Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2

[MaybeBabyMustache]

It was a wild few weeks for us, but we're back & settling down again. A few updates:

-Used the remainder of last year's frozen cranberries in cranberry orange muffins. We have two bags of cranberries (from this year) to still work through. Cranberry muffins are my husband's favorite
-Ate the last of the frozen soup/lunches I'd prepped & organized in my freezer clean out a month or so ago
-My husband got COVID (he was asymptomatic, vaccinated & boosted), and quarantined at home. He did do one grocery delivery, but largely ate what was on hand, which helped worked through a few lingering items here.
-I had snacks from our NYE appetizer cheese tray for lunch the other day
-I had potato skins (with bacon, cheese & chiles) from our NYE dinner as breakfast 2x this week
-I gave away a gingerbread set I got for free at work, and wouldn't use before it went bad. Out of the house, and in the hands of neighbors who enjoyed it

[Dutch Comfort]

Holidays are over and pantry and freezer are FULL. So the clear out begins.
First goal is to make sure that I can turn off the second fridge in the shed. It now still has leftovers and some frozen meat in it, so this has to be cleared out (eaten) and then I have everything back in my regular kitchen fridge and freezer.

Planning for this week:
- Monday: potatoes, cauliflower and sausages
- Tuesday: leftover chinese takeout for the kids since we will have to attend a funeral
- Wednesday: baked potatoes, meat from the freezer (to be decided which) and frozen/canned/whatever veggies I can find in the fridge/pantry
- Thursday: pasta
- Friday: either burritos or some other meal I can think of using what we have in the fridge.

Breakfast and lunch will be whatever we have left in the fridge/freezer. I have seen bread, breakfast muffins, some bananas and there is enough cereal to get through the week. Since I have also started IF, no breakfast is needed for me (the teens are still at home, so they will help me get through all other items).
There are still more than enough snacks available. The pile of chocolate seems endless.

[parkerk]

Dutch Comfort, I hear you on the chocolate supply!  Although it's not exactly a hardship for us to get through it.

I used a bunch of veggies hanging out in our crisper drawer to make this curry from Budget Bytes (replaced the frozen veggies with what I had on hand): https://www.budgetbytes.com/coconut-vegetable-curry/  I think this one's going to be a winner in the future when I've got stuff that just needs to go.  The sauce is easy and you can use virtually anything in it for the veggies.

[FragglesRock666]

During my furlough during Covid 1.5 years ago (can you believe it's been that long?), I cleaned out my pantry.  I had found things in there that I know were purchased by my now-ex-husband, and we'd been divorced 5+ years at that point!  So I've actually been pretty good about keeping that from getting over-full and wasting more food after I threw out so much stuff that day. 
My freezers, OTOH...
So, my goal for January is to use at least 1 "old" thing from my freezer every day.  Today, I dug around and found some frozen cherries, so I thawed a bowl out for breakfast to go with my eggs. We're already having leftovers for dinner tonight, so probably won't pull anything else out of the freezer. 

[Dutch Comfort]

@FragglesRock666 : I think I will use your system, but then extend it to fridge/pantry and freezer.
So far:

Yesterday: Leftover takeout egg dish for lunch (YAY!). For dinner: fresh veggies (does not count), sausages from freezer (YAY!).
Today: breakfast from pantry items (always good, but no specific old things), leftover takeout noodles for 2p. lunch (YAY!), leftover pasta from freezer for 1p. lunch (YAY!). Dinner is TBD.... might be a quick pizza from a free package of pizza crust (wrong delivery, they delivered pizza crust while I ordered layered crust..... so I filed a complaint and got a refund and got to keep the pizza crust) and a small container of tomato sauce from freezer (that would be good) and some mozzarella / salami / bell peppers / unions from the fridge/pantry (would be good for the mozzarella since this is about to go bad).

My mum will be with the kids this afternoon while we attend the funeral, so I put out some fancy chocolate for her as a treat.

[kaleidoscopicalkris]

I'm in for January, with my goal to eat down the stuff that's been languishing in my freezer. So far:

- Last frozen banana in a smoothie last night, along with 1 cup of frozen mixed berries. I have three different bags of frozen fruit that are all old, so I want them eaten so I can replace them with smaller bags of the fruit I like. This also used up a cup and a half of the new vegan milk I tried but didn't like plain.
- Last pumpkin bagel for breakfast today.

