Author Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2  (Read 1186192 times)

halftimer

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2700 on: April 20, 2020, 08:15:47 PM »
here are a couple of formulas I often use in my own kitchen:

Leftover sauce + leftover starch + frozen vegetables = dinner
Leftover sauce + leftover starch + frozen vegetables + cheese and/or breadcrumbs on top = casserole

I absolutely use these formulas in my kitchen too

We seem to have some good turnaround lately on our favourite meals and snacks, although we have to shop a little more frequently due to local shortages. So we keep quickly running out of the same things and the weekly grocery run is a simplified list of these few pantry items and fresh items (eggs, milk, fruit, favorite snack).  So I have noticed the languishing items in the pantry and fridge again and I'm making a special effort to use them up on days when I'm cooking for just me. Or when I can hide it effectively in the meal ;-)

So I made lentils for breakfast this week, which is a somewhat usual item for me, but added all sorts of tiny bits of condiments, unloved spices, last scoop of salsa, plus some garlic croutons at the end. It was fantastic, lasted me 3 meals, and emptied out a few things.
Then I made cookies with the last few servings of cereal that was too crushed to be tasty in a bowl with milk. These were a hit with the family even though no one wanted to eat the cereal for a long time (months, or likely longer)!
I had a few bags of frozen fruit that were taking up valuable space in the freezer I needed for proteins, so I made a cobbler with all the bits plus some oatmeal and brown sugar and a spice blend I don't usually use.

My next target is the container of peanuts I thought we would snack on, but that are slowly aging out. They will become toppings on the following meals (for just me) in the coming 2 weeks: Malaysian golden egg curry (Cole slaw cabbage slightly cooked, then topped with eggs poached in coconut oil with a spoonful of curry), stir fry, and possibly a dessert.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2701 on: April 21, 2020, 12:43:08 PM »
@Trudie, I would make separate casseroles.  :)

We returned from camping and have been eating up leftovers from the trip:
Sunday night we had leftover burgers and dogs
Yesterday and today DH ate the pancakes for breakfast
I just ate the remaining celery and cream cheese with lunch
Leftover boiled eggs went into our lunches for snacks
I ate the remaining breakfast wrap (low carb tortilla with egg salad) yesterday morning
DH ate the remaining lunch wrap (LC tortilla w/ lunch meat and cheese) for lunch yesterday

For Taco Tuesday night tonight, I'm hoping to save sad looking avocados by putting them into a guacamole.

gaja

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2702 on: April 22, 2020, 04:18:29 PM »
We are avoiding the stores, and don't have access to the ones we usually use. So now we are finally seeing a dent in the freezers. This week we've eaten bacon from 2016 and cod from 2017. Tomorrow it will be meatballs or tacos from fallow deer. It is only from 2018, so it should still be good.

Last autumn we took part in butchering a calf, and got half the meat. We also bought a small lamb. In total, it was a bit more than anticipated. I did not know how much meat there is on a calf. The liver alone was several kg of pate. When we slaughter lambs, the blood is usually eaten the first day (the kids love snacking on blood waffles). We still find frozen stacks of waffles from the calf. We have liters upon liters of bone broth, and there are still more bones in the freezer that I haven't boiled down. And there is just so much meat! Hopefully we will be able to reduce the stockpile during the barbecue season - I did prepare some nice t-bone steaks and ribs. But if we get this opportunity again, I'll be making a lot more ground beef, and cooking more of it before freezing. The small stack of bolognese sauce was gone before Christmas.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2703 on: April 22, 2020, 04:44:22 PM »
I've mostly gotten back to normal after my power outage required me to get rid of everything in my fridge and about 1/3 of the stuff in my freezer.  In a way, it's a relief to not need to deal with all of the stuff that had been in there, uneaten, forever.

I'm spending a LOT on food right now between being efficient in the grocery store, limiting my trips, and supporting my local food community via my CSA with add-ons such as bread and cheese.  I'm also continually reminded how long each dish I cook lasts as a person living alone.  Long enough for me to get sick of it if it's not something I can freeze, haha.

My current focus is figuring out how much I want to stock up in these uncertain times and how best to do so.  Does anyone have any thoughts about maintaining a separate emergency stock vs. just having a full pantry?

