Gathering Fragments: Another Week of Using What I Have

 

Saturday:  Went out to the herb planter early this morning and snipped off the chives again.  I love to mix these into scrambled eggs along with some cream cheese.  It was delicious!

For tonight's supper, I scrounged around in the fridge to see what I had for pizza cheese.  We went through a lot of Mozzarella this month!  No clue why but we did.  Anyway, I had a 1 inch cube of mozzarella* and about 2 tablespoons of shredded in a bag*...Not nearly enough for a pizza!  I dug a bit more and found a portion of a wedge of Asiago, a one inch cube of cheddar**, and the last bit of that hard dry aged Gouda* we had from earlier in the month.  All combined we made a decent pizza.   I have four slices leftover.

I never use a full packet of onion soup mix nor of Ranch dressing.  I find them both far too salty used as directed.  Earlier this week I made the Mississippi pot roast and just put a couple tablespoons of ranch dressing mix on it.  I was making things ahead for my planned family meal tomorrow and decided Taylor might want salad (the only vegetable she eats) and thought I'd just mix up the rest of the mix into Ranch dressing, the only dressing she will eat.  I used the 1 cup of mayo and 1 cup of milk, which is what  is called for on the packet even though I had only half as much dressing mix*.  It tastes great made in this way and I see no reason to change it up.    And by the way, I do the same with the onion soup mix when making dip. I use half a packet of mix to the full amount of sour cream called for on the box.  It's never overly salty and though I've never shared with others what I do, people are always complimenting me on my onion dip.   I love getting twice the mileage from each packet, lol.

Sunday:  Some of the English programs we watch make a French toast like dish and call it Eggy bread and they truly do use just beaten eggs...Anyway, he said he'd like Eggy bread.  I made French toast which is what he really meant.  I used a portion of the can of Spam* I opened last week to fry along side for breakfast meat this morning.

When we came in from church, I started all the rest of my meal.  I'd left home with all my pans out and prepped for baking, spread with foil or greased or both.  I mixed up Mayonnaise Muffins using some of the sour milk*.  I doubled the recipe, so that was one more cup of sour milk used.  Still have a bit left.  I'm thinking biscuits or waffles or both will be on the docket for baking this week and that should take care of all of the sour milk.

Today's meal left us with a variety of leftovers: Coleslaw, sliced tomatoes, a few Mayonnaise muffins, 1/2 of a fried chicken breast, a roasted chicken minus one leg.  Why fried chicken and a deli roast chicken?   In the past when we've had family here we'll buy 16 pieces of chicken.  It's too much.  But 8 isn't quite enough even if I cut the breasts in half and I only do that if they are those supersized breasts.  Well today's fried chicken was normal sized.  So John thought we should get the deli roasted chicken as well.  It was cheaper than a second box of fried chicken and if nothing else this past week, I guess I convinced him I could use up a whole chicken in a variety of ways.  So here we are this week starting out with a roast chicken all over again!

Monday:  After our breakfast this morning, I decided to jot down all the things I had in the fridge from memory.  I had a longer list than the one I left off with last night.   I could add hardboiled eggs, a package of Swiss cheese that needs to be used, a single hot dog bun, a cup of chili, green beans, 3/4 of a whole navel orange...and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Then I jotted down a few ideas for meals.  I can prepare three full meals from those leftovers and that was an incomplete list!

Here's what I planned:  A Club Salad (use chicken, swiss, bacon, tomato, lettuce and crotons made from hot dog bun) and the last of the peach crisp with vanilla ice cream on top.

Stuffed Pigs in Blankets (stuffed with chili and cheese and wrapped in biscuit dough that uses some of the remaining sour milk), coleslaw, French Fries

I remembered in making out my list that half the Chicken Strata dish remained, so that can be reheated and I want to make an English Pea Salad to go along with it. I'll use the last boiled egg in that salad.

Then I sort of sorted through the big deep freeze.  First I pulled out ALL the chicken frames and put them in a deep stock pot to simmer.  I went ahead and stripped all the meat off the deli chicken and popped that frame on in the stock pot.

Then I organized things a bit better and saw the tidbits of this and that that I have in the freezer that we could also use up.

While I was prepping Caleb's lunch, I cut up the orange from the fridge and the two in the fruit bowl and then peeled them. 

John and I had leftover pizza that I reheated.  Caleb had a cheese quesadilla, using the last two flour tortillas.  I chopped some of the leftover tomato and sliced half a ripe avocado.  He ate almost all his lunch, was content afterwards to have me pop tomato bits into his mouth, so I feel he ate pretty well.

After lunch today, when Caleb was down for a nap, I went through the fridge and sorted and organized it all.  I found these items:  whey, a single piece of French Toast, chicken nuggets, three condiment jars with just bits of sauce left in them, Pineapple tidbits, cherries, zucchini, yellow summer squash, individual cups of ranch dressing from a salad Katie brought in for her lunch one day several weeks ago, Pickled Beets, half a package of beef sausage, 3/4 of a baked sweet potato, a partial packet of turkey pepperoni, 10 corn tortillas, half a jar of seasoned tomato sauce for pizza.

