Meals for the Week Ahead: Last Week of Pantry Freezer Challenge

 

I think we'll mostly be at home this week.  I know I'd like to go out for groceries but I'm not planning on eating out this week.  I would like to finish this week strong in my pantry/freezer challenge.  As I near the end of the week I'll determine if I'm going to try and continue through the end of February.  There's a chance.

You're going to see some repeats here.  Again, same as last week, I tell you these are meals I really wanted to have but never got around to making.   There are more meals I'd like to make that I haven't yet shared but I don't have all the ingredients on hand, or they will require my using things I'd put aside for use later in the month.  

Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garlic Bread, Salad. I don't want to tell you how old this spaghetti sauce is.  Not canned but homemade and in the freezer, but I take it out, add to it, use it have leftovers, freeze it.  Then I repeat the process over and over again.  The date is on the original jar lid.  Consider it to be something like sour dough.  There's some remnant of the original sauce in there most likely but who can separate it out?  Meatballs are leftovers from December when John asked for spaghetti with meatballs then.  I'd planned to make meatball hoagies but didn't.

Pork Butt, Rice, Collard Greens, Pickled Red Onions.  I fully expect to have leftovers of this meat even though I cut the original butt portion in half.  We'll make sandwiches of sliced pork or I may shred some and make carnitas.  We'll see how the leftovers go.

I'll cook the rice in the broth from cooking the pork which is a lovely treat in and of itself but I'll be sure to cook the roast ahead so I can chill it and remove the fat first.    I'll set aside a portion of rice to go into another meal later in the week.  

Butter Baked Chicken, Biscuits and Gravy, Green Beans, Beets.  I've been putting this on the menu on repeat.  High time I got it made before it's too warm to truly enjoy it.

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves, Mashed Potatoes, Butter Beans, Cornbread Muffins.  I saved cabbage leaves back off the lovely cabbage I bought early in January, and I really need to use them before they turn yellow.  I love cabbage rolls almost as much as Porcupine meatballs and I think that's because I use a porcupine meatball mixture to fill my leaves.  So even though I never made porcupine meatballs all last month as intended, I will finally have them.

Enchiladas, Black Beans, Pineapple Salad.  I have two different batches of enchiladas in the freezer.  One has been in there since August, the other only since December.  Neither recipe is quite enough for two but too much for one.  I'm just going to thaw and use both and if there are leftovers they'll be referred to as 'lunch'.

Breakfast Casserole, Hash Browns, Fruit Salad.

Soup.   I have no idea what sort of soup or what I might serve with soup, but soup.  I know that soup season is quickly coming to an end for us and it's a good cheap meal that I enjoy eating.  It may be pieced out from leftovers of various sorts, or I may make a pot of homemade vegetable.  We'll see. 

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