I have posted a list on my fridge of what's in my freezer, so hopefully I will actually remember what's in there. Once I've eaten that down a bit, I'll switch gears to focus on the pantry. I want to get the weird stuff eaten so I have space for my staples again, specifically eating down the protein powders so I can just have the one pea protein I like moving forward.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I organized my pantry a bit, and it's much easier to find things:
-Tossed some stale (partially used) crackers
-Added a ton of random ingredients to a stuffed pepper recipe (used up the rest of the stale crackers as breadcrumbs, subbed the last of another sauce for worcestire, subbed parmesan for another cheese, etc)
-We had leftover curry & rice for dinner
-Ate more NYE cheese as a snack

I've been on the lookout for cauliflower rice (my husband avoid grains due to a food allergy), & it's been really difficult to find. A neighbor was giving a few packs away, but wanted one person to take all of her items. Ended up with chicken broth, mac & cheese, & a few baking mixes. I used up one package of cauliflower rice last night, and made the blueberry muffins right away. One of the kids has already started eating the muffins. The chicken broth will be easy to use. I'll have to make up the mac & cheese for the teens one afternoon. I don't need additional pantry items, so it will be important to rotate through this quickly!

[Dutch Comfort]

We're making progress: my husband already commented that he can already see the kitchen counter again.

Tuesday night: finished up the last carpaccio (fridge!) as a starter and made a pizza from the pizza crust (fridge), some mozzarella (fridge), some grated cheese (fridge) and some salami (fridge) and a can of mashed tomatoes (and some herbs from the pantry). This really gave room in the fridge!

Yesterday: brussels sprouts, meat from freezer and baked potatoes. Kids and husband indulged on leftover christmas chocolate as snack. I took care of the last tangerines from 2021 which were still in the kitchen.

Today: pasta. I checked the pantry and found 3 packages of pasta (while I thought I had only 1.....). So one of them will be used today, together with some ground beef from the freezer and the remainder of the mashed tomatoes and a package of spiced tomatoe sauce. And add a cucumber/tomatoe salad and a glass of red wine (as an open bottle is still on the kitchen counter, so I need to make sure this does not go to waste!) as a side.
Kids need to work on the remaining bread buns and crackers for lunch. I might heat up a can of hotdogs I found in the pantry while looking for the pasta to go with the breadbuns as lunch.

Tonight some groceries will be delivered so things will be back to normal when the kids restart the school days on Monday!
Further, I have 2 brown bananas in the kitchen, so I think a bunch of oatmeal/banana/mixed nut muffins need to be made tonight and frozen for school snacks.

[MountainGal]

Happy New Year, everyone!

After three weeks of way too many snacks, baked goods, etc., I am glad the holidays have concluded.  When putting away Christmas decorations las weekend, I discovered a very black banana hiding behind things on the main kitchen counter.  I knew it was time, LOL.

~Unopened holiday snack cakes and popcorn went home with the neighbor children
~To DH's shop, I sent more unopened holiday snacks, homemade cookies, and a bag of white truffles gifted to me
~We snacked on leftover charcuterie items during a few football games, and I brought the rest to the office for lunches
~We had so much leftover ham!  We had some in an omelet, and I froze the rest.
~Leftover sweet rolls were used for breakfast sandwiches
~I sent my family home with 3 containers of the poundcake I made
~Froze a small loaf of gifted homemade bread we didn't get to

Meals lately (Santa brought me an air fryer per my request):
~Burger bites-used up some gifted to us butter pickles
~Chicken and veggies-used up a yellow squash and zucchini, and a bag of frozen broccoli
~I made mini skewers for lunch consisting of romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, salami, and cheddar
~Cauliflower pizza-I doctored it up with the rest of the entertaining salami and half bag of mozzarella pearls
~This weekend I'll wrap up little smokies in leftover crescent rolls and freeze the remaining smokies.
~Breakfast sandwiches will be made out of the unopened can of crescent rolls
~Late next week I'll focus on serving leftovers from the freezer which will include enchiladas and chili
~Similar to last January, we have a bit of leftover frozen appetizers which I'll incorporate into game day snacks

Produce drawer:
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
Small bag romaine
Portobello mushrooms
An eggplant

Because of last month's overflow and abundance, I expect to have a $100 grocery bill this month instead of the usual $300+.

