True confession: It is 1:30 a.m. as I start this post. Why so late? My mind would not shut off. John was just up checking to see if I'm all right and I assured him I am just fine. The headache I had when I initially went to bed is gone. But as I told him, in my mind, I have cleaned and organized and straightened everything we own and then I began to replan the meal plan I'd already written up and thought of umpteen dishes I might make with what we already have on hand. And for your benefit I'll add that none of that planning included the meats I bought in the past week, only the foods already on hand when January began.
When I started mentally planning the grocery list for February, I said, "That's quite enough! If you won't sleep, at least get up and do some writing." So, I made myself a cup of coffee and here I am.
Saturday, Feb. 1: Bagels and Croissants. That's the end of the bagels. I'll make some this week, I think. And as it happened the end of the croissants, too, but that came later in the day. I also took Banana Chocolate Chip muffins from the freezer to thaw for snacking. That didn't happen, but they are gone.
Buffalo Chicken Pizza. I decided last night we'd have this and went digging through the freezer before we went to bed to bring out Mozzarella cheese, a package of chicken (one breast half) and a ball of pizza dough I'd frozen in December. I had a package of blue cheese in the fridge that we needed to use, the very last of the bottle of hot sauce and a fresh lot of celery. I seasoned the chicken breast well and roasted it in the oven then broke it up into 'rustic' pieces and tossed it with more seasoning and melted butter and hot sauce. Yum.
While I was breaking the celery down, I washed the root end well then tossed it into a bag of vegetable scraps I'm saving to use to cook chicken frames when we finally break down and start roasting chickens again after I've finished this challenge.
I also removed all those lovely tender celery leaves and after the pizza was finished cooking, I slipped those into the oven to dry off. I cannot buy dried celery leaves anywhere but I find them an excellent seasoning to have on hand, much less bitter than celery seed which can quickly overwhelm a dish.
Breakfast for supper. I hadn't planned to make supper. We had a couple of leftovers in the fridge, but then I had the children from across the field unexpectedly and when Isaac said at 6pm that he was kinda hungry, I gave up grappling with my whirling thoughts about what I might make and simply got busy making.
We had: Eggs as each preferred them (fried or scrambled), Muffins, Croissants, Baby sausages and Cheese Grits. I had a portion of cheese grits left from earlier in the week and tossed those into the hot grits to heat through. Now I have a larger portion of leftover cheese grits because Josh didn't want his. Thank goodness I was able to buy eggs last Sunday! We've sailed through 2 dozen of them in the past week. I used a dozen tonight to make eggs for all of us. I sent the children home with a second bag of muffins from the freezer that I'd made last week.
We are officially out of breakfast meats except for bacon.
Sunday: Pancakes, Bacon. I had the pancakes in the freezer. And the portion of bacon that was left in the freezer is now done as well.
McDonald's. On the days we visit with Katie and the kids we often are starving by the time we head back home so we will stop in at one of the fast foods.
On our own. John opted to have another peanut butter sandwich. I chose to eat fried shrimp, a handful of tortilla chips, a guacamole cup (individual size) with a bit of salsa. I'm glad I bought this butterflied fried shrimp for myself, but I think next time I shall look for a bag of frozen peeled shrimp. I kept thinking how good shrimp nachos would be.
Heard from Bryan this morning that he is terribly ill and will not be able to visit tomorrow. I am sorry for both his illness and the missed visit with the family, but I hope that resting where he is tomorrow will prepare him for the long drive back to Texas on Tuesday.
Monday: Grits Casserole, Toast. Those lovely cheese grits from Saturday night went into the bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan. I formed four little depressions and cracked an egg in each. I grated cheese over the stop, then added finely chopped turkey Spam that was left in the fridge (enough for about 1 person). Naturally I had HALF the darn casserole leftover so we'll be eating that again and maybe then the grits will stop multiplying into new meals... John ate toast with his serving, but I didn't find it necessary to add more to the meal.
Leftovers. 1 slice of pizza each and about 1 cup of Cottage Pie. It was enough.
