Tag Archives: eating down the fridge

eating down the fridge: the final day

Posted on by
Reply

edtf8 We’ve made it back to Saturday. A whole week of attempting to eat the things that fill our kitchen and save money by not buying more food. I discovered some new recipes I’ll make again, I got really tired of ground beef and I said goodbye to some canned and frozen ingredients that have overstayed their welcome.

To celebrate making it through the week I went grocery shopping today and filled up our fridge with yummy fruits, veggies and even fresh salmon for supper. Here’s what we ate today:

Breakfast: Pancakes with vanilla soy milk instead of milk. Cup of coffee.

Lunch: Leftover lentil carrot soup, cornbread and a brownie. John had a hamburger. We finished up the jello jigglers for a snack.

After lunch I went shopping so supper was a whole new world. But it seemed the eat down the fridge bug has bit me because I still managed to get in a couple old things from the cupboards.

Supper: Maple glazed grilled salmon (recipe below), canned beet and goat cheese salad (recipe below) and sweet sticky rice.

I said I would let you know how much we spent on groceries this week. I only went to the store once and spent a total of $12.43 on some deli meat, eggs and quick oats. When I went to the store today I spent $88.00 on everything from vanilla soy milk to red peppers to fresh salmon to coffee beans. Given that some of those things last over a week it would be safe to estimate we saved about $40-$50 by not shopping last week. Not to mention the creativity and ingenuity I had to use! I’ve never had to substitute in so many recipes.

I won’t try doing another whole week like this for awhile but I am thinking of featuring a forgotten item or two each week that I have worked into my meal plan. Thanks for coming on the journey with us this week, I’ll leave you with the receipes from our delicious supper tonight, both of which I found online and then modified alot to fit what we had!

Maple Anise Glazed Salmon
1 lb fresh salmon fillet (boneless, skinless)
1/4 cup maple syrup*
2 tbsp soy sauce (I uses dark)*
1 clove garlic, minced (don’t bother cutting, use a press)*
1/4 tsp sea salt*
1.4 tsp fresh ground pepper*
3 of 4 star anise pods*

Mix everything but the salmon in a small bowl (break up the anise pods so that the seeds separate). Place salmon flat  in shallow glass baking dish and pour on sauce. Coat evenly and refigerate for 30 minutes, turning salmon once. Grill for 4-5 minutes on each side, depending on how cooked you like your salmon (leave anise seeds pieces in the marinating dish, do not eat).

Beet Goat Cheese Salad
1 can whole baby beets*
2 tbsp olive oil*
1 tbsp vinegar*
fresh ground pepper*
crumbled goat cheese

Drain beets well, do not rinse (take care with the juice, it stains easily). Put beats in small serving dish, slice each in half with sharp knife. Coat with oil, vinegar and pepper. Toss to coat fully, sprinkle with goat cheese crumbles right before eating.

* Ingredients from our kitchen pre-grocery shopping.

eating down the fridge: day seven

Posted on by
Reply

Today was a great for cooking from what we’ve got. Not only did I make a couple of new things but I was able to use up some ingredients as well.

Breakfast: John ate the last of the millet cereal and we both had coffee.

Lunch: I made a lentil carrot soup that was a big hit and incredibly yummy paired with the cornbread I made last night. I also found a recipe online for carob balls (I had a bag of carob powder from a time when I thought I would be able to enjoy it in place of my beloved chocolate) that turned out way better than expected. I only made a half batch because I had my doubts but when I brought them over to my sister-in-law’s house they got rave reviews. Recipe below.

Supper: We ate at John’s sister and husband’s house so once again no money spent but also no groceries used up.

So what did I use up today? Cashews, honey, green onions. Oh ya.

Recipe…

Carob Balls
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup crushed cashews
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup carob powder
coconut flakes for coating

Combine everything but the coconut and stir until mixed well. Roll into bite-sized balls and roll in coconut flakes. Refrigerate so they firm up.

eating down the fridge: day five and six

Posted on by
1

photo-28 Yesterday I was already getting sick of all the ground beef so by today I just couldn’t eat it again. I was temporarily discouraged but rallied and decided to do some baking. Here’s what we’ve been able to make from our kitchen in the past two days…

Breakfast yesterday: Took some leftover millet cereal to work. Cup of coffee.

