My Wednesday Pantry-Make Due and Use It Up

      

     I don't think of myself as creative and wrote a post a while back. Many of you so nicely disagreed  with me and gave me nice comments about how I appear to use a lot of creativity in the kitchen. So far this week I've been a little bit creative, trying to use up lurkers in the refrigerator and a few dated items form the pantry and freezer. 

Sunday: Half a bag of frozen, wings, drummies etc. bout in early December. I popped the whole frozen blob in the crockpot and slow cooked them with garlic and seasoning salt. A light toss in BBQ and into the air fryer in two batches turned out  really well-dare I say as good as out pub!

Monday: My curry was a mix of new purchased zucchini, plus using up the last of the  plain yogurt, three partial bags of baby carrots-why so many were opened I don't know, the one of the two last of my onions then canned tomatoes, and chick pes. I ran out of curry powder-not nearly enough left in the jar, so added more onion powder, cumin, chili powder, pepper, and garlic powder. It tasted a bit different, but still nice and my daughter was happy. I froze a portion with rice for her to take back to school. 

Tuesday: When I stopped for fresh food on Sunday, there was a sale on fresh sliced mushrooms, 3 for $5. I knew I had lurking sour cream that needed using up, so a mushroom stroganoff was supper last night. The meal was more carb heavy than I would have liked as we used up four slices of lurking mozzarella topped garlic bread, but I intentionally avoided bread and noodles during the day and only had protein, fruit, and veg. I'm trying this balance thing! DH has been happy using mushrooms freely with cheese in his eggs in the morning. Did I say how much my family likes mushrooms?

Snack last night: As I had used all the yogurt t he curry, my daughter made an evening smoothie with  a way to soft, almost mushy bananas, left from last Thursdays bunch, a handful or two of frozen strawberry's, and milk. I had the remnants from the small blender and it was quite tasty. I think I might prefer to when made with yogurt. 

     I wasn't feeling like shopping yesterday, knee still a bit wonkier than normal, so tonight will be another meal pulled from what we have eon hand-which is plenty. I thawed taco meat for tacos, burritos, or bowls tonight. I'm trying to keep shopping to  fresh food, specific meals, or replacing very low stocks, but without a true spending challenge. Likely I'll need to do a big stock up shop then in February, but that will give me several weeks in January to retrain to cooking for just the two of us again. I've got canned fruit and baking supplies that should be used up, and some that will result in some sort of dump cake for an early birthday treat before the college kid goes back. I promised her pumpkin bread as well and score-two cans are in the pantry. 

     This is me doing my pantry challenge-more a make due and use it up kind of challenge. how are you tackling January? Did you do a stock up shop, or are you eating down what you have? Are you still in a pattern change due to shortages in your area on anything? For UK readers, how is the new lock down impacting your shopping and meal planning?