[FragglesRock666]

I've been doing pretty good with the "1 old thing from the freezer each day" goal, sadly today will be the exception.  BUT I still feel pretty good about my progress today, since I have so far eaten the last of a curry from this last weekend with my last egg for breakfast.  And I also ate the last of a dish with pasta and fish that I'd pulled from the freezer and cooked on Tuesday.  For dinner, I'm going to be cooking some root veggies I got from my CSA 2 weeks ago to go with the chicken I'm roasting.  Basically the only thing I bought this week was the chicken, the rest I have already had.  And the fridge will be less stuffed, and less likely to miss something before it goes bad. 
I think I'll look in the freezer tonight or tomorrow and see what I can pull out and plan tomorrow's dinner around that. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

First, a "eat all the food" chuckle from my house. I have a reasonably picky teen. The rule is that, if he doesn't like the dinner I've made, he's in charge of finding something else suitable. He was not a fan of meatloaf last night, so I suggested that he make a taco out of the taco meat I'd defrosted. He makes the taco (tortilla, meat, cheese) & after a few bites says... what is this? It's not taco meat. Turns out that it was Korean beef. When I was organizing the freezer, I spotted the container, labeled it as taco meat, & went on my merry way. He was unimpressed with the "Korean beef taco", but did finish it. Tonight we're having actual tacos, and my husband will be finishing up the leftover Korean beef. ;-)

The kids/husband are going skiing tomorrow, so I used up a jar of marinara & meatballs (freezer), added spices, & prepped their dinner for Saturday. Picked up bread & a bagged salad & they will be good to go. I also sent breakfast fixings & snacks. They will eat lunch on the mountain, but otherwise, this will get them through the weekend.

On my weekend list (I'm staying home & reveling in the gloriousness of a quiet house), i'm going to make soup to restock the freezer, prep meals for the week, do some cleaning & organizing, work out & anything else that sounds appealing!

I also finished off the last of the Trader Joes dried pineapple, but I'm unconvinced that's a positive, as I finished it in just a few days & love it dearly. It's no hardship to eat.

[SquashingDebt]

After a few months of shockingly high grocery bills, we're greatly reducing convenience foods/frozen meals and generally focusing on eating all of our existing food.  We made a meal plan for a week's worth of dinners and only needed to buy chicken fingers!  (And those, only to have a "fun" meal so that my SO will be happy skipping takeout.)

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Totally emptied the pantry today to take inventory, pitching the couple of items that I've had forever and finally came to terms with the fact that we won't eat them (plus they were past date, not that that usually matters with canned goods but . . .) Along the way made note of possible meal combinations. I like @FragglesRock666 idea of "one item a day" - thanks!

Tonight we had sweet/sour veggies with garbanzo beans (using 1 can pineapple, 1 can garbanzo beans) over rice. Not the paella or arborio rice, though. Gotta figure out using those up (not huge risotto fans here.)

[Dutch Comfort]

.......... Not the paella or arborio rice, though. Gotta figure out using those up (not huge risotto fans here.)

You can use the arborio rice to create a nice rice dessert (grandma recipe!):
Cook 100gr of arborio rice in 500 ml of milk for 15-30 minutes. Keep stirring!!!!!!
Add a teaspoon of vanilla, 2 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt.

Eat as dessert either hot or cold. Add some cinnamon / raisins / walnuts..... whatever you like....
(my preference is to eat it hot with cinnamon and some additional suger........ my absolute feel-good dessert in winter)

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

.......... Not the paella or arborio rice, though. Gotta figure out using those up (not huge risotto fans here.)

You can use the arborio rice to create a nice rice dessert (grandma recipe!):
Cook 100gr of arborio rice in 500 ml of milk for 15-30 minutes. Keep stirring!!!!!!
Add a teaspoon of vanilla, 2 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt.

Eat as dessert either hot or cold. Add some cinnamon / raisins / walnuts..... whatever you like....
(my preference is to eat it hot with cinnamon and some additional suger........ my absolute feel-good dessert in winter)

Ooooh thanks! DH loves rice pudding and I've never made it. Sweet!

[Dutch Comfort]

Today lunch: kid 1 finished leftover pasta, kid 2 had a friend over and they finished the remaining bread buns with a can of hotdogs.
Finally made the oatmeal muffins tonight, using up the brown bananas and used some staples from the pantry (nuts, oatmeal and leftover soy milk).
Now I found some lemons which are becoming wrinkled, so looking for quick recipes……

Dinner used some meat from the freezer. Just 2 items remaining before I can shut off the second fridge…….

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

On lemons:
Lemon squares
Or even just zest (make lemon sugar!) and then juice - and store said juice in freezer. I like doing that in an ice cube tray, as 1 cube is approx 2 TBS and just right to liven up dishes or make salad dressing

[MountainGal]

I second the juicing and storing the lemons!  That's what I do with them and limes during the summer, so we have "fresh" juice throughout the winter for cooking and cocktails.

@MaybeBabyMustache, enjoy your peaceful bliss!