Lunch yesterday: Leftover peas, leftover rice and red beans. Grapes for a snack and then leftover pasta salad. (I’m trying to eat at lunch and then again around 3pm because I was finding I got tired in the afternoons and too hungry by the time I got home)

Supper yesterday: John got creative with the ground beef and also used up the rest of the frozen mixed vegetables to create a spicy beef and veggies on rice dish. Brownies for dessert.

Today was another unusual food day but I guess even if I don’t use stuff from my own kitchen, if I get free food elsewhere it helps the bottom line.

Breakfast: Cup of coffee and a donut courtesy of Tracy.

Lunch: Went out to Moxie’s because it was Tracy’s last day. Would have had leftover yam fries and battered fish from the lunch but I left them in Tracy’s car for the second half of the work day and we voted it wasn’t worth the risk. I made a batch of granola, recipe courtesy of Adrianne, to take to work for Tracy’s goodbye party in the afternoon. There were lots of snacks so I filled up on spinach dip and real fruit popsicles and there will still be plenty of granola left to munch on next week.

Supper: As I said before I just couldn’t bear to eat the last of the ground beef with John so he made a hamburger for himself and I split the last of the baby bok choy with him.

After supper I rummaged again and discovered I had cornmeal. So naturally I whipped up some cornbread muffins. I used a recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook but there were plenty of good ones online too.

I have also found during this process (and even before) that if there’s something you want to make and it always seems to be made with one ingredient you don’t have, googling “____ recipe without ____” can bring up all kinds of recipes that fit the bill. For example, tonight I looked up a recipe for lentil carrot soup because, well, I happen to have both those things and we like soup. I kept finding recipes with onion (which I do not have and from now on will stock up on before I do something like this) in them so I did my googling trick and got advice someone had given to a person trying to make lentil carrot soup for a guest with an onion allergy. Problem solved.

Another trick I use all the time is to google a substitute for whatever I don’t have for a recipe. For example, don’t have buttermilk, a search for “buttermilk substitute” will give you all kinds of replacements you’re guaranteed to have. Just make sure you pay attention to what kind of recipe you are using it for because a good substitute for an egg in a meatball recipe will not be the same in a brownie recipe.

Two more days and we will have made it a week buying only the items I listed in my previous post. I don’t think the coffee cream will make it and I know for a fact John is out of bran cereal but I am already so proud of how much we were able to make by just getting creative with what’s there.

eating down the fridge: day three and four

Posted on by
1

I have to post about yesterday and today because I didn’t get a chance last night. John is on his way home with mango milk tea with pearls so I have to make this quick.

Breakfast yesterday: Coffee. I know I’m bad.

Lunch yesterday: John packed me a sandwich made with the deli meat I bought on Sunday and the homemade buns that are still going strong. I also got a granola bar, apple, grapes and leftover pasta salad.

Supper yesterday: John barbecued cheeseburgers (getting a little sick of those and wishing I had stocked up on something other than ground beef before this experiment) and we ate frozen peas with garlic and butter. Ice cream for dessert.

Today I cheated a bit and bought my lunch at Wendy’s even though I had one packed. Maybe it was that it contained the same things I have been eating for days or maybe I just gave in to peer pressure but either way it was fun to go out with my friends from work. It has been a stressful few days at work and it just felt good to get out of the office.

Breakfast: Coffee. I know I know.

Lunch: Wendy’s but if I had eaten what I brought it was peas and pasta salad. I did eat the brownie and grapes though.

Supper: I got home very late after a police incident at Metrotown Station stopped the train 3 stations away and turned my hour and a half commute into 3 hours. So by the time I got home at 7:30 I just ate peas with butter and garlic and a glass of white wine (the last bottle from the batch John made in the Spring) Oh and of course, the bubble tea that’s on its way home with John!

I guess I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow – the lunch I didn’t eat today! But I will try to make enough time in the morning for breakfast, I didn’t realize how bad that sounds until I had to type it out each time I just had coffee. Not a good habit, kids.

No new recipes to share but I will say I am getting bored with what I’ve made so far and probably need to get back in the kitchen and figure out some more pantry creations.

eating down the fridge: day two

Posted on by
Reply

photo-20 Here’s what we ate today as well as a recipe you can try if you, like me, have millet in your kitchen (weird).

