Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Excellent, @MountainGal - I'll time my visit around the next jello shot occasion. You can similarly join me for margaritas outside, because spring is here in the bay area, and the weather is lovely. I'm also super impressed that your spending is lower, particularly with all of the inflation. Well done.

I'm working on building some healthier lunch habits for myself, and it's going reasonably well. It's not the most frugal, but I'm hoping for salad & lean protein most days. And, the teens just won't stop eating, so there is an abundance of spending at our house. It's lower than it was at the height of the pandemic, and we're pretty good about not eating out. So, even expensive groceries are cheaper than taking four people to dinner.

I made soup over the weekend, using up chicken broth & ham, and it was delicious. I added garbanzo beans, as I haven't made hummus in forever, and figured I may as well go for it. The meal sized portions are gone, and now I have a bunch of easy ham & bean soup lunch options in the freezer.

I also made applesauce muffins (applesauce from the dregs of the freezer), as well as zucchini muffins (shredded zucchini, also from the freezer). I did have to toss two pieces of pizza. I was confident the teens would eat them, but they must have gotten shoved to the back of the fridge.

I also noticed that one of the teens plowed through a package of blackberries, two small container of blueberries, two Costco sized Danishes, & three yogurts when he got home from a late soccer practice. He can't really eat dinner ahead of practice (and, we can't flex earlier due to other schedules), so he ends up eating a ton after he gets home. Most of the options are reasonably healthy (minus said Danishes), but sweet merch, he is expensive to feed.

[Dutch Comfort]

@MountainGal, the cinnamon ice-cream was originally bought and partly used for a desert: warm apple crumble with a spoon of cinnamon ice-cream..... this is HEAVEN!!!!

Teen2 helped me out by eating the last remains of chocolate-chip icecream. 

Both teens are helping on the bread stash in the freezer at breakfast/lunch.
For today I have dinner in the fridge. Tomorrow will be a tortilla-pie which will take care of a pack of ground beef, some tomato sauce and some grated cheese from the freezer.

The weekend will be used to track the freezer inventory and decide on some more freezer-based meals.

[okisok]

@MountainGal The venison was delicious! I had the last of it for lunch today, and I looked forward to it all morning. My partner said it was the best venison cooked indoors he'd ever eaten. (First place overall went to a haunch roasted over an open fire he once had.) I'm content with second place because it was a totally made-up recipe based on a vague remembrance of some googling 'how to cook backstrap' from months ago and what I was trying to use up, plus a dash of inspiration from this thread. 

I served it with some frozen veggies I found in the back of the freezer and a very tiny salad made from my indoor greens I've grown over the winter from bases of romaine lettuce, green onions, and celery. I informed DP that it was a hyper-local micro-salad when he asked why we each had about three leaves of lettuce ;) I used up some of a tiny jar of spicy mustard to make the salad dressing, since I used up the jar of actual salad dressing to make the marinade. I prefer making my own salad dressings, so I was doubly glad to get the jar out of my fridge.

I did get the salad dressing free with a coupon, and the venison was a gift, so the entire dinner cost about $2. It was enough for two people and my lunch today. 

And we've almost polished off the package of cookies I bought yesterday, if that counts!

[MountainGal]

It's a deal, @MaybeBabyMustache!  And I have a particular fondness for the Bay Area, as that is my old stomping grounds.

@Dutch Comfort, that desert sounds so good!

@okisok, backstrap is VERY popular around these parts.  And, I giggled when I read your DP asked about the three leaves.  :D

I ended up giving away more cartons of eggs, leaving us one, which is fine.  I also picked up an impromptu grocery order last night as we are completely out of fresh produce.  So, $64 or so added to the March total.

The Freezer Leftover Consumption for Space and Container Purposes project:  If I recall correctly, the only remaining container in the kitchen freezer is spaghetti squash Alfredo which we'll have Monday.  There are freezer bags full of berries and such, which we will get to eventually in smoothies and overnight oats.  And there may be a container of ham and beans in the garage freezer, and if so, I'll thaw it so DH can have them for lunches next week.

The next 1/4 cow is scheduled for pick up tomorrow.

[okisok]

A half jar of spaghetti sauce used up in making mini pizzas, except for a few tablespoons that went into an ice cube tray in the freezer. They also used up the last of a package of pepperoni. Finished off a few squares of nice dark chocolate.

When I was making room in the freezer for the ice cube tray, I found a container of frozen cookie dough and baked them.

I managed to put grocery shopping off for a couple more days by eating from the pantry and got rid of three containers.

I have people coming over tomorrow and I'm making cookies with ingredients I already have. Three more packages out.

