Since I am off work until Friday, I am trying to plan for the rest of the week. Today we had chicken thighs, potatoes, carrots, onion, celery, garlic in the crock pot with one bouillon cube, some spices, and a cup of water.
There is one thigh left for my working dd when she gets home. I cooked four total and split one with my husband, so the kids could each have their own. We have half a bowl of veggies and the one thigh left over. I have one and a half cups of chicken stock cooling in the fridge.
I am planning for tomorrow's meal. I have a cup of pinto and great northern beans soaking in a huge pot of water. I will let this soak overnight. I have a ham bone and left over ham that needs to be used up from last week. The bone will go into the crock pot in the AM. I am going to chop up what is left of the ham and put this into the crockpot. I took out the small container of ham stock I had in the freezer to thaw. This will go into the crock pot also.
I have some carrots that were left with the ham, and some carrots, and celery that were left over tonight. They are going into the crock pot too. I don't think I will add more, since we have so many left over. We eat a lot of carrots, since they are a fairly cheap vegetable on a budget.
Once that chicken stock cools and the fat rises to the top, I will take fat off (we don't use this), and put the stock into the crock pot with a few cups of water.
Ham and bean soup for dinner tomorrow. It's a crock pot meal that does all the work for me. I may make some biscuits to go with it.
Sounds Great! .I've been trying really hard to make sure everything gets used up too. Every time I throw something away I add up how much money I just threw in the trash.
ReplyDeleteHow long have you done that? I think it would depress me to add up the cost and then know the total over a period of time.
DeleteIt actually helps to motivate me to use stuff up if I think of food in terms of money. It makes me want to figure out a way to use them. Even if I'm just throwing away some lettuce that turned brown, it's still annoying to know I basically just tossed $.50 in the trash. Or if it's a leftover casserole, it's more like throwing $1 or $2 in the trash. We have been throwing less and less away and I've gotten better at planning dinners around left overs because I hate to throw money away.
DeleteI don't keep track over a period of time but it would be interesting to figure out how much money we threw away in wasted food each month.
But it sounds like you do really well at planning meals around leftovers.
I am not always successful. My husband and kids will let me know when they have had enough of a certain food. But when we shop, we are paying with cash, and you have a point. We are throwing our money away when things end up in the trash can.
DeleteI am being even more careful with leftovers these days too, just because prices are going up again, and meat especially is SO expensive. Tonight we ate beef cubes and gravy for the third time. (not in a row) First it was beef and gravy with baked potatoes and roasted carrots, the second time I cut up the extra potatoes and carrots and put the beef and gravy over them--beef stew! Tonight it was beef and gravy with noodles, and broccoli and salad on the side. So it's gone!!
ReplyDeleteMy next project is to use up the rest of 3.5 lbs of turkey--so far we had one meal from it, which was turkey, stuffing, gravy, corn, and whole cranberry sauce (from the freezer.) Not sure what I will do with it tomorrow, but I'll think of something. I know there is leftover stuffing, and corn, and gravy, so they will have to be incorporated somehow! The turkey (1/4 of a breast with bone in) cost .99 a lb after Thanksgiving last year. I think they cut up their leftover fresh turkeys and sold them off in pieces.
A turkey pot pit sounds good. I made it once with dumplings for the top crust. I never bothered with the bottom crust, and my kids and husband liked it. Can you simmer the bone and skin to make a stock for the freezer? 99 cents a lb is great for a turkey breast. I really have to work on the size of my meals, since I think that I am feeding an army of hungry folks.
DeleteShred the turkey and mix all that up with an egg. Put it in a casserole and cook it. If you have a can of turkey, cream of mushroom, or cream of anything, mix that in for the baking part since you will need some more moisture. Even more vegetables would be great in this.
ReplyDelete