After all the extra expenses that Christmas brings, some friends and I have challenged ourselves to make meals with mainly with what we have on hand in our freezers, pantries and refrigerators. Each of us has the freedom to still buy staples like dairy products, fresh produce and whatever else we may need but the goal is to utilize and use up some of the things that have been hanging around for awhile. ;)
Tonight's dinner was a perfect example of this principal. I thawed out some venison that needed used up and also pulled out a bag of shredded zucchini that I had grown this year in our garden. I mixed that up with an egg, a chopped onion, some oatmeal (helps make it moister), the liquid from the thawed out zucchini and some seasonings. I molded that into a nice meatloaf and baked it in the oven along with some sweet and some russet potatoes. Earlier in the day I had made 4 huge loaves of banana bread with some over-ripe bananas and froze 2 of those loaves for future use. Banana bread was both our dessert and a snack while still warm from the oven. My husband took some to work with him as part of his meal tonight also.
As I said earlier, we are free to buy fresh dairy and produce so I sent a list of things for my hubby to pick up on his way home from work at the grocery store that is having a huge produce sale tomorrow. I'm stocking up on potatoes and bananas and have him picking up some spinach, grapefruits, cabbage and mushrooms also. I am pretty well stocked up on dairy products at the moment so I won't need those for another 2 weeks.
I have some milk and potatoes that currently need to be used up so tomorrow I will be making potato cheese soup. It is comfort food at it's finest and a huge favorite of my whole family. I think I will serve a big salad with it. Doesn't that sound good?
Sounds wonderful.
ReplyDelete