[okisok]

Almost all of the cookies were eaten. I packed up the last few in a bag and sent them home with the last friend to leave. :)

[shadesofgreen]

I made kitchen sink soup..It's red/purple due to me having red cabbage and now I know to be careful on what I am wearing so no clothing gets stained.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Hello Fresh made an error, and sent us another box (same one as last week) for free, so I need to get busy using up those items. It's an expensive service, but the doubling up makes it pretty cost effective. ;-)

Also this week:
-Used up a container of pumpkin puree from Halloween 2020(?), after the kids carved pumpkins & then I cooked them & pureed them. Made pumpkin muffins that turned out absolutely fabulous.
-Used up another 2x containers of ham & bean soup, from the freezer
-Kids found a 1/2 full container of cookie dough in the freezer, and baked/ate all of those cookies last night
-I used up a Friday freebie grocery store container of yogurt in some cranberry muffins, as well as frozen cranberries.
-A teen polished off all of the taquitos in the freezer
-One of the teens played in a six hour tennis match yesterday, so I brought snacks to the court. A few of those snacks were "use it up" items, including an apple & pear lingering in the fruit drawer, the last of a hoagie bun from a Hello Fresh recipe, and a protein bar with unknown origins.

[MountainGal]

I confirmed all frozen contents in containers have been consumed and the empty container cupboard is now quite full.  I'm currently eating the rest of the Alfredo spaghetti squash.  Lately:

~Froze spaghetti sauce into two freezer bags from a bottle DH opened for eggplant parm during my absence.  He said a little went a long way, LOL. 
~For a brunch with neighbors I pulled out of the freezer the bag of chocolate-chocolate chip crinkle cookies I made at Christmastime, and what wasn't eaten at brunch, I sent home with the children.
~Random leftover olives and cheeses were added to sliced cucumber and deli turkey for my lunches.
~Leftover salmon was added to cream cheese and onion powder then rolled in everything but the bagel seasoning to make little balls for lunches.
~DH finished a box of Triscuits opened months ago, a container each of Cheetos and peanut butter filled pretzels.
~Using up leftover potatoes from St. Patrick's Day.  They are SO good French fried in the air fryer!
~Used the remaining bit of parmesan pork rind breading I made last month on 4 air-fried chicken drumsticks.
~Used the remaining bottle of balsamic dressing on Monday's salad.
~Bagged broccoli slaw usually comes close to going bad, so when I opened it Tuesday, I made a point of ensuring it is featured in several upcoming suppers.
~Continuing to soak the labels off of decent jars with lids in order to wash and reuse for future edible presents as well as pantry storage.
~And in sort of a similar realm as "eating all of the food," I am going to focus on using restaurant gift cards this upcoming weekend.

[okisok]

Only have $10 left in the grocery budget for the rest of the week. I really want to go buy good bread and pimento cheese dip. BUT, I made a list of all the stuff in the pantry and what it could be made into. It doesn't do any good to buy a bunch of non-perishables if I never consume them. Working on doing the planning on one day and the cooking on another so that I don't have to do too much that I decide to just eat cereal again.

[seemsright]

almost through the garage freezer. Food prices are kicking my budget hard core. I am going to have to up my budget for food.

I am going to have to do so much more work in the kitchen.

Tomorrow I will make pizza using the odds and ends in the fridge. Sunday i think I will make rice bowls.

 

[MountainGal]

I ended up redeeming two different gift cards since my last post.  I've got my eye on using two more in the near future.  Other items:

~Frozen raspberries went into overnight oatmeal
~Frozen blueberries went into smoothies
~(Finally) air fried the two remaining frozen chicken tenders for DH
~A remaining bit of chicken will be warmed up in the air fryer for tonight's cobb salads

[FragglesRock666]

Work has been crazy busy the last month or so (onboarding a new payroll and accounting system, give me strength to get through the next 30 days until we are up and running), which means that I have been way less diligent about making sure nothing goes bad before we get to eat it.  At least I can say that I after realizing this, I DID make an effort to buy/make less so less gets wasted, but still.  Not happy with how much food went in the bin lately. 
Since my whole family was gone for dinner today, I decided to treat myself with sushi, but was so disappointed at how small the portion sizes were!  I work for a restaurant group, so I get the "trend" of making portions smaller because prices are skyrocketing, but whereas the last time I went with the same exact order, I was just past pleasantly full, this time I was still hungry after and basically had to dive in the fridge and create a whole other meal.  Which I could've done in the first place w/o spending $20 first. 
So, lesson learned. 
Tomorrow for dinner, I will do something with the ground lamb I took out a couple of nights ago and didn't get to, along with some root veggies in the back of the fridge that are getting a little old.  Going to do a Moroccan-style something or other with it, and rice on the side. 