So here's what I did.  I split up the chicken nuggets.  There were nine of them and Caleb will only eat about three at a meal.  I put six in the freezer, and left three out to serve him for lunch tomorrow.  I put the piece of French Toast in the freezer.  I'll use that for breakfast one morning for him.  I peeled the sweet potato and put that, the beef sausage and the turkey pepperoni in the freezer.

I took the bits of ketchup, mayo, and mustard, combined them in one bottle, added in some garlic and onion powder, pickle relish and shook the bottle well.  This made 'thousand island' dressing which we'll use on our Club Salads tonight.  

After Caleb goes home this evening, I'll put on bread dough to rise.  That will use one more cup of whey, likely leaving me with one cup.  I'll strain the bones and veg from the chicken broth and set them aside to cool and pick over.  I've no need for more chicken broth but I'm going to try and reduce it a bit to concentrate the flavor.  I'll try to plan some of it into a meal this week either for lunch or dinner.

Tuesday:  I picked over the bones yesterday afternoon. I got 4 cups of meat bits put in the freezer and enough skin and super soft gristle pieces for the dogs to have two days of food!  I was more hyped over the food for the dogs, not that they are in any danger of running out food.   Maddie appreciated the 'cool' food compared to her usual dry food.  

When I bottled up the broth, I had six quarts...Golly gee!  I really had no proper freezer containers and I didn't want to put jars in the freezer even if they are wide mouth ones.  I asked Katie if she'd like some but she turned me down.   So I put all of them in the fridge. 

This morning, I asked Sam if he'd like some and he said two quarts would be nice to have.  Awesome!  Two down, four to go.  I think I'll make up a pot of chicken and rice soup this week at some point and that will likely use two quarts and then I'll be down to just two more.   I may have some empty big plastic peanut butter jars in the pantry and I'll use those to put the rest into the freezer,

I baked bread later than planned yesterday evening.  John kept putting his nose up in the air and sniffing..."Man, some rolls would be good.  Or sticky buns!"   I guess I'll be baking again this week and I might as well make the man some sticky buns and rolls.  He doesn't ask for such things often.

For today's meal, I've made an English Pea Salad.  I used the last hard boiled egg*, some cheese, one of the individual Ranch dressing cups* and a can of peas, a bit of onion, pimento and pickle relish.  I may add a tablespoon of mayo later on.    I'll serve that salad with the reheated Chicken Strata.  I think Caleb can eat this meal with us if he can hold on to his hangry self until 5pm.

For lunch:  I used four corn tortillas*, a smear of salsa*, some chopped roasted chicken*, and shredded cheese to make a sort of Tex Mex Chicken Pizza.  It was pretty good.  I had a tiny amount of chicken left.  I gave Caleb a few bites who told me he likes chicken (! his language skills come and go but he's getting remarkably clear when he does speak) and the rest into the containers I put in the freezer yesterday.  That's the end of the chicken for this week aside from tonight's supper.  I can't say I'm sorry, lol.  I love chicken but two or three days without any won't hurt my feelings at all.

Wednesday: I've just been to Aldi to do grocery shopping and the fridge is packed too full once again.  I'll have to sort it out and put what I can in the freezer.  Mostly I don't want to lose the fragments of things that might have gotten pushed to the back of the fridge.  I plan to sort that out tonight and not wait on it.

Plans for meals today have been completely up in the air.  I made cheese toast for breakfast which used the last bits of our cheese in the fridge.  For lunch today, we came home instead of picking up take out or going out to eat.   I managed BLT's as a fast meal.   Supper tonight is going to be Chili* Stuffed Pigs in Blankets with the leftover Coleslaw*.  I will use the sour milk* to make up biscuits.  

Now I'm off to sort out the fridge and do dinner prep.

Thursday:  I used the last of the sour milk this morning, making up a batch of waffles.  I put 2 dozen in the freezer.  Rhonda commented quite a long while ago that I must make a lot of waffles at once.  My waffle iron makes 6 at once that are rectangular shaped like a slice of bread in size.  I separate them and serve two or three to us, then put all the rest in the freezer,

John was gone at lunchtime today working on the yard in town.  I cooked cheese raviolis from the freezer as lunch and then made a quick but simple sauce:  I used leftover diced tomato*, chopped a tomato half*, about an ounce of cream cheese* (John always opens a second packet before the first is finished off), and the tomato sauce for Pizza*.  I tossed all those ingredients into the pan and let them simmer a few minutes.  It was quite good over the Ravioli and satisfying.

John went out to men's meeting this evening.  They serve them a  meal there so I was on my own here at home.  I didn't use any fragments for my supper, simple as it was.  I'm happy to say that while I no doubt will find I have a fresh spate of fragments come Sunday, I've done pretty well using things up this week and I can report that nothing went to waste.

I  plan to make chicken noodle or chicken rice soup from some of the chicken stock I put up this week in the fridge.  That will likely be our supper tomorrow night.

I won't have an entry on this post for tomorrow as we'll be starting fresh for the weekend after that.  I know that I have only to look as far as any cupboard, freezer or fridge to find the next lot of fragments that we'll need to use in order to avoid waste.   I have to say these past two weeks have been fun and I've not felt I was flying by the seat of my pants without a written menu.  I'm enjoying using these bits of food up in creative ways.  I think I shall certainly employ this method next time I think I want to do a pantry/freezer challenge.