Breakfast: Slow-cooked hot millet cereal (recipe below) with brown sugar and vanilla soy milk. Cup of coffee.
Lunch: Mini roast beef sandwiches made with garlic roast beef, homemade whole wheat buns, spinach tomato, dijon mustard and cilantro and parsley from my herb garden. Pasta salad that used up our penne pasta, packaged sauce and cooked zucchini. Handful of potato chips.

For supper we’re going to a BBQ going away party so we’re off the hook for cooking. Tomorrow we should get by with leftovers.

I did go shopping today and bought two kinds of deli meat for $5.91, eggs for $5.49 (I like the free range brown ones) and quick oats for $1.06. All within the rules and we ate all day today with only one new item. I predict the only thing we’ll need to buy before next Saturday is cream and soy milk but we’ll see.

Recipe for Slow Cooker Fruited Millet Cereal
1 cup millet
4 cups water
1 t. salt
1 medium apple, peeled and diced
1 cup raisins
½ cup coconut, sweetened or unsweetened

Place all ingredients in the slow cooker and stir. Cover, set cooker on low heat and cook for 8 or 9 hours. Great treat to wake up to! My note: I recommend starting it the night before so it’s ready in the morning and eating it with brown sugar and milk like oatmeal. (Mosher Products recipe)

eating down the fridge: day one

Posted on by
Reply

It’s the first day of our week-long attempt to use the food in the kitchen that seemed like a good purchase at the time but never gets used. We all have these items and yet we continue to go to the store to make our meals. Anyways, read more on that in the previous post.

edtk1 Here’s what we ate today:

Lunch: I had a frozen Superstore Blue Menu quesadilla and John had leftover steak and homemade buns
Supper: Mini cheeseburgers made from homemade frozen patties, processed cheese slices and homemade buns with a side of beans and rice made from canned kidney beans, rice and rotel (if you’re not from Texas see image on left). Throw in a few spices and a jug of lemonade from concentrate and we have ourselves a meal.
Dessert: Gluten-free, wheat-free brownies (Pamela’s Products as recommended by my sister-in-law)

So far so good. I think we’ll treat ourselves to ice cream for those brownies. Before you say anything, it fits within the rules because I already have the brownies, whipped cream and chocolate chips.

eating down your fridge

Posted on by
2

Last night we had Adrianne and Gordie over for supper and I was explaining rather sheepishly that my meal choices were made because I was trying to clean out the kitchen of random food items. I mean it wasn’t all canned mushrooms and jello (although I did make jello jigglers for the first time since I was 12 because who doesn’t have a box or two of that kicking around).

We ate salmon skewers (frozen salmon), grilled baby bok choy (newly purchased) and a cream cheese and cherry pie filling puffed pastry (two out of the three ingredients have been with us for awhile).

All this to say Adrianne told me that I was not the first to feel the need to clean out the pantry. Apparently the financial crisis has sparked an interest in what is being called Eating Down The Fridge.

So I decided this was worth looking into and was sure to satisfy my need to clear clutter and cook creatively at the same time. Googling the topic brought up many blogs and forums that were taking groups through this exercise and allowing them to share recipes, menus and experiences.

A Might Appetite, a blog on washingtonpost.com, was where I started and found my way to eG Forums where I got some great ideas to eat down my own fridge. And freezer. And cupboards.

Fat Guy from eG Forums says,

If you spend $100 a week on groceries, this experiment will put $100 back in your pocket quicker than you can say stimulus. If you’re home 50 weeks of the year and you perform this experiment once per quarter, you’ll reduce your grocery bill by 8%.

Sounds good to me. Let’s start with a random selection of what our kitchen holds at this exact moment:

unsweetened coconut flakes
canned bamboo shoots
dried chickpeas
3 packages of vanilla pudding
toasted carob powder
1 can of chunky light tuna
1 bag of frozen peas
dijon mustard
1 package of star anise
1 bag large marshmallows

This is about 1/10th of what is filling our kitchen. Kind of sad. So I’m going to try this experiment for a week and see how it goes but I think I need to put some rules on it so we don’t get scurvy or something.

The Rules

  1. We can buy meat and veggies as long as the majority of the meal is made of current kitchen items.
  2. We can buy ingredients for recipes as long as no more than 2 new ones are needs to complete the recipe.
  3. We can buy staple perishables that we regularly use up including: coffee cream, soy milk, bran cereal and coffee beans.

I’ll be sharing some of the strange meals we eat and letting you know if we manage to eat down our fridge.