[Roadrunner53]

FragglesRock666, maybe you could try freezing oddball veggies, scraps of this and that and then pull out at some point and make a soup or broth from it. Save your bones and freeze too. Yesterday, I had an abundance of mini peppers and mushrooms. I decided to roast them up with olive oil and oh so good! Cabbage sliced into 'steaks' is also good roasted.

I have been known to throw out stuff too. Sometimes I have an abundance of leftovers in the fridge, and something gets forgotten or pushed to the back of the fridge. I hate throwing out food and try to use it up in creative ways.

In the past, restaurants have disappointed me a lot. You pay so much and usually get very little. I spend quite a bit on food for home consumption...guilty! However, I don't feel bad about it. As an example, I might spend more for preformed quality hamburgers per lb. but I compare the price I pay if I were to eat at a restaurant. A burger and fries in a nice restaurant/pub in my area is probably around $12 minus tax and tip. If I were to spend $5 on a great burger for home consumption, I feel like I am eating at bargain prices! We never ate out a lot anyway and since Covid we have never eaten out.

[StarBright]

We need to defrost our chest freezer so May's goal is eating down the freezer!

Even though I am in it a couple of times a week, I don't really know exactly what is in there but off the top of my head:

We do have some individually frozen salmon
Chicken breast
A few packs of leftover meats (pork rib roasts? top sirloin steaks?) from when we bought a quarter cow and half pig last year.
lots of smoothie packets
convenience foods for kids lunches (uncrustables, etc)
lots of cauliflower rice and mexican street corn

Should be a fun month of eating.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

It's been a wild few weeks, with my parents in town, other people cooking (hurrah), but handling leftovers differently than I would. I typically freeze leftovers right away after the first meal, in this case they were pushed to the back of the freezer. We had some food waste, & this week I had four work meals out in a row, which meant I wasn't home for dinner, my husband prepped meals, etc.

A few wins:
-We made enchiladas, and put the leftovers in the freezer
-My husband finished off all of the guacamole
-I took two small dinner leftovers (different pasta dishes) from restaurant meals, & combined them into one dinner for myself another night
-The kids are still eating the cookies my mom baked & froze

We are primarily out of snacks. I'd be okay skipping them, but the teens are ravenous. I need to find some good options this week.

[MountainGal]

I forgot to mention our 1/4 beef was indeed purchased and put into the deep freeze.  We're now flush with it and pork.

Ended up using one of two food gift cards.  The second one is for the local hospital district cafeteria, which is still closed to the public.  The remaining gift certificate was given to me for my BD, and I plan to use it for DH's BD.

Our fresh produce bin is empty sans 1/4 bag baby spinach, so I have a large produce order planned for later today.

Since my last post:
~Bought nothing extra for our camping trip by using what we had on hand
~Leftover kielbasa, olives, and other odds and ends went into pseudo chef salads when we returned Sunday evening
~Used up the bok choy in last night's stir fry

[okisok]

I finally bought some bread and pimento cheese spread and stir fry sauce. Everything else I'd been making do with pantry goods or leftovers. Today I finished the last of the pasta with jarred sauce and some pepperoni tossed in for pizzaz. That lasted four meals.
Earlier this week I prepped some overnight oatmeal and tossed in some dried coconut on a whim. I used some of the coconut in cookies for a gathering but had nearly a full bag left. The coconut made it so freakishly delicious that I look forward to eating it every day! That never happens. I'm actually going to use up the coconut before it expires or goes bad.

Edited to add: I made a serving of sweet potato fries in the air fryer from what I was able to salvage of three sweet potatoes that got pushed to the back and forgotten about. I added them to the last of the chicken nuggets that I got for free from a grocery deal. I had a complete meal for free that was much better than a fast food meal but about the same nutritional quality ;)

[MountainGal]

Well done, @okisok!  You have inspired me to pull older baking ingredient pantry items and set them out as a reminder to use them up.

Since my last post:
~Last month mini low carb tortillas were part of the grocery order, and they've gone a long way!  So far, we've used them as taco shells, tostada shells after toasting them a bit, and as breakfast burritos.
~Iceberg lettuce leaves were used as taco shells and wraps, and the rest was shredded and served under sweet chili sauce ground pork.
~Instead of bacon, I put the rest of a package of sliced pepperoni on top of asparagus and air fried it.  Yum.
~Last night tasty fritters were made from last year's shredded and frozen zucchini.
~Have been going through a Sam's Club sized jar of artichoke hearts:  I've steamed them for two different suppers, and tomorrow will air fry them.

