January Challenge 2

[Dee]

Well, I accidentally deleted the first post. I've asked for help bringing it back but those in the know must not have been on today. Sorry!

 

So, today we ate leftovers from the potatoes and ribs.  I did, however, take some homemade ham and cheese bread out of the freezer.

 

Martian Chick, I'm a little like you on emptying my freezers.  So, when I use enough to get one freezer emptied, I'll begin filling it with fresh while I continue taking from the others.

[Mother]

We still have fresh veggies to use before they spoil.  I did get out two packages of older brats for tomorrow.  I will cook them, use a couple brats for lunch, and cut the rest into coins to rerfreeze in small portions to use as snacks with cheese cubes or add to meals as a quick meat. They will also take up less room that way.  

[snapshotmiki]

We will be having beans and cornbread for a while.  Pulled a sweet potato pie out of the freezer.  I got it at the end of Dec. at local grocery for $1.99/ originally $6.99.

[Becca_Anne]

I didn't see the first thread but guessing from context from other posts the January Challenge is to use up items in freezer and pantry that need used before they go bad? 

I used up the last of the sweet potatoes I grew last night that were on the back porch before they got ruined by the cold. It's unheated there so I'm actually pleased they were still good. They were tiny but they worked perfectly in the stir fry I made. I roasted them first then tossed them in with a bag of frozen vegis, some turkey leftover (defrosted) from Christmas and some garlic, honey and soy sauce, salt and pepper. Super easy and everyone liked it. I have a menu planned with freezer items this month to use up older and orphaned items so hopefully I'll get through all of it and get my freezer re-organized. I still have a lot of pumpkin and zucchini. I did make and freeze pumpkin soup last week but I want to do another batch as I have a ton of frozen broth in the freezer taking up a lot of room in there

[themartianchick]

I made barbecued chicken legs in the crockpot overnight. The package had been in the freezer for about a year. Today, I am making cornbread and glazed carrots. I found a partial bag of baby carrots that were purchased fresh. I must have thrown them in the freezer to keep them from going bad. Broccoli might be nice, too. If I'm feeling really ambitious, then I will make some bread or rolls. (Yeah, that part probably won't happen!)

[Littlesister]

I finished off the chili I made the other night. That was also last night's dinner. I have chicken thawing now. Not sure yet how I want to cook it. It is a chicken breast. Might barbeque it or just bake it. Will use a jar of my canned potatoes for mashed potatoes and make some gravy. Then heat up some green beans or peas from my pantry. 

Digging through my freezer, I won't be going to a store for many months. I have a good variety of beef, pork, chicken and other things in there. I found a turkey breast I bought a couple of months ago on sale. I will cook that up for turkey sandwiches and maybe make soup from part of it. I have lots of bacon and sausage in there also. I should pull out some bacon for breakfast also. I did find a pack of English muffins in the freezer. Pulled that out last night and toasted one up with some cream cheese for breakfast. That was good. I love cream cheese on bagels and English muffins, but I rather use the rest of the English muffins for egg and Canadian bacon for breakfast. Might do that one tomorrow for breakfast. Just need to pull the Canadian bacon out of the refrigerator freezer. 

[Littlesister]

I ended up with chicken thighs instead of the chicken breast. Cooked them over the wood stove. cooked up a jar of green beans that I canned from 2019 and made rice. I made a gravy from mushroom soup. All from my pantry and the chicken from freezer. All was good. 

[Dee]

I made a chicken pot pie using leftover chicken and gravy.  I added mixed vegetable and made a crust for the top. All but the crust came from the freezer.  I also added an outdated jar of chicken gravy from the pantry. 

 

It actually wasn't very good, but DH said it was edible.  THAT was a rare statement from him.  I said I'd toss it, but he said he'd eat it. "It wasn't really bad, just not up to your standard."  I took that as a compliment! 

 

So, how did the rest of you do today?

