What is a 'Use It Up Food' challenge?
It's about food waste or more specifically not wasting food ...
It's about repurposing our leftovers into another dish,
It's about using every part of fruits and vegetables,
It's about using up the really small amounts of food ...
It's about using up food scraps, peels and stems ...
It's about being mindful of every bit of food that comes in and through our kitchens and finding a use for it ... all of it!
That's our purpose for this series, so, how did we do this week?
Do you see that partial bag of cheese in the picture? There wasn't a lot in the bag and I've being shuffling it around in the refrigerator for weeks and finally decided that I needed to find a use for it.
My hubby had told me about pizza being brought in to his work for lunch one day and ever since then, I've been craving pizza. So, when I was trying to decide what to do with the cheese, a light bulb went off in my head and I thought ... pizza! Typically, this is not the kind of cheese we use when we make pizza, but when you have pizza on the brain and this kind of cheese that needs to be used, you make it happen.
That's what I did! I started pulling items from my pantry: pizza sauce, pizza topping, banana pepper rings, mushrooms, browned ground beef (from the refrigerator), already cooked sausage (from the refrigerator) and a low carb tortilla.
You will notice that the jar of pizza sauce still has quite a bit in it, hmmmm .... now what can I do with that ... I have a idea and no, it's not another pizza ... stay tuned!
So, how did you do? I can't wait to read your comments!
until next time,
mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
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That pizza sounds yummy! I really have to keep an eye on cheese or it gets moldy and trashed. I have wondered about vacuum sealing chunks of cheese in pint jars.
ReplyDeleteI had the soup and sliced cheese left from our friend's visit last weekend. Sliced cheese went into grilled cheese sandwiches with some leftover soup. The remaining slices and a small amount of Mexican shredded cheese went into cheese grits another day. That left another small serving of soup each with a sandwich another day. I rarely cook with leftovers in mind so that really cuts food waste for us. Another key is realizing just how little we eat and only making that amount. One place I really struggle is to use up fresh broccoli if I buy it but frozen is not my favorite. I have found that cooking frozen in the microwave for two minutes and then finishing it in a skillet with butter makes it much better.
We made it through our second week at the lake with plenty of food
as always. We picked up a few deals in the grocery ads but items that we actually need were few. Hubby saw a news article that Aldi is lowering prices again. We went to take a look and it seems to be true so we may do more shopping there.
Lana, I always vacuum seal cheese and it lasts are really long time. Cookie
DeleteCookie, thanks!
DeleteCan't wait to see what you do with the pizza sauce. If I have lurking pizza sauce in my fridge I have been known to add it to spaghetti sauce or chili in the crockpot.
ReplyDeleteRachel, that's a good idea and I have done that before too, but I have something different in mind this time!
DeleteI made potato soup one night (still working my way through that 50lb box!) and roast with veggies another night. By the time we got to the end of the soup, it was mostly broth/gravy, so I cut up the leftover roasted meat and veggies and added that into the pot. It ended up being our favorite version of the soup!
ReplyDeleteKelsey, I think potato soup is one of my favorite soups! Oh man, I can do some damage to a good bowl of potato soup! Well, now you've gone and got me thinking about how good some would be ... since I'm working my way through our 50 lb box of potatoes too, I think potato soup definitely needs to go on the menu!
DeleteYour pizza looks delish, Patsi. My use it up this week were eggs that were a couple of days past their best used by date. The obvious was I could have made an egg salad or an impossible pie but I had several impossible pies in the freezer. I wanted to use all of the eggs up and get the most bang for my buck so I set to work looking for things to make and store that used a lot of eggs. SOooo, I made 3 batches of 3 ingredient gluten free peanut butter cookies. That used 3 eggs. Made a loaf of gluten free bread using the recipe on the bag of gf bread flour. That used 2 eggs. I also had some almond flour that needed using up so I made 3 dozen blueberry muffins and that used the 8 remaining eggs. The freezer is now very well stocked with baked goods. We count anything made with almond flour as protein rather than a carb. The same with the peanut butter cookies as they do not contain and flour. In the gluten free bread I also used up the last of yeast that has been kept in the freezer that had an expiration date of 2021. Years ago I learned that if you keep yeast in the freezer it will seemingly last for years past the expiration date. I believe the original date that I bought it wa 2017. Cookie
ReplyDeleteCookie, all your baked goods sound so good and I love the way you broke down how you used your eggs. So inspiring! I think I want to do some baking!!!
DeleteI keep my yeast in the freezer for the same reason! That's a good tip, thanks for sharing it.
This past week I was a bit under the weather, so my menu planning didn't hold all together. But I made use of what I'd planned and thawed. I'd intended on making a quiche for dinner (with leftovers for lunch the next day and breakfast the day after). Instead, I made an omelet for dinner, and finished the diced ham (from Christmas) I'd thawed on a pizza for Friday night and and stirred into an egg for breakfast, made into a biscuit sandwich with leftover biscuits from earlier in the week. I also found a small pork roast (under 2#) on clearance and roasted it for dinner on Saturday night. Had leftovers for dinner today as pulled pork with a sweet potato and slaw, and there's enough for a sandwich for lunch tomorrow and to top mac and cheese for tomorrow's dinner. My Friday night pizza was ham, pineapple, and red onion, with the extra pineapple going into a small batch of pineapple upside down cakes made in large muffin tins (single serve, with extras going into the freezer), and some of the juice was stirred into my coleslaw and the rest mixed into my morning orange juice.
ReplyDeleteLori, I think you win the prize this week for 'stretching' your food the most this week! I love it! Thank you for sharing!
DeletePatsy, your pizza looks great. I made a deep dish "pizza" this week using the last of some ground beef spaghetti sauce, biscuit dough and shredded cheese. It was a hit. Leftover Christmas ham slices were pulled from the freezer for sandwiches, also using up the nearly 3 week old--and still fresh!--leaf lettuce. We got a few meals from that.
ReplyDeleteLana, I vacuum seal my cheese to keep it fresher much longer. I use the sealer bags and just reseal after taking what I need. Makes it last months.
Rachel, have you ever used spaghetti sauce in place of pizza sauce? I know it's runnier, but a tablespoon of tomato paste thickens it right up.
Cookie, I've kept yeast in the freezer since the 1990s. It does seem to keep for years in there. Love the use of your eggs. They sure went a long way!
You managed a lot of meals with eggs, too, Lori! Yummy on the pork roast + extra meals. I do that often.
--Elise
Elise, your deep dish pizza sounds delicious!
DeleteYummy
ReplyDelete