Next, I need to focus on salad dressings and condiments in general.  They no longer all fit in the fridge door shelves.

[Catbert]

Mountain Gal - Pasta salad is a great way to use up random condiments and salad dressings. 

[okisok]

@Catbert & @MountainGal , excellent ideas!

I have some pasta in the pantry and some random veggies and condiments. My current target is the almost-empty jar of artichoke tapenade. It was an impulse purchase at a specialty store. There was no expiration date. The label says "use soon after opening" so I'm trying to finish it in two weeks. It feels very fancy to spread on toast or use as sandwich filling. Artichoke tapenade, olive oil, veggies, pepperoni, that could be good !
My refrigerator door is also filling up with condiments and pickles. This is a good reminder to have a pickle and cheese snack plate or to toss a few pickles on the side of dinner entrees to get those used up.

[Dollar Slice]

So... for complicated cost/pandemic/supply-chain reasons that I won't bore you with, I was planning to split groceries this week between a trip to the store and a delivery and then do a batch cook. I bought meat at the store last night and then couldn't get a delivery slot for three days. Arg. Finally got a delivery slot for Wednesday morning and then when I looked at the package to see if my meat would be OK until Wednesday, I found that it had expired last Friday! Crap! I forgot to look at the expiration date in the store, which I always do at that place because they are terrible with expiration dates. They had it on the shelf two days past the sell-by date. I hate to throw away almost two pounds of meat... do you think if it smells OK and looks OK when I open it, it's safe to cook tonight? Or is that crazy? It's chicken, if that matters...

(I could try to get them to refund it, but then it will be definitely thrown away, and this is the place that has "no returns for any reason" signs up so I have a feeling it would not be easy. I try to minimize meat consumption for environmental reasons and this was going to be a big treat. Ug.)

[MountainGal]

@Dollar Slice, I usually Google and smell.  And, if it's a go, cook the crap out of it just in case, LOL.

Thank you, @Catbert.

@okisok, I, too, am a fan of snack plates.  Perfect for camping or housecleaning day, mine contain a variety of items, depending on what is on hand.  Pepperoni slices, cheese slices, berries, nuts, raw veggies... The list goes on.

I did an inventory on my day off and counted 4 different salad dressings, a bottle of minced horseradish, a bottle of creamy horseradish, two opened bottles of BBQ sauce, two opened bottles of maple syrup, and an unopened jar of queso that needs tending to.  There are of course other condiments, but these are what I'd like to address.  In the next few weeks:

Horseradish
~Homemade salad dressing
~On top of pork chops

One of the BBQ sauces
~On top of something grilled

Queso
~On tomorrow's Taco Tuesday shredded chicken tacos
~On next week's Navajo tacos
~As a dip with LC homemade tortilla chips

Syrup
~Maple bacon almond flour biscuits
~Atop almond flour pancakes

And, instead of buying yet another salad dressing, I'm going to make homemade Greek dressing for Wednesday's Greek salads.

[Dollar Slice]

@Dollar Slice, I usually Google and smell.  And, if it's a go, cook the crap out of it just in case, LOL.

I googled, but websites are always really conservative about that kind of thing IME. I think they don't want to be sued. I thought maybe someone here might have experience dumpster diving or buying manager specials or that kind of thing and say 'yeah, I do it all the time,' or 'no, three days past is rotten 80% of the time'. You never know on MMM :-)

I always cook chicken with an instant read thermometer since my mom got campylobacter food poisoning that they think was from chicken. (And I didn't tell her but I'm pretty sure it's because she does that old school "wash your raw chicken" thing which gets raw chicken juice/water all over the damn place - your hands, the sink, the counter, the faucets and handles, etc. Just cook the damn chicken, people.)

[okisok]

Two opened jars out of the fridge door and some veggies before they went bad. I made an entire box of penne and split it between artichoke tapenade and pesto. I added some olive oil to thin out the spreads into dressing. Tossed in some pepperoni and salt and pepper. They've gone into the fridge portioned out for lunches this week.

Thanks to this thread for inspiration to use the stuff into pasta salad.

I've got some frozen berries thawing to make some corn bread muffins. There's a withered apple I may grate into the batter to use it up.

[MountainGal]

@Dollar Slice, I usually Google and smell.  And, if it's a go, cook the crap out of it just in case, LOL.

Just cook the damn chicken, people.)

Exactly!

