Yes, I know it is now Tuesday morning. I meant to write about my little kitchen successes from Sunday, sure to save me a little money and hassle tonight and tomorrow, but forgot yesterday morning in my fund raiser exuberance. Tuesday and Wednesday are my most stressful days.Tuesday always, just because! No fresh new week, most of the work week still to come, and Wednesday's are just crammed full. Still tired from the fun parts of the weekend. I knew I had to tackle the refrigerator before many things went bad. Try as I might, I still have not conquered food waste, but it is a work in progress.
First was to take care of four small chicken breasts, cooked Thursday but not put back in the freezer in smaller portions. Two went into a medium batch of wild rice soup, also using two of my starting to look sad carrots. That worked for lunch, plus soup leftovers for DD2 before or after violin today. The other two were also cut up, but placed in the freezer ready to go in a hot dish or alfredo sauce for Thursday.
The rest of the carrots, plus a soft onion went in the crock pot with 8 cups of water, 6 stock cubes, and a heaping teaspoon of pepper. Later I diced a couple potatoes to throw in. I had a bag of fresh broccoli florets that got shoved to the back of the refrigerator. I steamed them, then through those in too. Later, when the vegetables were soft, I whizzed it all with the hand mixer to thicken it up, still keeping loads of broccoli chunks, added four ounces of shredded cheddar, and voila, cheddar broccoli soup for Wednesday night supper. I think I'll make some drop biscuits to go with them.
After working at the meat raffle, I still needed something for supper. We didn't eat the second soup as we had the wild rice for lunch. DD had made herself pasta and jarred sauce on Saturday, leaving 1/2 a jar. I had small size packet of pepperoni in the pantry, another small soft onion, some wilting spinach, and made my own flat bread no rise pizza crust. It was delicious, and stuffed the three of us full.
I had to send DH to the store earlier for cheese for soup and pizza, but Cobornes had Kraft packages for $1.98, with a buy 6, get $3.00 off. Mot too shabby. I'm cheese stocked again. He also grabbed six Roma pizza's for $10, perfect as no school Wednesday-Friday this week and we are bound to have an extra kid or two around. Other deals included 3 for $5.00 post cereal, a loaf of bread, two packages of deli meet, and buy one get one instant oatmeal packets, spending around $33.00 for fill in groceries.
I salvaged/used up:
- 4 chicken breasts
- 2 soft onions
- 5 soft carrots
- 1 about to go bad broccoli
- wilted spinach
- 1/2 jar of pasta sauce
- and DH ate the last pork chop (that maybe should have been thrown-fingers crossed no illness) for lunch Monday
I'm getting four meals from these ingredients, plus leftovers. Granted, I threw a few things, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been in the garbage. I am ahead of the game for a few meals as well now. We just had quick sandwiches on Monday as DD had a concert and I had a couple more appointments later afternoon. What success have you had recently in the kitchen? Who's tamed the food waste beast?
(Sorry for no pictures-I had them posted, but then was getting a linking error so just deleted them.)
Since Daughter and the BF moved in our food waste has expended since neither like/eat many leftovers and my style of cooking is to "cook once, eat twice". sigh.
ReplyDeletePlus the first 3 months was getting to know what/how much they ate at a meal so we had some waste from that but I have since learned better how much to prepare.
But they also brought along their large dog so I again have a built-in food waste canine eradicator.....well for everything except veggies. lolz Veggies go into the compost(unless they were prepared with meat/sauce/etc.).
I think leftovers are a dream! Funny how people have different reactions to leftovers, but I know if I have leftovers, I and DH get a proper lunch the next day, or I have something quick for DD before sending her on her way somewhere, even if not enough for a second meal. Still, we have more waste than I want.
DeleteOverall I've just been cooking less & recycling more meal items into 2nd day meals. I used to make "new" meals 5x/week. Now we're down to something like 3-4, with other fill ins at the ready if we run short. It's working much better.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a good strategy. Mass cooking things like chicken, that easily pop into meal two or three even, is quite helpful. I hate that I have been using more jars and cans again, but still better than take out I guess.
DeleteTheHub does not like leftovers at all, so I just reformat them and he has no idea he is eating the exact same thing he had earlier in the week. For example, the leftover chicken stew we had last night will be chicken soup on Sunday. I will make some cornbread and serve it along side it and he will be none the wiser (Unless I eat it everyday this week for lunch which is also possible)
ReplyDeleteThat is very funny. Do you know what it is he doesn't like? Is it really a flavor thing, or the concept. You are clever though. I am very fortunate and that every one in my family likes leftovers. I still remember my son coming home in high school and then later college, standing at the refrigerator and then transferring fridge to microwave to mouth, a plate, dish, or plastic tub at a time.
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