Now that there is some breathing room in the fridge, I noticed we have a lot of jarred items:  Dill pickle spears, bread and butter pickles and spicy green beans from a neighbor, artichokes, a jar of pickle juice (for muscle cramps), a huge jar of large pickles, green olives, minced garlic, two types of preserves, etc.  A lot of those jars are nearly empty, so I'll incorporate them into lunch snacks next week.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I made meatball soup today, & used up a bunch of things:
-Meatballs that have been in the freezer since I don't know when
-A container of tomato sauce (also in the freezer for a long time)
-1/3 of a jar of marinara sauce
-Chicken broth given to me by a neighbor
-2 boxes of opened pasta (just a bit in each)
-A chunk of tomato that was in the fridge

I also continued my slow & steady pantry organization, & tossed a tiny amount of breadcrumbs that have long since expired.

[seemsright]

Tmrw hubby is working on his side gig/side project for most of the day. The preteen and I are going to be eating leftovers. I have some chili and beef and mushroom soup, and a bunch of other odds and ends in the fridge. The preteen will fuss about leftovers but I think if I get out the tortilla chips she wont fuss about the chili too much.

This next weeks goal is to not buy much other than some fruit. Next couple of weeks are really busy and i just do not want to deal with going to the store much at all.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I'm in  a real home ec kind of mood, with the kids off skiing with my husband. I'm making the most of the time.

-Made muffins with the bananas about to go bad on the counter + 1 bonus freezer banana
-Took apart a rotisserie chicken from Costco. Making broth from the bones now, and once that's done, I'm making a white chicken chili soup
-The rest of the rotisserie chicken is going into chicken taquitos (for the freezer, and potentially one meal this week)
-I made up a fajita spice mix, and took three pounds of chicken & added them to the spices + oil. Separated into three separate dinners worth & into the freezer they go
-I have three pounds of chicken in the crockpot for chicken taco meat, which will go into the freezer.
-Made a huge batch of cookie dough, formed the balls & put them in the freezer for easy dessert for the kids

Meatball soup from yesterday was fantastic. Had it for dinner last night, & lunch today. The rest is in the freezer for easy lunches.

Tomorrow I'll be making chicken & dumplings in the crockpot, which generates plenty of lunch options for the freezer. The freezer, however, will now be packed with prepped food. It's a great problem to have, but it's going to require master class level of organization.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Well, my chicken taco meat ran into a bit of a problem. I had cayenne pepper out for the fajita mix, and inadvertently grabbed that instead of taco seasoning. 2 tbsp of cayenne pepper vs 2 tbsp of taco seasoning.... At first, I kept trying to adjust the spices, but once I figured out what I'd done, I instead rinsed the chicken numerous times, re-added the other ingredients, and then added a bit of lime & agave, to dial back the remaining spices. I managed to salvage it, but it was a lot of work!

I also used stale cereal from the pantry to make this recipe. https://www.budgetbytes.com/no-bake-pretzel-peanut-butter-bars/ Delicious! Most went into the freezer, but I kept a few in the fridge for the teens.

I fed the kids dinner when they got home from skiing, and used up more of the naan bread in the fridge. I finished off the sourdough bread, but I'm not sure if that's a real "win", as I love sourdough.

For the week ahead:
-Use up all chicken/freeze remaining. We need to make room in the freezer before I tackle this! Creating room in the freezer is a top priority right now.
-Make chicken tikka masala out of some of the fresh chicken. If I was confident everyone would like the recipe, I'd double it, but it's my first time making it, so I'll start with a single batch.
-Finish off the taco meat (dinner tonight) & bagged salad. I'll have my taco over the salad.

[MountainGal]

Last night I started focusing on the jarred items.  Spicy green beans went into DH's lunch today.  I brought stuffed green olives and the remaining 3 pickle spears to the office for my lunches.  Next, I'll package up some of the spicy pickles and/or the bread and butter pickles for DH's lunches later this week.  Here's to more empty jars for storage purposes!

I finally addressed the back pantry and organized it and took inventory.  I'm glad I did because there were cans of tomato paste hiding on the shelf, and a bag of 5 different canned tomato varieties on the floor from last month's grocery shop.  I put those into the kitchen pantry rotation and removed them from this month's grocery list.

I made "clean out the produce drawer" smoothies for brunch yesterday which used up a small bag of sad frozen raspberries, "fresh" blueberries, strawberries and baby spinach which were on their last leg, a can of coconut milk, a bit of honey, vanilla extract, a few dashes cinnamon, and a tsp of flax seed.

An afternoon snack plate consisted of a few remaining romaine leaves, 2 slices deli chicken, and leftover mozzarella pearls and cherry tomatoes.