PoutineLover

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2704 on: April 22, 2020, 06:33:17 PM »
I definitely have more food on hand and I'm trying to maintain a higher level than usual in case food gets more expensive or harder to get, and because I'm trying to shop less. I found for the first couple weeks everything was jumbled up and I couldn't find things, but now I have a better system and I'm trying to stick to a rotation so I eat the oldest stuff first. Most of it is the same food as usual, just more of it, but there's a few pandemic specific stuff like canned veggies in case I can't get fresh. I'm also focusing on eating the remainder of things that have been in the cupboard for a while but overlooked. There was a big jump in spending at first, but I think it's levelled off now, although I'm finding in general fresh food is more expensive and lower quality, and shopping is such a hassle that I'll just buy whatever's there even if it's more expensive.

Serendip

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2705 on: April 22, 2020, 07:25:22 PM »
@SquashingDebt --I had the same thoughts. We live in a townhouse with a very small pantry space so even though we have it stocked, I decided to keep an extra supply on hand and put a large plastic bin in our spare room (which stays cool). There isn't a huge amount in there but definitely a week or two of extra bits and bobs.

We are pretty lucky no big food disturbances at our grocery store so far but want to be wise about it.

I'm trying to move things around in the freezer. Frozen fruit does take up a lot of room-- so making smoothies to use up the frozen pineapple and mango.

Trudie

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2706 on: April 22, 2020, 10:06:13 PM »
We live in a loft/condo space and are finding ways to keep a robust stash of food without bursting at the seams.  Today we went on a massive restocking mission to Costco and one of our favorite ethnic stores.  Now I’m probably overstocked, but Covid hasn’t peaked yet where I live, and I still think these are early days.  I just want to be prepared to not go to a store for like a month, if I have to.

So, I have plenty of cooking challenges ahead of me.  I also don’t waste much food.  Bits of leftover meat get tossed in the freezer for stew.  Spinach that’s a bit on its way out gets chopped and sautéed with garlic, then frozen for soup.  Veg bits either get thrown into the stock pot or tossed into the freezer to be fed to our neighbor’s worms.

PMG

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2707 on: April 22, 2020, 10:16:03 PM »
We’re struggling with this balance. It’s hard to stock up on some things with quantity limited. But also, do we eat down everything and avoid stores now? Or shop every 7-10 days to keep up a quantity so that we could go a month without shopping later? 

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2708 on: April 23, 2020, 08:35:50 AM »
We are using this opportunity to eat up more odds and ends, while still keeping our fridge/freezer/pantry stocked with essentials. And, by stocked, maybe 1-2 additional weeks worth of staples. We certainly don't have a few months worth of extra food. We could go that long without a shopping trip if the food supply completely collapsed, but we'd be focused on eating enough calories - certainly not "meals" or eating things we enjoy.

NotJen

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2709 on: April 23, 2020, 10:01:45 AM »
I finally used up a carton of egg whites yesterday, making an egg sandwich for breakfast.  The carton had been open longer than the recommended 7 days, but seemed fine.  I bought it to make mixed drinks (and successfully used up a bottle of alcohol from 2016!), but had lots leftover - and I learned that I don't care for it.  Mostly just did egg scrambles with bits of veggies and cheese to work through the carton and not "waste" too many real eggs (though there doesn't appear to be a shortage of those now).

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2710 on: May 02, 2020, 06:15:52 AM »
It's been 2.5 weeks since my last grocery trip and I'm still doing quite well.  Today I'll be making scones to use up my heavy cream (though I haven't sniffed in awhile so hopefully it's still good, haha).  I have to decide which entree dish or two to make this weekend to feed me this week.  I have so many recipe ideas that each use up different things that it's hard to pick! 

I'm going to try to go another 1.5 weeks or so until my next grocery trip.  A one-month interval makes them align quite nicely with my grocery store's coupon cycle (monthly personalized coupons for frequently-bought items, as well as $10 off of $100 or so).  If I do a very significant shop every 4 weeks I think I can slowly build up my pantry stores.  Like some of the rest of you, I need to eat up the random odds and ends in my pantry so that I have room for the basics.  Shouldn't be hard to tackle that last bit of the bottle of tequila!  (But then do I replace that?)  If I stock up a lot, I will need to be careful with storage conditions and expiration dates.  As just one person, I already have a hard time just using a bag of brown basmati rice, for example, before it expires/goes rancid.

