Gathering Fragments: Kitchen Magic

 

Sunday:  When John told the kids I'd make them pancakes this morning, I had no qualms saying "Of course.'   I immediately thought of the Whey in the fridge that Bess has given me.  It makes beautiful pancakes, all light and fluffy.  I remembered to add that little bit of baking soda since the Whey is from yogurt and has the same acidity that buttermilk has.

John made us Turkey sandwiches tonight.  He also added sausage balls to the plate and deviled eggs and pickles and it was a regular feast of leftovers but by no means did it use up all the leftovers.  He did use up the olives, pickles, deviled eggs and sausage balls.

I'll actually check the fridge tomorrow to see what else I might have and then the planning will commence.

Waste:  I tossed a partial loaf of homemade bread that I believe to be 2 or 3 weeks old.  I have plenty of croutons and breadcrumbs on hand and just don't need more this week.

1 cup of mashed potatoes that were too old to consider using.

Monday:  I cleared each shelf in the fridge this morning and here's what I have that needs to be used up:

Top shelf:  Whey and Buttermilk.   

Second shelf:  I tossed some mashed potatoes and put the stuffing that was leftover last week into the dog's bowl of scraps.

I put the chili I made yesterday and the chicken pot pie filling into the freezer for future meals.

I have: sliced apples and oranges.  

Small piece of cubed steak.

1 -1 1/2 cups turkey bits

a dozen slices of Tortilla pinwheels

Ranch dip, French onion dip and sour cream: all opened and all will need to be addressed this week or next.

a few pieces each of chocolate cake and Apple blondies

cooked brown basmati rice

cranberry sauce that is open

Baked beans

1/4 cup of salsa

single serving of chicken pot pie

Meat drawer:  4 uncut Tortilla rollups,  Half a Beef Kielbasa

Bottom shelf: cut up celery and carrot sticks

Veg crisper drawer:  broccoli heads, green onions

On the counter: 3 ripe bananas, an acorn squash

I come to this week with a plethora of things I should use and some that will possibly carry over to next week for use.

Immediate ideas: Stir fry rice with the rice, some of the carrot and celery sticks, and green onion.   I have chicken tenders in the freezer, so that would be a quick meal for lunch or dinner.   Orange slices will be nice as a side dish.

Unroll the four tortilla rollups and put chopped turkey on them, then roll them up and heat them in the oven with salsa.   I'd serve with a salad and black beans.

Some things can be translated into a quick lunch: chicken pot pie and the already cut tortilla roll ups.

The cake and blondies will be easy desserts to have this week.

The cubed steak will be served alongside eggs and biscuits for breakfast.   

The biscuits will use up some of the whey and buttermilk.  I'll make up an extra lot of biscuits and put those in the freezer for easy use.  I'll also be making Shabat bread this week and that will use another cup of the whey.  I suppose I could mix up one batch of dough and use to make rolls and freeze them.  Do I have that much freezer space?

Make applesauce with the apples.  I can use as a simple dessert or put in the freezer to save for another day.

I have an idea to use the French onion dip in a chicken pasta dish. Trouble is I have no chicken at present, but if I happen to have leftovers of chicken from Thanksgiving, I could use it in that dish.

Happy accident!  My stainless steel loaf pans just arrived and in the insert is a recipe for a Banana Pineapple Nut bread.  I was just thinking I was over the banana nut loaf and the chocolate chip banana muffins, so this might be worth trying as a new to me recipe.  That will use up two bananas.

I can use some one banana, 1/2 an apple and a couple of orange slices to make a quick fruit salad.  That might be nice with the Stuffed Acorn Squash I thought I'd make one night this week.  I have sausage and rice stuffing in the freezer already.

Planning of course, is only have the battle.   

John and I ate the tortilla rollups (and then tossed the remainder of the cut ones as they were soggy...I think I put 3-4 slices in the trash) and he ate the chicken pot pie and cranberry sauce.

I made Fried Rice this evening using some of the celery, green onion, the thicker stems from the bottom of the broccoli, and the last of the baby carrots (apparently a far more popular item than I'd thought they might be, as there were only 3 left).

I also had several packets of sauces in the fridge and used one of those to sauce our chicken tenders to go with our fried rice at supper.  We ate the oranges as our side for that meal.  

Tuesday:   Without execution a plan is NOTHING, right?   I've been busy in my kitchen and here's what I've done with some of the above leftovers.  As things have been completely used up, I'm putting a line through them, so you can see my full progress.

This morning, I used one banana to make Banana Oatmeal.  I cooked the banana gently in butter, then added brown sugar and egg and milk to the oats.  This is quite good and very filling.

I used two bananas to make a Pineapple Banana bread.  I am out of cinnamon and walnuts and didn't want to use pecans in the bread, so it's not a nut bread.   The recipe called for 8 ounces of pineapple.  I had 5 ounces too much for the Cranberry Celebration Salad I was making for Bess so I used the 1/2 cup that was over measure for that recipe.   This is a cobbled together recipe as you can see... When these were baked and cooled, I wrapped and put them in the freezer for future snacking.

I used the whey to make biscuits and pieced out the remaining whey with buttermilk for the cornbread for our Thanksgiving dressing breads.  That took care of all the Whey.

I doubled the biscuit recipe so we will have biscuits in the morning for our breakfast.

I warmed the baked beans and fed them to John with hot dogs for our lunch today.

And finally for supper,  I unrolled the four remaining Tortilla rollups and topped with the turkey that was leftover from our sandwiches on Sunday.  I mixed the last of the salsa with a can of cream of chicken soup and layered the tortillas and sauce in a casserole dish, since the chunks of turkey were too big to allow me to roll them up again. I topped all of this with some Colby Jack cubes I'd found (! just when you think you've gathered all the fragments!) that I grated and when it all came from the oven, I put chopped green onions over each serving.   There's enough of this left to have for lunch one day this week.

And so ends another productive day in my kitchen.  And my list is greatly reduced by now!

Wednesday:  Used the piece of cubed steak this morning. I reheated it as biscuits baked and served it alongside fried eggs.   John was pretty happy with his breakfast.  He's big on eggs with steak...Me, not so much.   Anyone else think eggs and beef steak are made for one another?

For tonight's dinner:  I'm making Potatoes au Gratin with the Kielbasa on top of the dish.  Then I'll steam some of the broccoli as a side dish.

I'll leave off here with my Gathering because we all know that the landscape of what we have will change dramatically following our holiday meals.  I'll start fresh on Friday with leftovers and things I know I must use up.