Leftovers: No Waste

We had some leftovers from having company. So I decided to make chicken soup yesterday. I had the rotisserie chicken that I purchased on Tuesday so I used some of that meat. I diced up some fresh celery and planned on using dehydrated carrots. The carrots were a problem. More about that in a minute. I had no fresh carrots so I resorted to using a small can of sliced carrots. I also had 3 leftover cooked corn on the cob. I cut the corn off. I also had a small container of cooked wild rice. I added all of those things along with some leftover chicken stock that was in the fridge. Within 20 minutes, I had a nice small pot of soup.

These are the dehydrated carrots that I opened to use in the soup. It was a brand new #10 can of Augason Farms Carrots that I just purchased this month. The expiration date was 2047. I know the quality of food has gone down the tubes but this is ridiculous. I have no idea what all the brown and white pieces that are in it even are. So this is being returned to Amazon and they re refunding my money. It makes me very nervous about other dehydrated food that I have purchased that is Augason Farms. I haven’t had a problem before but I doubt I will buy other cans from them. I will be opening sooner rather than later the other ones I own.

I threw the carcass from the rotisserie chicken along with water in the crock pot yesterday and made chicken bone broth. As you can see I got a half gallon jar and a little over half of another one. Since the pot of soup needs to be added to tonight for our dinner, I will use up the broth that has the chicken bits from the carcass in it. The other jar will be used in various dishes.

We also had leftover hamburgers, pork tenderloin, blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins, broccoli, and cold cuts. The hamburgers were used for cheeseburgers this week that we topped with delicious tomatoes from our garden. The hoisin pork tenderloin that Hubby marinated and grilled was used for a dinner with applesauce and the broccoli and a pork sandwich for Hubby for a lunch. The muffins and pancakes we have been enjoying for breakfasts. And for brunch today, the cold cuts will be put on our Chef’s salads.

We are trying our best to not waste anything. Food is way too expensive to do that! If we can’t incorporate it into a meal right away, I freeze leftovers in a gallon bag and use it for soup or stew.