Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2

[MountainGal]

Much to my chagrin yesterday, I tossed a mushy apple that didn't make the rotation, so it was shoved in the back when I bought new ones last week.

~Monday's leftover pork was used last night in nachos for me and a burrito for DH.  I made riced cauliflower this time, and flavored it up with a lot of spices.
~There's a beef roast in the slow cooker with ingredients to make my first Korean based dish tonight.  I'll serve it with last night's leftover cauliflower.  Should be good.
~My lunch salad today included the remaining cherry tomatoes.

Fresh produce is on tonight's grocery list.  :)

[draco44]

Making homemade granola allowed me to use up some dried figs that were so dried out I couldn't eat them regularly. I soaked them in water for about 15 minutes to rehydrate, then chopped them up, mixed them into the granola mixture, and baked until done.

For my next trick, I've realized I have a sample-sized jar of jam I've never gotten around to using. I plan to microwave it slightly and then substitute it for part of the honey in another batch of granola.

[Linea_Norway]

Today I used up an old pack of rice paper sheets. Dipped them into water and filled them with either meat, fish or fruit and we ate them raw. DH liked it a lot.

The other pack of rice paper that I have contains shrimp(s). The pack says that the rolls need to be fried in oil, so I need to make a plan for that.

[MountainGal]

Much to my chagrin, we didn't get to the leftover beef I kept in the fridge in time, so I threw it out yesterday.  Thankfully I had frozen half of the leftovers last week.  I also tossed a mushy kiwi.  Upon reflection, I could have used the latter in a smoothie.  Oh, well.

~Leftover BBQ meat from last Saturday fed us for several meals.
~Used up some baby spinach by sauteing it and served it under our grilled shrimp stuffed portobello mushrooms last night.
~Asparagus and broccoli were used in two suppers this week.

There is still about 1/3 bottle of the honey cream left.  What to do, what to do, LOL.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We've done a good job of eating plenty of items from the fridge & pantry:
-Finished off a few dips with veggies for happy hours
-Sent the items we wouldn't eat to a friend's house
-Finished off the carnitas & 2 large salads

The raspberries did go bad really quickly, so we didn't quite get through them all. They are always hit or miss, but delicious when they work out.

[NotJen]

Once again, I had to "make up" a dinner as it's time to go to the store tomorrow, and I was out of most of my fresh vegetables.

I made a single-serve cup of mac and cheese I got from the clearance bin at the store, poured it on a handful of raw kale I had in the freezer (microwaved), mixed in 1 piece of crumbled bacon, threw in the last of a bag of frozen peas (still frozen), and topped with a poached egg.

More nutritious (and tasty) than I originally thought when I decided to eat the mac & cheese for dinner!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Finished the leftover soup (white chicken chili, which was delish)
-Used the remaining soup toppings (diced cheese, avocado & green onions) as scrambled egg toppings this morning
-Finished the fresh pineapple

We're having leftover carnitas atop salads for dinner, along with using up the extra cheese & veggies for "happy hour"

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We continue to clean out the fridge:
-Two salads made with leftover veggie tray items, and the remainder of a bagged salad
-I ate the other half of my Chipotle salad for lunch
-Almost done with the English muffins left in the fridge

For today:
-I'll use the last of the carnitas on a salad
-Finish off the blueberries
-More salmon & chicken sausages. I'll freeze the leftover sausages, so they don't go bad before we can eat them

I did have to toss a wedge of brie. I think it got damp in the cooler, while we were traveling. It didn't look/smell right. Sad, because brie is awesome.

[MountainGal]

Sorry to hear about the brie, @MaybeBabyMustache.  :(

Preparing to vaycay for a few days so we're clearing out the fridge:
~Ate leftover burger patties and brats yesterday for lunch and dinner
~We supplemented the above with leftover pasta salad from the weekend
~DH has been eating the leftover burger buns from our Solstice party
~Made side salads with the leftover salad mix, cucumber, boiled eggs and cherry tomatoes
~Just ate the rest of the blueberries here at the office
~We'll eat leftovers from the freezer when we return so I don't have to worry about cooking

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@MountainGal - it was a sad time! On your update, I love getting ready for a vacation, or getting to our house here & having a limited supply of food. It makes eating everything feel more like a reality show challenge vs my real life. More fun or something? I think because there's a dedicated timeline, and you can see the fridge/freezer emptying out without filling back up.