Well done, @okisok!  What type of berries will you put in the muffins?

I'm happy to report the horseradish dressing was tasty.  Here is the recipe I loosely followed for the dressing.  (I halved the recipe since it's just the two of us,) Salads consisted of baby spinach, a drained can of tuna each, mini mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes on the side.  I sprinkled sliced almonds on top of mine.  The latter of course is an ingredient that needs to be used up.

https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Mixed-Green-Salad-with-Horseradish-Dressing-1000090048/

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I was gone all week on a business trip, so I've no clue what anyone ate, and need to clean the fridge. We did manage to polish off all of the frozen lasagna. As well as:
-I finished the last of the apples
-We're eating leftover burgers tonight
-The kids have eaten almost any and all available snacks, including the banana Kit Kats (a gift) that they didn't particularly like.

On the flip side, I need to clean a few things out that weren't rotated while I was gone.

[Dollar Slice]

For the record, that chicken that was past the sell-by date smelled and looked perfect when I opened it, so I cooked it last night and ate a couple of pieces and so far I feel fine. Google tells me you can get food poisoning symptoms anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 weeks later so it's quite a gamble, LOL. But I think it was fine. I cooked it another ~5 minutes after it hit 165F just to be extra careful. I'll report back if I suddenly get terribly ill anytime in the next three weeks.

[fuzzy math]

Youngest kiddo has a friend staying over this weekend. So far I've fed them both:

 multiple grilled cheese sandwiches using bread and cheese that I'd been keeping an eye on and knowing would have to be tossed in a couple days if not consumed.
Cereal that the kids have consistently ignored despite my begging
Milk that needs to be used up
Some sad fruit into a smoothie. My kid liked it, the other picky kid claimed to like it and forced me to pour him more, then after he heard it had frozen blueberries in it, he said he didn't like blueberries and therefore now didn't like the smoothie and poured it down the sink >:(

Have reminded my husband that he needs to use up a 20+ oz bottle of Tapatio hot sauce that he bought ages ago. Its so spicy I use just the tiniest bit and that doesn't seem to make a dent at all.

On a personal consumption note I used up a half a head of cabbage, too many extra onions (from urban food rescue), some baby carrots that looked dry and a can of coconut milk with some thai curry paste to make a cheap stew.
I've managed to drain both fridge / freezer combos to the point that everything could be condensed into 1 fridge. The goal is to continue and condense before our 2 week trip at the end of June.

School ends this Thursday and that means the 3 kids are no longer eating free breakfast or lunch at school so I anticipate much larger food bills coming up. Also going to try to be mindful of cooking meals or suggesting items that help keep going through the pantry.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-We ate lots of leftovers throughout the week (tacos, burgers, etc)
-I used up a few really close to being tossed carrots in a chicken yakisoba. Bonus, took care of one package of "roast beef" flavored ramen, that I picked up for $.25. The yakisoba recipe doesn't call for the flavoring, so any of the noodle packs will do.
-I've been making my way through a gyro bowl that I got as a takeout dinner on Thursday. So far, it's fed me for a dinner, a lunch, and enough for at least one more lunch.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Made zucchini muffins today, using a lot of random ingredients:
-Two containers of shredded zucchini, from the freezer. These are from last summer's zucchini produce. I'm trying to eat through what we still have frozen before the new zucchinis are ready to be picked.
-Used up the last of slivered almonds (from Thanksgiving) in the muffins, as well as other random nuts we had around
-Used up (almost all of) a bag of dried fruit that was purchased for unknown reasons
-Used the last of some almond flour that was about to go bad
-A random stick of butter that was in the freezer (?) We don't store our butter in the freezer, so this was particularly mysterious. Found it while I was unearthing the zucchini.

Bonus - the muffins are amazing, and I got two batches out of the ingredients. Win!

[MountainGal]

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.  Since my last post:

~DH used some horseradish and BBQ sauce on last night's smoked ribs.  Still not enough to empty any bottles.  I was going to make air fried eggplant fries to go with supper, but alas, I didn't get to the eggplant in time.  $1.41 into the garbage.  So I made air fried brussels sprouts instead.  Never again, LOL.

~Used the lime in my vodka cocktails

~I used the rest of a squeeze mayo in egg salad.

~The remaining balsamic vinegar dressing will be used up on my three salads this week.

~The remaining spicy pickles went into DH's lunch cooler.

~I put the remaining blue cheese stuffed olives into a container for my lunches.

