Pictures and Menus for this Week's Meal Threads

Monday:  I made Crockpot vegetable beef soup with a small piece of round steak that was on sale.
Tuesday:   Steamy soup as it was just coming to a boil before serving. It was not ready to eat on Monday.

Wednesday:  About 1/3 of round steak was removed from soup late Monday night when soup was done. I refrigerated the soup and the meat chunks, and later shredded and heated it to fill homemade tacos with cheese, onions, romaine lettuce, diced avocados and halved grape tomatoes. Frozen tamale casserole from previous thread served on shredded romaine, halved grape tomatoes and slivers of yellow onion.

Freebie: I fried the rest of the tortillas last night while the tamale casserole was baking and set them aside. After dinner I  added leftover tamale casserole to the tortillas I had fried and formed into tacos. Topped this off with some grated cheese, slices of avocado and halved grape tomatoes with lemon juice (lime would have been better with Mexican food but I didn't have any) squeezed over the top to prevent discoloration of the avocados. I put this in the freezer for another night.This recipe was inspired by a pictures a friend posted on her Pinterest board. I was going to follow the recipe but then when I saw half the tamale casserole was leftover I just couldn't resist and used that as stuffing for the tacos to bake later. And I also could not resist using the leftover avocado half! This will be a "freebie" for next week or the one after that.

Thursday:  Tonight we are having the Shepherd's Pie I made in the meatloaf thread of leftovers to which I will add the rest of the soup veggies that we had on Tuesday night because I didn't have many when I made and froze the pie a couple weeks ago.

Friday: Tomorrow night the menu is for pieces of chicken cooked in a barbeque sauce using the last of the soup broth. This will be served with raw veggie slices, homemade potato salad, and two deviled eggs.  Tomorrow, I will cook extra chicken so I have a base for another leftover thread.

Saturday: Perhaps Chicken Cacciatore since we are getting an Italian veggie pack with our Bountiful Baskets Co-op order Saturday morning. We will probably get another eggplant which we don't like.

Sooooo...... If any of you have any yummy eggplant recipes please add them to the comments below! Sure appreciate it!

Kathi~

Tasty Tuesday .......new leftover thread I can't wait to enjoy the vegetable beef soup I made yesterday in my crockpot. It is a gloomy, cooler day-------soup sounds just right along with some kind of homemade bread and a nice dinner salad. I am including some of my "freebie" meals from the freezer this week. I am determined to finish de-cluttering the house and re-purposing what we had to take out of the kitchen in order to fit the new oven. Already-cooked meals will be very helpful. On Wednesday I will take out some of the beef in the soup, shred it  and serve it in a couple tacos along with 1/2 of one of my small  frozen pans of enchiladas. I will fry up the rest of the tortillas in the shape of tacos  and fill them with beans and cheese to freeze for a "freebie" meal later on. It's a recipe I found on Pinterest through a friend. Although it calls for pre-made taco shells it will easily adapt to using homemade tacos. It's on my "Food" board. Thursday will find us eating the frozen Shepherd's Pie leftover from a thread a few weeks ago with veggies taken from the soup gently mixed in----because as I recall there were not many veggies added to that pie. Friday, chicken will be served---found a great sale on drumsticks which my husband loves. I divided them up into five nights of dinners for him. I have chicken breasts which I love that are frozen too. So, we will have some sort of chicken meal probably with roasted red potatoes which we need to use up (we have a couple hundred pounds from last year's garden. I will use the leftover soup for broth for a sauce to put over the chicken. Leftover spaghetti sauce from two weeks ago will be thawed and used to make several small lasagnas on Saturday, some of which I will freeze. We order from Bountiful Baskets Co-op and are getting, among other things, an Italian veggie lovers'pack. I will use some of those items for the lasagnas and a big Italian salad (think Olive Garden!) served with my Parmesan Balsamic Vinegar dressing. Later today: a recipe for Lasagna! Kathi~

The Last and  Next Leftover Threads
......Monday to Monday

Last Monday, I started a new leftover thread with soup. I cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer of many things that needed to be used and small packets of leftovers I had frozen. Because of what I had on hand the  soup ended up being spicy which influenced what I chose to do with it the rest of the week.

Tuesday we ate re-created leftover chicken soup whirled in a blender to which was added black beans and some chili powder. This was accompanied by the last of the frozen chicken I had taken off the whole chicken I had used previously for soup. I looked up my favorite recipe from our natural foods store, Lemon Basil Chicken Salad. I did not have fresh or frozen basil so used dry basil and I didn't have candied walnuts so just put in raw cashews instead. I toasted Costco's organic seed bread and used the chicken salad on that for sandwiches. To accompany the mugs of soup and the sandwiches, I made a creamy broccoli salad (many recipes online) using up the last two already-cooked and crumbled pieces of bacon, our last two tiny red onions from our garden, almonds instead of sunflower seeds and raisins (one last box of raisins left over from filling the 11 grandchildren's Christmas stockings) instead of dried cranberries.

Wednesday I served a dish I made using the leftovers from Tuesday's soup and some things left from the meatloaf meal thread that were in the freezer---meatloaf and cooked rice. I thickened the chili and added the meatloaf slice, broken up and cooked rice. I used the last of the broken chips from the week before, spread them in a pie plate, topped them with the chili, then with some of  the last of our sour cream, sprinkled the top with cilantro and chili powder, decorated the top with whole chips and thinly sliced yellow onions we grew last season. This morning I had a little of the leftovers with two of our eggs for breakfast (actually brunch).

