There's a lot on the "thrown out" list today:
- more taco meat. I need to think about whether I should stop making tacos at home unless we have guests. Except for me, no one who lives here likes them, and I have a hard time getting through a lb. of taco meat all by myself before it becomes questionable.
- beet greens that turned to a black mush
- some not-so-fresh spinach
- 3/4 cup cooked rice*
- 2 Activia yogurt cups that expired in September*
- 1 can chopped mustard greens that expired in the year 2010*
- made some very tasty potato salad with some homemade sweet pickles that were given to us last Christmas, some pickled peppers from a jar in the fridge, and some celery and green onions from the crisper bin. The potatoes were beginning to sprout eyes but I cut those off and the potatoes seemed fine otherwise. Do you find that Yukon Gold potatoes start to go bad more quickly than russet potatoes? It seems like I hardly have them in the house before I suddenly need to use them up quickly.
- made pinto beans and ham with the ham bone I had in the freezer and a random bag of beans that I think I got for free from the grocery store when I bought something else. I bought the ham a couple of months ago and trimmed lots of meat off of the bone but wasn't sure what to do with it after that. I'm glad I saved it because after simmering for hours with the beans I found a lot of meat to go back in with the beans. The ham and beans were so good, and really hit the spot when we got some cold weather. I made some corn muffins to go with them.
- found a recipe for a jam tart that I intend to make with a pint of strawberry-fig jam that we received as a gift last Christmas. The jam might very well be delicious, but it is kind of icky looking - brownish and chunky and syrupy - which is why we still have it. I intend to blend it up into a smooth paste and make the tart with it. If we don't like it, well, at least I tried.
- organized the kitchen pantry a bit and found some things that I had forgotten about.
- the rest of the ham and beans.
- chicken sausages from the freezer with leftover potato salad.
- cod from the freezer baked with pesto I found in the pantry. I will serve this with a long grain/wild rice mix I have in the cupboard.
- Thanksgiving Dinner.
- turkey paninis with pesto from the pantry and some cheese I have in the fridge. I might try my hand at making homemade ciabatta bread, or I may see if they have any on the day-old bakery rack at the store. I will make another potato salad with the remaining potatoes, pickles, pickled peppers, celery, and green onions to go with the paninis.
- turkey soup with leftover rolls.
*My good Mr. Dub bought these things and never ate them, and my Little Friend and I don't eat yogurt or mustard greens. (I don't think Mr. Dub eats mustard greens either. He bought the one can at least 2 1/2 years ago and never ate them.) He cooked the rice for his breakfast one day two weeks ago and then gave up on it before he finished it.
The blame for the rest of the thrown-out items rests fully upon my own shoulders.
I always cook a pound of taco meat and then freeze the rest into small portions. Maybe that's weird that most of that meat gets frozen twice, but I've been doing that for at least 10 years now with no problems.I love having small ready to go taco meat I can just microwave for last minute dinners.
ReplyDeleteI wish spinach came in smaller packages... that's the worst one for waste, too, since I'm the only one in my family who likes spinach, but I can't eat the whole bag in just the few days that's it is good.