Our use-it-up Independence Day dinner menu

I mostly try to use what we have on hand for other holidays. For this year's Independence Day, I am especially motivated to use frozen and refrigerated foods. It's just my "thing" this month. I'll save money and make space in our freezer.

So, here's my menu plan for the 4th of July:

• smoked short ribs (freezer)
• hot dogs (I'll have to buy, but we do enjoy cooking over a fire on the 4th)
• buns (scratch, using pantry supplies)
• sautéed corn (freezer), onion (pantry), green pepper (garden), garlic scapes (garden) in beef fat (freezer) with seasonings
• watermelon (bought a week ago and have saved for the 4th)
• curried pea and peanut slaw (peas-freezer, cabbage-bought a week ago and saved, peanuts-pantry) 
• oven-roasted potatoes (pantry) with rosemary (garden)
• fresh cherries (garden) and fresh raspberries (garden)
• cherry pie (freezer)
• s'mores (marshmallows-pantry, graham crackers-pantry, chocolate chips to make chocolate patties-pantry)
• iced peach tea (pantry tea bags)
• blackberry lemonade (blackberry juice-freezer, lemon juice-fridge, sugar-pantry)
• sparkling water (pantry)

The only thing I will buy tomorrow is hot dogs. Yep, that's it!

How will you be spending Independence Day (if you're in the US, that is)? 

This is my last post of the week. I'll be busy tomorrow getting stuff prepped. have a wonderful weekend. And happy 4th to all my American friends!

Not every cooking experiment has to turn out awesome

I used several items from the freezer in tonight's dinner. 

I was down to just one can of tuna, and I wanted to make a tuna casserole for 4 adults. 

I remembered the fish sticks in the freezer and thought they might work mixed in with the canned tuna. 

I also had some frozen pinto beans leftover from making Saturday's dinner. I thought those would add to the protein in my experimental tuna casserole.

I made a cream soup using up another container of frozen chicken stock and some frozen celery leaves.

In addition to macaroni, tuna, broken fish sticks and cream soup, I used more of the surplus frozen peas.

To top the casserole, I used all of the crumbs at the bottom of the fish stick bag plus some shredded cheddar cheese.

The verdict? It was okay. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was okay. I think that's fine with family meals, if they're just okay and not spectacular. Everyone ate all of their portion, so it wasn't bad in any way. Many of our family meals are "okay," and that's fine with us. I don't shoot for Bon Appétit or Gourmet magazine level meals for everyday. As long as we eat it and it's nutritious, then I'm satisfied.

What I did determine is that it would not be a good use of our resources to use fish sticks in tuna casserole on a regular basis. Their flavor and texture was lost in the casserole. But as it was, there were only 3  1/2 fish sticks at the bottom of the bag, and no realistic way to divide those up between 4 adults. So they fit their purpose this time, using something up in my attempt to eat down the freezer.