NotJen

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2711 on: May 08, 2020, 02:34:36 PM »
Used up the frozen strawberries in my freezer from last year’s spring CSA to make jam.  I just finished the last of the various frozen jams/apple butter that I made last year, so it’s good have a new batch.

Next up are bags of peaches and peach jam (probably in a week or two).

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2712 on: May 10, 2020, 05:12:36 AM »
We will be moving to another house somewhere in June. Even though it is not far away, I would consider it a bit silly to move lots of freezer portions and normal stock items. So I now make meal plans on eating most of what is in the freezer.

It is a bit strange to be emptying our freezer and cupboards in the Corona times. During a pandamic, it pays off to have a stuffed storage room. It is also foraging season for lits of greens. I try to eat many fresh, but I do preserve some, which will have to be moved.

This week we have used:
- Frozen strawberries and raspberries (from our own garden).
- Lots of my foraged plants from last year, plus many of my fresh plants this year.
- Packs of coconut milk. I bought too many, so we make a weekly dish with it now.
- Tonight: frozen gambas.
- Frozen chicken breast and beef.
- Large bag of frozen veggies from the shop.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2020, 05:17:07 AM by Linea_Norway »

rachellynn99

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2713 on: May 11, 2020, 03:18:52 AM »
We have made a dent in our supply since this has started, but would like to eat down our pantry/freezers even more. My husband and I are both working from home. We have 2 teenagers and an 8 yo, all with healthy appetites. We get eggs daily from our chickens are are starting to get a few things from our garden- so far  some strawberries ( just enough for a snack or to munch on, not enough to put up yet)green onions and salad mix. Have lots of other stuff planted.

It's almost garden time here so I need to clear out some jars/freezer space for what I'll can this year. Why put it up if we don't eat it?

We also have an abundance of deer meat from last year, my dad and I go fishing together regularly so we have fresh fish often, and we still quite a bit of wild boar from last year that we harvested off our land. Lastly, we have probably 10 lbs of shrimp my husband brought home from the gulf last year when he went down there fishing. So we have a lot of stuff to eat, I just need to be better at putting meals together and staying out of stores. Also, I'm bad about buying stuff that we could technically go without- for example, milk, good cheese, stuff I can't make myself, and while those are delicious I could eat what we have.

So thanks for this challenge. I hope to get some space freed up in May.

rachellynn99

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2714 on: May 11, 2020, 03:21:33 AM »
Now I need to get the kids to eat the approximately 1 million cheese sticks they insisted we buy a few weeks back at Costco.

If you have a waffle iron, it seems you can stuff them in there and turn them into a crispy, melty treat!

Also- I sometimes dip them in an egg wash, then roll in panko and bake- they are like little fried cheese.

slackmax

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2715 on: May 23, 2020, 08:14:58 AM »
Found a box of 10 year old pancake mix. Used some of it yesterday to make 3 pancakes. Not bad, but not as fluffy as I'd like. But tasty enough. Will use it up and probably not replace.     

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2716 on: May 23, 2020, 08:49:42 AM »
-Used up Greek yogurt in place of sour cream in a pasta/taco bake.
-Used some old pomegranate balsamic (no idea where this came from) on a salad

Really need to use up the fresh beans my husband purchased

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2717 on: May 23, 2020, 10:13:18 AM »
This week we have used up from the freezer:
- several frozen meats
- lots of older and newer frozen herbs that I picked outside
- some frozen veggies like carrots, chilipeper
- made a dent in the mega size bag of frozen, precut veggies from the shop
- two leftover portions of soup
- croutons
- wraps

Zoot

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2718 on: May 23, 2020, 12:06:44 PM »
Found a box of 10 year old pancake mix. Used some of it yesterday to make 3 pancakes. Not bad, but not as fluffy as I'd like. But tasty enough. Will use it up and probably not replace.   

Having just had some experience with the ineffective nature of old baking powder, I wonder if it's that which is causing the failure to rise.  Wonder if adding a bit of fresh baking powder might liven it up a little and give you some more lift in the pancakes?

slackmax

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2719 on: May 25, 2020, 08:35:28 AM »
Found a box of 10 year old pancake mix. Used some of it yesterday to make 3 pancakes. Not bad, but not as fluffy as I'd like. But tasty enough. Will use it up and probably not replace.   

