[Spirit Deer]

Finished most of the T-day leftovers last night and have one more meal of potato sausage left for supper tonight.

Need to freeze some bagels so they don't get moldy.

Need to prep some freezer meals ahead of the house closing next week, so we have easy, healthy meals ready as needed. That will help use some foods in need of being used, too.

Need to throw the cheap Aldi sweet potatoes in the microwave so they can be cooked and prepped for freezing.

Wonder how much I will actually get done today. I'm hoping for a double batch of lasagna, large batch chili, goulash, some kind of soup, precooking some chicken, and maybe 5 lbs of HM hot Italian sausge crumbles, but that seems ambitious. Still, it would feel good to have all that in the freezer and fridge, ready and waiting when we're tired and hungry. Maybe I'll make it a two-day cooking extravaganza. 😁

 

[Spirit Deer]

Got the chili, goulash, and lasagna done and packaged. It's chilling in the unheated back porch now. Gonna miss that in the new house, if we ever decide to move 😂. I used up some of the dehydrated mixed veggies in the goulash, and the crumbs of dried green bell peppers in the chili, both left over from The Great Food Buying Panic of 2020. Also used up several outdated cans of tomatoes and tomato sauce, some raw celery left over from the T-day croo-duh-tay tray, cooked ground beef and chicken frozen in 2021, outdated box of mac and cheese, and some other things.

I found the nearly empty jar of HM instant hot cocoa mix and had just enough room to add it to the new jar I mixed up yesterday because I thought the old jar was gone. Technically I guess that isn't using it up, but at least the jar is empty and ready to store something else now. Also used up some ancient packets of store bought mix that were still good. Glad that's finally gone.

Made the lasagna, chili, sweet potatoes, and goulash and quit. I'll attempt tortilla soup, black bean soup, and pork ball soup tomorrow. The pork balls will be made from chicken since I don't seem to have any ground pork, but I've been planning to start using chicken anyway.

Found 6 lbs of raw hamburger and 3 pkgs of cooked chicken/beef crumbles, which I'm happy about since I won't have to buy anymore beef for a while now.

Froze the bagels to preserve them longer.

It's good to finally be getting our food back under control so it's easier to see and find what we have.

 

[marthamfi]

got wraps, cool whip (got ind sticky toffee pudding for me lol) , bread, milk/creamo etc. dh coffee, used up onion so dh got a bag. hoagies, mandarins a box of xmas ones.

used up 2 squashes, the smoked turkey, onion, some celery from freezer, sm pk bacon, cut sprouts off potatoes used them up, bananas, crows got rotisserie chicken carcess, grain bread ends. can of tomato soup, the reg stuff coffee etc.

 

[Spirit Deer]

Is creamo a coffee creamer?

Used up some outdated cans of black beans in the black bean soup, along with the last of the garlic bulb. Tossed a spoiled onion. Don't know what happened to that one, since the rest in the bag are fine. Used a pkg of HM sweet Italian sausage frozen precooked 2 yrs ago.

Made pretzel bark and added ½ pkg Spanish peanuts that have been in the freezer since 2019. Time to say goodbye. Maybe Husby will make peanut cookies with the rest.

 

[marthamfi]

depending where you are half and half I think it is called mostly in the states. 10% milk fat. coffee cream is 18% fat but not as popular here. cus that is a lot of fat in coffee. I think your heavy cream 35% is what we call whipping cream.

well something we don't know what triggered dh allergies in the smoked turkey so meal plan wise.. not for him anymore. we can have leftovers and he can have tomato soup and grilled cheese. also used up box of expired stove top (aug) stuffing and a pack of chicken gravy. mom gave us a pack of oatmeal cookies.

 

[hikr00]

Hmmm….last week I used up two jars of Turkey gravy, two boxes of stuffing, a frozen loaf of bread, pumpkin bread mix, bag of frozen whole kernel corn, a lb of shaved pastrami, four sub rolls. I feel like there’s more that I dragged out if the freezer and the pantry but I cannot bring them to mind.

I’ve got a couple of cups of blueberries left over from the fruit plate I made for the family get together (my niece hosted) so I’m going to make a blueberry cake with that tonight.

 

[Spirit Deer]

Thanks, Martha. I was wondering.

We finished up the potato sausage, scalloped corn, potatoes, some veggie dip, spare sweet potatoes that didn't fit in the freezer dishes, a dab of sour cream, and some other stuff I forget now. At any rate, all the leftovers from last week are gone.

I mashed and froze the 3 avocadoes that were starting to get too ripe, so we can use those later.

 

[MaggieTru]

My pantry is SO FULL I have like no option but to eat from it. So breakfast was sardines (out of eggs but wanted protein), home brewed (well, office brewed) coffee, homemade mustard, and carrots. No inperson meetings today because pretty sure my breath can peel paint even after brushing...

Lunch is planned as salad from the "fresh food" in the work fridge, with a vinaigrette of vinegar, oil and spices from the stash. I should have protein on that but hate to dip into the chicken and duck so soon after jamming it in jars...
I might use the elderberry syrup and the last of the rye-flour to make some biscuits or muffins.

