Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1183408 times)

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2450 on: April 08, 2019, 11:54:15 AM »
@Raenia, that marmalade sounds really good!  Re: canned tuna, I usually put it on top of my lunch greens then doctor it up with olives, diced cucumber, and whatever else I have lying around.

It's a cranberry and red onion marmalade from Ball's Back-to-Basics canning book. I can pm you the recipe if you want.

Used up the tuna as an afternoon snack yesterday, mixed up with garlic, basil, and balsamic vinegar and spread it on toast.
Thank you for offering.  Alas, I do not can.  ;)

LostGirl

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2451 on: April 12, 2019, 10:57:34 AM »
In an effort to keep food on hand all the time, I stocked up on frozen meats and seafood. So now we are working our way through that, which is good because our groceries and overall spending has been WAY TOO HIGH for comfort.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2452 on: May 05, 2019, 09:00:32 PM »
I'm back with a challenge to remove 10 items from our freezer this month. I'm hoping for more,  but will start there. SO far, we're off to a good start, with a double serving of lasagna & a double serving of chicken enchiladas both being eaten. Additionally, I ate two different kind of chicken strips, grilled, over salads for lunches. I also defrosted a bag of ciabatta rolls for kids lunches for the week.

One kiddo is out of hot lunch money for the year, so today I helped him make easy lunch options: taquitos, mac & cheese, pizza, & wontons. Those are all prepped & ready to go in his thermos, along with fruit & veggies.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2453 on: May 06, 2019, 12:26:49 AM »
Made apple crumble last night to use up six very soft apples and some pantry ingredients.

Oh, and I used up one of my butter wrappers from the freezer. (Whenever I buy blocks of butter, the butter goes in the dish and the wrapping goes in a ziplock in the freezer. When I need one, I just get it out and hold it between my hands for 30 seconds to soften the small amount of butter left on it, and use that to grease a pan.)

The only thing I had to buy was the ice-cream...

Need to make another batch of veggie soup to use up some of the odds and ends I have stashed in the freezer.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2454 on: May 06, 2019, 10:28:44 AM »
@mustachepungoeshere, I love the butter wrapper idea!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Lately:
~Gave DH's aunt the rest of the frozen cherry tomatoes from last year's harvest.  Here's to a bountiful garden again this year!
~Made bread which used up some of the gluten free flour and the rest of the granulated sugar
~Used up two types of olives, pepperoncini and almonds in a snack plate while entertaining a few weekends ago
~This week's suppers will include a BOGO pot roast, pork chops (last night), chicken legs, and cod from the freezer stash
~Cooked up some of the asparagus given to us by a neighbor, and processed and froze the rest for future use
~Canned items used:  Pineapple, peaches, bean-less chili, a can of soup, green beans, corn, 2 cans and a box of broth
« Last Edit: May 09, 2019, 01:35:49 PM by MountainGal »

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2455 on: May 08, 2019, 08:35:52 PM »
Nice work, @mustachepungoeshere and @MountainGal . I'm up to 7 of 15 items for my May freezer challenge. Recent additions are: pulled buffalo chicken & a dinner serving of bolognese sauce.

For dinner tomorrow, we will eat the leftovers in our fridge. They include: a small serving of both the buffalo chicken & bolognese sauce. Several taco quesadillas. Mac & cheese. Salad fixing with a grilled chicken breast to go with. It should be an interesting spread. ;-)

Serendip

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2456 on: May 10, 2019, 08:10:21 AM »
My SO has been away for a week so I've been slowly eating my way through the freezer and fridge.

Mainly making smoothies with frozen banana's/berries that have been in there too long, but also found some frozen nettle so will make lentil & nettle soup today (all with ingredients that I have in my cupboards already) as well as a few bags of frozen greens so will make a vegan palak paneer tonight or this weekend :) SO satisfying to almost have an empty freezer and fridge!

Noodle

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2457 on: May 16, 2019, 09:35:43 PM »
Thursday night is "Iron Chef" night, which means that I cook something meant to use up the bits and bobs hanging around, as opposed to a recipe. Today it was gazpacho to dispose of a boatload of produce that was on its way out. Turned out pretty well!

