FREEZER/PANTRY MEALS

I've challenged myself this week to make as many meals as I can without going to the store.

In the weeks preceding Christmas I felt like I was running to the store every day to get just a couple of things. My fridge, freezer, and pantry were overflowing, but it always seemed like I was missing one or two obscure ingredients.

Well, I need a break from the store (my wallet does too!).

I really want to see just what it is that's in my freezer making no room for more ice cream!!!!

We're not great leftover people. None of us LOVE leftovers. I'm not very creative about remaking them into something new and exciting either. For lunches we're a sandwich and chips kind of family.


What I have found helpful though is, if after a day or two, no one has eaten the leftovers, I freeze them. For some reason I am much more likely to use them at a later date if they are forgotten in the freezer for a while.


So...last night I took out a bag of frozen mashed potatoes, diced up some leftover Christmas ham, chopped the couple spears of broccoli that were leftover from a dinner a couple nights ago, grated up some cheese leftover from a cheese platter from New Year's eve mixed it all together in a 9x13 dish, and then baked it @375 for about a half hour. It was so good. We ate it while we watched the Eagles kick the Vikings butts!!!!! Yay Eagles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tonight it was just Doug, Tommy, and I home for dinner. Andrew is in Florida at Disney World and Billy is snowboarding.


In the freezer I found some cooked chicken breasts and a quart sized bag of cooked rice. Stir-Fry!!

I found plenty of veggies lurking in the fridge. There were baby carrots and, red and green peppers left from the veggie tray on New Year's. I found a small bag of baby spinach left from our spinach salad we had on Christmas, and I had a whole head of purple cabbage (I only used 1/4 of it) I also used onions and garlic that I always have on hand.


I was tempted to cook up some more rice because it really didn't look like enough. I'm glad I didn't though because once it was thawed and heated up, it was plenty.

So, in less than a half hour, using nothing except what we had on hand, we had an absolutely delicious, nutritious meal. I even have plenty leftover to share for lunch tomorrow at our co op.


Stay tuned to find out what I find for dinner tomorrow. I think I may have some chicken stuffed shells in one of the freezers. MMMMM. That sounds really good!