What We Really Ate: Sixth Week of the Pantry/Freezer Challenge

Saturday:  Protein Pancakes, Spam.  I had a very upsetting blood sugar reading this month.  While it might appear the rest of the day I cast worries to the wind, I did not.  I was very careful under the circumstances and drank loads of water in addition to practicing precautions.

Pizza.  I bypassed soda and birthday cake.  Since I was at someone else's home, I had no option for our meal, but I eliminated further damage by not adding to the glycemic impact of the meal unnecessarily.

Spaghetti Sauce with meatballs, whole wheat pasta, salad.  The sauce was a combination of frozen and thawed leftover sauce, a partial can of diced tomatoes and a partial can of spaghetti sauce.  The meatballs were from the freezer, homemade, and frankly not very good.    Meh.

Because I wanted to reduce the glycemic impact of the pasta, I made sure to choose whole wheat and cooked it this morning before we left home, so that I could put it in the fridge for several hours.  Chilling and reheating will reduce the impact by about 50%.  Cooking al dente instead of fully soft meant it was a little lower.  So, my results this evening were acceptable and for that I'm very glad.  

Sunday:  Bagels with cream cheese and Scrambled Eggs.  Reading this morning was much more acceptable.  Whew!  I played it cautious for breakfast and opted for just 1/2 of a regular bagel with eggs on the side.  

Enchiladas, Salad.   On the way home today, I was so very hungry.  We stopped to get gas, and I bought some boiled peanuts and a bottle of V-8.  The vegetable juice turned out to be 'hot and spicy' and boy was it both!  

I reheated previously frozen enchiladas and served with the rest of the salad I prepped yesterday afternoon.  I topped my salad with guacamole.  I buy the individual cups of prepared guacamole since I can freeze them.

Fried Egg Sandwich, Mandarin.  John offered to fry eggs if I'd slice bread.  That was a lovely sandwich!

Monday:  Hash, Bagel half.  I wanted to use the last of the Spam, so I threw in some onion and frozen hash browns.  John toasted a bagel.

Leftover Soup, Cheddar, Crackers.  

Pork Roast, Rice, Collard Greens.  I wanted to cook the rice in the broth from this Boston Butt.  Well, the thing didn't produce any broth to speak of.  I ended adding a cup of water to the roast after it had been cooking 4 hours and then it started to exude its own juices.  

I have rice leftover which I'd planned for.  We also have meat left.  John has enough meat for a sandwich and the rest will go into the freezer, but I want to earmark it not for Pulled Pork Barbecue but for carnitas.

Tuesday:  Cheese Toast.  I was running behind this morning and needed a quick breakfast in a hurry.  

Out with Katie.  We were out shopping today for groceries and such.  I had a coupon for a buy one get one free for a fast-food place so we went in and had lunch.  The food was good but the uninterrupted time with my daughter was the best part.  We agreed we'll meet up once a month, just the two of us (and Henry).

Chili, mandarins, chocolate frog.  No, chili wasn't anywhere on the menu.  Neither was a day that refused to show a speck of sun or get over 50F.  It was nasty and cold out with a misty rain that continued all day long.  I was glad I wore a sweater today, but it wasn't quite enough.  When I was unloading groceries, I was trying to figure out what we'd eat for supper.  I saw the ground beef which was less than half-a-pound of meat and thought it was the perfect day to make a pot of chili.

Amie sent us chocolate frogs for our birthday gift this year.  They're really good.  I loved the Harry Potter touch.

Wednesday:  Breakfast casserole, fruit salad.  For some reason we were up very, very early this morning and I was starving by 7am, so I slipped the breakfast casserole into the oven for our morning meal.  I made a fruit salad of sorts (really just a bowl of mixed fruit) from frozen peach slices, frozen black grapes and a fresh mandarin.  

Sub Sandwich, Chips

Beef Stir Fry, Rice, Mandarins.  I took the beef steak out (it's fajita meat really) on Saturday but not sure why.  I had it in mind to make one meal and then decided against it and planned another meal but what did I do?  Go back to my original thought rather than read through my list and thawed the fajita steaks.  Well never mind.  I will stir fry the meat strips with a variety of veg (onions, mushrooms, peppers, broccoli, snow peas) and I'll serve over the rice I meant to use in the Cabbage rolls.  

I'll still make the cabbage rolls this week and the Butter Chicken as well but not tonight.

This morning, prior to deciding that I simply don't feel good, I was determined to sort out the fridge.  That meant dividing up the meats I bought yesterday.  I put up bacon in portioned packets, divided the Italian sausage into half pound portions, and putting hot dogs into 4 packs.  

Then I mixed up leftover spaghetti sauce and pasta with odd bits of cheese and a partial packet of mini pepperoni and turned it into a spaghetti casserole that will serve four.

I broke up the remaining pork roast into 2 portions and those are in the freezer for future carnitas and pulled pork barbecue.

I then sorted baskets and y'all...I still have some older meat items that desperately need to be used.  I'm calling Pantry/Freezer challenge for one more week so I can plan to use those meats.

I'm also slowly pulling out baked items and cookies/pies/cakes that I have squirreled away in the freezer over the past months.  Why buy something to snack on when we have plenty right there in the freezer?  Might as well use it up.  

Thursday:  Tropical Loaf, boiled eggs, bacon.  I had the loaf in the fridge freezer and found it when I was looking for muffins.  This loaf probably has bananas in it but also chopped cashews and shredded coconut and probably a bit of pineapple juice.  It's made the loaf a little sticky on the outside but it's so good and the change in texture from the routine banana bread made it really nice.  

Tacos.  When I was digging out the older meat cuts in the freezer yesterday, I came upon a small packet with two ground chicken patties in it.  It has been in there since last spring or even late last winter.  I know this because it wasn't dated.  I started dating the meat I put in the freezer in April....

Never mind how old it was.  It was very well wrapped, and they seemed fresh to me when I unwrapped them this morning.  I decided to chop them up into ground meat once more and make tacos.  This was so good.  And those two patties were just enough to make six regular sized crunchy tacos.

Cabbage Rolls, Mashed potatoes, Butterbeans.  Finally used those cabbage leaves I'd saved.  As Louise pointed out you can freeze these outer cabbage leaves and save for later use.  I just thought I was going to use my sooner rather than later.  And I was almost too late!  

I've already prepared the rolls and had them simmering for about an hour.  I needed supper to be pretty much ready because I'm taking kids to the library this evening.  I'll go ahead and cook my butterbeans and will make instant mashed potatoes when I return.  

Sugar Cookies.  I'm making the cookies in heart shapes of various sizes for the kids. 

Friday:  Kielbasa, Hash Browns, Toast.

Chili Dogs.  I have a little leftover chili, so I thought I'd make hot dog and burger buns today for the freezer and have chili dogs for lunch.

Butter Baked Chicken, Biscuits and Gravy, English Peas, Pineapple Salad.

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