Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1183604 times)

4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #850 on: June 06, 2016, 11:54:19 AM »
I had done a good job of eating down our stocks, but we've slowly been building them back up.  I will start the process all over again.  Starting with the freezer.

theadvicist

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #851 on: June 07, 2016, 02:22:36 AM »

I'm finding it tough to balance between stocking up and eating down. We use to live fairly remotely so we had huge stock up trip a few times a year and would eat down everything in between. Since moving last year to a place where everything is more abundant, I find that I am still stuck in the "hoarder" mindset of not knowing when I will get something again so must buy lots. Of course, sometimes this makes good financial sense. Sometimes, not so much. It is those purchases I am trying to deal with now :)


I struggle with this too. I spend ages 'eating down' the freezer, and then mildly freak out that there is nothing in the freezer, and so start stock-piling again.

What I've found works for me is this: I only buy meat and fish when they are marked down, and they go straight in the freezer. No full price meat / fish is to enter the freezer (or our house really. I'm lucky in that I know of a few local places with really poor stock control).

With the knowledge that everything in the freezer was reduced I find it easier to pull stuff out in the morning (because if it's full price stuff in there I worry I'll stop on my way home and find something that's been marked down). And then if I do stop and find something marked down, it's no problem, because I don't have to use it up today - it's destined for the freezer anyway.

Other stuff in there is emergency veggies (apart from peas I don't like the texture of frozen veggies, but would prefer frozen to none), and a few preassembled meals eg beef in red wine, lasagne, and soups.

Since I started buying everything I see that's marked down and freezing it straight away, my turnover has been much more consistent.

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #852 on: June 07, 2016, 08:16:55 AM »
Good tips, theadvicist!

I'm definitely struggling with the balance between raw foods (I got a 1.5 lambs) and sales foods and foods I want to put up for winter and food I can turn into other foods. I don't have a lot of prepared foods in the freezer, no room! It'  the balance between figuring out what should be eaten and what isn't available in winter and I do want to save. The lamb I might not be able to get again and it is in rather large cuts, perfect for soups and stews and braises...you know all the stuff I don't want to do in the summer!

I think I have to venture into the world of pressure canning. Storing all my bone broth in the freezer takes up a lot of room. I can't throw out bones without making stock...but it is summer and hot so the idea of making soup or something like that is just not appealing at all. But, I'm going to need some room for huckleberries and other goodies that I want for the winter!

Successes: Freezer and pantry are organized and inventoried. Starting to create a list of random herbs/spices and teas I can turn into custom blends for Christmas gifts.

Used up the last of some bean flakes I was given. Contemplating making some refried beans out of our big sack of pintos and dehydrating them for camping.

Noodle

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #853 on: June 12, 2016, 06:55:40 PM »
I was off my "try new recipes one week; play pantry games the next week" plan for a bit due to houseguests and a couple of weeks with no cooking whatsoever, but I am back with some victories--made a Basque stew to use up frozen tuna that has been in the freezer a looong time (perfect condition, though) and a selection of veggies from the veggie box, and a Greek shrimp panzanella salad that cleared out a different bunch of veggies, some olives and feta, and frozen shrimp and bread from the freezer. I had gotten the bread as a freebie and wasn't sure what to do with it--I am not a super anti-carber but bread pudding and French toast both seemed like bad ideas. Mixed with lots and lots of veggies and some protein, I feel better about it. I have some other ideas for clearing out bits and pieces but that was enough cooking for one day.

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #854 on: June 13, 2016, 12:22:22 PM »
Made a huge pot of delicious bean stew with the last of a huge jar of dried beans, a random chorizo and some ham that's been languishing in the fridge.

Switched to breakfast smoothies for awhile to use up frozen fruit, protein powder and chia seeds.

Threw the last of a jar of relish I canned back in '12 into a bowl of potato salad.

Most of the dried tomatoes went into a batch of carrot/garlic scape pesto, so those should be used up by the time this year's tomato crop starts inundating the kitchen.

Need to put a dent in our stock of mustard.  My husband keeps 3-4 different kinds of mustard around, plus I have a CostCo sized jar of Grey Poupon, and three jars of homemade from a co-worker.  Yes, having 7 different containers of mustard in the fridge is a bit much!