We have my parents coming on Thursday, to bring the kids back. The fridge will fill *all the way* back up, but then will hopefully be close to empty on Monday, when we'll head out. Will take anything left in the cooler, or send with family.

-Blueberries & pico de gallo are now gone. . . I have some sad looking apples & pears in the fridge. If I had the right ingredients, I'd make a crumble. They are not looking good for eating. Maybe a smoothie?

[horsepoor]

I made a lamb stew a couple days ago using up homemade prunes, part of a jar of salsa, leftover leg of lamb, the last bit of my homemade smoked chili powder, and some other random bits. 

I have some unsweetened, coarse coconut flakes I need to do something with.  Also some chia seeds, which I need to just admit I don't like, and shouldn't buy again.

DH is going on a trip, so it might be a good time to rifle through the cabinets and eat up random items.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Let's see:
-Almost done with the English muffins
-Finished off the last of a bag of carrots, cherry tomatoes & cheese last night with dinner

For today:
-Will use the last of a package of goat cheese for breakfast
-Plan to have most of the remainder of an on the way to sad bagged salad & last piece of chicken for lunch

[Catbert]

I made a lamb stew a couple days ago using up homemade prunes, part of a jar of salsa, leftover leg of lamb, the last bit of my homemade smoked chili powder, and some other random bits. 

I have some unsweetened, coarse coconut flakes I need to do something with.  Also some chia seeds, which I need to just admit I don't like, and shouldn't buy again.

DH is going on a trip, so it might be a good time to rifle through the cabinets and eat up random items.

Unsweetened coconut ideas:  smoothie, curry, cookies*, granola, oatmeal, rice.  Really anywhere you might use coconut milk you could toss a bit of unsweetened coconut flakes.

*A great cookie recipe for using up odds and ends of treats is Martha Stewart's Everything But the Kitchen Sink cookies.  There are several versions on-line.  Essentially you make a basic cookie dough and then add X cups of "stuff".  Stuff being coconut flakes, nuts, chocolate chips/chunks, pretzels, raisins, dried fruit, oatmeal, etc. in any combination to make up x cups.

[Rural]

My focus these days is all about rotation, but definitely not using up. I expect the food shortage issues we had in April and May will pop back up as cases rise again. I also think that when there's some weakness in the food chain, the large urban areas are prioritized.


So, Rotating stock, building up a few reserves of things we get at the store, and focusing on harvesting and preserving the garden and foraged items.


Today's "use it up" was squash casserole using the first squash out of the garden. Had one that really probably should've come off the plant yesterday, but leaving it let another one get big enough that the two together made a a decent sized casserole.

[PMG]

Same here Rural.  It’s a bit of a struggle to balance. We’re shopping every 2.5-3 weeks, and each time we always forget something or buy excess of something because doing so much shopping at once is overwhelming! So in the time between trips we’re working on not wasting what we have, and especially in week 3 we’re getting creative.

I’m trying to maximize what we have that’s fresh.  Obviously salads and a lot of fresh things don’t last past week one, but we’ve got a little broccoli coming in out of the garden, and I’m making sure we eat anything like that fresh when we can, to help keep up variety.

In the past week I finally made mustard with the seeds I bought a year ago. Then I used some mustard to make a honey mustard vinaigrette for a broccoli, carrot, walnut salad.

We did some shopping at an Indian grocery store pre-covid. This week I finally made cornbread using the meal.  It’s coarser than what we find in the grocery, I wasn’t sure if it was too coarse, but it was oh so good. 

I got a big bag of tapioca pearls there as well, it was so cheap compared to the little boxes in the grocery! I made a strawberry jello fruit salad thing with it.  It wasn’t great, but it was cold and refreshing and we ate it all.

We went to a bakery last weekend and got some treats, but on the way home we stopped and dropped treats off on friend’s porches.  It was grand fun.  But we accidentally gave away all the scones!  All week we were talking about missing out on those scones, so Friday evening I made us some.  They turned out amazing.

So that’s our game right now, trying to balance the fresh with the dried goods, and frozen things, and practicing some self control so that we still have treats things we enjoy left in week 3, while making sure that we don’t let things spoil, especially when the fridge and cupboards are overwhelmingly full in week 1. 

[horsepoor]

@Catbert thanks for the suggestions!