DH used 6 cups of sourdough bread mix to make three loaves yesterday.  He also baked up the remaining 2 of 3 potatoes last night.

My newest food focus is the abundance of homegrown sun-dried tomatoes a friend from CA sent me:

Tonight:  Sun-dried tomato chicken with air fried stuffed mushrooms on the side.  And, if it is still good, I'll mash up the remaining avocado into guacamole.
Tues:  Creamy sun-dried tomato cod with riced cauliflower and air fried eggplant fries.
Wed:  Patty melts which will use up leftover onions from Saturday's air fryer onion rings, with a side of Budget Bytes one pot creamy sun-dried tomato pasta.  Sauteed yellow squash and zucchini will be on the side.
Thurs:  Enchiladas from the freezer with leftover riced cauliflower.

[Anette]

Got some kiwi fruit from my sister around Christmas and finally cut them into pieces and froze them for smoothies.

Instead of going out to buy frozen raspberries I decided to use up the frozen cherries from the garden together with the kiwi fruit first (really do like raspberries better though).
Started using frozen banana halves in the smoothies.

Just before going out to buy salad for a taxi salad dinner my neighbours son brought salad, bok choy and celery root. They have a relative who works for a supermarket chain testing fresh produce at their lab and they get a variety of produce that way (and sometimes share with us :)

We have so many spices that one of my priorities is to use a lot of them this year.

I made vegan peanut blondies using a very simple recipe that uses no flower but white beans and brought it to dinner at  a friends house last weekend. Our youngest daughter and their youngest need to eat gluten free and everyone really enjoyed the dessert. Used peanut paste ( is it still peanut butter when nothing has been added? Or would you call it paste like I did?) from the pantry.

Made cup sized tea portions in tea bags from all the loose tea we have been given throughout the year and for Christmas. My husband now uses them daily but if they are not portioned he will usually use the store bought preportioned variety and we end up with a pantry full of loose tea.

[Dutch Comfort]

Cleaned out the pantry last saturday. Very satisfying to see that I did not have to toss that many items. Now everything is back in the pantry and it looks nice.
Planned some lunches and dinners around the current stash of goodies, trying to use at least 1 item a day from our inventory (freezer or pantry):

Sunday dinner: roasted ham from the freezer with fresh veggies and baked potatoes
Yesterday: kids started the bread supply from the freezer and some cereal got eaten!
Today lunch: nicoise salad, using up veggies from the fridge, a can of tuna that I found in the pantry and a can of lentils.
Tomorrow: hoping that kids will continue their bread/cereal breakfast/lunches
Thursday dinner: burritos, using up veggies from the fridge, a can of corn, kidney beans and edamame-beans from the pantry.

This will give me more space.

Kids are working their way through the snack pile and I'm planning dinners around the freezer stash. We should get there in a few weeks time, because the freezer is needing a defrosting round!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Progress continues, with a focus on using up as much from the freezer as possible:
-Made the kids fruit smoothies as a snack, using up some of our freezer fruit & two bananas
-Had tacos for dinner, using up about 1/2 of the meat
-Finished the bagged salad
-My husband had the remaining Korean beef over cauliflower rice
-I had white chicken chili for lunch, & then defrosted a container of meatball soup for lunch today

Tonight will be homemade taquitos, and my husband will likely have salmon. Tomorrow will be chicken tikka masala, which will use up the last package of fresh chicken. The rest is wedged into the freezer.

[MountainGal]

Last night's chicken dish not only used some of the sun-dried tomatoes, but also a leftover container of a parmesan pork rind blend I made for breading purposes, as well as the remaining pint of half and half.

I stuffed the two portobello mushrooms with 2/3 of a can of salmon and brought the remaining 1/3 to the office with me to enjoy on top of the remaining romaine leaves.

Last night I poured the remaining holiday M & M's into a container so DH could pack them in his lunch, and I can now wash the candy dish and put it away.  Other than the fruit holder, the main kitchen is clear of food except for about a 1/4 of the holiday spice cake our neighbor gave us, a few more pieces in the box of See's candy, and the bag of granola set out to remind me to eat the remaining one serving.  I dislike counter clutter.  ;-)

[Psyche]

Nice work, MountainGal!

We finished Week 6.  I am amazed we've been able to go this long without buying meat... But the current week (7) will likely be the last of that.  (I guess we did buy one bag of meatballs for a sleepover in week 5.)

