Tag: using up leftovers

Categories
Every Day

Using Up Leftovers To Clean Out The Fridge

It was a smoky and dreary day outside here yesterday. So I decided to see how I could use up some leftovers to make homemade chicken soup for at least 2 dinner meals.

I knew that I had some leftover chicken from earlier in the week. So I decided to pull out some of my canned chicken to go in the pot with it. I ended up only needing one of my jars. I had forgotten how much chicken there is in a pint.

Then I pulled some leftover spaghetti out of the fridge which I cut up into pieces. I also had a bag of leftover corn and carrots in the freezer from the last time I made chicken soup. I grabbed another can of carrots but I ended up not having to use that either. I cut up some fresh celery and sauteed it before I put it in the pot. All of the other ingredients were cooked so it was just a matter of heating everything up. Lastly, I added about 3/4’s of the chicken broth that was open in the fridge.

This soup tasted so delicious that Hubby could not stop raving about it and he will happily eat more soup tonight. I had forgotten how delicious home canned chicken is. Store bought canned chicken doesn’t even come close to tasting as good. The next time I find a chicken breast sale I will buy some to can to replace what I have been using up.

We each had a nice soup bowl full and here are the leftovers for tonight.

This was so much fun knowing that I was using up what would give us 2 more meals. I just might do it again this week.

Tomorrow I will post my grocery shopping trips from this week.

Do you use up your leftovers? Do you make soup?

Categories
Every Day

Frugal Things March 30

These are the things we have done frugally today:

– Since I am an early riser, I made this first thing this morning for our snacks this week. It is sugar free raspberry jello which is easy. This is 2 packages and it will last us quite a few days. We put sugar free Cool Whip on it or not depending on our mood.

– I wanted to show you how we froze the chili last night. I have a stack of these reusable freezer to microwave covered bowls that I put leftovers in. It may be meat like the chili or leftovers that make a meal for one of us. The chili bowls have enough for a meal for two of us. So this will be two meals worth of chili. If we have a little meat, potatoes, rice, or steamed veggies leftover then I will make a frozen type dinner. When I have a few of them, we will pull two out for dinner depending on what each of us wants to eat that night. We waste nothing in this household. If you wonder what you can freeze for a meal, take a look in the freezer cases when you shop. If they can freeze it, you can freeze it.

– I had forgotten to enter my grocery delivery order on Fetch so I did that before it was too late. 

– We had no cooked bacon so I cooked a package in the oven. We don’t buy cooked bacon because it is so easy to do it yourself. We under cook it all because we put it in the fridge to heat up for breakfasts. That way when we heat it in the microwave each morning we can each cook it to the crispiness we like without overcooking it. I use foil instead of parchment paper because it keeps the pan cleaner and when the grease congeals, I can just roll up the foil and throw it out. Then the pan easily cleans up with some soap and water. 

– Our mail today brought us a nice package of coupons from Frito Lay. Last week Hubby opened a package of Poppables and they looked very dark and tasted awful. I called Frito Lay to ask what it was and they said they were burnt. They apologized and sent two Free coupons for any product and 2 coupons for $ 1.00 off a product. 

– I did both the treadmill and the bike today for 30 minutes each. I am so glad that we quit the YMCA because it is so convenient to do this at home. It has saved us $48. a month.

– I washed two loads of laundry today using laundry sanitizer in the wash and the dryer balls in the dryer.

– Dinner tonight was hot dogs with Hubby’s homemade chili. Hubby likes his on buns with some melted cheese on top. I like mine bunless with some brussel sprouts on the side. 

– Entertainment tonight will be a movie on showtime.

That’s it for frugality today. Please share with us what you did frugally today.

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

I am so busy today that I need to make this very short. 

Last Saturday evening we went to a wonderful Christmas party in the neighborhood. We were fortunate to be able to meet a couple who had just moved into one of the new houses that are being built in our neighborhood along with a couple who will be closing on their home later in December.

I have to thank Hawaii Planner for the idea of making a platter with meats and cheeses to take to the party. I took a picture of what we brought but forgot to take it before I wrapped it. Since it is hard to see, I will tell you what is on it. Pepperoni, 3 different kinds of salami(regular, garlic and herb, and pepper),beef sticks, hot soppressata, beef summer sausage, and Irish Gaelic cheese, Champagne cheese, and Whiskey cheese. I also brought two containers of different kinds of crackers. Everyone loved it! I brought this because we could eat the meats and a little cheese. With the exception of a veggie platter that someone made, there was no other food that we could eat. There was a ton of food but it was all carbohydrate laden or sugar laden( the desserts). We only ate those when we weren’t dieting. 

We have been lucky to be able to eat at parties or on holidays by making what we can eat. It has worked well for us. Hubby was good. He just had a glass of dry wine. Me, I drank water.

We had a terrific evening. So thanks to Nancy and Jack!

We had a lot of leftovers from making the platter. So last night we turned those and some other items in our fridge into an antipasto plate for our dinner. We had salami, prosciutto, pepperoni, artichoke hearts, black olives, fresh mozzarella balls, and pepperoncini on lettuce with SF Italian dressing. It was so yummy! 

Do you remember my nice clean refrigerator above that I posted about in November?

Well look at it now! UGH! This much food in our fridge makes it so disorganized which drives me crazy. So guess what we will be eating out of the rest of the week? 

Some of the butter will be moved to the freezer. The eggs are not a big deal because they get eaten for breakfasts and the cooked ones for snacks. 

Not much I can do about all the condiments except use them up. The shelf above the produce has a ton of leftovers that I will be remaking into something else for dinners. Tons of produce needs to be incorporated into breakfasts and dinners. The apples will be made into applesauce. And last but not least, the deli drawer has a lot of meats and cheeses that need to get used.  

Forget about eating this up this week. It looks like we can eat from this for the next two weeks right up until Christmas. Waste not, want not!

Am I the only one who has a full messy fridge?