Need to target the lentils next.  I've got a container of mixed tiny lentils that might just go to the chickens, or I'll mix them in with the green lentils for dal.  The French green lentils will make a great salad with carrots and shallots.


theadvicist

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #855 on: June 17, 2016, 10:21:06 AM »
I bought some corn on the cob today. It's covered in a white powder. Is it just sugar / starch, and fine to eat, or has it gone bad?

Thanks to anyone who knows! I've given it a rinse, most of it has come off.

Anje

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #856 on: June 21, 2016, 02:43:27 AM »
I've eaten down my food stash to a point where I now see what my go-to staples really are (pasta: spaghetti, beans: black, red, green and chickpeas, rice: jasmine). As an unexpected and completely random side effect I've started being much more tidy around the kitchen (doing dishes, cleaning away stuff right away etc). Also I've been more adventurous in my cooking. I'm on a asian food journey right now (I like semi-dedicating a month to a region), and have discovered a few nice ways to prepare tofu. I'm also making my own red bean paste (for some reason you can't buy it around here) for testing out those red bean snacks. Also, I love curries, but don't like curry powder.

theadvicist

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #857 on: June 21, 2016, 02:54:44 AM »
I've eaten down my food stash to a point where I now see what my go-to staples really are (pasta: spaghetti, beans: black, red, green and chickpeas, rice: jasmine). As an unexpected and completely random side effect I've started being much more tidy around the kitchen (doing dishes, cleaning away stuff right away etc). Also I've been more adventurous in my cooking. I'm on a asian food journey right now (I like semi-dedicating a month to a region), and have discovered a few nice ways to prepare tofu. I'm also making my own red bean paste (for some reason you can't buy it around here) for testing out those red bean snacks. Also, I love curries, but don't like curry powder.

I've found side  benefits of tidiness and trying new recipes too. I think it's because it's so much easier to put things away when you don't have to rearrange everything on the shelf to make room. I hadn't realised how much of my resistance to putting things away (food, clothes, everything!) was due to having to actively make room for them first.

Diniecita

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #858 on: June 23, 2016, 09:11:00 PM »
I' m totally in on this! I'm sure my husband will think it's awesome too. He always thinks we have enough food, unless we are out of bananas. (Anybody else sing the bananas song when they type the word out??) I have a stand up freezer full of meat that we've had in there for 1-2 years. I didn't do a meat order this year because I knew I wouldn't have anywhere to put it. So, I've been working on eating the meat already. I accidentally bought the wrong kind of rice in a 25# bag. We've been eating it, it's sticky rice so it's good in stir fry or soup, but not as a leftover.
I usually get good stuff from our garden and we have to buy fruit and some vegetables. Which I like to get at the farmer's market. They are usually organic and GMO free. So, count me in. I may not meet your 9 month deadline. But, I'm going to go for the end of the year or so. Actually this year the only meat I have bought has been 2 salmon fillets and a large package of hot dogs. I think I can go without both for a little while.

SAfAmBrit

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #859 on: June 27, 2016, 03:28:46 PM »
So work has been crazy with 65+ hours work for the last 5 weeks and it appears I am the only one capable of cooking in this house which has resulted in a pantry full of "things". So, although it is swelteringly hot (108 is the coolest day in the last 2 weeks) I decided to make freezer meals to make space. Onion crustless quiche, chili, Moroccan chicken dish (organic chicken on sale this morning - hope my son will eat it or I wasted 2.99) and chicken tikka masala (son loves this). So after throwing away the old takeaway containers, removing the bad salads stuff I completed 15 meals for $20 + what I had in the house. I can now see in the fridge;  now to figure out what to do with the pantry.

Diniecita

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #860 on: June 27, 2016, 04:41:03 PM »
So work has been crazy with 65+ hours work for the last 5 weeks and it appears I am the only one capable of cooking in this house which has resulted in a pantry full of "things". So, although it is swelteringly hot (108 is the coolest day in the last 2 weeks) I decided to make freezer meals to make space. Onion crustless quiche, chili, Moroccan chicken dish (organic chicken on sale this morning - hope my son will eat it or I wasted 2.99) and chicken tikka masala (son loves this). So after throwing away the old takeaway containers, removing the bad salads stuff I completed 15 meals for $20 + what I had in the house. I can now see in the fridge;  now to figure out what to do with the pantry.

Sounds great. Pantry stuff is usually good for baking. Maybe you could make some quick breads?

