I've just been rambling in my fridge. Remember how I said, "Oh there's not much that will need using there..."? Ha!
Here's what I've found:
2 cups yogurt whey
1 qt. tomato juice
1 qt. corned beef broth
1 loaf homemade bread (from freezer)
1 cup of cooked grits
1 cup of cooked potatoes with onions (think a sort of moist hash brown)
1 cup of wild rice
2 cooked acorn squash (small and already cut in half)
1 packet of fresh spinach that must be used
grapes that are ripe
strawberries I'd completely forgotten I bought
I don't even want to explore the cupboards at this point! I have so much more than I'd realized that really needs to be used now in the fridge if I'm going to avoid spoilage of anything.
Here's my thoughts so far:
yogurt whey: use in making bread but that accounts for only 1 cup of it.
tomato juice: Obviously I could drink it...but I found a yummy sounding recipe for a taco soup that calls for tomato juice. I'll serve as supper one night.
Corned Beef Broth: Bean soup. This will end being lunches most likely and if I can make any room at all in my freezers I'll freeze some of both the taco soup and the bean soup.
Homemade bread: I'm going to try and cube it for croutons and possibly slice some for French Toasts for breakfast.
Cup of grits: I'll make into fried cereal cakes and serve with fried eggs for breakfast.
Cup of potatoes and onions: I'll add to canned corned beef hash for breakfast another morning.
Wild Rice and and the spinach will all be mixed with cooked sausage and perhaps even a splash of that tomato juice(!) to make stuffed acorn squash for supper.
Grapes: I'll encourage John to eat as snacks and make a grape salad as a side dish to one of our meals. It's super simple: fresh grapes, yogurt, a wee bit of brown sugar and toasted chopped nuts. This is a sweet salad that is good as a dessert in my opinion.
Strawberries: I could whip up another simple jar of jam to use right away...and I think I will!
Of course, my planned uses will mean that our menus for the week shift a bit but that's okay. I'd rather use up food on hand than break out a fresh lot of food and have this stuff spoil.
9 comments:
Sounds like you are making delicious meals with those fragments.
I had the same thought with using a handful of grapes, and I turned mine into a Waldorf salad with apples. I have two huge heads of romaine and lots of cherry tomatoes and cukes so I need to make something that goes with salad instead of my plans for butter chicken or fried rice. So my menu plans have changed so I don't waste food.
Thanks again for the ideas.
I have a large, shriveled perfectly good tomato that is going in Cuban Black Beans tomorrow night. We have a lot of lettuce on hand so a big salad for lunch one day soon will pare that down. If we go to a grocery with a deli I will get two ounces of hard salami and make an Italian chopped salad.
I'm so impressed with how you're using up every bit! I've been overwhelmed this past week with all my leftovers. I'm lucky to have one son still at home and 1 pregnant daughter who's with us a for a few weeks. Both are always hungry and been eating everything in sight. I did have to throw out some fresh mushrooms that got hidden under some lettuce, but I'm trying to use it all up too. Your meals sound yummy!
I have bell peppers I cut up last weekend. Part were used for grilled kabobs for lunch today, the rest will be fajitas for supper tomorrow night.
Mushrooms - if they're still good, they'll be cream of mushroom soup for smothered cube steaks for supper Tuesday night.
Grapes left from last week will go in Greg's lunch tomorrow.
I cooked some black beans today for the freezer and to make black bean hummus.
I'll need some groceries by mid-week - milk and produce.
Lana the black beans sound lovely. You just reminded me we have a lot of romaine at present and a big salad supper would work that out lovely.
Kathy, and a Waldorf salad would be another nice way to use up some of the grapes, too! Thank you for the idea!
Amy S., I'm trying! It's just the two of us here so it takes some thinking at times. I do know if I have a lot of soup, Sam will always take some for his family. He likes soup.
Tammy, mushroom soup...yum. I mean to try my hand at a proper mushroom soup one day soon.
Kimmy at " She's In Her Apron " on You Tube suggests putting mushrooms in a paper bag unwashed. Then she just wipes them clean as she needs them. She says they last so much longer.. Now I have not tried this method but am just suggesting it to you all.
Have you ever put grapes in the freezer to eat as a snack? Just like tiny popsicles, but no extra sugar!! They are sooo good!! And I saw Kimmy talk about the mushrooms in the paper bag, also. She says they last much longer that way and she just takes out what she needs and cleans them as she uses them.
I have not tried frozen grapes. Our teeth are sensitive to icy things and John is bad about chewing on ice cubes if he has any in his water and then suffers for days with a toothache. I know that my grandkids love them.
I saw the trick with the paper bag mushrooms. I'm going to have to try that!
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