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2458 on: May 20, 2019, 08:54:00 PM »
I spent a couple of hours cooking on Sunday and made some real progress clearing out the fridge, freezer and pantry.

- chicken enchiladas - I used beans, corn and enchilada sauce from the pantry with two packets of tortillas from the freezer, and fresh chicken and cheese.

-stuffed sweet potatoes - I had some chicken enchilada filling left over, so I defrosted two roasted sweet potato halves and topped them with the chicken and bean mix for lunches.

- chicken and veggie pies - easiest thing ever as I had already done all the prep. I defrosted a container of chicken and vegetable pie filling, defrosted a few sheets of puff pastry and made pies in my Texas muffin pan. I whisked an egg to glaze the pastry, then stashed it in a jar in the fridge and used it in scrambled eggs the next day.

- vegetable pasta bake - shells and pasta sauce from the pantry, with grated carrot and zucchini. I cut up the leftover carrot into sticks to snack on.

All up it was 26 meals, so lunches and dinners are sorted for the week.

I have another half bottle of white wine in the fridge and celery in the freezer, so those will go into another batch of chicken pie filling.

And I need to make another batch of vegetable soup to use up all my frozen broccoli stalks.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2459 on: May 21, 2019, 07:32:41 AM »
@mustachepungoeshere - wow! That is an amazing amount of cooking. Nice work! For us, we had takeout this weekend (long story, and mostly planned, but a few frugal fails in there). My goal is to not waste the leftovers, so we'll be having leftover Chinese today & tomorrow will be soup from the freezer.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2460 on: May 21, 2019, 10:00:42 PM »
@mustachepungoeshere - wow! That is an amazing amount of cooking. Nice work! For us, we had takeout this weekend (long story, and mostly planned, but a few frugal fails in there). My goal is to not waste the leftovers, so we'll be having leftover Chinese today & tomorrow will be soup from the freezer.

Thanks, @MaybeBabyMustache. It actually came together really easily.

I put on some Netflix, poured a drink and got to work.

For me the key is to pick meals with minimal prep if I'm tackling more than one dish. Nothing with too much peeling or chopping, and no complicated recipes.

Chinese sounds good!

SunnyDays

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2461 on: May 22, 2019, 10:28:41 AM »
@mustachepungoeshere, I love the butter wrapper idea!


That IS a good idea, but unfortunately my dog voted it down - she lives to lick the butter wrapper!

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2462 on: May 23, 2019, 12:38:49 AM »
@mustachepungoeshere, I love the butter wrapper idea!


That IS a good idea, but unfortunately my dog voted it down - she lives to lick the butter wrapper!

:D :D :D

halftimer

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2463 on: May 23, 2019, 10:06:26 PM »
Very motivated by your batch cooking @mustachepungoeshere great work!

For anyone interested, there is a page you can download with ingredient substitutes here (https://s3.amazonaws.com/stonesoupebooks/Stonesoup-Ingredient-Substitute-Cheat-Sheet.pdf) that could really help with fridge clean out.  If you have an orphan ingredient, try to use it as a substitute in another recipe for a similar ingredient type.  The author sent the page as a free download, so it should be fine to share here.

It's a very simplified resource, and I'm sure many of you already know some of these ideas but I liked that it gave me a few quick ideas on a single page.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2464 on: May 24, 2019, 08:01:12 AM »
I've completed my May freezer challenge of using 15 items from the freezer:
Lasagna
Bag of chicken tenders
Chicken enchiladas
Bag of grilled chicken
Bag of ciabatta buns x2
Shredded chicken leftovers
Bolognese sauce
Breakfast sandwich
Bag of shredded turkey - x3
Wontons
Taco meat
Mystery chicken dish

I'll also be using one of two frozen pizza crusts tonight, to make the kids pepperoni pizza. The freezer is looking great!