Lyngi

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #861 on: July 28, 2016, 07:00:58 PM »
Making chicken pot pie soup.  Old frozen peas&carrots.  Solid brick of frozen corn. Sliced carrots, starting to shrivel.  Onion, starting to shrivel.  Two -count them- two--partial bags of frozen biscuits.  Using the instant pot.  Chicken, broth, raw carrots, raw onion cook for 20 minutes.  Then add the frozen blocks of veggies.  Then some heavy cream-bought for creme brulee (instant pot).  Will cook the biscuits once the sun goes down. 

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #862 on: July 29, 2016, 12:42:50 PM »
Lyngi, that sounds wonderful!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last night I used up the rest of the taco shells for dinner.  Today I'm eating the last of the fresh spinach for lunch along with last night's leftover chicken.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #863 on: August 02, 2016, 06:32:26 AM »
I've been injured for the last week (sprained my ankle) and haven't been at the supermarket since Wednesday. As a result, I've been eating what I had here.

I realised just how much food I actually have here. I've still barely scratched the surface. Tonight I've cooked a lazy pasta sauce with chunky pork sausages (found in the freezer). I've also cooked up a chicken curry and a red kidney bean curry. That's lunches and dinners sorted for at least the rest of the week.

Let's see if I can make it to next week before I stop at the store.

I've also got most of a bottle of tequila sitting here. Maybe that'll go with the lemon I've also got :)
« Last Edit: August 02, 2016, 06:36:33 AM by alsoknownasDean »

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #864 on: August 02, 2016, 07:17:45 AM »
I always enjoy seeing this thread updated :)

Hope your foot gets feeling better quick, alsoknownasDean!

I'm slowly chipping away at things. Our diet has changed so dramatically the last year or so we are ending up with lots of stuff that we just aren't interested in using, so I have been rehoming what I can.

We are going to a music festival this weekend, so I have taken the opportunity to dig into my dried fruit and nut supply to make a bunch of granola bars, bliss balls and other snacks. Also used quite a bit of our coffee/tea supply by making several batches of each and freezing them in Icecube trays to pack our coolers with. As they slowly melt, we'll have yummy cold drinks and not have to pay festival prices!

FIREdancer

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #865 on: August 02, 2016, 07:45:44 AM »
I really need to do this.  I probably have almost an entire month's worth of meals in my freezer.  On top of that my pantry probably has enough to whip up another few weeks of meals.  I would try to skip the grocery store for a few weeks, but sadly my garden is not doing so well this year, so if I want any fresh stuff, I'll need to supplement.

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #866 on: August 02, 2016, 08:32:09 AM »
Used a jar of balsamic jelly I canned in 2010, when I first was learning to can, to make an amazing glaze for the leg of lamb on Sunday.

Used a package of beef liver a couple weeks ago:  soaking it in ACV instead of milk made it more palatable.  Cheaper too! Cooked with lots of onions, mushrooms and butter.   Have one more package to use up. 

Cooked the last of my frozen spinach into a kind of odd breakfast hash with Mexican pork and beans.

Our freezer is actually looking almost spare, which is good since we'll be getting a freezer lamb and probably half a pig soon.

Rural

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #867 on: August 02, 2016, 05:54:28 PM »
 Tonight we fried up some potatoes that needed to be used and dug out some decent spinach from a bunch that is starting to wilt for salads. Dug a couple of burgers out of the freezer and called it a meal.

In a little while, I'm going to put the rest of the spinach and an assortment of other itemS  like some wilted carrots into a curry lentil soup which will make lunches for quite some time for me.

ETA: just  discovered I have no lentils. It's a sad, sad day. On the other hand, this means I used up all the lentils.

« Last Edit: August 02, 2016, 06:01:10 PM by Rural »

Thrifty Snail

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #868 on: August 03, 2016, 06:03:04 AM »
With two kids we are always fighting this battle. The thing that gets wasted the most is bagged salad. It seems to last two days in the fridge.

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #869 on: August 03, 2016, 04:08:43 PM »
Leaving a holiday condo in a day and half, so the "eat down the fridge" game is on. Had leftover ham, 2 carrots and 1 cup of blueberries for lunch.  Kids finished the peanut butter and the jam this morning that we brought from home.