This morning I made seed crackers using some gomashio (sesame seeds with little bits of seaweed) my aunt brought me about three years ago (it's been residing in the freezer, as well as pepitas that were left after high-grading the tastier bits from a bag of trail mix.  The recipe also used some psyllium husk, one of those random things that is rarely used (but kind of essential for this type of cracker).

A few days ago, I used up the last of the cauliflower pizza crusts I made and froze Before Corona, when I was expecting to be busier with work travel.  Of course pizza is a good way to use up some other random toppings as well, like a jar of pesto and some preserved eggplant.

Made a couple smoothies this week including chia seeds and bee pollen that have been hanging around too long.

Lots of food is coming in from the garden now, so I'm a little less concerned with food supply issues than I was back in March, but will still keep some dry staples on hand (beans, flour, rice) that we don't eat much as an emergency stash,  I might build this up a little over time, and looking into dehydrating and freezing a little more produce than usual this year.  In the meantime, it's gratifying to see the older stuff getting used so there is less clutter of random ingredients.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

I've set us a challenge to use something from the freezer every day until it's empty (or we move out of the house, whichever comes first). This morning was frozen waffles. Dinner is the half piece of salmon and the sausage links, along with rice cooked with some of the frozen peas.

August 10 is the house close. I've kept a more full pantry than usual with COVID, so this I have a feeling we'll be moving with a stash of food in the car.

[MountainGal]

@SailingOnASmallSailboat, I like the idea of using a daily frozen item!  I'm going to implement that idea starting tomorrow.

As mentioned in a previous post, again yesterday I was delighted to search the garage freezer and found salmon and boneless pork chops I purchased in May.  The chops are in the slow cooker today along with a leftover half jar of homemade jalapeno jelly gifted to us, and 1/3 apple jelly leftover from one of DH's meat smoking adventures.  I cannot wait to taste it this evening!  I'll serve it with leftover bits and bobs from the weekend.

Saturday I made my first dump cake in the slow cooker.  It used up a cake mix along with fresh blueberries I froze last month.  The cake was very dense, and I understand why the recipe suggested serving it warm over ice cream.

Yesterday I made omelets which used up some baby spinach.  I also sliced some avocado for the side, but alas, I learned there is only so long they can be refrigerated.  I ended up tossing it.

The fridge is a bit bare, as I cleared it out before leaving for days off last week.  We are in need of fresh produce and almond milk.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We traveled back from our vacation house, and brought two coolers of food back with us. Here's what we used up today:
-Finished a box of cherries & small container of blueberries
-Ate leftover hot dogs, burgers & potato salad
-Used a bagged salad that is quickly approaching "seen better days", with a grilled sausage

Our garden is finally producing, so we used the tomatoes in a salad. My teenager thought the zucchini was a cucumber (?!) and sliced & tried to eat it with salt. He reported disappointment. ;-)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Our grocery bill is *so* high these days. Really trying to work with what we have, and avoid spending. For today:

-Two 4th of July barbecue hamburger buns were toasted & served with dinner
-Two garden cucumbers sliced for lunch
-All of the garden tomatoes into salad
-More of the getting sad bagged salad was eaten for lunch, topped with a leftover grilled sausage
-A taco bake from the freezer fed two diners tonight, when I couldn't find the dinner I was planning to serve. That's how crazy our fridge is right now. I found it after I started making dinner, so at least it's not lost? It's a sad state of affairs in my fridge.
-For breakfast, I had a waffle with slices of cheese leftover from vacation happy hour, and a few slices of deli meat from vacation sandwiches
-The kids continue to work their way through the "bag of road trip snacks" I purchased.

[mm1970]

Our grocery bill is *so* high these days. Really trying to work with what we have, and avoid spending. For today:

-Two 4th of July barbecue hamburger buns were toasted & served with dinner
-Two garden cucumbers sliced for lunch
-All of the garden tomatoes into salad
-More of the getting sad bagged salad was eaten for lunch, topped with a leftover grilled sausage
-A taco bake from the freezer fed two diners tonight, when I couldn't find the dinner I was planning to serve. That's how crazy our fridge is right now. I found it after I started making dinner, so at least it's not lost? It's a sad state of affairs in my fridge.
-For breakfast, I had a waffle with slices of cheese leftover from vacation happy hour, and a few slices of deli meat from vacation sandwiches
-The kids continue to work their way through the "bag of road trip snacks" I purchased.

