thought it was worth it (at the heavily discounted price).

We've continued to do well at eating leftovers, although I noticed my husband didn't finish off a few small pieces of chicken, & I had to toss that. It hurts to throw out meat, and we would have frozen it, had I noticed.

-Continued to eat failed holiday bread (it didn't come out of the pan successfully, but the taste is great) for snacks
-Ate another dim sum style green onion pancake for lunch yesterday
-Made my teen taquitos for dinner on Friday, and he was so thrilled. Got a package out of the freezer
-Used up the rest of a small chunk of goat cheese rolled in cranberries, for our "appetizer" style dinner on Friday
-Defrosted a container of soup, which I will have for lunch today

We're heading out of town on Thursday, so we've kept the weekend cooking pretty light, in anticipation of not wanting too many leftovers.

okisok

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3946 on: December 18, 2022, 08:39:00 PM »
Made a delicious soup with some frozen leftover chicken, an open container of chicken broth, some green beans, a handful of leftover cooked potatoes, and a slice of bacon. It needed some noodles, so we broke up some spaghetti noodles from the pandemic hoard. It was all scraps or pantry items and fed three of us with a serving leftover for lunch tomorrow. It was DP's idea and was a triumph of frugality. All it took was a rummage through the freezer, some spices, and some creativity.

GardenBaker

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3947 on: December 19, 2022, 07:53:18 AM »
Baked some delicious zucchini muffins using up frozen shredded zucchini from the freezer, a single serve container of apple sauce and half the juice from half a lemon I had just zested for another recipe.

I went through the pantry and had to throw out some stale snacks. A good reminder to only buy what we're certain we're going to eat from now on.

Dutch Comfort

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3948 on: December 19, 2022, 08:24:34 AM »
Saturday was a good day with lots of bits and bites finished: piece of cheese, piece of sausage, some veggies with humus, a container of soup from freezer and 2 burgers from freezer and various chips-leftovers.
Sunday was not too bad. No new leftovers created.
Today was a new start of the week. I checked our cupboard/freezer/fridge and managed to get to a menu which will not require any additional shopping other than my regular grocery delivery on Thursday, which will then have everything for Christmas. No last-minute food shopping here!

Dinners are quite fixed for the rest of the week and Christmas. Breakfast and lunches will require some creativity, but will be OK for finishing various bits and pieces.
2 cucumbers, a few apples, some tomatoes and half a cabbage are still lingering and need to be used up before the weekend.
Other than that, I just need to make sure that this week everyone is eating the deli-meat which is in the fridge and is not buying any new snacks, but using up what we already have.

DS has a food-donation-charity on Friday. Good timing to go through our pantry and see what suitable items are in there that are not expected to be used soon in our household (but are ofcourse well before their due-dates!).

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #3949 on: December 19, 2022, 02:54:41 PM »
Trying to use up a lot of fridge items, before we head out of town on Thursday.
-Defrosted chicken enchiladas, for dinner tonight. My parents made these when they were visiting, and they've been sitting in our freezer for a long time.
-Made cranberry muffins, and used up: fresh cranberries & sauce (Thanksgiving) & the last of a tub of yogurt. All three needed to be used or tossed, so it was great to get them out of the fridge. I didn't have orange zest, so I subbed for some orange juice. I also need to use up oat milk, so used that in place of dairy milk.
-I finished off leftover dinner items from Saturday's dinner (orange chicken & rice) for my "brunch".
-My husband will have the last of the salmon tonight

We will need to finish up the rest of the grilled burgers, so that will be dinner tomorrow. I'll have mine over the last of a bagged salad.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!