~Last night I processed fresh produce for the week:  Blueberries, strawberries, celery, bell peppers, baby carrots, cucumber, baby spinach, and romaine.  I made salads out of the latter three ingredients topped with the remaining feta, kalamata olives, and sliced turkey.  The salads used up a package of baby spinach and the remaining romaine head.  Large containers of the two types of berries were part of last week's grocery pickup, so I washed them, and a third each will be part of DH and my lunches, and a third went into the freezer.  DH bought iceberg to supplement sandwiches in much-to-his-chagrin gluten free bread I bought him last week.

~Tonight's supper will include sauteed asparagus and baby spinach, with a side of steamed broccoli.  Tomorrow includes a keto skillet which will utilize the yellow squash.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@MountainGal - I would have expected air fried brussels sprouts to be pretty good. What happened? Was it a texture issue?

-I had orange chicken & fried rice leftovers for brunch yesterday, nicely cleaning out two containers from the fridge.
-For dinner tonight, I have a late meeting & needed an easy dinner option. I defrosted two small packages of grilled chicken. He'll make rice to go with that, and I prepped a big salad yesterday to round things out.
-We also have leftover yakisoba & egg roll in a bowl, so those will keep us going for the rest of the week (or, mostly).

It's a really busy work week for me, plus finals week for the kids, so easy options for the win.

[fuzzy math]

Over the past few days:

Made a non preferred mac n cheese box for the kids. It was eaten
Finished off some trader joes cauliflower crackers. Almost finished off the pepper jelly. May go attack the final tbsp or so with a spoon after this post
Convinced DH to finish off this Thai stew I made since it seems I've developed an allergy to coconut (2nd time I've reacted after eating canned coconut milk / coconut oil)
Cooked a ready made panera mac n cheese bowl that one of the kids was taking to school regularly but then abruptly quit eating once i stocked up. Kid abandoned it again. Oh well.

Time to go evaluate the newly urban foraged produce in the garage fridge.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I've been eating at the office for lunch this week, but plan to WFH tomorrow, so I can take a teen to school with an enormous poster board & two text books. I've planned my lunch, and will be having grilled chicken & salad, using the last of a bag of salad that really needs to be eaten.

-Tonight was a long work day, so I took an easy path & made chicken sandwiches. I remembered the leftover brioche buns in the freezer, and briefly popped them in the oven to toast them.
-I picked 30 oranges from our neighbor's tree (with her permission). Her tree extends over our fence, and if we don't pick the oranges, they fall into our pool, which becomes a problem. I now have 30 oranges to deal with this weekend. I'm thinking orange muffins, & the rest to juice, which I'll use in the kids smoothies.

[MountainGal]

@MaybeBabyMustache, yes it was both a texture and taste issue.  Apparently, air fryers draw out the moisture of the brussels sprouts, whereas one wants to put moisture in?  I received feedback on one of my other social accounts frying them on the stove w/ bacon is much better.  Side note:  Orange chicken is one of my favorites.  :)

@fuzzy math, thank you for posting!  I must check out those Trader Joe's crackers.

DH is going to smoke a tenderloin this weekend which will utilize more horseradish.  This evening, I am going to ask a chicken owning neighbor if she would like me to start saving the ends and peels of my weekly produce for them.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@MaybeBabyMustache, yes it was both a texture and taste issue.  Apparently, air fryers draw out the moisture of the brussels sprouts, whereas one wants to put moisture in?  I received feedback on one of my other social accounts frying them on the stove w/ bacon is much better.  Side note:  Orange chicken is one of my favorites.  :)

@fuzzy math, thank you for posting!  I must check out those Trader Joe's crackers.

DH is going to smoke a tenderloin this weekend which will utilize more horseradish.  This evening, I am going to ask a chicken owning neighbor if she would like me to start saving the ends and peels of my weekly produce for them.

@MountainGal - if you eat rice, I prefer the TJ's rice crackers over the cauliflower version, so maybe try both & see which you prefer.

I desperately need to figure out what to do with the runaway cilantro. It's everywhere. Oh, and the mint. We have the mint on its own (old fire pit, as we can't have fires here), and it's taken over the entire space. Need to have a plan for using some up!

[fuzzy math]

I second the tiny rice crackers being better than the cauliflower ones. The cauli ones also come in a 2.5 oz package... not something I'd buy again probably.

Finished off a package of frozen meatballs, a head of kale, some freezer burnt tamales, a frozen cauliflower pizza,  fast food hot sauce packets and some chocolate that MIL brought over. Sad baby carrots got finished too.

