It’s Friday morning, the weekend is officially stretching out before us, and that familiar craving for a fun, relaxed weekend meal sets in. But here is the catch: it has been a full week since my last grocery trip, my refrigerator is looking, well, not exactly bare, but mostly it's odds and ends and a lot of almost empty condiment jars. There's not much in there that anyone in our household would say to themselves,"yum, I'm going to have some of that." I am absolutely determined not to spend a single dime or make a trip to the store. In our house, this is the perfect moment for what I call the 'No-Store Weekend Snack Tray'.
Can I Make Anything With This?
Let's see what I have to work with. It's not exactly an empty fridge.
However, if you look closely, there are a lot of near-empty containers and jars.
Here's where the fun starts. To figure out what I would make for the snack tray, I pulled everything out of the fridge that I wanted to use up. Next, I jumped in with this line of thought -- what goes with what?
Some things looked obvious, like the almost empty mustard bottle to combine with the jar of artichoke hearts' oily marinade to make a salad dressing for a pasta salad. The 2 jars of pickle brine would make a great base for overnight pickled carrot sticks. The almost empty container of peanut butter could be spread onto celery stalks and topped with raisins to make ants on a log. And. I could use the corn relish in a batch of deviled eggs. It was so satisfying to watch the pile of need-to-use stuff dwindle as I cooked and prepared. By the end of the morning, I had a nice selection of healthy snacks that I knew would have something for everybody.
The 'Weekend Snack Tray' could be the 'We're Watching the Game' tray. It could also be the 'We're Having a Little Get-Together at Our House' tray. Or perhaps it's the 'Just Hanging Around the House This Weekend' tray (great for an impromptu picnic in the backyard on a Saturday afternoon or a movie night with snacks for Friday's evening meal).
What I made, starting at the top (top photo):
- quesadilla triangles, made with corn tortillas, the last of the black beans, cheddar, some red onion dices, and a bit of enchilada sauce
- cubes of mozzarella cheese
- green apple slices with a dip made from fig preserve syrup that was boiled down, enriched with butter and flavored with cinnamon
- ants on a log
- corn relish deviled eggs -- 5 boiled eggs, a bit of mayo, and the rest of the corn relish
- pickled carrot sticks, using 2 jars of dill pickle brine
- pasta salad using a dressing of artichoke heart marinade plus mustard remnants rinsed with vinegar from the bottle then tossed with the last of the red onion dices (leftover from Father's Day), some diced celery tops (from the ants on a log), and the last of the parsley from the crisper
- What is your favorite pantry crunchy bit (crackers, pretzels, stale tortilla chips toasted in the oven)?
- What is your favorite refrigerator dip or spread that rescues a boring snack?
- What is the unusual leftover you’ve successfully snuck onto a grazing board or into a smorgasbord dinner?
I’m not as creative as you, Lili, but your “make something from nothing” is inspiring! I’m going to try and think of new ways to use my bits and drabs in the fridge
ReplyDeleteI must say though, I had to reread your sentence twice regarding your crab applesauce muffins. I couldn’t imagine combining crab meat with applesauce into muffins and ultimately bread pudding! Then I realized it was using your crabAPPLES! I like a lot of different kinds of foods but I wasn’t sure about that combination! LOL:)
Hi Lynn,
DeleteHow funny! I corrected the typo. Yes, I can imagine the confusion. A little seafood, a little fruit, what could go wrong in the baking together?
Google AI or ChatGPT is great for asking what simple recipes could use X and Y ingredients. But even without getting creative, cutting up raw veggies and using a bottled salad dressing as a dip would make a great start to a snack tray. Cutting up fruit, and adding any kind of cooked meat, cubed or sliced, maybe marinated in a vinaigrette or with some sort of condiment spread on the side to add flavor would make a really great weekend tray. My family really loved that I did this. Everyone has a favorite.
Besides having ready-made snacks for the household for the next few days, the other really great benefit to doing this is I now have some new ideas for how to use the leftover items that are common in my fridge. I wasn't sure how the fig preserve syrup (which was basically a sugar-water syrup with lemon juice and cinnamon/cloves) would boil down. But it did this really well. And from experience making caramel, I kind of knew what point to take it off the stove, then add butter, salt, and more cinnamon for flavor.
Anyway, have fun making something from nothing from your fridge, Lynn!
