A leftover challenge (and a very liquidy breakfast)

First of all, before I go into what I did over the weekend, you need to understand something. I have a very warped sense of fun, very warped. I enjoy setting these peculiar challenges for myself. The fun part is in how creative I can be in fulfilling the challenge.

So, Saturday morning, I opened the refrigerator door to see this -- a leftover bonanza!

Yeah, it is kind of hard to find anything in there, isn't it?! How would anyone know what was edible and what wasn't, with all the opaque containers and plastic bags over everything.

My challenge, then, was to use all of the odds and ends over the weekend, without creating new leftovers.

I didn't have a master plan, but just took each meal as it came, and tried to use as much of this stuff as I could.

After a peek into my stuffed fridge, I quickly shut the door to go veg with a cup of coffee for 30 minutes. I knew that eventually I would have to prepare breakfast. I enlisted suggestions from one of my daughters. She kindly offered to help make breakfast. (It's nice having daughters who like to cook.) We settled on waffles. (Waffles are a popular choice around here.)

These wouldn't be just any waffles (but you knew that already). From the fridge, I pulled out all the almost-empty jars of yogurt, 5 in total. Empty, with the exception of the weird yogurt liquids which accumulate at the bottom of the jar.

half-way through scraping jars

I also got out the strainer and a bowl. I scraped out each jar and strained the whole batch. Of my many culinary talents, I would have to say that using a rubber spatula has got to be at the top of the list. Pronounce a container to be empty, and I can still get another serving out of there. (I've been honing this skill for 27 years now.)

I managed to scrape all of this yogurt from 5 "empty" jars

Anyway, I was able to salvage a little over a cup of yogurt, enough to flavor with vanilla and sugar to top the waffles. The strainer, by the way, was to separate the unappetizing liquids from the more palatable yogurt. I saved this liquidy stuff to use in the waffle batter.

About 1/3 of a cup of whey from straining the yogurt

After scraping the jars, I then rinsed all of them with a bit of water. I poured these rinsings into a measuring cup. I had about 1/3 cup of rinsings, to add to the yogurt whey. This made up about half of the liquids I would need for the waffle batter.

The jars after scraping and rinsing them out.
The "stuff" in the measuring cup is the rinsings.

Along with the vanilla yogurt, we also had some runny (liquidy) blackberry jam, and a bowl of blackberries from the freezer.

Okay, remember my rule, to not create new leftovers? What do you think happens when you thaw frozen fruit? You get more liquids. Adhering to my rule, I set the liquid aside, to use in making dinner. No new leftovers, so far.


In the next installment: what I found that I could use in meals for the rest of Saturday.

Riveting. I know. I lead an exciting life.

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