Noodle

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2465 on: May 26, 2019, 09:48:57 PM »
I'm home on my own for the long weekend--my local family went out of town and my usual Memorial Day houseguest is coming later in the year. So it's a good weekend to use up:

Frozen bananas, coconut, and almonds in a loaf of banana bread--which also let me finish, finally, the bottle of vanilla that has been hanging around for ages
Half a bag of shrimp in a shrimp/feta dish that will be lunches next week
The end of a can of coconut milk in a frozen coconut limeade
The last ham and cheese pastry from a Trader Joe's package (had it with a poached egg over top)
A couple of slices of bacon in a fruit and cheese salad
The last two slices of Texas toast as mini-pizzas

halftimer

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2466 on: June 24, 2019, 08:21:27 PM »
Cleared up my freezer scraps and made a big batch of chicken stock this week. First part of the broth + pantry barley and frozen butternut squash became risotto.  Today I felt a cold coming on, so soup was the only option. I used more stock, plus a bunch of freezer items and pantry items (packet of thai soup seasoning, a tiny bit of garlic dip mix, pancit noodles, frozen veggies) to make a fantastic creamy, spicy soup.  The creamy part is my proud last minute innovation - I had 1.5 frozen avocados, so I thawed them, mashed them, and added them to the broth before anything else and used an immersion blender to make a nice smooth soup base. 

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2467 on: June 28, 2019, 03:02:09 PM »
@halftimer , does freezing change the color/texture/whatever of the avocado?

Last weekend, DH smoked the remaining ham from the half pig we bought last year.  I put the ham hock in with pinto beans, etc. and it made several cups for consumption and freezing.

From the freezer last week, I ate leftover chicken Alfredo with spaghetti squash noodles, and a frozen prepped lasagna for one for lunches.  I used up a package of ground beef and Italian sausage in a Crock Pot meatloaf.  DH recently used a combo of both for burgers.  Yum.  Pulled out a package of lunch meat for DH's lunches.

Next week, except the 4th, we are going to focus on frozen leftovers.  It's time to gain back storage containers, LOL.

The grocery cost is down by about half this month vs April and May.  Closing the freezer drawer is getting a bit easier.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2468 on: July 03, 2019, 04:21:15 AM »
I'm working on using food from my pantry & freezer, as always, but never seem to be too successful.  It takes a long time to eat all your food as a single person, haha.

My latest strategy was to move all of my "old" freezer contents (all produce I've gotten for free at work and from my CSA and frozen over the past few summers) into one of my chest freezers, and leave the other one with only new veggies I've frozen in 2019 and the meat I have.  I figure this way at least I can try to use up the oldest stuff first, and it'll be satisfying to watch the level of the freezer contents go down.

One thing I discovered was a ton of frozen corn from last year.  Anyone have any suggestions of how to use it?  It's really sweet (it was nice and fresh when I froze it), so that can get weird in some dishes.

Raenia

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2469 on: July 03, 2019, 05:38:28 AM »
One thing I discovered was a ton of frozen corn from last year.  Anyone have any suggestions of how to use it?  It's really sweet (it was nice and fresh when I froze it), so that can get weird in some dishes.

Chili and Shepherd's Pie are my top things to do with frozen corn.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2470 on: July 03, 2019, 12:20:31 PM »
Corn chowder comes to mind.  :D

Fun with leftovers:

Monday I disassembled a leftover deli sandwich from a club outing and put the turkey and Swiss cheese on top of baby spinach which needs to be used up.  I added kalamata olives, a few almonds and cherry tomatoes, and topped everything with a homemade vinaigrette.  Yum.

Last night I reheated chili con queso from February with a little heavy whipping cream to loosen it up.  I made homemade tortilla chips out of a few tortillas for DH, and served pork rinds for me.

Tonight is a a funky mix of leftover enchilada spiced chicken with veggies from last month (?).  I'll saute some of the baby spinach and serve the chicken and veggies on top.

DH decided to grill ground venison and sausage burgers tomorrow.  They will go nicely with the hand picked asparagus given to us by our neighbors a few months ago.

For lunch, I am currently eating a leftover cheeseburger patty from the freezer on top of baby spinach, olives, cherry tomatoes and cheese with a drizzle of vinaigrette and mayo.

Happy Independence Day!


halftimer

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2471 on: July 07, 2019, 03:39:27 PM »
@halftimer , does freezing change the color/texture/whatever of the avocado?
Hey @MountainGal this was the first time I used frozen avocados, so I'm not too sure since I just used them blended in soup. I don't think I would use the frozen ones in a fresh salad, but they looked ok for guac or smoothie purposes.