Our bill is so high too. I'm not trying to eat everything in the house though.  Our COVID cases are so high I basically need to have a packed pantry at all times.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@mm1970 - we keep a reasonably well stocked pantry & freezer, so my main goal is ensuring we eat through the fresh/perishable stuff. The food shortages earlier in the year increased the amount we've kept on hand for sure.

[okisok]

Pulled a bag of cooked and frozen chicken out of the freezer. I had batch cooked several pounds of it a few months ago, and it wasn't that great.  Tough and flavorless. It had gotten pushed back behind other, better items.
I decided to try it with some jarred tikka masala sauce, some sliced peppers that were on the verge of turning, and some frozen celery. I sauteed the veggies in oil, put the chicken on top to heat, and added the sauce. It was so good! The rest is in the fridge gathering flavor for tomorrow's dinner.

[MountainGal]

@MaybeBabyMustache, congratulations on your garden starting to produce!

@okcisok, glad you were able to doctor up the chicken.  What a tasty sounding idea!

DH replenished our fresh produce yesterday at the store.  Our garden won't be ready to begin harvesting for at least a month.

From the freezer we cooked 1 pound each ground beef and sausage last night.  We paired it with tortillas for DH and pork rinds for me.  Yum.  The leftover meat will be eaten for lunches.

Tonight is salmon from the freezer and the turnips I bought during last month's large grocery stock up.  I peel and fry up the latter like fries.  :)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Thanks @MountainGal! We weren't sure we could salvage it, as we were gone for a few weeks. But, most things are still looking okay, thanks to some creative watering options.

The kids are enjoying snacking on the cherry tomatoes. I definitely will plant more of those next year.

[horsepoor]

OK, any ideas for a round of Panela cheese? I usually use it in place of paneer for Palak Paneer, but that's just not striking a chord with me now that the weather is warmer.  I'm wondering if I could cube it up and marinate it like mozzarella to use in a salad?

I'm happy to report that my Blendtec made quick work of some of the coconut flakes in my morning smoothie, and it wasn't gritty at all. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@horsepoor - I've never used it before, so I looked it up out of curiosity. Sounds like it would be best in salads, quesadillas, or sandwiches, if you're not using it as a paneer. Another idea could be to look up haloumi recipes? Perhaps that would give you some inspiration for the warmer weather.

As for us:
-Finished the potato salad from the 4th
-All of the 4th hot dogs are now gone, two burgers remain & will hit the freezer
-4 more hot dog buns gone
-For breakfast yesterday, I had a heel of bread, a slice of cheese from the condiment tray for 4th burgers, and the last of the deli meat. I don't typically buy it, and it goes bad really quickly after opening. Had to toss the rest.
-Finished the bag of spinach my son bought for smoothies
-Used a garden tomato in our salad
-Finished most of a chicken curry dish we froze & brought with us in the cooler
-Chopped a pineapple that was starting to turn, so the kids can use it in their morning smoothies. If it's already cut, they'll use it. Otherwise, it stays on the counter & goes bad.
-I had the last of a package of grilled chicken sausages over a salad, with the remainder of assorted happy hour cheese sprinkled on top

Onward to more fridge clean out! I'll be happy when we start with a fresh batch of food. Meals are getting interesting! :-)

[PoutineLover]

I'm due for another grocery run, but I've made great progress on the freezer and pantry foods. Finished my ginormous bag of flour due to lots of quarantine baking. Eating the oldest meat in the freezer, slowly replacing with new sale items to keep up stock. Almost done the pierogi, time to make a new batch. Finished the gnocchi, sauce and meatballs in the freezer. Frozen fruits are almost gone, maybe one smoothie left. The freezer was like jenga due to all the stacking, now I can finally access things again without causing an avalanche. I don't want to get too low on food in case the pandemic ramps up again, but I'm glad the oldest stuff is getting eaten.

[okisok]

Used up the last of the frozen squash puree and the half-bag of sticky marshmallows in a modified chocolate cookie recipe. Had to cut the marshmallows into quarters with kitchen shears, as they were the full sized ones, not minis. The cookies were delicious, and were a big hit at our family picnic. (Perfect timing, as I pulled the first acorn squash out of the garden today.)
That's one bag out of the freezer, and one out of the pantry.

Sorted the random partial bags of frozen fruit into freezer safe cups with some oatmeal. Now I just have to add milk and blend for a quick breakfast, instead of rifling through the freezer avalanche.

