My Wednesday Pantry-What We've Been Eating

      I haven't done a My Wednesday  Pantry in quite a while-mostly because my blogging had taken a sporadic turn, and also I didn't feel anything interesting was gracing our tables. That might still be the case, but thought I'd recap and perhaps insert a  recipe or rather a process, for some of our meals. First, I'll start with some of the products that have been used. I know many of you don't use convenience foods or bottled jar and sauces, but for those readers that are time and culinary talent restricted, these might be as helpful to you as the were for me. 

• General Tso Asian Sauce-bought at Aldi. We love this stuff for stir fry and then with the addition of noodles, makes a tasty and easy lo mein. 
• Tika Masala Sauce-Another Aldi find that I'll use when I don't make an vegan curry.
• Bruschetta-bought at Trader Joe's and used to top bread for our "girls dinner" or as part of topping or  base for pizza.
• Ranch and Italian Dressing packets-I bought mine at Aldi as the are so inexpensive there, but they are in any store I would assume. 
• Artichoke  pieces in oil-I usually buy at Trader Joe's, but can be bought anywhere presumably.
• "Cream of" soups-yes, I buy them! They help me throw meals together quickly, but you could just substitute a white béchamel sauce with your choice of herbs and spices.

     I have benefitted over the last few weeks with some surplus food from my daughters work-food that was destined for disposal. Those of you that are regular readers know I abhor food waste. It literally gives me a sick feeling when I discover food that was perfectly fine and wonderful get tossed in the garbage because I did not plan properly. Food insecurity is real in this country and around the world. I feel we have a responsibility to make sure we don't contribute to the glut of waste. The other part of the  last produce, was it came "wild"  with no packaging and wrappers. Not adding to the landfills while eating  healthily was definitely another win to my pantry. Here's a few meals.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta: Basically, I sautéed spinach in a bit of butter, added cream of chicken soup, 1/3 jar of rough chopped artichokes, 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, and healthy  shakes of garlic powder, onion powder, and ground pepper. I added 8 ounces of cooked, this time of penne pasta, and simmered to get the noodles are lovely coated. My daughter loved this as it was a close enough copy of a pasta from Applebee's no longer on their menu. O think I also added some leftover chicken, diced small, but not sure. 

Veggie Tika Masala: Basically  cooked vegetables to almost soft, add the jar of sauce, and I also the fill the jar half full and add a couple heaping teaspoons more of curry powder, and let it all simmer for  a good 20-30 minutes. Served over rice and naan, and it was delicious. My daughter took to work on both Monday and Tuesday, and I'll finish off the rest today. 

Veggie Lo Mein: I sautéed an onion,  cup and 1/2  small cut carrots, two stalks of celery, 1/4 of the head of cabbage, and part of a crown of broccoli. once softened, I added  a heaping teaspoon of ginger and probably 1/4 cup of so sauce, stirred it all around then added 1/4 bottle of the General Tso sauce. Prior, I had made  6 ounces of spaghetti noodles and set aside. I then added that to the veggies with another 1/4 bottle of the sauce, and  there was my cop cat Panda Express style lo mein.  We all ate Monday night, I ate for lunch yesterday, and DD2 took the last today. 

Roasted Vegetables and Chicken Sandwiches-You all know how t roasted vegetables! DH had this instead of curry. I made him a chicken sandwich to go with it, on toasted bun with bacon cheddar cheese. 

     I have odds and ends now left and did a  top off shop yesterday. DD wants  stroganoff so I bought mushrooms and cream of mushroom soup. There's leftover chicken and roasted vegetables so I thought I might turn them into a chicken pot pie or chicken and dumpling sort of meal to use up tonight. Friday perhaps homemade pizza using up the spinach and some peppers. I'm at $288 for the month in H&G, H&B spending with 11 days left in the month, but several meals in the pipeline already. It's a good thing this is turning out to be a low spend month since we've splurged on a bit of take out, happy hours, and lunch out. Does anything sound good to you? 

Mish Mash on the Kitchen Front

My brain has been pretty fried by the end of the work day, even with trying to stay caught up while on my work trip. I made meals of sorts Friday through Tuesday, but yesterday took advantage of $5.00 Faves at Papa Murphy’s. It had been a long time since we had pizza so an inexpensive treat. I shredded a couple cups worth of carrots, threw in some raisins, and tossed them in some Aldi’s poppy seed dressing. Delicious. For $5.50, all three of us ate and I have a leftover slice for lunch today. I’ll count in my grocery budget, but DH did his damage again and used $11 of my remaining $40, so now the kitty stands at $24 through months end. I may make it and I might not, but will give it my best effort.

I am pleased with myself on the carrot salad. DD2 wasn’t a fan-it reminded her of a great aunts salad. DH has young aunts, but they do tend to have rather old school salads, which surprises me. This one was Googled and found on Taste of Home web site. I used poppy seed rather than making my own mayo, sugar and vinegar version to try an ‘modernize’ it a bit. I ended up eating most of it-yum. 

Don’t you love generous gardeners? I received a gift of a few cucumbers today from a coworker. She has a large garden with her grandparents south of the metro, and has said this will be a weekly occurrence-they can’t keep up with all the produce. She  plans to offer up the bounty weekly-so kind. I love cucumber salads and refrigerator pickles, so will be quite happy the rest of summer. She also teased us with promises of Swiss chard and kale, though I have to learn to like kale to appreciate it, but the chard, again, yum! 

Tomorrow is my day off , though I’m joining a conference call. I have several  little projects on my to do list, but hope to spend a sizeable amount of time this weekend batching up recipes for quick, frugal meals and snacks next week. I know I need eggs and probably another ½ gallon of milk and some fruit.  My raspberries are coming, but I’m freezing as I pick. I am not going to complain about the heat, though it is sweltering out there.  By Saturday, we have coolish weather promised so might be the better of my weekend days to hold up in the kitchen. What’s going on in your kitchen this week?