This weeks use up - crumbled leftover meatballs with mashed potatoes and added my one last portion of shepherds pie filling, heated them up together in the cast iron pan then topped with spicy shredded cheese and a layer of puff pastry. Baked for 15 minutes and had a psuedo-shepherd's pie that was a success.

Moving soon, so we are in big time use up mode. Also I'm swapping out my medium size freezer for my neighbour's tiny apartment size one when we go so that we have less weight to move. Made a cake yesterday and used up exactly all of our sugar and icing sugar. Washed the containers and packed some small glass spice jars inside for now. I'll re-stock on those baking basics once we unpack.

I have some phyllo pastry in the fridge thawing now to use up. I also have some pomegranate flavored honey that I've never used (why did I even buy it?!). I feel like those can go together in another sweet dessert this week. Still googling ideas on that..

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2472 on: July 08, 2019, 01:33:16 PM »
@halftimer, thanks for letting me know.  And that shepherd's pie sounds tasty.  Good luck on your move!

~~~~~~~~~
Am currently eating the remaining ground venison and pork sausage patty from the 4th of July.

Last night we ate the leftover BBQ pork chops from February I think the container said....?

While warming up last night's dinner I cooked the remaining package of ground beef (need to restock!) then simmered it in pasta sauce and spices.  Will serve it over angel hair pasta tonight.

GermanStache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2473 on: July 08, 2019, 01:52:37 PM »
Today I used frozen cheese and frozen cream (I freeze leftover heavy cream in a silikone icecube mold and then pop them in a glass container once frozen) to make delicious pasta with prawns and lemon sauce.

I need to use up some more frozen soup vegetable because they are getting too old in my freezer. It is summer but quite fresh right now so some potato soup might be in the books.

I also need to get grip on my spice collection... it is insane.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2474 on: August 12, 2019, 10:06:57 AM »
Hoping someone here will have an idea... I bought some fancy yogurt on sale (organic whole milk grass-fed etc.) and... I *hate* the flavor. It's plain yogurt but has a really unpleasant (to me) eau de barnyard flavor. I guess it's just THAT organic. :-/  (It is cow's milk, not goat or sheep, for the record...) So, luckily I only bought two cups, but is there something I can do with the second cup that will really mask the flavor of it? I put fruit compote in the first one and still couldn't stand eating it. I was thinking baked goods or something, but I'm afraid it will make a whole batch of something taste bad... has anyone ever run into this? Is it not worth wasting other food to use up a sub-$1 cup of yogurt?

PMG

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2475 on: August 12, 2019, 01:59:06 PM »
Use it in a batch of pancakes or cornbread?

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2476 on: August 13, 2019, 11:50:24 AM »
Re: yogurt, I eat a low carb brand yogurt with a bit of an aftertaste.  Fresh blueberries or strawberries help.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Am glad this thread revived a bit!  I've been concentrating on the freezer foods lately, and always think about y'all when doing so, LOL.

DH and I have been cooking the rest of year's half pig as another is coming in soon.  Lately:
-Sausage and beef hamburgers
-Grilled pork chops
-Leftover pork belly from May and yellow squash stir fry
-This weekend:  Sausage in a breakfast for dinner meal, and more pork chops

Other items:
-Last year's apples given to us by a friend went into a Crock Pot apple crisp
-Used up the shrimp, salmon, and 2 bags frozen veggies, oh, and one of the frozen pizzas, LOL.
-Been using last year's fresh frozen berries in cocktails and ice water
-An old box of mac and cheese will pair with the last of the ground beef tomorrow night

I can see the bottom of the freezer basket!  Time to go shopping for proteins...

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2477 on: August 13, 2019, 03:53:03 PM »
I have a new challenge on my monthly goals where I try & get rid of 10 items from my freezer that aren't part of our "core staples". I added a similar challenge for 5 random pantry items. So far, so good. Here's what we've used so far:

Pantry:
-Sleeve of cookies the kids didn't like - donated them to son's camp party
-family sized bag of Doritos (how do the kids not like Doritos???) - donated them to son's camp party
-8 individual sized bags of chips - donated to camp party