[horsepoor]

@horsepoor - I've never used it before, so I looked it up out of curiosity. Sounds like it would be best in salads, quesadillas, or sandwiches, if you're not using it as a paneer. Another idea could be to look up haloumi recipes? Perhaps that would give you some inspiration for the warmer weather.

So I diced it into about 1/2" cubes, and also found that I had some sundried tomato pesto and Meyer lemon-infused olive oil in the fridge, so I added some of the tomatoes to the oil, along with lots of fresh basil and some garlic and tossed the cheese in there to marinate.  Took some out tonight and diced it up a little more and incorporated it into an herbed turkey burger, and used some of the oil to cook it in.  Very tasty.  It might be hard to give the cheese enough time to really soak up some flavors before I eat it all!  The remaining oil should be brilliant as a salad dressing.

[MountainGal]

Getting close to the monthly food stock up thankfully!  The fridge is getting bare.

Lately:
~Leftover spicy ground meat was used on pork rind "nachos".  They also took care of the remaining sour cream and an avocado.
~DH BBQ'd another leftover package of burger patties from last month's party.  We ate them for supper that night, and as lunch leftovers.
~As a side for the above, I sauteed asparagus, cubed the last avocado, and warmed up leftover green beans.
~Last night we ate random leftover items.  The rest of the cottage cheese with some strawberries for DH, and leftover turnip fries for me.  Each was supplemented with with olives, dill pickles and nuts.
~Tonight will be leftover Korean beef from last month for Taco Tuesday.
~I bought a few organizer bins for the bottom freezer drawer.  When I moved things into them, I found a few more things in hiding to use up, including cubed steak for a slow cooker meal tomorrow.
~Thursday will be shrimp two ways and frozen okra
~Over the weekend I'll BBQ a pizza and smoke some Cornish game hen.
~Next week's Taco Tuesday will use up leftover frozen enchilada sauce.

And starting Monday, I'm going to initiate Meatless Mondays.

Now to focus on the garage freezer to clear space for this year's beef restock and hunting seasons. :)

And a living rural tip from a friend:  For lemon and lime juice that may not always be on hand, juice the fruit, then freeze it into silicone molds.  Once frozen, place into a freezer bag.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Love to hear how others are staying on top of their food.

I'm giving myself a huge high five for prepping a crockpot meal for tomorrow (https://dinnerthendessert.com/slow-cooker-thai-peanut-chicken/). We don't have a kitchen right now, so tracking the ingredients, finding a way to dice the chicken, cleaning up after myself, all was just a new layer of challenge! So, that's prepped & ready to go. I actually have the chicken marinating in the sauce, and will just add it to the crockpot tomorrow.

Continue to pick & use produce straight from the garden. I did find an enormous cucumber that had gone between two planters & will use that in our salad tonight.

I had to toss a few leftovers we brought back from our vacation, but overall staying on top of it.

[MountainGal]

@MaybeBabyMustache, I LOVE thai peanut chicken!  Let us know how it turns out.

I picked up our monthly grocery order last night.  Boy, was our fridge empty!

~In order to use it up, last night I served the bok choy DH bought last week instead of the frozen okra I planned.
~Today is clean out the mini fridge at the office.  I had yogurt with the last of the strawberries and walnuts this morning, and ate the last two boiled eggs w/ a slice of cheese for lunch.  I'll have the rest of the celery w/ some PB for an afternoon snack.

Here's to pizza take out this evening.  :)

Have a relaxing weekend, everyone.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@MountainGal - recipe was super bland & I wouldn't recommend. I also love the flavors of Thai chicken, but this didn't turn out as hoped. Unfortunately. :-(

[okisok]

Used a slightly-past-the expiration date bottle of lime juice to make limeade. It was absolutely delicious and I drank it all in less than a day.
Will probably make more chicken tikka masala tomorrow, as it's such a great way to use up limp veggies

[Trudie]

I’m working my way through our rice and bean stash.  Made 2 pounds of black beans in the crockpot last week, and they are very tasty.  I also made the remainder of a ginormous bag of wild rice and brown rice blend in the crockpot.  I froze 3/4 of it to take out for quick meals.  The crockpot has always been my go-to for winter meals, but I’m liking it especially right now.  It’s keeping the steam and heat at bay at a time we’ve had 100+ heat indexes outside.