Having just had some experience with the ineffective nature of old baking powder, I wonder if it's that which is causing the failure to rise.  Wonder if adding a bit of fresh baking powder might liven it up a little and give you some more lift in the pancakes?

Interesting. I had thought about that also. Of course my baking powder is probably ancient, ha ha.  Maybe a LOT of old baking powder would do the trick, though.

I did try thickening up the mixture (less water) and that helped make the pancakes thicker, but still not fluffy.

For the next batch, I'm going to try adding some baking powder and using the original water amount.  We'll see!   

It's good to have something to do these days, lol.   

NotJen

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2720 on: May 29, 2020, 11:07:20 AM »
Used up 5lbs of peaches from 2018 in the freezer to make jam.

okisok

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2721 on: May 29, 2020, 12:28:06 PM »
Used up a can of creamed corn. Blerg! I do not like creamed corn. I grabbed it by mistake in the store and didn't realize until I was looking in the pantry for kernel corn. I mixed it with a box of cornbread mix. I didn't add an egg like the directions called for, since I wanted to see how it turned out.
It's delicious! More moist than when following the package directions. (Probably could've gone with half a can, but it's gone now!) I made it in a pre-heated cast iron skillet coated in melted bacon grease. Slathered on some pumpkin butter and enjoyed it immensely. Much better than eating straight creamed corn.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2722 on: May 29, 2020, 09:03:17 PM »
Used parsley (from the garden), pine nuts (lingering in the pantry) & a lemon (gifted from a neighbor) to make a parsley pesto. Used it on a naan bread (from our produce box) with a pepper (also produce box) & .... leftover hot dogs to make a naan bread pizza. It was actually shockingly good. The parsley pesto was fantastic & I highly recommend. It didn't call for any parmesan, so it was also reasonably frugal. Particularly because we're trying to use up pine nuts.

https://www.freshfoodbites.com/lemon-pepper-parsley-pesto/

PMG

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2723 on: June 03, 2020, 06:49:13 PM »
Today was a day full of successes. 

My spouse made us pancakes for breakfast using the last of some milk I let get really really sour. I used a leftover pancake at dinner to make us a "crepe" for desert with greek yogurt and strawberry jam and the one lone strawberry that was ripe in the garden today.

Someone gave us Chantilly cream recently, I've never had it before, not sure if what they gave us what traditional, but it was very very sweet with honey, in fact the honey and sweet was so strong that it overpowered the fruit it was supposed to be served with, so it was just languishing in the fridge.  Today I used the last of it to replace both the milk and sugar in an oatmeal cake recipe. I felt a bit bad doing so, but the cake turned out, and we're not going to end up throwing something out.

We're also working our way through the last 4 pounds of discounted quinoa I bought a year ago. We're not rushing that, but it is satisfying to be eating it all up, not wasting it, or throwing it out in five years.  I wish I could remember how much I bought, between 15 and 20 pounds, because I kept finding it clearanced.  Worked out well.

We've got a bounty of garden lettuce right now, and have been eating big salads for dinner the past three days and will try to keep going as long as the crop holds out. If I can get my act together tomorrow I'll cook up some chickpeas and make us hummus wraps heavy on the lettuce just for a change in format.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2020, 06:51:10 PM by PMG »

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2724 on: June 04, 2020, 04:47:32 AM »
We are still emptying the freezer for moving next week. We ate:
- a portion of chicken breasts from freezer
- beef from freezer
- ground beef from freezer
- emptied the large bag of precut veggies
- a leftover portion of homemade pizza
- a leftover portion of homemade soup
- homemade croutons from the freezer
- homemade pesto and jam from fridge, made of edible plants
- some not cold foods from cupboard

SquashingDebt

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2725 on: June 04, 2020, 05:55:55 AM »
Anyone have some favorite ways to use up dried shiitake mushrooms?  I have quite a bit taking up space in my pantry.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2726 on: June 04, 2020, 09:12:06 AM »
Anyone have some favorite ways to use up dried shiitake mushrooms?  I have quite a bit taking up space in my pantry.

In a asian soup.

Dee_the_third

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2727 on: June 04, 2020, 10:16:10 AM »
Anyone have some favorite ways to use up dried shiitake mushrooms?  I have quite a bit taking up space in my pantry.