[Necie]

I had commented on the first post that I made ham roast with potatoes, onions, carrots and dandelion greens with bacon/egg on New Year’s Day. All homegrown/harvested. We had leftovers the next day. 
Then yesterday... I posted in “What are you doing today?” that we had a fail... DH wanted pizza. 😂 We ate leftovers today. I was going to freeze the rest of the ham roast/veggies to make bean soup later this week, but DH wants to use the potatoes tomorrow to make fried potatoes. So, I’ll probably just make the soup tomorrow. 

I was going to add these pics of the roast/veggies on the 1st, but forgot. So here they are. 

 

 

[Littlesister]

Necie, those greens made me realize that not one store around here had fresh collards. That was something we always saw in the stores during both Thanksgiving and Christmas. You could buy canned ones, but they are not the same. Yes, I am planting collard greens this fall. 

[Necie]

Dandelion greens are my favorite. I go out and dig up LOTS of them every spring. Usually over about a week. I cook them down and freeze in quart bags. Everyone is always amazed when I cook them up in the middle of summer, sometimes for holidays, in the winter... “Where did you get those?!?”... “Out of my freezer.”  They are just toooooo good to only have once a year. 😂 

[Littlesister]

The dandelions around here have sharp thorny leaves. Not sure if they are the ones anyone would want to pick and eat. You have to wear gloves to pull them up or you would get stuck by the thorns.  I haven't seen any with the smooth leaves here, but those wild ones grow around here like crazy. 

[Necie]

I’ve never seen ones with thorns. There are two different kinds that grow wild here. I call them pointy leaf and rounded leaf. I prefer cleaning the pointy ones, they separate at the root. I prefer eating the rounded ones, they separate above the root. So... I just dig up ALL of them!! 😂 

[themartianchick]

40 minutes ago, Littlesister said:

The dandelions around here have sharp thorny leaves. Not sure if they are the ones anyone would want to pick and eat. You have to wear gloves to pull them up or you would get stuck by the thorns.  I haven't seen any with the smooth leaves here, but those wild ones grow around here like crazy. 

There are some thistle plants that look similar to dandelions. Sow thistle and yellow thistle are two that come to mind.

[themartianchick]

31 minutes ago, Necie said:

I’ve never seen ones with thorns. There are two different kinds that grow wild here. I call them pointy leaf and rounded leaf. I prefer cleaning the pointy ones, they separate at the root. I prefer eating the rounded ones, they separate above the root. So... I just dig up ALL of them!! 😂 

How do you season and cook them, Necie? Do you pick them when they are young or do you wait until they are more mature? I have eaten raw ones, but the more mature ones seemed bitter.

[Necie]

32 minutes ago, themartianchick said:

How do you season and cook them, Necie? Do you pick them when they are young or do you wait until they are more mature? I have eaten raw ones, but the more mature ones seemed bitter.

I pick them young. Before they bloom. I don’t mind buds at the base. The buds are actually tender and YUMMY. I don’t like stems. If there’s buds on stems, I’ll pop the stem off at the base and then dig it up. If it’s already flowered, I leave it be. They get bitter after flowering.
Cleaning is a PITA. 
For cooking, I put them in a big stockpot and boil til tender. Takes awhile. I don’t think that you can overcook them. This is when I drain and bag and freeze. When I take a bag out and thaw it, I fry up some chopped bacon, remove bacon and add greens (drain any excessive liquid) and fry until they *look right*. I also run a knife through them in the pan— cast iron, but you can before adding to pan. Just makes smaller bites. When they look right, add bacon back in and 3-4 beaten eggs and mix til eggs are cooked. I add salt and pepper whenever I feel like it... with the greens, with the eggs, both. 😂 To eat, I top with butter, vinegar, and salt and pepper. 

I have fried sliced parsnips after the bacon. Remove and add back in with bacon/eggs. 
If there doesn’t seem to be enough bacon grease, then I add some out of my grease jar or add butter to it. 