Meals/etc made:
-Sesame Tofu & Broccoli
-Salmon Piccata
-Baked Macaroni
-Gingerbread Cookies

Used up:
-Salmon
-Boca burgers
-Meatballs
-Tofu
-Sushi rice
-WW spaghetti
-Lemon
-Capers
-Mozzerella
-Nutella
-Crisco

Most proud of:
There were two ancient veggie burgers in the freezer that no one was ever going to eat.  I convinced my SO to break them up & use them as "ground beef" in a baked macaroni recipe--which also allowed us to knock out the mozzarella and make a dent in both our big box of macaroni and the leftover spaghetti sauce I stashed in the freezer last week : )

Would I choose to do that again? No, but it was palatable and we ate something that otherwise would have languished till it was thrown away!

[seemsright]

I have found a use for all of the fridge door things. I was able to get some pork roast for 1.88 a pound. I plopped it into my crockpot, added a bunch of cut up veggies that my preteen decided that she refused to eat them because they looked dry, a bunch of random seasonings from my spice cabinet and random from the fridge door. Almost all of the home pickled jalapenos I did 3 years ago a iffy onion, some mustard some hot sauce. Over all it smells wonderful and should feed us for 2 to 3 nights.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Well done, @Psyche - I'm currently eating meatball soup, which is delicious, but the meatballs themselves (pre-made Costco batch) no one would eat as they are a little on the sweet side. Maybe a teriyaki flavor. Anyway, it's not my favorite, but it's avoiding waste & it's working out.

@seemsright  - that is an awesome clean out the fridge meal! Well done.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

@MaybeBabyMustache if you have more of those meatballs to use up, maybe try something like a beef lettuce wrap (crumble them up). Slightly sweet teriyaki-kind of flavor would work well there.

Tonight: pork chops from the freezer with roasted veggies (used up the lone sweet potato) and leftover quinoa from the other night.
Tomorrow I'll get fresh fish and make a rice "bar" or Gado Gado kind of thing (rice and various veggies, with a sesame/ginger/garlic dressing.)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@SailingOnASmallSailboat - luckily, this was the last portion of those meatballs! Never to be purchased again.

[Dutch Comfort]

I could turn off the second freezer today! Felt really good, since it is an oldie and using so much electricity.....
So now it is back to 1 freezer, 1 fridge and 1 pantry!

Today: kids had their lunchboxes filled with sandwiches (bread from freezer, cheese/meat/salad from fridge) and oatmeal/banana muffins from the freezer. I had a big salad which took care of the remaining tuna (fridge), all kinds of veggies (fridge), some sundried tomatoes (open container and needed to be used soon!) and a small can of chick peas (pantry) which was almost at due date so lingering way too long in the pantry.
For snacks, everybody is still munching on the Christmas chocolate....... will we have finished this before we start Easter chocolate?????

Dinner is pasta, since all sports this evening

Dinner tomorrow will be burritos (wraps, canned veggies/beans from pantry, fresh veggies from fridge, a pot of sour cream from fridge and some grated cheese from old cheese leftovers from fridge, chicken from freezer). Always a good dish to use up all kinds of bits and pieces!

[MountainGal]

Thank you, @Psyche!  You are doing very well yourself!

@SailingOnASmallSailboat, I had to look up Gado Gado.  All variations sound delicious.

@Dutch Comfort, congratulations on the freezer!  I did that years ago with an old extra fridge/freezer and it shaved of $20 a month off our electricity bill.

DH ate the rest of the spice cake this morning, I had the remaining two pieces of See's chocolate last night and will eat the rest of the granola for Friday's breakfast with a bit of almond milk.

DH decided he wants takeout pizza tonight, so I'll make the planned patty melts next week, and tomorrow cook up the remaining yellow squash and zucchini with the enchiladas from the freezer.  Leftover olives will go on top of the enchiladas, as well as a few dollops of sour cream from the HUGE container DH bought last month.  I'll pull the container of ham and beans from the freezer so DH can eat it during my absence this weekend.

The fridge will now be cleared out enough for a good scrub tonight, and for groceries next week.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the 5 boxes of cream cheese leftover from last month's holiday baking, LOL.  Should be fun to work with them in the next few weeks.