-Attempted to salvage, but ended up tossing 1/2 a bag of goldfish & the very last dregs of a giant tub of party mix. Both were stale, sadly.

Freezer:
-1 container of carnitas
-1 container of tacos
-1 package of mini naan bread
-1 large package of rotisserie chicken
-1/2 package of tortillas
-Remainder of a bag of chicken strips
-2/3 of a family sized package of pizza rolls (again with the summer camp donation)


SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2478 on: August 14, 2019, 06:15:50 AM »
Hoping someone here will have an idea... I bought some fancy yogurt on sale (organic whole milk grass-fed etc.) and... I *hate* the flavor. It's plain yogurt but has a really unpleasant (to me) eau de barnyard flavor. I guess it's just THAT organic. :-/  (It is cow's milk, not goat or sheep, for the record...) So, luckily I only bought two cups, but is there something I can do with the second cup that will really mask the flavor of it? I put fruit compote in the first one and still couldn't stand eating it. I was thinking baked goods or something, but I'm afraid it will make a whole batch of something taste bad... has anyone ever run into this? Is it not worth wasting other food to use up a sub-$1 cup of yogurt?

Maybe use it to make a smoothie?  The proportions make it more likely to mask the flavor, but it's also only one serving to choke down if you don't like it, vs. ruining an entire batch of baked goods.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2479 on: August 14, 2019, 06:19:47 AM »
I'm at the weird time of year where I'm trying to freeze all of the free produce I get at work, but also have a lot still in the freezer from previous years.  (It's always surprising to me how little food I seem to use up from my stores as a single person - and it's not like I have a small appetite, haha.)  I did rearrange my 2 (small) chest freezers so one has all the pre-2019 food in it and the other one is being filled up with food from this summer.  That way I can see myself making progress in eating down the one freezer, which is satisfying.

Another complicating factor is that due to some minor jaw issues, I've been on a no-chew/soft-chew diet for the last 2 weeks (luckily today is the last day!), so I bought a bunch of food to accommodate that.

lazycow

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2480 on: August 24, 2019, 05:49:26 AM »
Greetings! First time poster here but I seem to have hit a second wind for using up stuff so thought I’d track it:
- ate the last pack of soba noodles for lunch with frozen peas, soy sauce, sriracha and Ume vinegar (which also needs using up)
- a pack of vegetarian gelatin, a sample pack of vanilla paste and a can of coconut cream went into a decent pannacotta.
Honestly I thought I’d done everything I could but somehow more stuff keeps appearing.

Yes, I feel the same way. Love soba noodles, but never thought of adding frozen peas. I usually add a dehydrated sachet of vegetable flakes, as my son likes spicy ramen but not the veg flakes.

I have a jar of bonito flakes (which, I found out, is dehdrated skipjack tuna) to use up which apparently can be used instead of salt. Added some to my overly sweet pumpkin soup and it tasted a lot better.

My personal challenge is to use up all the stuff in the freezer that the rest of the family doesn't eat before I go on a solo trip overseas for 3 weeks. Otherwise my husband will take the opportunity to 'organise' the freezer, which means chuck out anything he doesn't like!

Over the next 10 days I need to use up:

- container of poached quinces (will add to my morning porridge)
- frozen bananas (smoothies and/or banana bread)
- small jar of leftover bechamel sauce (might make cheesy leek topping on toast for lunch)
- a kilo of pecans (making pecan scrolls tomorrow and maybe pecan pie later in the week. I have a recipe that uses  maple syrup rather than corn syrup)


-


Noodle

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2481 on: August 24, 2019, 11:09:54 AM »
Stumbled into something very successful while using things up...I had the end of a bottle of ridiculously spicy ranch dressing that Trader Joe's put out awhile back. Decided to try cutting it with other dairy products, so I did a dip with one part Neufchatel and about two parts cottage cheese, blended up with the various seasonings. The flavor is fine, but the consistency is amazing. Where cream-cheese based spreads get stiff in the refrigerator, this does not...it stays creamy and dippable. I have tried just cottage cheese in the past, blended, and it's OK, but including some cream cheese really improved it.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2482 on: August 26, 2019, 01:08:33 PM »
The freezer is back to full after last week's grocery shopping.  Lately:

~Deer chili:  2 packages deer sausage, the rest of the dried pinto beans, and 5 cans of various tomatoes and a can of diced chiles
~Pasta dish:  Birdseye penne "pasta", half bag shrimp, scallops
~Brunch:  The rest of the eggs, the last tortilla, and a bagel
~Crock Pot meal:  2 deer steak, a can of diced chiles, and a few random not quite ripe cherry tomatoes from our garden.  Oh, and a can of unpopular beer leftover from a June BBQ, LOL.
~Snacks:  I bagged up the rest of some interesting baby dill pickles for the work week
~Random:  I'll eat the rest of the Atkins prepared meals this week while DH is out of town


MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2483 on: August 26, 2019, 06:48:50 PM »
I need to start working through our freezer & pantry. Unfortunately, my husband has food allergies that have changed the way I cook, and now have a bunch of 1/2 opened items that we aren't using up. I feel terrible tossing them & can't donate them because they are 1/2 opened. I'll have to see what I can make that the kids will definitely eat up, as they aren't eating the same diet.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2484 on: August 29, 2019, 11:09:50 AM »
-Used four bananas to make a chocolate chip banana bread for an event I'm attending tomorrow. The freezer is still packed with bananas. I chose a recipe with sour cream to use up the rest of a sour cream container in the fridge. It didn't quite use it up, but at least it's close to empty.
-Sent my son to school with a hot dog from the freezer (in his thermos) & I'll be having the last hot dog on a salad today. It sounds awful, but it's actually fine. I buy the premixed salad kits (I know, totally not MMM) & then top with whatever protein is available. This clears out the last of hot dogs from a barbecue we hosted.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2485 on: August 29, 2019, 05:05:06 PM »
@MaybeBabyMustache, the bread sounds delicious!  And, yes, putting whatever protein available on top of salads is something I do as well.  The hot dog sounds good!

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2486 on: September 02, 2019, 12:24:54 PM »
I did a long-overdue freezer inventory today.  I purchased bins to help organize the contents of my 2 chest freezers and took the opportunity to make a new spreadsheet of the contents (and get rid of a few sad things).  Between my 3 total freezers, I have 107 unique items in my inventory, and often multiples of those items.  (How do I still have 8 jars of corn salsa I made in 2017?  Or 31 portions total of 6 different variations of pesto?)

I want to tighten up my (rising) grocery budget for the rest of the year, so hopefully I can manage to both free up freezer space and save money.  Seems realistic!  I also get free produce at work so I need to eat up some of the older stuff over the next month or so in order to make room to fully take advantage of it.

This weekend, I'm doing more adding to the freezer than using up stuff, though I did use some frozen leeks from 2015 in the tomato risotto I made yesterday.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2487 on: September 02, 2019, 02:18:26 PM »
@SquashingDebt - when I see things like the duplicates or high volume from a long time ago, it typically indicates I didn't plan well with how much I made. Insert my own issues with the four jars of pesto I have from 2 summers ago, while we have a huge basil bush outside.

For me, I used a package of ground turkey & combined it with a super inexpensive ($.99/lb) seasoned ground beef that I bought on mark down. They had both been in the freezer for a while. I turned them into taco meat (browned together) & they are now back in the freezer for easy meal prep.

We used the last of a jar of mayo, and we are so close to using the last of the half & half. That one gets away from me sometimes.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2488 on: September 03, 2019, 01:44:53 PM »
DH picked up the half pig this past Saturday.  And it's bigger than last year's, LOL.  To make room, we moved the remaining sausage from the garage freezer into the kitchen freezer, and a small container of leftover pumpkin pie and pork belly went into the fridge to use up.  Both freezers are FULL, so there will be no reason to buy proteins this month.

Recently:
More ground beef and pork sausage burgers, and a package of hot dogs
Italian sausage spaghetti sauce
Blueberries in my cocktails, smoothies and on top of yogurt
A bag of frozen cauliflower was made into mock tater salad
Flaxseed has been used in smoothies and mug muffins
Breaded and fried yellow crookneck squash from the garden
Cherry tomatoes from the garden into salads