Noodle

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #870 on: August 07, 2016, 12:33:15 PM »
Nothing like an upcoming vacation to spur the "use it up" game. Two overripe cantaloupes became agua fresca. Leftover orzo, sliced black olives, tapenade, a red pepper and grape tomatoes along with some pantry ingredients went into a tuna pasta salad. (Looks terrible, tastes delicious). Stuffed some leftover chorizo rice into two random tiny acorn squash that turned up in my produce box. Roasted green beans--I am not very fond of green beans but I like them this way. Since the oven was on, roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and a couple carrots. The sweet potatoes and carrots got a little burned on the side touching the pan but that was easy to trim off. Tossed the roasted root veggies with a chimichurri inspired sauce based on the Budget Bytes recipe which used up a lemon, some wilted green onions, the last of a bunch of cilantro, a few cloves of garlic, and basil from the pot on my deck.

For the first time in ages I have gotten ahead of the produce drawers...

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #871 on: August 07, 2016, 05:45:44 PM »
Right now I have some lamb ribs and other bony lamb things in the instant pot with red chile sauce and onion.  Will shred it up for a nice taco filling to eat this week, and should result in a nice stock to use for a soup with Mexican flavors when the weather cools.  That just leaves one package of lamb chops until we get this year's lamb in a few weeks.

I finally used up the mixed micro-lentils by adding them to a big batch of hummus.  The hummus also used up some chipotles in adobo that have been hiding in the back of the fridge.

I'm going to commit right now to cooking beef liver this week.  I always have to work myself up to it.  Soaking in ACV instead of milk seemed to work better to neutralize the flavor a bit.

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #872 on: August 07, 2016, 10:47:30 PM »
Pulled a package of pork loins out of the freezer to marinate and grill tomorrow. Also thawing a whole chicken in the fridge for the day after - will do it in my Instant Pot.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #873 on: August 07, 2016, 11:56:57 PM »
This thread is very inspiring. I think I might set myself a mini-goal - no supermarket shop except for milk this week (hubby cannot live without coffee). In the cupboard/ produce drawer /garden we have plenty. I went through a phase of trying gluten free living and now have lots of half eaten random flours (buckwheat, potato, rice etc).

Tonight it is lentil and pumpkin soup done in the slow cooker. Tomorrow I will have to fashion some sort of pizza base to use up those flours since we also have a bunch of cheeses from when we entertained at the weekend - hey the worst that can happen is that it has to be eaten with a knife and fork.

markstache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #874 on: August 08, 2016, 12:35:14 PM »
The wife and kids left today to start their vacation early. I'll be joining them on Saturday. Goal: the fridge will be nearly empty when I leave (with the exception of beer yeast, cheeses that's I'm aging, and some eggs that will keep). That reminds me, I should go eat some salad.

Rural

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #875 on: August 08, 2016, 05:08:13 PM »
Today our dogs helped with leftover cornbread on the kitchen counter. Unusual behavior, that; I can only assume they really like cornbread, which I didn't know.




kaleidoscopicalkris

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #876 on: August 09, 2016, 10:07:43 AM »
I need to get in on this challenge. My fiancee and I have a new apartment that we will be moving into on September 29th. My goal is to move as little as possible. I will do a full inventory of our food this week and buy as little food as possible! I want to get more cooking skills under my belt, so this is a good excuse.

DTaggart

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #877 on: August 16, 2016, 06:51:58 PM »
Sign me up for this challenge! I went just a tiny bit overboard batshit crazy a couple weeks ago when meat and frozen vegetables were on sale and had to engage in some master level freezer tetris to get everything to fit. I vowed I’d forego any more stockpiling for the foreseeable future.

In addition to the freezer madness, I also have a fair amount of odds and ends stashed in the cupboards that apparently aren’t going to cook themselves, so I need to make some effort to use them up. I’ve been stuck in a bit of rut with cooking lately, sticking to a small set of easy to make meals and meals I can prepare ahead of time and freeze. These “autopilot” meals are great for when life is busy, but rotating the same set of meals each week is getting boring and means a lot of other things are languishing in the cupboards.

I’ve been making some respectable progress on the freezer in the past week. I completely skipped grocery shopping last weekend, and we officially ran out of salad stuff today. I did this deliberately to force us to eat the frozen veggies and it appears to be working.

On Sunday I made a loaf of bread in the bread machine so we wouldn’t feel the need to go to the store mid-week when the bread ran out. Man, homemade bread is SO good, I need to do this more often!