I've been responsible these past 2 weeks and only had 3 shopping trips (for 5 ppl and many animals): an Aldi trip at $95, a local grocery at $40 (mostly sale bacon) and a Sams club at $212 that included months worth of dog food and toilet paper. The ultimate goal is to eat through ALL the older stuff in the freezer, some of which may date back as far as 2-3 years. We have no idea honestly. Then going to restock with current items so I can confidently say everything is from 2022.

[Dutch Comfort]

6 weeks to go till our holiday to France and I want to have the fridge/freezer as empty as possible. So we're going to start this week.
First the shed-fridge which includes leftovers from our Greek inspired dinner of saturday (only some salad, pasta and olives left) and a few fresh veggies which I need to take out, so I can turn this thing off again (major electricity-user, so double win).
And then the regular fridge which also has leftovers in it from a Friday night unexpected visitors dinner, where I managed to talk everybody out of the take-out option (Chinese food) and into me rushing to the bakery and picking up some delicious breads with all kind of condiments (which saved me at least 50 euro compared to the take-out).
So this week will be eating the leftovers and reorganise the fridge so I can have an overview of what we still have in stock and try to minimise the shopping.
 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Haven't figured out what to make with the runaway spices yet, but I did do the following:
-Juiced all of the oranges & made most of them into two dozen orange muffins
-Used the rest of the orange juice into fruit smoothies
-Used the last of a sketch looking bag of lettuce into a salad, and topped with a bonus piece of chicken from a kid's lunch leftovers

I'm flying to Hawaii on Friday (~6 hour flight from my house), and need to pack at least one meal. I'm looking through the pantry/fridge options, and it's going to be something sketchy for sure. PB&J on a hot dog bun? Plus random snacks? Who knows, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to pay for airport food.

[fuzzy math]

PBJ on a hot dog bun sounds delicious! Just use extra jelly.  Pack some baby carrots, an orange, some leftover cheese and you're good to go.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

PBJ on a hot dog bun sounds delicious! Just use extra jelly.  Pack some baby carrots, an orange, some leftover cheese and you're good to go.

@fuzzy math - I will report back with, what is sure to be, an incredible combination!

[Dutch Comfort]

@MaybeBabyMustache , what about those orange muffins..... they should be good for a flight? Last week I took some banana bread (which I had frozen) on my flight. Was delicious!

[MountainGal]

Thank you for your rice vs cauliflower cracker feedback, @MaybeBabyMustache and @fuzzy math!  And I'm glad the flight to Hawaii subject came up, as I am headed that way this summer.  I am one to pack snacks, too, as I am a low-carber and find airport offerings sparse and expensive.

Our chicken owning neighbor said they would appreciate the produce remnants.  Yay less garbage waste!

DH has been "working with" the gluten free bread I bought him.  He's been toasting it to use for sandwiches and last night's burger bun.

Been working through the head of iceberg DH bought and used only once.  So far, it's made for yummy side salads, and a "bed" for my burger patty last night.  We'll have some shredded on tonight's nachos.  I'm going to make tortilla chips using some low carb tortillas.

Baby spinach has been used for side salads and Thursday the rest will be sauteed with spaghetti squash and topped with homemade walnut pesto.  Still working on the Sam's Club bag of walnuts, LOL.

Broccoli slaw has been steamed and topped with butter and parmesan, was sprinkled on top of my burger patty last night for some crunch and will be placed on top of tonight's nachos.  I love that stuff, but one bag goes a long way!

The semi-locally made queso was drizzled on top of last night's burgers, will go on tonight's nachos and Saturday's Navajo tacos which I haven't yet had time to make.

Still so many condiments....

[dividend]

This is a continuous struggle.  I keep a meticulous inventory (spreadsheet), plan weekly around what I have, eat 90% at home, and my freezers and pantry are still bursting at the seams.  And it's a cycle - I'll cook a whole pound of beans, and several 2-cup containers of them end up in the freezer, or I'll use them to make a dozen burritos that get frozen. 
Or I'll grill a whole bunch of chicken boobs from the bottom of the deep freeze, or a box of 14 bratwurst at a time, and then freeze a bunch of them, cooked, for quick future meals.
Or I'll have everything I need to make red beans and rice except smoked ham shanks, but they come from a butcher shop I don't visit that often so I'll buy them 4 at a time and freeze 3. 
Or, I'm missing one key ingredient to make the perfect recipe to use up like four things in the freezer.  Right now if I could unlock a bunch of great combinations if I bought pork shoulder and pork tenderloin, but the cheapest way to do that is a 15 pound pork shoulder that needs to be cut up, and - you guessed - frozen, and unless I buy the tenderloins close to when I'll cook them, they need to be frozen too, and I literally don't have room.
And this week I'm stalled on any freezer/pantry progress because I hosted Memorial Day and have so. many. leftovers.
Anyone else feel like this is a Sisyphean endeavor sometimes? 