I thought the same thing about the crab muffins. :)
DeleteI did a double-take like Lynn (and I LOVE crabapple sauce/jelly/juice.) LOL Your smorgasbord sounded delicious. This sort of meal or appetizers assortment is common at our house. For last-minute spreads, I've made lots of tasty ones with the odd half-package of cream cheese left in the fridge. Fresh garlic, fresh chives, horseradish, grated bits of cheese (smoked cheese is fabulous), any kind of dried herbs/cracked pepper, and other things you probably have on hand (even going half-and-half with butter -- especially good with fresh garlic) can make a nice spread for crackers, toasts, or lunchmeat roll-ups. I usually try to keep a little cream cheese in the house during the winter months for this use. I'm looking forward to other people's ideas. Have a great day, Everybody! Sara
ReplyDeleteHa ha, Sara! I fixed the typo. What a funny mental picture .
DeleteCream cheese is a good ingredient to use in a snack tray. It always seems like someone opens a package and then it sits in the fridge until it grows mold. I love your suggestions for what to blend in with it. It doesn't have to be complicated, some herbs, garlic and pepper are lovely together and remind me of brands like Boursin and Alouette.
Thanks for the suggestions, Sara. Have a great weekend!
Do you guys eat cream cheese in sandwiches? We like it with any kind of berry jam (making me hungry thinking about it!), or ham/bologna/salami. That's how most of ours gets eaten. Sara
DeleteHi Sara,
DeleteMy family will definitely eat a sandwich with cream cheese on it, if I make it. I can't eat it, except in very thin spread. But you gave me a great idea for next time we have cream cheese lingering. I could just make small sandwiches for a snack tray for everyone else. Thank you for the suggestion!
I would be happy eating off that tray for a few days.
ReplyDeleteI like the challenge of using up ingredients. The most creative I ever was was when we were moving, and I was trying to use up as much food as possible. It gave a whole new perspective to the, "we don't have anything to eat" idea. Because almost always, we have an abundance of food. It just may not be what we feel like fixing or eating at the time.
Amen! There's a lot to be said for your attitude, flexibility, and creativity. I taught our sons about cooking with what you have, even if it's not a lot/weird. A lot of the things we've come up with have been DELICIOUS! Sara
DeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteIt is a fun challenge to use things up, isn't it? I would love to hear some of your creative successes when trying to use up foods before your move.
My best pre-moving use it up was an orange juice chiffon pie. We have a few cans of frozen orange juice concentrate before leaving for Washington state. I have some to my sister-in-law, but still had one last can. I made 2 orange chiffon pies that I took to a gathering with relatives the night before we left. My cousin liked it so much I told her to take the second pie home with her, which she did. I wouldn't say those were the best pies I ever made, but they were good enough to take to someone's house.
You did an amazing job making something appealing out of all those bits and pieces! Definitely not one of my strong suits. And if I had to do it RIGHT NOW as you're asking, it would be very interesting. I've been gone backpacking in New Mexico the past week and arrived home yesterday late afternoon; no clue what all is in the fridge!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cat.
DeleteI hope you had a great backpacking trip this past week. How was the weather in New Mexico?
I have confidence that you would come up with something good from what you have on hand.
Update on the weekend snack tray:
ReplyDeleteMy husband loves this and wants me to make a tray every weekend. So far, there's about 4 bites of pasta salad left, 2 (out of 12) quesadilla triangles, a tablespoon of the apple dip with about 7 or 8 slices of apple left, and about 1/3 left of the deviled eggs, pickled carrot sticks, mozzarella cheese cubes, and ants on a log. What will be finished off first? What will linger all the way to the end of the weekend? We'll have to wait and see.
Not a full meal like yours, but we had a tea party recently with mini croissants for some of the sandwiches and fresh fruit and whipped cream along with other goodies. The leftover croissants got turned into French toast topped with leftover fruit and whipped cream. The leftover cucumber and cream cheese got blended together, added some milk and herbs and made a creamy salad dressing. Annie
ReplyDeleteHi Annie,
DeleteI love, love, love tea parties! I love the food. I love the style, etc.
Your remake of cream cheese and cucumbers into a salad dressing is brilliant! And I bet that French toast was buttery and delicious and had a wonderful texture. You did a great job reimagining your leftovers, Annie!