I had a lot of fresh fruit on hand too that I’ve mostly eaten down. The bananas and apples all got eaten last week, and now we’re working on the last item, which is unfortunately an entire watermelon. But I diced it all up over the weekend so we can just spoon out a bowl at a time, and as its the only fresh fruit left its slowly disappearing.

I will have to go to the store this weekend for some perishables: yogurt, lettuce, carrots, celery, eggs, and maybe some avocados, but hopefully that will be about it. Also probably some stuff to cook for dog food, but I’m counting that separately from the human food.

I’ve got some recipes planned for later this week that should start using some of the oddball items in the cupboards: this balsamic chicken recipe to use a bottle of balsamic salad dressing that I didn’t care for (hoping its better on chicken than salad), and Chicken Taco Cornbread Pie  to use up a package of cornbread mix. There’s way more stuff to get used but at least this is a start! We’ve had a lot of vet bills lately, so my savings from not grocery shopping will help make up for that.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #878 on: August 16, 2016, 08:49:58 PM »
We successfully skipped a grocery shop last week and ate out of the cupboards! But then spent a fortune this week... but mainly on bulk specials that will last, I hope!

Next challenge: We have used up all our cocoa/ hot chocolate options and we are left with a box of carob powder. I need to incorporate this into a bedtime milky drink that tastes good.

theadvicist

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #879 on: August 19, 2016, 06:27:31 AM »
We successfully skipped a grocery shop last week and ate out of the cupboards! But then spent a fortune this week... but mainly on bulk specials that will last, I hope!

Next challenge: We have used up all our cocoa/ hot chocolate options and we are left with a box of carob powder. I need to incorporate this into a bedtime milky drink that tastes good.

I had to do this with some hot chocolate mix I didn't really like. I just mixed it with the stuff I did like - and couldn't tell the difference, it just stretched it further. Might be worth a try. My ratio was almost 1:1 and it was fine, but you can just increase chocolate and reduce carob until you can't notice it.

tomita

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #880 on: August 19, 2016, 03:11:27 PM »
made a ratatouille  with a eggplant that was lingering in the cupboard , lots of onions, red pepper from the scraps I save for stock and it turned out delicious
plan to repeat this  "N" times

1967mama

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #881 on: August 19, 2016, 03:17:18 PM »
Finally used up 2 spaghetti squash....man, those things last a long time! I don't even remember buying them! They were fine, btw.

DTaggart

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #882 on: August 21, 2016, 03:47:37 PM »
OK I think I did pretty well this week! As planned, I used up some cornbread mix in Chicken Taco Cornbread Pie, and used the last giant carrot for carrot sticks to eat as a side. This was a pretty good recipe that we both enjoyed, which is good because I have one more pack of cornbread mix to go.

The Balsamic Chicken was pretty good, not sure if I'd make it again but since it used the whole bottle of Balsamic Vinaigrette salad dressing I was aiming to burn, I won't need to :)

Much frozen vegetables and watermelon were consumed.

We've had a bag of mexican hot cocoa mix sitting in the cupboard for longer than I care to admit. This sad mix was rejected by a co-worker, who had purchased it for a fundraiser for another co-worker's kid, only to find out it contained milk products which he couldn't eat because he was vegan. He oferred it up so I brought it home for hubby who loves hot cocoa, but apparently not enough to actually go to the effort of making it with any regularity. I finally put the poor chocolatey powder out of its misery today by making these hot cocoa muffins. I made a few substitutions - using coconut oil which has also been languishing unloved in the cupboard instead of melted butter, and using a mix of whole wheat and white flour since we have an abundance of whole wheat on hand (besides, now it's healthy, right?). The result earned a resounding "meh". They're decent and will suffice for morning snacks at work, but I wouldn't make them again.

Also today, I prepared a chicken salsa casserole for dinner tomorrow, which used some corn tortillas, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, and a can of green chiles, all of which I have embarrasing quantities of. Tomorrow I'll make a big batch of Mexican Rice (which will use up some chicken broth and tomato sauce from the cupboards and the rest of a diced onion sitting in the fridge) - that will be dinner and lunches for several days. Today for lunch, I mixed up some leftover shredded chicken and the last remnants of a bottle of BBQ sauce and spread it on a piece of toast. That was really pretty good.

