Gathered Fragments and How I Used Them

 

Gathered Fragments:

Chicken and Grape Salad

Steamed cabbage, potatoes and carrots%

3 slices cooked bacon

5 slices taco pizza

2 ounces of green chilies

grapes quickly nearing their best to eat date   

2 canned pear halves

1/2 an orange

1/2 a plum 

Pepperoncini juice

1 cup of pineapple fruit juice

cut watermelon %

3 thawed ready to bake biscuits

2 slices french toast

3 tiny pancakes%

Heel end of a loaf of bread

chicken broth

chicken pot pie

macaroni salad%

cranberry sauce

4 ounces kielbasa

2 hot dogs

peaches and plums on the counter quickly getting ripe 

Taco meat 1 cup

diced tomatoes and red onions

1/2 of a tomato

anything marked with a % sign  ended up being wasted food this week

Saturday:  

Made muffins for supper last night.  I wanted plain ones to go with our meal.  I then stirred in two diced peaches into the remaining dough.  Yummy for breakfast this morning.

Made our usual Saturday pizza.  I said last week in the pantry post that I make one pizza a week but what I failed to say is that my dough recipe makes 2 pizza crusts.  I put half in the freezer, set it in the fridge on Friday and let it thaw and rise overnight and it makes a most excellent crust.

Today's pizza was a Taco pizza.  I spread some cornmeal on my pan and patted out the dough in that and then turned it over so the other side got some cornmeal on it as well.  I got too much tomato paste in my taco meat yesterday so I cooked 1/4 pound more Venison and mixed it with the cooked taco meat and some water.  This came out just right.  I spread Salsa on my pizza dough, added 2 ounces green chilies (I have 2 ounces left to use somehow this week or freeze), the taco meat, black olives, red onions and the last of the diced tomatoes and onions from yesterday's taco dinner.   I also chopped some green onion and the rest of the tomato and some frozen cilantro.   Then I topped the pizza with shredded Monterey Jack and the last of a bag of Mozzarella.   This pizza was the best Taco Pizza I've made to date.  

Remembered Katie asked for some of the Chicken and Grape Salad so I put some in a container to take to her on Saturday evening.  Still have a good cup or so left.

Sunday:  For breakfast this morning, I baked the three biscuits, reheated the two slices of French Toast and the Kielbasa and the three bacon slices.  This made a hearty breakfast for us this morning.  John ate the toast and a single biscuit, while I had two biscuits and we shared the breakfast meats equally.

For lunch I reheated the Chicken Pot pie, put the Cranberry Sauce on the table and steamed broccoli to go along side.

Monday:  John thinks that frankfurters (aka hot dogs) go well with eggs.  Apparently it's a man thing.  I remember the occasions when my dad cooked breakfast for us, he often tossed them into eggs as well.  This morning, I sliced the hot dogs, cut up the chives I harvested last week, added in some shredded cheese that I thought too little to put on the fragments list but it was enough for this dish and made John's favorite eggs.  I served this with grape juice and toast.  I confess it did make a pretty good breakfast.

For lunch we ate the leftover taco pizza from Saturday.  I also put out the orange and plum from the fridge.  

I discovered that three bananas had gotten very ripe in the plastic bag.  I've noted that when the weather is warmer while the plastic bag trick works to extend life it is definitely shorter than in the winter when we keep the indoor temperature nearer 68.   I sliced these and froze them flat on a cookie sheet.  I'll make sure to bag them altogether as my pound cake recipe calls for three ripe bananas.

The wrinkly peaches are now baking as a cobbler.   This will make John happy, too, especially as I picked up  frozen Aldi brand whipped topping to go on the cobbler.  

I found a 2 half packets of the short stacks of Ritz crackers in the cabinet this afternoon when I was looking for another item.  I crushed those to use in my meatloaf which is baking in the oven along with the cobbler.  I put BBQ wings in with all those things too and in a little while I mean to go slide in a pan of French fries.  We'll eat the BBQ wings and fries, with slaw and cobbler.   Sounds like a pretty good rainy night supper to me.

Tuesday:  Lunchtime today we used up the last of the Chicken Grape Salad.   I served it on toasted bread with lettuce leaves.  We ate the last of the first packet of sliced watermelon.  One tiny portion had gone a little soft and soggy and I put that in the compost.  I reminded John we had a second container in the fridge.  

Just before supper was actually ready tonight, Caleb began to cry hangry at me and I reached in for that watermelon.  It was soggy, too, so that whole container went to waste.  Boo!

I have Caleb in the morning, but if I can possibly manage it I'm going to go over the fridge tomorrow and see what else I might have missed or what is done.

Wednesday:  For breakfast this morning, I mixed up the pineapple juice, canned pear juice and some grape juice for juice to go with our meal.  It was really quite good though JOhn was a little nonplussed when he got a small chunk of pear in his mouth. Oops...Perhaps next time I mix my own juices I should strain them before serving!

There was no sorting out my fridge today, much as I might like to have got it done.  Caleb took all my time and attention save the short period of time in which I made Mac and Cheese for tonight's supper.  He was happy in his high chair at that time having lunch and watching me cook. 

Thursday:  This afternoon, I moved all the ripe plums to the fridge hoping to stall the ripening of them any further.  I suspect I shall have to make these into a tart or something in order to get them used up, but I've no desire at the moment since we still have peach cobbler on hand.

Trying to be mindful of what we have on hand, I sliced cucumber and served with cream cheese and crackers (John) or hummus and crackers (me) as a mid-afternoon snack.  

I also picked over the grapes and removed all the bad ones.   What's left are nice and firm.  Caleb tickled me this evening when I opened the fridge because he saw the grapes right away and picked off three for himself.  Gave me the idea of putting some halved ones on his supper plate tonight. 

Friday:   This afternoon I sorted out the fridge and discovered that I had cabbage, potatoes and carrots from a meal over a week ago, macaroni salad that had been open over a week and the three pancakes I'd taken from freezer last weekend that looked worse for wear.  All those went right into the dog's bowl.  I left it cold, too.  I'm sure Maddie will eat it cold as she likes cold foods this time of year.  

I used the chicken broth to boil chicken for this evening's meal of chicken dumplings. I'll use the flour tortillas, cut them into strips and use as my 'dumplings'.   

I  put a pint of leftover broth into the freezer.

At the end of this week I have in my fridge at present:

Green Beans, Cooked Broccoli, 1 serving of slaw,  1/2 a tomato, a rather squishy whole tomato, plums, grapes, a full bag of cherries, 1/2 can of Spam, 1/4 of a pan of mac and cheese, a bit of rice with Stroganoff on top.  I'll also have cooked chicken once it cools enough to go into the fridge.  Sounds like the start of a new week of Gathered Fragments!