[FragglesRock666]

This week so far hasn't been quite as good about using things from my freezer, but I *was* able to pull one of the containers we use for organizing my chest freezer out as I had used the last ham hock from that bin in ham-and-beans, which also used up the last of the ham-ham I'd cooked over the weekend.  Also, I had just a touch of chicken left from roasting this weekend, so I pulled an andouille sausage out of the freezer and used some of the "garbage soup" + cajun seasonings to make rice, and mixed it all together with some fried bell peppers I'd had in the fridge.  The sausage + leftover chicken was *just* the right amount of meat for the dinner.  And apparently folks enjoyed it, because I had zero leftovers from that meal.  All gone in one fell swoop!
Last night I did NOT feel like dealing with anything, so pasta out of the pantry.  The tomato sauce counted as vegetables. 
Tonight is going to be grilled cheese and tomato soup.  I actually bought everything for this meal except one of the 2 boxes of soup at the grocery this week, so this is a complete "clean things out" fail, but I've been craving this for several weeks, it's easy, and I know everyone else will love it, too.  Knowing this, I pulled more frozen cherries out for breakfast this morning, so at least there's that! 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Dutch Comfort - very envious of your freezer progress. Nice work!

-Finished off all homemade taquitos in a dinner, and made progress on a tub of guacamole
-I'm having a protein smoothie for lunch, which used a freezer banana, frozen mangoes, protein powder & water. Delicious, & we have so many bananas on hand.
-I made a chicken tikka masala recipe. Didn't love it, but it's fine. It made leftovers, so we need to eat or freeze those.
-Tonight we're having gyozas. A friend gave us two freezer bags recently, so it will be good to get some of those out.

Tomorrow I'll make meatballs in a marinara sauce, as well as garlic butter. Both for taking on an overnight ski trip. Add a loaf of bread, bagged salad & pasta & it's an easy to transport & prep post ski dinner.

[draco44]

Just finished off a large glass bottle of apple cider vinegar today in a homemade salad dressing. I'm moving in two to three months so am in a phase of trying to eat down my pantry in earnest.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Last night ate some gnocchi and truffle pasta sauce I'd bought as a "try to see how it is". OMG disgusting. As in, throw out the rest because there's no way we're eating any more of it. As in, can't finish dinner because it's so gross. The gnocchi by themselves weren't bad but not good enough to buy again.

2 more things out of the pantry, though.

[Dutch Comfort]

Today we will finish the last of the green veggies, some chicken from the freezer and some frozen baked potatoes.
Groceries were delivered yesterday and I was proud that everything fitted in the regular freezer and fridge!

Tomorrow is leftover-Saturday. We usually eat something easy which is in the freezer, leftovers from the fridge or we just make an omelet/burger/whatever is on hand
Sunday will probably be homemade lasagna for which groceries were delivered yesterday.
Also try to make a nice beef-stew on Sunday (as I will have time to do this and I found the beef for this in the freezer) which will then serve as dinner for a couple of more days next week!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Finished a bag of gyozas & wings from the freezer for dinner last night, which freed up some space
-Tonight we're having leftover chicken tikka masala & rice
-I'll have a freezer soup for lunch, with cheese & crackers leftover from NYE

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-We had chicken tikka masala for dinner & froze three leftover servings for lunches
-Finished the naan bread (picky eater had them with plain chicken)
-Used the rest of a bag of mangoes & a freezer banana in a smoothie

All freezer progress was negated of the addition of three containers of chicken masala being added ;-)

[YellowCat]

We are making some progress, slowly but surely.

• Currently finishing up a tray of pasta with veggies and sausage from the freezer.
• Used up the brown sugar, frozen rhubarb, and an open can of coconut milk in a rhubarb crumb cake.
• Cooked a batch of frozen chicken lentil stew in the instant pot and ate that for lunches this week. Friends had brought this to us when we had our second child last month.
• Oldest child finished up the frozen pancakes (no real hardship :))

[Linea_Norway]

Yesterday I concumed the second of the three jars of pickled vegetables. One left to go.

I threw away a very old squeeze bottle of sausage mustard that was not all empty, because it was leaking and thus not airtight anymore. And I have been in doubt about it for years. I am the only person at home who eats mustard on sausages and I eat it seldom. I should rather used the smaller jars of other mustard that we also have for other purposes when I want it on my sausage.

[FragglesRock666]

I had bought a side of beef recently.  While straightening out the freezer to accommodate the new meat, I had a few bits and pieces from the last side we had bought.  So yesterday, I cooked an English roast from the older side for dinner.  Along with a handful of smaller winter squash that needed to be cooked up and eaten, and my last bag of frozen zucchini from this last summer.  So that's 2 things from the freezer all at once!
I am sad that the veggies I put up for winter are all gone except for several bags of frozen whole tomatoes.  Oh, and some beets.  Though I have new fresh beets to cook up this week, too. 
Lunch and dinner today will be leftovers. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We went skiing this weekend, & largely brought our own food with us, which worked out well. We made some progress on other items:
-Finished off two of the "fancy" cheeses we bought for NYE
-I made PB&Js for ski lunches, and those were all quickly consumed by hungry teens, as well as a bonus protein bar no one will ever eat in regular circumstances. Skiing makes you really hungry, I suppose.
-Used up the last of some shredded cheddar & extra bread from the PB&Js to make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch before we left on Saturday
-I've defrosted leftovers for dinner, as we got home late last night & I didn't do any new cooking this weekend. We'll be having a Persian chicken/walnut/pomegranate flavored dish over rice. My husband will have his portion over the last of some cauliflower rice in the freezer
-A hungry teen ate pizza leftovers for breakfast, so that's one container out of the fridge
-I found one last pomegranate (from our tree) & took that apart, so we can use the arils on top of the dinner for tonight. The fresh pomegranate seeds really add a ton of flavor, but I wasn't willing to buy a pomegranate just for that. Luckily, there was one lurking in the back of the fridge