Hubby's been surprisingly tolerant of this whole endeavor, he's been eating PB&J since the lunch meat ran out, and didn't even complain when we ran out of butter a couple of days before grocery shopping day. We did our shopping Friday and only bought a few things - salad stuff and some fruit, butter, yogurt, bread and eggs. I don't envision buying a while lot next weekend either, I expect we'll save about $100 this month on our normal grocery budget!

On the agenda for this coming week - make my own salad dressing to use some raspberry vinegar, figure out what to do with a can of adobo chiles and a pork roast (ideally resulting in carnitas tacos... mmmm tacos), and use up an open bottle of honey teriyaki glaze sitting in the fridge.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2016, 09:23:56 PM by DTaggart »

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #883 on: August 21, 2016, 05:49:16 PM »
We successfully skipped a grocery shop last week and ate out of the cupboards! But then spent a fortune this week... but mainly on bulk specials that will last, I hope!

Next challenge: We have used up all our cocoa/ hot chocolate options and we are left with a box of carob powder. I need to incorporate this into a bedtime milky drink that tastes good.

I had to do this with some hot chocolate mix I didn't really like. I just mixed it with the stuff I did like - and couldn't tell the difference, it just stretched it further. Might be worth a try. My ratio was almost 1:1 and it was fine, but you can just increase chocolate and reduce carob until you can't notice it.

So this is what I did:
3 x level tsp carob powder
1/2 tsp brown sugar
shake of ground cinnamon (1/4 tsp?)
add 2/3 hot water to the mug
add one drop vanilla extract
top up with milk, stir and enjoy!

Was delish. Got a whole box of this powder tho!

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #884 on: August 22, 2016, 07:31:51 AM »
Started a new batch of Kim Chi this weekend and buzzed up the last of the frozen pineapple to add to it, having seen a recipe for pineapple turmeric Kim Chi recently.

The last can of tomato paste that has been lingering around the house for ages finally went towards thickening a batch of salsa I canned (have been using last year's homemade paste instead of the store bought stuff).

The last few peaches that didn't fit in the canner, and have been in a jar of light syrup in the fridge got dehydrated, along with a bunch of free pears this weekend.

Failed on making liver last week.

markstache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #885 on: August 22, 2016, 10:16:10 AM »
Doing pretty well. Before I left on vacation, I mostly cleared out the fridge. Left about 1/2 gallon of milk to spoil. I guess I could have made some cheese before I left.

Since we got back Saturday, we've mostly been eating homemade bread and cheese. Used up some potatoes and onions, along with some homemade yogurt cheese, for crepes yesterday. Last night, we had homemade mozzarella (for which we bought milk) with homemade bread and garden grown basil and tomatoes. Oh, and the last of our homemade wine. Luckily, we've got another batch sitting ready to bottle.

Our next task should probably be clearing out the freezer. There's not too much in there, but I don't recall what it is, which means it's time to eat it or toss it.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #886 on: August 25, 2016, 11:56:52 AM »
About a 1/4 cup tomato paste and take out rice from the freezer went into bison jambalaya for last weekend's camping trip.

Tuesday we ate leftover hot dogs and brats from the camping trip.

DH's garden continues to produce zucchini.  So far this season I've made low carb zucchini bread, lc zucchini fritters, and fried them coated in Parmesan.  Tonight I'm going to make chicken and zucchini stir fry for the first time. :)

DTaggart

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #887 on: August 28, 2016, 09:59:39 AM »
Holy crap people, why the hell do I have so much food in my house?? I feel like I’ve been making good progress in this little project - the smaller of the two food cupboards in the kitchen is looking pretty roomy right now, and I’ve cleared enough space in the chest freezer that I can actually find things now - hooray! But the the more I dig into the reserves the more stuff I find that needs to get used. Here’s some of the things I did this week:

I ran out of the green tea I like to drink at work. At home, I have FOUR freaking giant boxes of black or black/green tea that I don’t like all that much when prepared as hot tea. So, for the foreseeable future I’ll be making up some refrigerator iced tea each night and taking that to work to drink instead. This may very well last until I’m FIREd :)

I finally finished the bottle of teriyaki glaze from the fridge - it took two separate meals to use it all up: grilled chicken kabobs last weekend and baked drumsticks last night.