[themartianchick]

I thought that I'd make some beef stew for dad with the stew beef in the freezer. As it turns out, there is no stew beef in the freezer! So...today, I will be making chicken soup from the 2 rotisserie carcasses and some of the store-canned veggies in the pantry. I don't allow dad near the salt shaker or his old canned goods because of hi low-salt diet. A can or two of the salted veggies might add a little bit of zip to the crockpot without being unhealthy for him. I prefer to eat frozen veggies, so there is no one here to use the cans up. I have been buying the no-salt versions since May and need to make room to store more of them. The ones that were purchased yesterday are still sitting in bags.

[Littlesister]

Martinchick, My DH was salt restricted. So, no salt. We could use pepper, and DH preferred the pepper over salt anyway. I have been buying no salt canned veggies for years but also been buying the frozen ones as well. I am not salt restricted, but I have grown so used to cooking without it I rarely use it. I use a lot of no salt herbs instead of salt and that gives it good flavor on things I cook. 

 

I wonder if you can buy dandelion seeds and plant them.  

[themartianchick]

1 hour ago, Littlesister said:

 

I wonder if you can buy dandelion seeds and plant them.  

If you can wait until Spring, my hubby would be thrilled for me to send you some seeds! I think that dandelions look kinda cheerful in our lawn. Hubby hates them with a passion. He also hates seeing chicory growing in the back yard. I love having undercover edibles!

[Becca_Anne]

Yesterday I made a pork loin in the crock pot with apple butter, mustard, garlic and some pepper. I served it with roasted green beans cooked with a bit of olive oil and basalmic vinegar and roasted potato wedges cooked with a bit of olive oil and salt. It was very tasty. I saved the other half of the pork loin and shredded it and we'll have that tonight with bbq sauce on buns for dinner tonight, and finish off the rest of the vegis with salmon tomorrow. 

[Dee]

DD and DSIL brought us chicken and the trimmings for dinner today.  Yum!  The problem was, I wouldn't be taking anything from the freezer, BUT I found some cookies in the freezer that we all enjoyed. 

 

Phew, I'd hate to miss a day already! 

 

I enjoy reading what everyone is doing. Keep up the good work!!!

[Littlesister]

I dug through the refrigerator freezer in garage and pulled out a T-Bone steak so that is dinner tonight.  Maybe a baked potato and corn.  I still have leftover chicken from last night but will have that either for lunch tomorrow or dinner. 

 

Went up to Food Lion and all I can say is WOW.  It was crowded, and getting wiped out. those guys were stocking as hard as they could. Even pulling out the back stock from what was left from the last stock up day. They didn't have the distilled water, so I just said forget it. Went over to the eggs and they were in short supply but the prices rain from 3.49 up to $6.59. They only had one carton of England's best, and it had cracked eggs in the carton. Those were $6.49. I went ahead and got the 18-ct. carton. They were 4.89 and not many of those left. I am going to get those ready for the freezer later today. At least it will get me through the cold spell that's coming later in the week. Though I still have just over a doz. in the fridge now. Those I will be using up for breakfast. 

[Littlesister]

Dee, we were typing at the same time.  If someone brings you food, it's not cheating or missing a day. That is free food from that someone bought to you and doesn't count. 

[Necie]

1 hour ago, Becca_Anne said:

cooked with a bit of olive oil and basalmic vinegar

I love flavored oils and vinegars. I need to use the ones that I have more. My DSIS4 sends me a bottle of flavored oil every year from Georgia for my birthday. Last year was an Italian herbed oil. This year was a spiced oil... cinnamon, clove, red pepper flakes. Then there’s a gal at flea market that makes flavored olive oils, vinegars, and blends. I usually buy 2 from her each year. This year I got a fig/balsamic blend and a white pesto blend. I still have some raspberry and a hibiscus vinegar left. I also found some small 8oz bottles of white truffle olive oil for cheap at Ollie’s, so got 2 of those. Yup... I need to use more. 🤩

[Dee]

I see so much about vinegars, and I don't know what all you use them for.  Sure would like some ideas.  At this point I have plain vinegar and apple vinegar, but anything else is Greek to me. What I have I use in potato salad, etc. 

 

It's the same with oils.  How do you use them, other than cooking or baking?