Soak, slice thin, and throw em in a stir fry, or in anything that already involves asian-ish flavors.

My favorites: added to a Korean-style jigae, and sticky rice (medium or short grain white rice, chicken broth and/or the soaking liquid from the mushrooms, diced chinese sausage, sliced mushrooms. Yummy)

horsepoor

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2728 on: June 05, 2020, 05:39:21 PM »
I didn't eat it, but I finally either fed to the chickens or tossed all of the random home canning stuff that either didn't turn out well, or had gotten too old for me to feel comfortable consuming. 

Tonight we're having a cold "grazing" type dinner with random pickles, cheeses and leftover meats.  Good for using up spare bits on the hottest day of the week.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2729 on: June 06, 2020, 05:00:45 AM »
When packing low priority food in moving boxes, I found out that I have 2 packs of rice sheets, one of which is with shrimp taste. After moving, we should figure out a way of eating it.

I threw away 3 of my bags with selfpicked, dried mushrooms. There was a reason those were still not eaten after 3 years. It is a not so well tasting species. But I kept the other ones that were still there.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2730 on: June 06, 2020, 08:13:32 AM »
We are heading to our vacation house in a week, so my priority has been using up as much as possible. I am cutting up fruit to keep in a bowl for easy access. As a result, we ate a cantaloupe in a day, went through all of our produce box plums, strawberries, and a bunch of nectarines.

I also baked a package of taquitos, to round out a random dinner of leftovers. My husband ate two not quite big enough to be full portions of fish, the kids finished off the leftover taco meat, and I had edamame & a few taquitos. It was, random.

Tonight, I need to steam the artichokes I received in my produce box, and ensure we use up all of the celery. I love a challenge to use up the fresh ingredients before we travel

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2731 on: June 08, 2020, 01:39:00 PM »
@horsepoor, because of the humidity, we had the same thing for supper Saturday night.  I call them snack plates, and this one had a deconstructed chef salad vibe:  a boiled egg, the rest of the dill pickle chips, an avocado, bacon, 2 types of cheese, olives....

Some leftover frozen beef roast, and "stew meat" from the 1/4 cow we bought late last year, are in the Crock Pot along with broccoli and a few other ingredients for beef and broccoli tonight.

Thursday I'm going to use one of the gifted jars of apricot jam we received on top of pork chops and slow cook them.  Having supper ready in the Crock Pot after work is so convenient!

I've also been concentrating on eating up snacks on hand rather than buying more.  The current focus is on a very large bag of pistachios.  :)  DH's focus is on the bag of pork cracklin's.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2732 on: June 08, 2020, 05:44:10 PM »
I'm finally making artichokes from our produce box, with an aoli i pulled together this morning. i was worried they would go bad before I finally made time to make them.

I've also continued to cut up fresh fruit to keep in the fridge, to motivate the kids to eat it

okisok

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2733 on: June 08, 2020, 06:31:14 PM »
I've got the food in my house mostly down to 'ingredients to make food'. By that, I mean that there's little convenience food.  What there is will need to be processed in some way to be eaten. There's one frozen pizza (in case of one of those workdays where I come home starving but exhausted),  but lots of cheese, pepperoni, scads of homemade tomato sauce, and flour to make dough.
I've been making use of my slow cooker to go through freezer items. Tonight's dinner was a half serving of chili from the freezer dumped over slightly stale tortilla chips. No wasted food and I've got one of my glass storage containers back into circulation :)
Lots of slow cooker recipes for me this summer. It keeps the kitchen from getting so hot, and it's such a convenient way to batch cook. Those recipes seem to be pretty forgiving with substitutions, too.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2734 on: June 09, 2020, 08:00:10 AM »
In addition to using up the produce box artichokes yesterday (they were pretty good, but could have used a few more minutes of steaming), we ate leftover kebabs & rice. I need to use the last of the celery & radishes (also from the produce box) before we leave on Friday.

We keep working on eating leftovers for lunches, and clearing out as much food as possible. We will bring a cooler with anything we can't finish, but want to minimize carryover.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2735 on: June 09, 2020, 08:15:58 AM »
We moved one combi fridge/freezer to the next house and I could fit all the food from the freezer into the freezer drawers of the other combi fridge/freezer. So my goal of emptying freezers works. Tomorrow we can turn on the electricity in the moved fridge and take in use the freezer drawers there.