Instead of homemade mexican rice, I cooked up two packages of Spanish rice mix I had bought to take camping but we never ate.

What I thought was raspberry vinegar hidden way in the back of the cupboard turned out to be pomegranate infused red wine vinegar. No worries, I still used it for some salad dressing - mixed ¼ cup of the vinegar, ¼ cup of olive oil, and ¼ tsp each salt and pepper. It was quite tasty - not as overpowering as the store bought dressings I’m used to and I could really taste the vegetables in the salad. Bonus points because it has no sugar. I may just continue making my own dressing for ever! I made a second batch on Friday and added some Italian Seasoning to it.

Mixed up a batch of tuna for hubby to have sandwiches - used up one of the two open bottles of mayonnaise that was in the fridge (also leftover from camping… in JUNE).

We have SEVEN jars of lentils in the cupboard. I made a batch of lentil tacos, but that only uses 1 cup of lentils, and results in about 3 meals worth. I need to find some more lentil recipes.

Today I’m making a pot of chicken broth, using a couple bags of chicken carcasses and veggie scraps from the freezer. And for dinner tonight, I’ve got some beef stew in the crockpot. I was able to use the last of a bunch of celery in that, and instead of the 1.5 cups of beef broth the recipe called for, I threw in an old can of French Onion soup from the back of the cupboard and ½ cup of beef broth that’s been in the freezer forever.

We did our last grocery shop for the month of August yesterday, and it was almost entirely produce and some milk. I did buy some of Sprout’s chicken sausage I like to use for our homemade pizza since it was on sale, and bell peppers were on sale for .50 each, but those were the only “stockpile” purchases. I had to stifle a few sobs as we passed by some really good meat deals, but I know they’ll go on sale again. The bottom line is I’ve saved over $100 on my grocery budget for the month, spending just under $200. Let’s see if I can beat that in September!

riverffashion

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #888 on: August 28, 2016, 03:13:58 PM »
Lentil soup -
Add whichever herbs, spices, or vegetables you like. I use onion in mine, as well as one or more of these: Spinach, carrots, celery. I like Italian seasoning, old bay, and salt. Maybe garlic. Sometimes i add quinoa, although one could add rice, potatoes, etc. Quick and easy. For richer flavor on occasion I add a little tiny amt of coconut oil.
Cold Lentil salad -
I love this one and tend to bring it to potlucks.
All vegetables added are to be raw. I add onion or scallions,
Shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes. Maybe some finely chopped kale, maybe quinoa, maybe feta, olives, capers or jicama etc .
To taste: I add balsamic vinegar,  salt, poss. a little olive oil or coconut oil.
Of course season and use whatever you like, but it's a bit nicely filling side dish or meal.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #889 on: August 28, 2016, 04:24:50 PM »
Red lentil soup is really nice with a few slices of fresh lemon added. I've even added orange slices when I had no lemon. I add what ever root veg I have and do it in the slow cooker with whatever stock for 2 hrs on high. The root veg kind of mush up when you stir it and you get a v hearty and filling orange soup.

ETA: I also put fresh chilli and cumin in.

DTaggart

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #890 on: August 28, 2016, 07:18:09 PM »

Cold Lentil salad -
I love this one and tend to bring it to potlucks.
All vegetables added are to be raw. I add onion or scallions,
Shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes. Maybe some finely chopped kale, maybe quinoa, maybe feta, olives, capers or jicama etc .
To taste: I add balsamic vinegar,  salt, poss. a little olive oil or coconut oil.
Of course season and use whatever you like, but it's a bit nicely filling side dish or meal.

Its a bit hot here for soup right now, but this one sounds promising. Thanks for the idea!

HappierAtHome

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #891 on: August 28, 2016, 08:24:55 PM »
I'm trying not so much to run down the pantry stocks, so much as use up the stuff that I am unlikely to buy again.

To that end, on the weekend I used up the last of the quinoa. I don't mind quinoa, but I don't like it ENOUGH for it to be a staple in my house.

I bought some nori sheets and tofu to use up the last of the sushi rice. I love sushi, so this will be a very enjoyable part of the challenge :-)

I think I'll make coconut cookies later in the week, to use up the coconut flour.

seemsright

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #892 on: August 28, 2016, 08:46:14 PM »
In the last few months I have come in WAY WAY under my food budget by eating what we have on hand.