Tomorrow night will be something with chicken breast and Thursday will be fish

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2489 on: September 03, 2019, 05:59:04 PM »
I defrosted a container of chicken enchilada leftovers. I have to eat out of sync with everyone else tonight, so may as well use something up!

hipposrock

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2490 on: September 11, 2019, 05:31:00 PM »
I'm jumping into this challenge! Starting nowish! I will be going on vacation on Saturday, so priority for now will be perishables. There's not much there, some cheese, eggs, and soy milk are the main ones. The freezer is pretty empty. What's really got me right now is my overflowing pantry shelves. Bags of Tasty Bites Madras Lentils (I like the brand so when I saw it at Costco it was a MUST, but then... meh). Lots of Annie's Mac and Cheese, brown rice cripsies, three bags of flour, a ton of canned goods, etc, etc. And then things that I bought for "emergency food" to bring hiking/skiing and never did so it will expire soon. Lots to get through!

imadandylion

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2491 on: September 11, 2019, 07:07:55 PM »
I've been doing this challenge without even realizing it! My fiance has been on a really long work trip, and I've for some reason been pretty lazy to go to the grocery story. I think I went 2 weeks without going, and then another 2 weeks where I only stopped by once just to pick up some fruit/veggies just for me. I'd been living on things in the pantry and frozen produce. This, plus moving and having less pantry space in the new house, really opened my eyes up to just how much food we'd been hoarding without realizing it, just because our last place had such a big pantry by comparison.

Some things I'm aiming to use up soon:

- Some ground Quorn (frozen vegetarian crumble), which my fiance bought by accident but for some reason never ended up returning. I started using it the other day, so I think I'll throw the rest of the bag into making tomorrow's work lunch and dinner with pasta (which I also have a lot of in the pantry... those buy 2 for whatever price deals really get us throwing boxes of the stuff into the cart, I guess).

- Boca vegetarian crumble. We already started using this a couple months ago but should finish it. So probably this weekend, maybe do something with beans or lentils, or make some sort of vegetarian chorizo burrito?

- Lentils and legumes of all kinds. I have a lot of dried ones and some canned. My priority will be to soak and cook the dry ones first.

- Baking stuff. Flour. Powdered sugar. Baking soda. Baking powder. I have so much of those last two items because I keep forgetting I already have those, and just buy new ones. :/ They have dates on them, and they're still good. I've been meaning to make bread or other baked goods AND use that kitchen aid mixer I received as a gift for christmas, so this is a good excuse to do all of those things.

- Agave syrup. One of us bought this stuff for a recipe, and i gotta say, I'm not really a fan. It's somehow too sweet/candy-like for my taste. Yeah, I know, it's a sugar. But I prefer maple syrup.

- Any condiments in the side fridge - some varieties of vegetarian hoisin or 'oyster' sauce. I kind of don't even want to use them, so I don't know why we have them, but I also don't like to waste, so... I will try to do something.

- Old spices. I'd like to just use them up finally and then replenish with new ones as we need them. We just don't have space for a lot of spice jars.

- Some liver cleanse protein powder mixture that I got from my doctor that I never finished. It comes in one of those big plastic cylindrical containers, like most protein powders, so it takes up a lot of space.

- Frozen cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and other veggies. I decided I really hate frozen produce because no matter what, the texture is never as good, so I need to eat this asap! Maybe in some version of vegetable soup with old spices and legumes and some fresh leafy greens? lol

- Dried porcini mushrooms. I have a couple of bags of this when I thought I was going to do something really cool and fancy. But then I didn't, so here we are. I'll have to look up a recipe.

- Random tetrapak of carrot ginger soup. Work lunch?

- Tubs of miso paste. I have 3 different kinds, only 1 is my favorite. So I need to start using and getting rid of the other 2 ASAP.

- Pine nuts. Again had the intent to do something fancy. Maybe I'll just throw them on top of salad or pasta.

- Buckwheat porridge, quinoa flakes, and rolled/quick-cooking oats. Meant to be healthy breakfast items, but I vastly prefer steel cut oats, I've learned, so these things need to just go away.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2492 on: September 13, 2019, 12:05:01 PM »