[Dutch Comfort]

I had a good week. Leftovers will (hopefully) be finished at lunchtime today with two hungry teens joining me for lunch.
Shed-fridge got turned off yesterday, so this is already a major win.
Teens did a good job with finally finishing the boxes (you know, those with just a little bit left in it....) of cereal in the pantry. This is giving me some space.
Today will be dinner from the pantry (canned veggies), fridge (fresh veggies) and freezer (some meat and some potatoe-type thing I found deep down there....).
Tomorrow we will have dinner at my parents, where I offered to bring a pasta salad, which will use up half a bag of pasta which I found this week in the pantry, some canned corn, the last few tomatoes and other veggies.
Sunday is time for drinks and dinner at friends, where I offered to make some baked goodies. This will use up flour, sugar, butter, eggs and some other items from the pantry.
5 weeks to go and I think I will be in pretty good shape when we get there.

@dividend, I recognise the continuous struggle and the fact that you're just missing 1 item to make a great combination. Sometimes it feels like the fridge/freezer only have veggies in there, while the next week, it feels like there is only meat in there. Never the right amount or combination to avoid shopping/additional stuff to be put in.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Nice work turning off the shed fridge @Dutch Comfort ! And, thanks for the suggestion on the muffins. I leave this morning, and just found out I got upgraded to first class for the flight. I don't have much status, but was on the upgrade list due to preCOVID work flights. There should be food, so I'm just packing a few snacks, which works well, as a hungry teen ate one of the planned items I had set aside from the fridge. ;-)

I managed to use up many fridge items this week, as my husband will be running the house while I'm gone. He's wonderful, & quite a chef, but doesn't enjoy using up leftovers. I did everything I could to leave the fridge relatively empty, knowing he'll prefer to grocery shop tomorrow & start fresh.
-Used up two pieces of chicken (leftover from teen dinner). While not my favorite, they suitably served in two sandwich wraps
-Used a bag of freezer edamame. One as a side dish to a dinner, the other on top of a salad
-Used freezer chicken for a salad, and for the main dish of dinner one night

I picked my first zucchini (it tripled in size in just a few days) & now need to seriously start getting on top of the garden. Things are growing like mad!

[Roadrunner53]

A while back I bought a precooked boneless turkey breast from Costco. It was fairly large so we cut it in half and froze both sections. We pulled out one section to defrost the other day and warmed slices up in some gravy last night. It really was a good looking piece of meat and beautiful white meat. However, It had a weird texture and the meat was salty. I ate a little of it and that was it. I chucked out the rest of the meat this morning and Mr. Roadrunner threw out the other frozen hunk. He did not like it either. BLEH! So that will be permanently off my list of foods to buy in the future. I am assuming they pumped it full of salt solution. YUK!

Normally, I try to salvage things that are a tad off but this meat was just wrong! The only salvage it got was the garbage can.

[fuzzy math]

I cook like that too @dividend ... sometimes it feels like I took less food and somehow made more food out of it. Great for the eating part, just hard to store.

@Roadrunner53 rancid freezer meat is THE WORST. DH always freezes old turkey and its freaking nasty. I'm going to have to start throwing it away out of principle.

Cooked borscht here today using mostly free produce and pickled a quart worth of red onions. My older produce haul is almost gone!

[okisok]

Emptied both fridge drawers to salvage what I could. The grapes had to go to the compost, along with one apple and an onion. The carrots, celery, peppers, and green onions were still ok and one apple was wizened but still good inside. Used the celery and carrots to go with some dip and my tiny sandwich made from the last heel of bread.

I'll have to buy some eggs to make muffins using the diced apple and some frozen berries in a cornbread mix. I found a second carton of oatmeal in the freezer, so I have plenty to make cookies to take to work to use up the rest of the coconut, chocolate chips, and dried fruit.

I'll make some chicken salad with the green onions that will be great for sandwiches or salads this week.

Found two guavas in the freezer that I turned into a smoothie with the last of the oj, the end of a carton of milk, and some of the frozen berries. So my entire lunch today was salvage.

I was thinking about @dividend's issue with having to buy things to finish up other items. On my part, I think I'll stop buying bundled produce at Aldi--if I only need one pepper for a recipe but I have to buy three and two go bad, or I have buy more ingredients to use them up, I'm not saving money. It would actually be cheaper and less wasteful (of food and plastic, as Aldi loves to wrap produce in plastic) if I went to a regular store that sold loose produce.