This has proven to me that I keep way two much food on hand. I am slowly working through it. With a CSA during the growing season I really have not had to go to the store for much at all. Just some milk, cheese and yogurt for the little.  I did buy some meat the other week.

I am staying out of the store for as long as possible. We were out of a few staples like mayo and stir fry sauce. But I am just making them from scratch and calling it a day.

Homemade plum sauce took me 2+ hours to make...but make it made a awesome stir fry sauce.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #893 on: August 29, 2016, 01:02:21 PM »
About a 1/4 cup tomato paste and take out rice from the freezer went into bison jambalaya for last weekend's camping trip.

Tuesday we ate leftover hot dogs and brats from the camping trip.

DH's garden continues to produce zucchini.  So far this season I've made low carb zucchini bread, lc zucchini fritters, and fried them coated in Parmesan. Tonight I'm going to make chicken and zucchini stir fry for the first time. :)

The stir fry turned out great!  I added a bit of sriracha and served it on top of cauliflowered rice.

Last night I used another large zucchini by coating slices in almond flour, crushed pork rinds, grated Parmesan cheese and egg and frying it.

Saturday I used up some failing Romaine in a 7 layer salad.  I also used up a potato and corn cob for DH for supper.

Part of last night's leftover ham is in the slow cooker today for tonight's ham and beans (dried beans DH bought MONTHS ago).  :)

« Last Edit: August 29, 2016, 01:06:05 PM by MountainGal »

theadvicist

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #894 on: September 01, 2016, 06:39:07 AM »
2 of my 4 pantry shelves are now pretty much empty! I could definitely consolidate onto two, by packing things in as tightly as I used to, but I am enjoying not having a can land on my toe everytime I want something from the back! Love this thread.

riverffashion

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #895 on: September 01, 2016, 07:42:03 AM »
2 of my 4 pantry shelves are now pretty much empty! I could definitely consolidate onto two, by packing things in as tightly as I used to, but I am enjoying not having a can land on my toe everytime I want something from the back! Love this thread.
Love spaciousness.

swick

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #896 on: September 01, 2016, 07:47:45 AM »
I am back on the band wagon :) I've let out stocks get a week bit out of control. When it is all in packages, it doesn't look so bad, but I have been sealing everything in mason jars and it is amazing how much it all actually is when you can see it.

So I'm continuing with regifting food we are not going to eat because of new dietary restrictions and searching for recipes to make more food gifts for Christmas presents.   Also, doing the simplest (or sometimes the hardest) thing of just not buying more!

markstache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #897 on: September 01, 2016, 10:34:26 AM »
Continuing to do well. Buying dairy and produce, but for the most part just continuing to eat what we got. We made sweet potato french fries from our potatoes from our garden last night. So far, three jars of fermented salsa and probably a few more by the end of the month. We should try to do some swaps with other gardeners I as I think we'll have far more habeneros than we could possibly use.

4alpacas

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #898 on: September 01, 2016, 12:14:27 PM »
We're finally ordering groceries again.  It was a rough month, but I was able to get creative.  Our freezer is much cleaner, and our fridge is almost empty (except condiments).  We still have a lot of dry goods to get through, but I think I'm going to just avoid buying more and use up what we have.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #899 on: September 01, 2016, 12:27:16 PM »
I used up the remaining packages of chipotle cheese bites and chopped walnuts, and the jar of Greek olives in yesterday and today's lunch salads.

The remaining family size cod package and some shrimp were used last night for supper.  I've got to remember to buy peeled and deveined shrimp in the future.  Been working longer hours at the office, and would welcome the convenience.  And, much to my chagrin, I bought and opened a new bottle of cocktail sauce, forgetting we already had an open one in the fridge. 

DH and I shopped the freezer and pantry for an upcoming camping trip vs. buying new food.  And I'm going to make another low carb zucchini bread loaf and frittata beforehand.

DH accepted my suggestion of taking the container of homemade frozen burritos to work today.  :)

This morning I arranged the freezer a bit.  Among homemade leftovers and some convenience foods, we're down to a basket each of frozen veggies and proteins. 

September's focus:  The canned black beans and pumpkin.

Added:  Does anyone know how long Nori (seaweed sheets) will last once they package has been opened?  I looked it up online, but would rather hear answers from folks here.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2016, 12:31:07 PM by MountainGal »