I threw away a frozen lime and lemon where I removed the peel from earlier. I had some recipies requiering lime or lemon peel a long time ago, but I didn't need the lemon og lime. I don't see the point of using those in the future, so they will be composted. The large compost bin also needs to be moved. Not looking forewards to that, as there are a LOT or worms inside. We got some large garbage bags that are tight, so we'll try to move the compost in that

NotJen

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2736 on: June 09, 2020, 04:53:24 PM »
I'm OUT of frozen leftovers! and tomorrow is grocery day.  So it was a clean-out-the-fridge dinner: a baked sweet potato topped with black beans, onion, cilantro, queso fresco, and a little sour cream.  Served with the last of the green beans in the fridge.

Guess it's time to start the shopping list.

SailingOnASmallSailboat

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2737 on: June 10, 2020, 04:44:26 AM »
I'm OUT of frozen leftovers! and tomorrow is grocery day.  So it was a clean-out-the-fridge dinner: a baked sweet potato topped with black beans, onion, cilantro, queso fresco, and a little sour cream.  Served with the last of the green beans in the fridge.

Guess it's time to start the shopping list.

This sounds awesome. Thanks for the idea!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2738 on: June 10, 2020, 10:28:43 AM »
@NotJen - I secretly love when I'm out of everything. It lets me know that we've efficiently used up all of our food, and nothing will go to waste!

We used up all of the fresh beans, in a big sesame oil bean saute yesterday, which was great. Lots of flavor, with onions, garlic, etc.

I'm in the process of menu planning for the next few weeks, as we are heading to our vacation house, and have different options available. The store is also quite a drive, and while we haven't been doing infrequent purchases these days, it's really not an option in the upcoming weeks. Also, despite all my promises to myself of taking photos of the freezer & pantry before we left last time... I didn't. So, I'll need to be flexible, once I see what's there & needs to be used up.

SailingOnASmallSailboat

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2739 on: June 10, 2020, 10:48:07 AM »
@NotJen - I secretly love when I'm out of everything. It lets me know that we've efficiently used up all of our food, and nothing will go to waste!

We used up all of the fresh beans, in a big sesame oil bean saute yesterday, which was great. Lots of flavor, with onions, garlic, etc.

I'm in the process of menu planning for the next few weeks, as we are heading to our vacation house, and have different options available. The store is also quite a drive, and while we haven't been doing infrequent purchases these days, it's really not an option in the upcoming weeks. Also, despite all my promises to myself of taking photos of the freezer & pantry before we left last time... I didn't. So, I'll need to be flexible, once I see what's there & needs to be used up.

This is such a great idea. Thanks!

tungu2

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2740 on: June 10, 2020, 12:01:49 PM »
Hi everyone.
Not planning to eat all the food in the house, but I will try to eat everything in the freezer. I stocked up on frozen veggies in the beginning of the lockdown. Really went overboard. And now my freezer started to make weird noises. I should go through the food in case it dies in the next couple of month (it’s currently 100 C here, no chance of transporting food to friends or family, no close neighbors either).

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2741 on: June 11, 2020, 02:52:55 PM »
Good luck with your freezer, @tungu2!


The fridge is starting to look bare, and I can see the bottom of the top freezer drawer.  Here's to grocery shopping next week!  I compiled the list for Monday pick-up.

~The pork chops and apricot jam I mentioned earlier this week are in the slow cooker.  I'll serve them on top of a bed of baby spinach with a side of mashed cauliflower.
~Used up the rest of a box of breaded shrimp and the last bag of okra last night
~The rest of the olives and bacon went on top of a cauliflower crust pizza
~I snacked on the rest of the dill pickle slices the other night
~Substituted almond extract for vanilla in cookies yesterday.  It is suggested to use half the amount, which I did.
~Finished off the sugar free gummy bears.  ;)
~Used the rest of the jarred artichokes in a dip

The only freezer actual leftovers we have is a container each of soup and chili.  It's been too warm to consider those, so perhaps they'll hold out for fall.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2020, 02:56:35 PM by MountainGal »

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2742 on: June 12, 2020, 04:36:55 PM »
“Stocked up on frozen veggies..... really went overboard..... and now my freezer is making weird noises....”  You gave it indigestion!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2743 on: June 13, 2020, 09:31:00 AM »
We got to our vacation house last night, and ate a dinner I'd prepped & kept in the cooler (tacos). I also brought all of our leftover perishables. I now need to inventory what's in the freezer/pantry here. We have a weird mix of time here, where it will be us with the kids, then just the adults, then me with my sister, then another family gathering. So, need to plan accordingly for lots of different number of diners, and not buy too much & waste.

