I had three small bowls of bean soup left after dinner. They are in containers with tops, dated, labeled, and put in freezer.
Using things up....the thinking continues to support a fragile budget right now. Tomorrow is the end of March, and I still have funds in my checking account, the bills are paid, and I am working on Mid April's expenses. I have not touched my savings account at all.
Looking around the kitchen, I have some colored peppers (red, yellow, orange) that are going soft. I took six small ones (thinking baby size) and diced them up. I have two cloves of garlic that are also chopped up. I had a can of mushrooms (4 ounces) that need to be used. I drained them and chopped them up. I took one large onion, peeled, sliced and chopped small. I will add some dry basil to this in the AM. This is all in a bowl in the fridge for the AM.
I have half a jog of Prego in the fridge. More on that in a little bit.
I have a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes in the pantry. I have one pound of thin spaghetti that needs to go. I am thawing out a pound of ground turkey. I will be making meatballs in the AM, using the ground turkey, reconstituted dry milk, two eggs, some seasoned breadcrumbs, onion and garlic powder, along with some basil. I will bake the meat balls in the oven, then transfer to the crock pot. I will add the crushed tomatoes, the peppers, garlic, onion, mushrooms, and a small amount of Prego to the crock pot.
It's going to simmer all day. I will boil some of the thin spaghetti, serve it with the "garden style" spaghetti sauce and meat balls. The kids are kind of "iffy" about the homemade spaghetti sauce, so I have the Prego just in case.
We are going to have steamed peas and asparagus on the side. I have no fresh produce for a salad right now.
Debbie
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious!
Thanks.
DeleteI think using everything you buy in the way of food is an especially good way to save. I did a little fridge excursion yesterday and got rid of a few things: half a cup of applesauce that wasn't very good to start with. I make my own applesauce and bought the flavorless apples at a local festival. Not a good deal because they were flavorless. Won't do that without thinking ahead. Half a bag of radishes went in the garbage--I don't use these quickly, so I think next time I will NOT leave them in the plastic bag where they can get slimy faster--I'll take them out of the bag and wrap in a paper towel and maybe I will use more of them. Tossed about 1/6th of a red pepper--no tears over that--just forgot it was still in there. The only other thing I threw out was a container of ham gravy because I cut up the ham and put it in the freezer in meal sized portions. No tears over that either. Not bad for a week in which we ate at home every night in my opinion. I also made a cake mix cake with added vanilla (I buy the expensive stuff) and homemade icing. Every bit of that got eaten. Also made a pan of brownies from scratch with choc chips instead of nuts, and while some are left, I only made them yesterday. I attempt to make only home made baked goods most of the time---I'm supposed to eat low salt, low fat, so not buying at the bakery makes sure I don't eat too many sweets, and we don't eat chemical-laden ones either (except for the cake mix.) Most things are made from scratch here, but I do use a mix or boxed items occasionally, for speed or general laziness, I will admit.
ReplyDeleteI use boxed items here too. My kids love boxed mac and cheese. I did buy some, but haven't used it for them yet. We recently had a cake, and I bought boxed pumpkin bars and gingerbread cookies 3 for1.00 at an outlet store. Ham gravy sounds interesting, and I love homemade applesauce. I ave never had ham gravy, I bet it's pretty tasty.
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