And, I brought almost exactly the perfect amount of food on our ski weekend. The cooler came back nearly empty, and other than a small bag of leftover snacks, everything was consumed. Woohoo! I love the efficiency of that type of packing & planning.

[MountainGal]

I went out of town over the weekend and ate the rest of the bag of snack mix, two beef and cheddar packages from my Christmas stocking, and a half bag of jerky.  In addition to the complimentary hotel breakfast, this meant I only paid for three restaurant meals.

I gave the fridge interior a good scrubbing in anticipation of this evening's grocery order.  Suppers for the next week (still focusing on the dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes):

Last night:  Canned chicken, the remaining diced black olives, the last of the Kerrygold cheddar wedge, and some BBQ sauce went on top of the last Caulipower pizza crust.  On the side was sauteed yellow squash and zucchini, and a one pot creamy sun-dried tomato pasta dish found on Budget Bytes.
Tonight: Cobb salads which will use up some of the sunflower seeds DH bought last month, and most of the remaining package of bacon
Wed: Salmon in a sun-dried tomato sauce with shrimp and veggies on the side
Thurs:  The patty melts I didn't get to last week and fries cooked in the air fryer using the remaining two potatoes (I mistakenly thought these were all gone) from the holidays. 
Fri:  Take out from?
Sat:  Chicken and shrimp teriyaki stir-fry to use some of the teriyaki sauce
Sun:  Grill/smoke something with shirataki basil pesto (we have a huge bag of walnuts to utilize) pasta on the side

For snacks next weekend, I'll make a dip to utilize the rest of the sad bottled artichokes.

The produce drawer is now empty except for a bit of sliced onion which will be used Thursday.  Here's to more fresh produce this evening.  :)

[YellowCat]

Today I used up an old bag of carrots plus some ginger, garlic, bullion, and miso paste making carrot soup. Now we’re down to daikon, green onions, and fresh ginger in the veggie drawer. Time to make plans to use our frozen veggies and winter squash from the cellar. I’m determined to not buy any additional veggies until the weekend.

[Rosy]

Joining for as long as it takes - anywhere from two to three months.
So far cleaned the big fridge and used up everything I could, only send one cabbage to the garden compost and stuck the green onion roots into the garden for more fresh green onions.
Double-checking the two small fridge(s) today.
Already replenished the produce - having steamed cauliflower and steamed potatoes with smoked pork chops tonight.

Inventory is up next:
Pantry, emergency supplies and food, water and general household item storage. I've tried to use the oldest first, we'll see how well it worked out this year.
That will take a while.

Meanwhile, I am working my way through the freezer(s). I will not let anything go down to bare-bones but I will reduce by 20% and replace the rest.
Tomorrow I'll start on the small freezer and plan my meals accordingly - until I'm done, then it is on to the mini freezer:).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Made good progress on freezer meals yesterday, and another teen had leftover pizza for dinner.

Plans for the next few days:
-Meatball soup (freezer) for lunch
-Finish off remaining bread
-Use leftover rice with tikka masala (freezer)
-Make a protein to go with yakisoba noodles & veggies (dinner tonight)

I may need to freezer the bagels & leftover sandwich bread, so they don't go bad before we get to them.

[Dutch Comfort]

Had a good few days:

Monday: beef stew with fresh veggies and potatoes
Tuesday: beef stew with more fresh veggies and baked potatoes
Today: sausages from freezer, canned veggies and fries from freezer
Tomorrow: pasta
Friday: spinach/mashed potatoe/egg oven dish

Still have beef stew leftovers, so I will make a nice goulash tonight (adding bell peppers, carrots, unions and canned tomatoes) and freeze this for a future quick dinner. Also have some brown bananas, but also noticed that the banana-oatmeal muffins from the freezer are mysteriously disappearing (blame the teens), so it might be time for another batch!