Pancakes and scrambled eggs for dinner.  Very satisfying, quick meal.

Our freezer and pantry are still moderately well stocked, but may be bursting after this week’s planned trip to Costco.  Covid is spiking here again and my garden is producing, so I have little desire to hang out in grocery stores.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Still no kitchen, so used a very uninspired chicken piccata/cauliflower rice dish I picked up at Costco. I tried to add some color with basil & tomatoes from the garden, but my husband reports that it didn't help much.
-Kids had the almost last of the taco meat. I'll have the remaining amount on a salad tomorrow
-We are eating leftover Chinese takeout from last night, as we had both the no kitchen & no water, which is when I said I was done attempting to prep a meal.

[okisok]

Used the last of the peppers and some frozen celery to make chicken tikka masala with canned chicken. I bought canned chicken a few months ago during the height of grocery hoarding here, just in case.
I had already used part of the jar of sauce to make naan 'pizzas' with fresh garden tomatoes. In the past, I've let opened jars of sauces go bad, so this was a win.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Finished the taco meat, and made a taco salad for lunch. Husband accidentally bought extra bagged salads, so I'll be eating a lot of salad for the next week
-Made another caprese salad, with tomatoes & basil from the garden. Attempting to use fresh mozzarella before it goes bad
-Dug out burgers from the freezer, which we will have for dinner tonight

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Not having a kitchen is definitely forcing us to use up all kind of freezer leftovers. One day soon we'll be dining on "mystery leftovers". Has some sort of a red sauce. Totally unknown beyond that.

-We finished a container of frozen lubia polo (Persian rice, bean & beef dish)
-My husband ate more kebabs (also from the freezer)
-Used up garden tomatoes in the salad
-I continue to make progress on all of the bagged salads. My husband went crazy at the store & bought like 8 packages of pepperoni. I wish that was a typo. I had a salad with... pepperoni on it. It wasn't the worst thing I've eaten, by any stretch.
-I don't think I can hack mystery leftovers tomorrow. It will probably be chicken & caprese salad, to use up the last of the fresh mozzarella & more tomatoes/basil from the garden

[okisok]

Cooked a frozen pound of ground venison to make taco meat. Used up some frozen diced onion, and made a sort of nacho salad with some tortilla chip shards and the last of the shredded cheese. There is enough taco meat for two more meals.

I've got some crock pot pinto beans that were frozen thawing in the fridge to make some refried beans to go with the next round of taco meat.

Yesterday I did a full fridge and pantry inventory. My goal is to not do a grocery shop for two more weeks. I came up with breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks to last for a bit over that time, without having to buy anything. I'm making it a fun exercise to go one month without buying any groceries. I get fresh fruit snacks at work, so no worry about scurvy ;)

[Dutch Comfort]

Found a lemon yesterday that was close to getting bad, so made a Starbuck-like lemon loaf out of it with all other things I had. This was really appreciated by the family!
Yesterday we had the last of our potatoes, the last bag of frozen beans and some ground beef as dinner.
Today will be the remainder of the ground beef, tomatoes, grated cheese and pasta as pasta bolognese!
Tomorrow will be burrito's with all leftover veggies I can find before we go grocery shopping again.
Only 2 weeks before we go on holiday, so freezer needs to be empty by then. Still loads of icecream in there........ what a shame..... ;-).

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Not having a kitchen is definitely forcing us to use up all kind of freezer leftovers. One day soon we'll be dining on "mystery leftovers". Has some sort of a red sauce. Totally unknown beyond that.

-We finished a container of frozen lubia polo (Persian rice, bean & beef dish)
-My husband ate more kebabs (also from the freezer)
-Used up garden tomatoes in the salad
-I continue to make progress on all of the bagged salads. My husband went crazy at the store & bought like 8 packages of pepperoni. I wish that was a typo. I had a salad with... pepperoni on it. It wasn't the worst thing I've eaten, by any stretch.
-I don't think I can hack mystery leftovers tomorrow. It will probably be chicken & caprese salad, to use up the last of the fresh mozzarella & more tomatoes/basil from the garden

Pepperoni freezes well and lasts FOREVER. It's become a favorite way for me to add extra flavor to spaghetti sauces (chop up a bit of pepperoni and saute it to crispy).

