Cheap & Cheerful Suppers Using What's on Hand

Friday  (no movie and pizza tonight tonight)

chicken and vegetable soup
sourdough bread and butter (I'm almost out of yeast)
orange wedges
dessert--last of the Christmas cookies

Saturday
pumpkin-sage-sausage soup (using chicken stock from yesterday)
tomato chunks topped with homemade 1000 Island dressing
toasted cheese sandwiches on sourdough bread
tangerines
dessert--applesauce-raisin bar cookies

Sunday
scrambled eggs
oven fries with homegrown purple potatoes
steamed carrots
frozen spinach
dessert--applesauce-raisin bar cookies

Monday
beef stew
homemade sourdough bread and butter
Asian cabbage-tangerine slaw
stewed prunes
dessert--chocolates I found in the pantry from a year ago

Tuesday
tuna-macaroni salad, using the last stalks the fresh celery with their leaves
last of the crackers from Christmas (I'm cleaning out the pantry, can you tell?)
carrot sticks
steamed frozen broccoli cuts
dessert--homemade sourdough cinnamon-spice rolls or applesauce-raisin bar cookies

Wednesday

Italian-style ground beef, canned tomatoes, fresh green pepper and seasonings over spaghetti noodles for the family, over shredded cabbage for me (I've been eating too much bread lately)

canned green beans

fig-applesauce

dessert--more applesauce-spice bar cookies

Thursday

spinach, onion, and cheese quiche, using frozen spinach and one of the last 3 onions

brown rice

frozen mixed vegetables

spiced, sauteed apple chunks from the freezer

dessert? not sure what we'll have. There are still apple cookies and sourdough cinnamon rolls.

I made dinner in the morning on Thursday, as I knew I'd be gone for the afternoon. So this post is coming to you before dinnertime in the US.

As titled, I used what I have on hand for this past week. Still no grocery shopping in the forecast. Maybe soon.

What meals could you make using just what you have on hand? Judging from past comments, I think all of you could come up with a week or more of pretty great meals!

Now's the time to use those foods I said I would once it's mid-winter

In the fresh produce drawer of the fridges (kitchen and garage) we are down to half a head of cabbage, 3 pounds of carrots, 3 medium onions, a bunch of heads of garlic from the garden, 1 Roma tomato, 2 avocados, 1 orange, and 3 green apples, plus 3 bananas in the fruit bowl. If you're a small household, that may sound like a lot of fresh produce. For my family of 4 adults eating absolutely all of our meals from home these days, this won't last long.

In the dairy department, I have fresh, frozen, and dried milk, lots of butter, about 18 eggs, a dwindling block of cheddar cheese, and enough mozzarella cheese to make several pizzas. We also have 2 whole chickens and perhaps as much as 12-13 lbs of beef.

I last did a big shopping 2 1/2 weeks ago at WinCo. I stuffed our two fridges with produce and dairy. A week and a half ago I made a quick (and small) shopping trip to Walmart to get some bananas, a gallon of milk, coffee, and frozen spinach.

So, yes, it does sound like we have plenty of foods to build meals from, p.l.e.n.t.y. However, I'm often driven to grocery shop by the amount of fresh produce we have at home. Apples, oranges, tangerines, and stalks of celery make great and quick grabs for lunches and snacks. However, here's where all of the dried and frozen foods from last summer will lend a hand.

In late summer to early fall I made 120 dried fruit rolls, several gallon bags of prunes, a bag each of dried apples and dried pears, and chopped rhubarb, plums, apples, pears, and Asian pears for the freezer. I also made batch after batch of preserved green figs, froze several pies worth of cherries, lots of berries, and made several batches of applesauce and crabapple sauce. I froze all of the carrot tops, beet greens, and garden celery, chopped. I cooked, pureed, and froze 3 large pumpkins. Plus I've been stocking up on various canned and frozen vegetables as I find them green-tagged (month-long sale) at WinCo.

Now is the time to use this preserved produce bounty. 

This week I've been bagging up individual servings of prunes and dried apples. I also pulled a bunch of fruit rolls out of the freezer. And I thawed more crabapple sauce, apple sauce, and pumpkin puree. I bought a can of frozen orange juice concentrate the last time I shopped at WinCo, and just this morning I made up half the can for some of our vitamin C needs. The prunes, dried apples, sauces, and juice are providing individual servings of fruit for my family until I get to the store. And even with an ever-shrinking supply of fresh vegetables, we have plenty of frozen and canned ones to keep us awash in green and orange to get through many days. A final addition, I'm making lentil sprouts to add a crisp freshness to meals.

At this point I'm thinking, "you know, I really don't need to go grocery shopping." Meanwhile, my family would probably appreciate if I restocked everything soon. So, we'll see. Will I go grocery shopping on Thursday or Friday or Saturday, or will I wait until Monday? At least I know no matter when I shop again, we've still got lots of fruits and vegetables to satisfy our needs in the meantime. Using what we have.