Eat Yourself Out of House & Home

I began this blog as a method to hold myself accountable for eating up the stockpiles of food I have in the house before I buy more.

I had purchased many food products when I saw a “good sale” without thinking about what I already had in the house.

My self-imposed rules require that I only purchase ingredients called for in recipes that will use up something I already have.  Purchasing fresh produce and dairy products is also allowable.

So here’s my most recent accomplishment.

From my freezer I finished off a bag of Flounder portions. I used the last packet of Onion soup mix, and I ate a can of beets. There is just one can of beets in the pantry now.

It made a very delicious meal of Parmesan fish, oven roasted potatoes and julienne beets.

 

Right now I have quite a few leftovers in the freezer. It might be a week or so before I post another installment of Eat yourself out of House & Home.

Show & Tell Sunday

I work part time as a cake decorator at a small family owned bakery.
Every Sunday I use my blog to show off some of the cakes we decorated during the week.
Here are this week’s entries:

No FOOD WASTE this FRIDAY

Each week on Friday I join Frugal Girl in her quest to eliminate food waste.

No food waste to report this week.
Good for me.
So instead of showing you spoiled food I’ll show you how to make homemade chocolate syrup.
We all know a coffee habit can be very expensive. Nonetheless I enjoy a double tall mocha to start my day. On days that I work this treat is free of charge (The bakery has an espresso machine)
My frugal substitute for the days that I’m at home has been to brew regular coffee and add creamer and Hershey’s syrup. Purchased at a restaurant supply store.
That is until I came a cross a recipe for Homemade Chocolate syrup.
It calls for ingredients that I always have on hand, it took only minutes to make and although it’s not a thick as the commercial syrup it tastes good in my coffee.
It’s a little sweeter (so I use less) otherwise I can’t tell the difference.
I can even pronounce all the ingredients unlike the name brand syrup.
I store it in squeeze bottles that were originally purchased when syrup was on sale for 59 cents and I have refilled them many, many times. I like them because they have a anti-drip lid.

1Cup cocoa
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

I mixed the ingredients together and microwaved it, a couple of minutes at a time, until it boiled.
Here are the directions that came with the recipe.
In a heavy 2-quart saucepan whisk the cocoa and water together until smooth.
Place over moderate heat and stir (scraping the bottom constantly with a rubber scraper)
Until comes to a low boil. Add the sugar and salt, stir to dissolve. Bring to low boil again and let simmer slowly for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Stir in vanilla.
Store in the refrigerator.

The part about the rubber scraper is why I used the microwave method. Rubber can’t take the heat and I don’t want to wear mine out.

Eat yourself out of house and home progress report

Regular readers will know that I began this blog as a method to hold myself accountable for eating up the stockpiles of food I have in the house before I buy more. The rules are I can only purchase fresh produce and dairy products and indredients that I need in orderto use up something I already have.

 Like I said in my last report I planned to make Frugal Girl’s Mandarin Jello Salad

 

It’s more of a dessert that a salad.

That leaves me with 3 cans of oranges. If you have any ideas, I’m open to suggestions.

I used to have a crab quiche recipe that I really liked. I purchased some imitation crab meat (frugal) with the intention of making quiche but after looking high and low I can’t find the recipe. I’ve used most of the 2.5 lb package on other quiche recipes without finding one I like as well. This week I mixed the “crab” with shredded Swiss cheese and made Grilled Crab  & Swiss sandwiches with sour dough bread I brought home from the bakery.

I have three-quarters of a pound left, so if any of you readers have a delicious crab quiche recipe I’d love to hear from you.

I just I grilled one sandwich and the others are wrapped in plastic & stored in the freezer. I’ve never frozen sandwiches before, I’m hopping it will work out. 

I am totally out of chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk now thanks to this recipe.

http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/chewy-chocolate-peanut-butter-bars/9fefb3aa-5c56-4c0a-bb89-4c5c881bf3aa

 

When I look at the pantry it still looks full to me but I know that I am making progress.

Show & Tell Sunday

Food Waste Friday

I can’t believe it. I did the same thing two weeks in a row; let a leftover go bad. When I opened this container to of fettuccini primavera to have for dinner I nearly passed out from the smell. The good news is that I had already eaten most of it and that was my only food waste this week.

I really have no excuse for ever having food waste and I so want to go week after week reporting NO Waste. Hopefully next time.

Thrifty Third Thursday

The17th is the Third Thursday in May. Time for a new installment of Thrifty Third Thursday,  where I show off the frugal finds I have purchased in the past month from second hand stores or Garage sales.

Several businesses have cakes delivered to them for company meetings or employee birthdays. One such bussines recently moved their office to Kent. That put me in the neighborhood of several second hand stortes that I had never been to before. It also meant theat I would pass at least four Value Village locations on my way home.

My grocery bags were in need of replacement. I also picked up a zippered pouch and a jelly jar.

A co-worker will be getting married in June and for a shower gift I’m putting together a bread making kit. I found most of the things I’ll need on that one day of shopping. A recipe book.

Mixing bowl and tea towel.

The binoculars are for when I take the school children bird watching.  You can’t beat a seasons worth of vegetables & flowers for 29 cents each.

When I get all those jelly jars full I’m going to put them in gift baskets.

Although I already have a gray turtleneck I couldn’t pass up this brand new one that only cost $3.50. I’ll redonate the old one.

I have a friend who crochets a lot, she’s getting yarn for her birthday. I prefer hankerchiefs to paper tissues so anytime I see them for a reasonable price I pick them up. 25 cents is reasonable. I’m using that pretty glass picture as a vase.

The Omaha Steak cooler (I’m going to try using the cooler method when I make my next batch of yogurt) was free the neckless $1 and the paper plates 5o cents.

This skirt made of lightweight fabric will be just right to wear in summer weather. The book is for a friend. I’ll use the red fabric in a sewing project. Now I have a corningware measuring cup so I can toss out the ones that I have burn by microwaving them.yet another jelly jar.

Have you found any frugal finds? Please leave a comment and let me know about it.