Use it Up -- Cooking Edition

  When we were preparing to move last summer one of my goals was to get the cupboards and freezer cleaned out. To use stuff up. My plan was to have everything in the freezer as ready to serve as possible. I thought we would use the stuff I made in the busy week of packing before the move but lots of kind people brought us tasty stuffs, so most of my preparations weren't needed. In the end it worked out perfectly, those frozen meals became lifesavers while we were living in kitchen chaos for several weeks.

  I got really intentional about planning meals around what I had on hand and really creative about using/substituting what I had for what I wished I had. It was really kind of a fun challenge. It almost became a game for me. I was surprised how easy it was once I adjusted my thinking a bit. I've usually been one of those cooks who can only think of things to make with what I'm out of......the freezers full of chicken so I'm really inspired to make meatloaf. Does this happen to anyone else??

  Now that we've moved and I've been trying to do a form of once a month grocery shopping the need for creativity continues. Here are just a few of my concoctions/inventions lately.

Invention #1-- I had partial cans of beans and corn leftover in the fridge so I sauteed chicken tenders and topped them with the beans and corn as well as chopped tomatoes and fresh cilantro. I added some cheese and ranch dressing and YUM! I wish I had some leftover beans and corn in my fridge right now!

Inspiration  #2 -- Ok so this is not original with me of course but......Believe it or not, my kids are not big on hot dogs. They'll eat them in the summertime because it's fun to roast them over the fire but their just not fans. This is ok with me for the most part. I don't see a need to convince them to like over processed-who-knows-what, but I had a bunch of hot dogs in the freezer leftover from a cookout in the fall and I wanted them used up. I made these pretzel dogs with my favorite soft pretzel recipe--big hit!

Solution #3 -- Hide it in the soup! I very sweet friend had given me ready-to-freeze mashed sweet potatoes, which I thought were delicious, but again the kids were not convinced. I was making "use up what's in the fridge" veggie soup one day and I decided to add some of the mashed sweet potatoes to it. Worked like a charm! The kids of coarse never knew it was in there and it made the soup nice and thick, just perfect for little people to scoop up easier.

Idea #4 -- Garbage to gourmet! =) After baking potatoes for a breakfast casserole I cut a bit deeper when I took the skins off and turned them into these tasty appetizers. Don't they look like something you would order as a appetizer when you go out to eat?? And to think I usually just throw the skins in the garbage bucket.

 I even tried my hand at homemade tortillas one day. I had a rice and beans mixture leftover  that I knew the kids would turn their noses up at. I decided my best options was to hide it in tortillas and cover it with cheese sauce as a disguise. But there was not one tortilla in the house so I made some. You've already noticed that there isn't a picture of them and for good reason! They weren't exactly picture worthy but they didn't taste bad and they did the trick.

 Thanks to my good friend Google you can find recipes for almost anything these days. I found a recipe that called for biscuit mix, which I did not have. 2 minutes on Google and I found a substitute. Love it!!

  And of course I have to mention my all time favorite use-it-up tip......make sure you always have plenty of cheese on hand. Everything tastes better with cheese on it. If your invention doesn't turn out quite like you imagined--sprinkle some cheese on it. If you left something in the freezer a little too long and it's gotten a bit freezer tasting--sprinkle some cheese on it. If you left it in the oven a few minutes to long and it's a bit dark on top--sprinkle some cheese on it. It's a miracle cure I tell you!~~

 I'm still a work in progress on this venture so if you have an idea for using stuff up I'd love to hear it!