No kitchen is really hard. Do you have a grill? Do you have water back? Is there a buy nothing group local to you where you might be able to borrow a crock pot or instant pot or even a rice cooker or a stand-alone plug in burner? When we redid our kitchen years ago, we established a "secondary" one, where I had at least a small amount of horizontal surface where I could prep stuff. Had a dish pan to schlep dishes and stuff to the bathroom, which was a major pain, but it worked. Good luck.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@SailingOnASmallSailboat - good reminder on freezing the pepperoni. I will definitely do that.

We've set up a "second" kitchen, and do have a grill, but are having backyard work done so that's not in scope right now. We're doing the dishes in the tub as well. It's a hoot :-)

[MountainGal]

@MaybeBabyMustache, sorry the peanut chicken didn't work out.  BTDT without a kitchen when we were in between selling and buying a house a few years ago.  I used the hotel microwave and our Crock Pot for meals.  That got old really quick and we began relying too much on take out.  Our waistlines suffered as a result.  ;)

@Trudie, I've also been using the slow cooker due to the heat.  Two weekends ago I "baked" banana bread in it, Monday I cooked the Cornish hen in it instead of grilling outside in 95+ degrees, and last night made shrimp and zucchini stuffed portobellos in it.  SO good.

@SailingOnASmallSailboat, thank you for the freezing pepperoni tip!

Last week I sauteed the aforementioned bok choy in olive oil and garlic and surprisingly, DH liked it.  Baby bok choy is now on today's produce pickup order.

A neighbor gave us a bit of last year's elk because hunting season is just around the corner.  We'll incorporate that plus the remaining beef selections from last year into future suppers to make room for this year's beef in our garage freezer.  This Sunday DH will use up last year's locally grown bacon and tenderloin by wrapping the latter with the former.  Yum.

Lately from the freezer:
~Leftover enchilada sauce went into Tuesday's Crock Pot enchiladas
~Been nibbling on the homemade caramel toffee made last Christmas  :)
~Sauteed the remaining half bag of baby spinach and served it underneath last night's mushrooms
~Saturday I'm going to make a slow cooker crustless spinach quiche to use up the box of frozen spinach from IDK how long ago

Side question:  Has anyone used refrigerated almond butter past it's best by date?  If so, how long past?  I looked it up and found varying results. TIA

[okisok]

Ate the last of the venison tacos, and they were so good!! I'm glad I have one more pound in the freezer.
Have some pheasant thawing in the fridge to prepare a made-up recipe to use up some cream of chicken and random veggies in the crockpot.
Finished the last piece of leftover birthday cake today. We've had three family birthdays in the last week. The surfeit of cake is finally gone. I definitely didn't want that to go bad! :)

[Linea_Norway]

Now we have a freezer drawer full of pollock (DH went boat fishing). Very good with free food. I think we should eat a portion every week at least.

[okisok]

More wild game today. Some frozen pheasant that SO got last fall. Cooked with carrots, corn, celery, and cream of chicken soup. All frozen and pantry items!

[Dutch Comfort]

Created a delicious soup yesterday from frozen stock when friends came over. Used up some canned veggies as well and some bake-off bread that was almost at expiry date. We had such a good time (they also brought a delicious salad and "leftover" springrolls - no need for additional takeout, we had plenty to feed 5 adults and 4 kids and the leftovers from the soup was today's lunch)!
Today brought the last pieces of frozen bananabread to the office. Needless to say, it is gone now.
Only 2 more weeks to go before my freezer must be empty (holiday!!!!)!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We have a glut of tomatoes (yay!) but no kitchen, so I need to figure out easy recipes to use them that require minimal clean up or prep.

-I've used almost all of the chicken sausages we grilled & then froze a month or so ago. I'll eat the last one on salad for lunch tomorrow.
-We've done a good job of eating up the fruit from our produce box delivery. I need to sort out our grapefruit, which have lingered a bit.
-Tonight we're having carnitas from the freezer, and fingers crossed that the toaster oven is up for the challenge of toasting them. I'll chop up tomatoes & jalapenos (garden) to spice them up. No cilantro, so no pico de gallo
-Freezer meals are rapidly dwindling, as the kitchen renovation continues. This is great, as it's been my goal to move things along. But, I'm now getting a bit nervous, as it would be great if they could run out just as the kitchen is completed. ;-) Fingers crossed.
-All kale has been used, before it went bad. Always a challenge.

Still need to figure out what to do with an enormous amount of: fresh mint, basil & parsley.