 

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2744 on: June 13, 2020, 01:33:59 PM »
It was time to clean out the fridge this morning after stuffing it full with the less frequent shopping trips.  This time I'm going to get it pretty bare before I do any major shopping. 

As luck would have it, temps dropped 30 degrees overnight and it's raining, so naturally that means soup.  Using up broccoli, celery, part of a cabbage, half an onion, etc.  I'll use some turkey breast from the freezer that I portioned up at Thanksgiving for the protein, and I'm planning to experiment with using yogurt and masa to make cornbread.

MountainGal

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2745 on: June 15, 2020, 02:19:26 PM »
Let's just say mashed cauliflower tastes better and has better texture with cream, not almond milk.  ;)  But, we toughed it out and ate it and had it for leftovers as well.  Over the weekend:

~Toasted the sourdough from a leftover takeout sandwich, put the sandwich back together and cut it in half for supper.  I served it with leftover takeout onion rings, and the last of the salad mix, leftover boiled eggs, and some cherry tomatoes that are on their way out.

~The remaining jar of gifted apricot jam is in the slow cooker with a pork roast for tonight.

~I discovered there's a bit of almond butter past it's expiration date in the fridge.  I just looked for a recipe and will make almond butter brownie cookies with it.  Yum.

~Finished off a small bag of chili flavored pistachios.  Now on to the larger bag of the plain version.

I really like having our extra freezer out in the garage.  I went out there Saturday to ensure there is room for tonight's large grocery pickup, and found several proteins I bought last month.  Into the kitchen freezer they went, including smoked salmon for last night's supper.  I served it with the aforementioned mashed cauliflower and green beans.

Food waste:  Tossed a few molded strawberries, and half bag of hardened mini marshmallows.  Keeping a close eye on things other than that.


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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2746 on: June 16, 2020, 02:08:31 PM »
@MountainGal - the almond milk sub doesn't sound appealing! You are troopers for finishing it up.

For today:
-Ate a leftover waffle & sausage that were hanging around the freezer. Wrapped them together for breakfast
-For lunch, found a chicken patty (the kids are now with my parents for a few weeks, so this wouldn't get eaten) & diced it into a salad. Also had leftover mozzarella/peach/basil salad, from my husband's birthday dinner last night.
-For dinner, there will be crabcakes, aioli & steak, all leftover from last night. Yum!

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2747 on: June 16, 2020, 07:14:50 PM »
There's a gifted round steak thawing in the fridge. It's been in the freezer since the winter. I found a Sesame Beef Stir Fry recipes on allrecipes.com that uses ingredients I have in the pantry. It should be fully thawed and ready to make tomorrow morning.
Ended up buying some tortillas to help use up the other freezer odds and ends. A case of 'spending money to make money' but this is buying new groceries to use up old groceries. It's so easy to slather meat and veggies with salsa, pop it in a tortilla melt some cheese, and voila--a meal!

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2748 on: June 17, 2020, 02:42:29 PM »
I'm at our vacation house, and I love that the fridge contains no unknowns. It makes it so much easier to plan & work through everything. The freezer & pantry, on the other hand..

-I had 1/2 of the last bagel with an egg for breakfast. Tomorrow will be the other half. Then, I'll move on to the waffles in the freezer. Not my top choice, but it will be all good.
-For lunch, took a bit of the kids leftover pasta, leftover thai veggies, & leftover grilled chicken & made a pasta chicken bowl. It was much better than I'd expected.
-For dinner, we're having leftovers (shocking, really) of salmon & rice. Plus, salad to use up the fresh veggies.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2
« Reply #2749 on: June 18, 2020, 11:41:03 AM »
-Ate the last half bagel & a leftover egg/sausage scramble for breakfast & 1/2 a peach that I found in the back of the fridge
-For lunch, having salad lingering in the fridge & tomato soup hiding in the freezer
-Dinner, we'll be having leftovers

The fridge is looking great!