Using what you have.
My biggest fear is that I will become a food hoarder. It is so easy to accept the left over food from friends, work & where ever, but if you don't use that food then you have wasted it. If you cannot see a use for the item offered then you should let it be given to someone else who will can.
Lately, I have been really taking a hard look at what is in my food pantry and trying to create meals from what I have instead of taking an easy trip to the grocery store. While you won't always find the thing you are craving in your supplies, you will be surprised at the number of creative meals you can make with what you have.
One Pot Meal & Beer Bread
I have been making One Pot Meals lately, most of them are soups. But sometimes I get tired of soup. I had a hard time giving this meal a name as it falls short of being in one category or another.It is not watery enough to be a soup or stew. It was made in a pot not a pan so I don't feel right calling it a Casserole. So I have settled on "One Pot Meal".
This started out as a head of cabbage that needed to be used up in my fridge (as so many of my recipe's start). I want to actually use the produce I buy. Not just save it in a different form until the time is right to throw it away. So that evening I fried up the head of cabbage, 2 onions and a few softer carrots into a nice vegetable side dish that I could add to my lunches for work and use as a side dish for supper.
The problem is my husband, who nary a fruit or vegetable will touch. He is sensitive to smells and every time I heated up the cabbage he would make a fuss. Don't get me wrong, I love him but sometimes it makes it hard to cook when he is home. Anyways, I avoided eating the side dish because of this and a week went by without making much of a dent in the large amount of cooked cabbage, onion and carrots sitting like a gargoyle in my fridge.
Not wanting to waste it, and it also being the time to clean out my fridge I decided to throw everything in a pot. This became the One Pot Meal you see.
It contains:
-Garlic cloves & Onions sauteed in olive oil.
-Ground Beef (2 pounds) cooked until crumbly.
-Spices (oregano, salt, pepper, ground mustard, alma paprika powder)
-the cooked cabbage, carrot & onion mix
-half a bag of corn (started to get freezer burn)
-3 cooked potatoes chopped up.
-1/3 rd of a bag of edible peas (starting to get soft)
-2 jars of my homemade crushed tomatoes (from my garden this year)
-1/2 cup ketchup (to make it sweeter as it was a bit on the acidic side)
I let it simmer in the pot until all the flavors had melded together and voila! Mystery One Pot Meal.
There was enough for 12 meals.
Beer Bread
This week my boss has been clearing out the kitchen at work since we no longer do any food prep. She made a pile of food for me to take. I did go through the pile and left some behind that I didn't need but needless to say I took most of what was offered to me home.
I have gained:
1/2 bag whole wheat flour
1 large bag semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 bag graham crumbs
1 container of powdered chai drink mix
8 jars of cranberry sauce (that I had made earlier that year)
1/2 bag of marshmallows
1 tin of bread yeast
The first thing I thought of when I was up the next day was what can I make to use these items up. I googled ideas for recipes with whole wheat and found a very simple beer bread. Now, I have never made beer bread before but I do have 3 cans of beer in my fridge that I would be frightened to check the expiry date on. They were free and we don't drink beer. So if I was able to use up the free flour and get the beer out of my fridge then it is a win win.
Recipe for 5 ingredient beer bread by halfbakedharvest
3 cups flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup brown sugar loosely packed
12 ounces on your favorite beer
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix everything together, put in a non-stick baking pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes until the top of the bread is lightly browned and the middle is set allow to sit for 15 minute before serving.
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and delicious this bread is. Filling too! I was able to use up some of the flour and beer and have gained a new recipe which I will definitely make again!
I have plans to make cranberry cheesecake bars and Chocolate chip cookie dough to use up some of the other items. And I also am going to try a whole wheat shortbread with the last of the flour.
I hope you all have just as a successful day cooking today as I have had this week.