I'm making some progress.

Meals last week:

Corn soup (used corn, corn stock, and onions from the freezer, plus coconut milk from the pantry)
Pasta salad (used peas from the freezer)
Asian noodle bowls (used scallion sauce from the freezer, rice noodles from the pantry, and broccoli and eggplant from the fridge)
Normal breakfast smoothies (used frozen berries I had uncovered instead of buying more from the grocery store like usual)

Meals/snacks this week:

Tomato risotto (will use rice from the pantry and leeks from the freezer)
Stuffed peppers (will used leftover pepper stuffing from the freezer)
Honey cranberry cornmeal bread (will use cranberries and walnuts from the freezer and cornmeal from the pantry)
Chocolate oat milk pudding (will use oat milk I got free with a coupon from the grocery store)
Peach jam (using up peaches before they go bad)
Coleslaw (using a cabbage that's been in the fridge for a few weeks now)


I'm also about to wash some mason jars so I can fill them with my pantry items that aren't properly stored (cornmeal in a paper bag, tea in the plastic bag it came in, etc.) so I can extend the shelf life of those items.  It'll look pretty too.  :)

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2493 on: September 13, 2019, 01:09:00 PM »
wow - great progress @SquashingDebt & @imadandylion !

I was traveling all week, so there was a bit of food waste (my husband isn't the leftover ninja that I am). I did defrost some seasoned ground turkey for dinner tonight, and will make a spaghetti sauce. Adults will have with zoodles, kids will have with regular pasta.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2494 on: September 15, 2019, 09:22:49 AM »
Since Friday, we've made good progress:
-Used up a very discounted Italian seasoned lb of ground turkey (freezer) - went into spaghetti sauce
-Marinara sauce (pantry) - went into spaghetti sauce
-Taco meat (freezer) - went into taco slaw
-Tiny container of homemade tomato sauce (freezer) - went into spaghetti sauce
-Used a ton of basil for pesto - one for us, dropped off one with our neighbor
-Used tahini & a can of garbanzo beans - made hummus
-My 12 yo wanted to make pizza, so finally used the rest of a brick of shreddable mozzarella & pepperoni that were in the use it or lose it phase of the fridge

For today, I'm making crockpot carnitas for the freezer. We do all of the steps but the crisping. Defrost from the freezer, and then crisp before serving. They are a freezer staple. Now that there's more room in the fridge, we can fill it with carnitas. Yum!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2495 on: September 22, 2019, 01:23:58 PM »
I didn't have quite enough peanut butter for my protein bars today. I used my food processor & turned the remainder of a bag of macadamia nuts that had been lingering in the pantry for way too long into a nut butter, and mixed that with the peanut butter. One more item out of the pantry!

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2496 on: September 23, 2019, 01:36:24 PM »
Lately:

Remaining pecan pieces went on top of today's salad
Leftover cauliflower was made into a puree to use as a side dish last night
Leftover broccoli was sauteed with baby spinach and asparagus for a side last week
A jar of rather runny homemade apricot jam will go on top of a pork roast in the Crock Pot tomorrow
Garden fresh crookneck squash will be cooked as a side dish tonight, and in Wednesday's stir fry
Frozen leftovers such as deer chili will feed DH when I soon go out of town

I need to dig around the bottom freezer drawer to figure out what else is lurking there.

Dee_the_third

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2497 on: September 23, 2019, 09:29:01 PM »
Here's an interesting one: found half a bag of gummed together stale marshmallows at the back of the pantry. In the absence of any prepared cereal in the house, we're having marshmallow popcorn for dessert tomorrow!

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2498 on: September 26, 2019, 11:09:03 PM »
I Need to get back to this... I am away on the weekend, but on Monday I will put a basket on the kitchen counter and will put in all dry items that need to be used up. I am overwhelmed by the content of my kitchen cabinets...

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2499 on: September 28, 2019, 09:56:51 AM »
I haven't been cooking much the last week, so no major progress on the freezer contents, but I did eat 3 frozen leftover meals (lentils makhani, corn-coconut soup, and stuffed squash) for lunches this week.  I also finished off 2 more bags of frozen fruit from 2017 - 4 to go!