Dinner last night was too many walnuts and raisins.

Chickens haven't laid in a bit and I'm out of eggs so eating other proteins for a while. Should have brought some nuts to work

 

[Contrary Housewife]

The last of the pita from the upstairs fridge is gone, DH had it for lunch. I'm working on thanksgiving leftovers, having a turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich.

 

[hikr00]

Tonight we finished up the turkey in gravy - sort of made a poutine out of it by air frying two mostly empty bags of French fries. We really need to empty one bag before we start another one. So those two are gone as is the turkey and the gravy.

Dh finished up the last of the pineapple and the watermelon too. Making good progress!
I had made up a turkey shepherds pie which I froze for future use. I knew once we finished up the turkey and gravy I wasn’t going to be able to stomach any more turkey so I made up the pie and froze it.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

Oh, I love FF in gravy, especially cream gravy. Opened a can of mandarin oranges, best by 2018. Oops. Need to pay attention to my dates. They were fine though.

Dumped some brown rice I bought in early 2020, it got lost and went rancid. Not sure about the "new" bag. It smells off but I rinsed it and it tasted fine. Not sure how much longer I can keep it. Used some walnuts from the freezer.

Having a turkey pie on hand will be nice later. I might chop some of mine for turkey pot pie in the future.

 

[dlrcpa]

Another free pumpkin this morning, bigger than the last ones. They became pumpkin butter, mainly so it would last a few weeks at least. No room in the freezer right now.

 

[marthamfi]

lol reminds me of when I stopped by my moms in my 20s and said is there anything to eat..she said yes curry chicken pot pie and I am eating it going this isn't chicken but turkey..she was well have to call it something different or never get eaten. she never made another turkey after Spooky the cat died ..he lived off chicken etc all he ate so she didn't need the cheap meat from it anymore. Family wasn't big on turkey too. He got his name as a kitten when he freaked out at a ice cream cone I was eating..was hissing etc lol and he was black. most cats would grab your hand and eat the ice cream.

have a bag of soup mix..all diff dry beans, rice etc so will use some of the smoked turkey up ..dh wouldn't eat the soup anyways but the kids will. there is pizza from last night too for dh. drier parts bones etc going to crows. ds has been making turkey sandwiches as snacks. a loaf starting going moldy so out for wildlife and seagulls. condensing leftovers to make room. have to figure out what to do with half a can of cranberry jelly.

 

[dlrcpa]

I put cranberry sauce on toast like it was jelly.
Or you can make muffins - here is a recipe I made once. Cranberry Sauce Muffins

 

[marthamfi]

Thanks Dlrcpa! that is a good idea! I can see doing that but I rarely eat toast or breakfast now so this would get it used up at once

 

[MaggieTru]

ate up the raisins.
made soup with some fresh veg and a bunch of lentils
tomorrow is more soup with the rest of the fresh that i have at home and a jar of chicken stock. maybe braised cabbage on the side with either dick or salmon.

 

[hikr00]

CH My grandfather comes from Nova Scotia and I guess it must be a nod to my French Canadian ancestry because I adore poutine. French fries, gravy and cheese. Oh my!

DH requested spaghetti and meatballs on the menu this week and tonjght is the night. There’s a bit of leftover ham steak and I’m going to chop that up and add it to loaded baked potato soup for myself. Dh doesn’t like potato soup so I’m having that.

I used two cans of pasta sauce, half a bag of frozen meatballs, some spices and I’ll use up a half box of pasta. I’ve also got a few slices of frozen garlic bread in the freezer I’ll toast up for us both. My meal will use the last of the ham steak, about a lb of potatoes, cheddar cheese, chicken broth, cream and spices. I feel like there’s more but I’m blanking in what it is, I haven’t started cooking that yet.

 

[Spirit Deer]

I got the 3 lb pkg of hard salami portioned into half lb pkgs and into the freezer, where I won't snack on it. It will be handy for sandwiches at the new house and at home, too. I got it on a closeout for $4/lb instead of the usual $7, so had to grab it.

Now to figure out what to do with the family pack of $3 steak. Maybe something in the new IP and put the leftovers into divided freezer dishes for quick meals later.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

Hikr, my grandfather and his family are also from Canada, but I didn't discover gravy on fries until I moved to Texas.

DH has learned how to make pizza on flatbread for a hot lunch so I stocked up on supplies. Got a steak marked half price, going to turn it into beef barley soup tomorrow. Will be a large enough batch to freeze.

 

[hikr00]

CH yay for Canadian roots! Is gravy on fries a thing in Texas? There was this restaurant we went to in New Brunswick Canada that sold the “hungry man’s poutine”. That was crumbled ground beef, fries, gravy and the cheese curds all stacked on top of each other. It was an impressive stack! Hahaha.

I ordered it because we’d been hiking that day and I was very hungry. I don’t think I even made the halfway mark. Lolol.