Saturday: Bagels and Croissants.
Pizza with the kids.
Cheeseburgers and chips. When I was digging in the freezer doing an inventory last week, I found two beef patties at the bottom of the basket. I pulled those out to thaw, along with the last two homemade burger buns and made Cheeseburgers for supper tonight. I've no idea how old that meat was but I'll say they were from before July because that is when I started dating meat that I put in the freezer.
Sunday: Muffins, Baby Smoked Sausages, Cheese Slice
Spoon Burgers, Chips, Oranges. I had an 11th 1/2-pound portion of ground meat from what we'd bought today and made a simple scrambled hamburger and ketchup dish that we call Spoon Burgers.
Mixed Lot supper: John ate the last of the Million Dollar Spaghetti Casserole and refused vegetables. I made myself a tomato, cucumber and bell pepper salad and had breaded shrimp.
Monday: Whole Grain Pancakes, Turkey Spam
Pizza leftovers with sides. John ate macaroni salad. I had one slice of pizza so added Jalapeno Poppers from the freezer and the last of the Armenian potato dish to my plate.
Alpine Swiss Chicken, Green Beans, Cranberry Sauce. I used the last of a packet of sliced Swiss cheese (4 slices), frozen chicken breasts (smaller ones), a cup of leftover Chicken Gravy as well as a can of cream of chicken soup and topped with a dry package of stuffing mix. I've seen recipes where folks wet the stuffing mix or mix it with the soup and spread it on, but I find that unnecessary in the slow cooker. The topping gets enough moisture from the cooking process and yet still has a nice texture to it, so it's not mushy.
I also noted a recipe on the back of the box that sounded really good. I haven't read it in full, but it has diced cooked chicken, Rotel tomatoes, stuffing mix, cheese and a few other ingredients and is served with crushed corn chips on top. It sounds really good. I cut the back off the box so I can try that recipe.
Last night I remembered I had rice in the fridge that needs to be used up. I may be altering my menu plan right away.
Tuesday: Boiled Egg, Sausage, Toast
Each of us out alone.
Chicken Enchilada Soup with toppings, Banana muffin and Applesauce. Another meal from the freezer for this week. I made the soup in October, I think. This is the last of that batch. I set out grated cheese, pickled jalapenos and sour cream as well as a partial bag of mostly crushed corn chips.
Wednesday: Cheese Toast
Chicken Nuggets/Tenders and Fries, Orange Julius drinks. Tail end of the bag we bought at Sam's in December of tenders which disappointingly were mostly nuggets and popcorn pieces. I'd rather just buy the popcorn or nuggets and not be shocked at the lack of tenders in the bag! I had fries with my lunch entree yesterday that I didn't want so I brought them home and put them in the fridge. I reheated these in the oven with the nuggets as they cooked. And since I had a can of orange juice out to make juice, I thought I'd skim some of the concentrate from the can to use in Orange Julius drinks which was a nice treat as far as John was concerned.
Cottage Pie, Fruit Salad, Mexican Cornbread. I browned my meat and added in vegetables to that then made gravy. I topped with leftover mashed potatoes I'd mixed with an egg and grated cheese. Then I was inspired to top that off with French Fried onions. I bought a HUGE bag from Amazon last year and I still have nearly 2 quarts of them in the pantry.
I have a small portion of Mexican cornbread in the freezer that I think will cook in the same time as the cottage pie (which is in the fridge so will be well chilled by suppertime tonight and take longer to reheat than it might otherwise.
We've strawberries in the fridge, oranges, bananas and a wrinkly apple or two in the fruit bowl on the counter so the fruit salad will be good and plentiful as well. And I just remembered there's a bag of mandarins in the fridge!
I think I'm carrying this challenge on for another two weeks until we get through our pay week for the month. There's plenty of food I might use up yet and not touch what we just bought aside from cheese and milk and eggs. I have lettuce and broccoli, cabbage and tomatoes and peppers as well as carrots and celery and all the other produce I could want. Yes, I think I'll just continue on for another two weeks.
The only thing that is seemingly getting near empty is the store of soups and the prepared meals basket in the freezer and both needed to be eaten down and started fresh anyway.
Thursday: I think one of things I've enjoyed most this month is when some you have chimed in with your own meals prepared from the freezer/pantry. Thank you! Thank you for joining me for this month. And if you care to join me for another two weeks.
Cereal, Yogurt and Granola, Toast. John ate the cereal, and I finished off the last of my homemade yogurt and nearly finished off the jar of Granola. I will need to buy milk to make more yogurt. And I think I'm going to use the same granola recipe for the next batch because that has been really good Granola!
Hot Dogs, Macaroni Salad, Chips. John ate the macaroni salad, and I had the chips. Not the best hotdogs (chicken). I'd actually bought them for the kiddos because Josh doesn't care for beef, but I had no beef hot dogs, and I hadn't fed the kids hot dogs as a meal in several visits now. The bread was store bought because my homemade tends to crumble up about this time of the week. Good for toast, not so much for making sandwiches of any sort. Well, that brand of bread was pretty ick if you ask me, both packages of it were. I'll not buy that brand again.
Chicken Broccoli and Rice Casserole, Tomato and Cucumber Salad, Bread and Butter. I'd been absolutely dreading eating this meal from the freezer. Why? When I made the recipe in October, I'd kept one half for a meal right away and put the other half in the freezer. I didn't get the recipe quite right and the first portion was soupy.
I'd forgotten that rice will 'dry' out a bit in the freezer and having it a little more fluid was totally in its favor for freezing. This was so, so good! I'd used a well-seasoned homemade chicken broth, and it really came through in taste this go round. Having been in the freezer it was closer to being 'normal' in texture.
Friday: Eggs, Sausage, Grits, Toast. It may sound odd, fussing as I do about having to plan breakfasts and then cook them, but while John was fasting, I really missed having a big breakfast to share with him. This morning was especially nice because we cooked together which isn't something that happens too often.
Leftovers. This is where I laugh because I combined the leftover Chicken Enchilada soup with the leftovers of the Chicken Broccoli Rice casserole. I added about 1 cup water to give it a bit more 'juice' and had a huge bowl for my lunch. And I put enough soup back into the freezer to make 2 servings in the future...The multiplication of foods around here is much appreciated by me but I'm always amazed how I can take enough for 1 and end up with enough for three or four leftover.
John opted to eat the last of the Alpine Chicken casserole.
On our own. I chose to steam some potstickers. John ate peanut butter and cheese sandwiches. It's one of his favorites beside Peanut Butter and Bologna.
And that's another week's worth of real meals in our home.
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