Pot Roast and Vegetables, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Apple Cobbler. This roast was already thawed before I heard from Bryan. It's huge which is partly why I hadn't cooked it already. I don't know what you'd call this particular cut. I've never seen anything like it. It's a flat cut but on one whole side there are portions of bone that I'm certain are vertebrae, there's a blade bone down the mid-section.
I seared the meat before putting it in the pan but quickly realized it was never fitting in my slow cooker. It just fit, side to side in a 9 x 13 baking pan. I added onions, carrots and parsnips, but realized that the potatoes wouldn't fit so those were cooked separately to make mashed potatoes. Then I deglazed the pan with broth, tomato paste and a bit of grape juice and vinegar (a trick Tracey McBride used as a wine substitute). I covered the pan with foil and baked in a slow oven five hours at 325, then I turned the oven down to warm.
This was so good. Turns out the vertebrae section wasn't so very meaty, but I gathered up all the bones and put in the freezer to make broth in the future. Whatever cut it was, it was tender as could be and turned out just wonderful. There was about 1.5 pounds of meat left.
When I deglazed the pan, I added in a couple of pats of frozen tomato sauce. I am blown away, yet again, by how good that bit of tomato is in a rich beef broth. It made the most luscious gravy.
And please, why does everything say gravy is not diet worthy. In the end, it's mostly broth and yes, I know it has fat but hardly any flour, so it's bound to be low-carbohydrate. I truly could eat a bowl of gravy and consider it soup. So good!
The apple cobbler is a very small one that I made from 2 apples that had gone wrinkly (we ate a third one that I peeled), topped with a batter made from 1/2 cup each of flour, sugar, milk and 1/4 cup of melted butter.
I also had a ripe banana, half a ripe Mango and half a pomegranate. The mango and banana will make smoothie fruit. I had to toss the pomegranate. I should have tackled that sooner.
Tuesday: We skipped breakfast. I don't know why.
Out. Naturally, because by the time we'd picked up tags, dropped off the electric bill, went by Drivers Department to renew my license, the grocery to pick up good sales and Walmart to buy two birthday presents, we were so hungry. We went to our usual place and brought home half our meals for another meal, as per usual.
Leftovers. Roast beef Sandwiches.
Wednesday: Leftovers. At least I'm using my leftovers. We had the remainder of the Grits Casserole I made Monday.
Leftovers: Yesterday's lunch.
Pork Chops, Rutabagas (for me not John), corn (for John not me), Green Bean Casserole.
Thursday: Cheese Omelet, Toast, Mandarin. John doesn't cook but he will make breakfast and this morning he decided he'd do the cooking. He always makes such a beautiful presentation of the food, too. He peeled the mandarin and laid it out on one side of the plate segment by segment. It always pleases me to see the care he puts into my plate of food when he's cooked.
Fried Chicken, Potato logs. To be honest, we ate the potato logs on the way home then ate a piece of chicken after we got here. We were hungry!
Beef Stroganoff, Noodles, Broccoli. I cheated a little with this meal. I used the single steak left in the package from the steak John picked up last week. Everything else was on hand: onions, mushrooms, garlic, noodles, sour cream and broccoli. It was a lovely supper and we both enjoyed it. Glad I got busy and used the mushrooms and broccoli tonight because I'm not sure they'd have made it until I thought of them again.
Friday: Cheese toast.
Chicken and potato salad. Plenty of leftover fried chicken. Potato salad takes no time to make.
Beef Noodle Soup. A bit of stroganoff, some leftover roast and vegetables from the pot roast earlier this week, extra broth equals easy and quick soup. That will clear the fridge of leftovers and we'll go into the weekend with a fresh meal plan.
I'm going to go at least one more week on this pantry challenge. This will may be a little light on fresh produce but we've plenty of frozen and canned things we can use and we've enough lettuce to make salads.
Sometime next week I'll go shopping, so I need to start making my lists of things that I know we no longer have and need.
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