Thursday, tonight, I will serve a Hungarian stew I made from Monday's soup. I strained the soup, added the vegetables and beef to a casserole dish, mixed in paprika and the very last of the sour cream. I topped it with the two leftover drop biscuits from Monday after I slathered the bottom of each with butter so they won't get mushy while cooking.  I have enough broth leftover for one mug for my lunch tomorrow. I will serve this over noodles or homemade dumplings---my mom's recipe!

Friday I will start a new but small thread of meals. I am going to use ground turkey as a less expensive substitute for Gyros, which are usually made with ground lamb, for the first meal. After being covered thickly with garlic, basil, rosemary and whatever else I can find on hand that tastes Greek it will be baked long and slowly in the oven just as it comes out of the tight, round packaging, while still a little frozen so it holds its round shape. If your ground turkey isn't in a round tube, shape it however you like. Read the labels to make sure the meat is just turkey, nothing else. I may make my own pita bread or buy it from our natural food store. I will make my own yogurt dressing and serve it with a marinated raw veggie salad or purple balsamic slaw and a big, naturally fermented pickle and a few chips!

On Saturdays we will probably grill some meat, fish or chicken to have with big salads and maybe grilled bread..

After church Sunday, we will have a salad dinner with the leftovers of the grilled meat from Saturday sliced thinly on top of the salads. If we are hungry later we will have waffles for dinner.

On Monday the second usage of the ground turkey (leftovers from the Gyros) will be added to soup with dark green kale that needs to be used, carrots which are still frozen in my refrigerator, hummus or just the garbanzo beans or white beans, depending on how much time I have and whatever else I have around that sounds like it will go with the Gyros meat!

Hope you find this helpful.
I hope, by now, you are using your own creativity to come up with  your own meal threads and not wasting anything in your kitchen. Always, always, always be careful not to keep things too long.  Getting food poisoning is not worth saving a few dollars!  If you have a long thread like the one I had for meatloaf as the initial meal in a thread, freeze a lot of it.

Have fun and enjoy!
Kathi~

Another meal thread

......a chicken in every pot!

Last week I did a thread of meals starting with a three-meat, three-pound meatloaf and a big pot of mashed potatoes.

These are the meals I created: 

Some are frozen for later use, others I made fresh. I like to intersperse other meals from previous menu threads into each thread for variation of ingredients, taste and nutrition.
1- Meatloaf with mashed potatoes
2-Shepherd's Pie
3-Spaghetti and Meatballs (cut-up cubes of meatloaf)
4-Spaghetti Pizza
5-Sweet and Sour Meatballs with rice and broccoli
6-Lasagna for two nights
7-Soup using the thread before this one, adding leftovers from above meals to the last of that soup
8-Hot Meatloaf Sandwiches w/mashed potatoes, broccoli with gravy using chicken broth from next thread

9-a couple of lunches


Next thread of meals: Chicken in a Pot
Yesterday afternoon I put one whole chicken in my 7 qt. crockpot with carrots, onion, garlic and the last of the salvaged celery stalks that did not freeze and about 3 tablespoons of Costco's No-Salt Organic Spice and covered it almost to the top with cold water. I cooked it on high. When it was done, just before dinner, I cooled it and put it in the fridge overnight.

This afternoon I will skim the solidified fat off the top of the soup and take chicken out of the broth and remove all meat. I will grind up the gooey stuff, skimmed fat and skin in the blender and serve a little each day to our cats on top of their food. A little extra fat during the winter is good for them. Bones get put in a 2qt. crockpot with some spices and veggies of all kinds, including soft tomatoes, that need to be used up to make a little broth (strained and solids given to chickens) to use in other recipes or to freeze. The following meals will either be eaten fresh or frozen for later.

Meals I hope to get out of this thread are:
1-Chicken Soup with noodles or dumplings--tonight because neither of us feels very well.
2-Creamy Chicken Pasta  with leftover blue cheese, sour cream and broccoli in a sauce made with broth
3-Cashew Chicken,  a stir-fry with veggies, soy sauce, turmeric and broth
4-Creamed Chicken Soup, blenderized leftover soup in a mug with a cheese sandwich or hummus wrap
5- Chicken-Veggie Salad Dinner with homemade rolls

6-Gourmet Chicken Rolls---last of chicken mixed with mayo, last of the sour cream,  seasoning, veggies, raisins ( I found one box left from the grandkids' Christmas stockings!), crispy bacon (left in freezer from Christmas) and nuts served on buns made the day before.
7-If a little bit of chicken is left I will put it in a container and freeze to add to soup later.

I hope this gives you some ideas. Be creative! Have fun! Use as much of what you already have as you can! You are only limited by your creativity----and, of course, your budget.

My husband and I are empty-nesters and so the initial amount I make is small in comparison to a family who has children at home. Adjust the initial amount to make it larger, cook more than you need so you will have leftovers and can make the meals that follow the initial meal of the thread.

Obviously if you have 10 children you will need more than three pounds of meatloaf or one whole chicken for your meal threads. I am just listing what I do for the two of us. Even if it's not feasible for you to do it exactly the way I do, I believe you will still save money.

Have a great weekend. Tonight I will do a short blog on dealing with calamities in the kitchen, especially when company is expected!

Right now, I must go to the store----the ice on the porches has melted in this 45 degree heat wave we are having today. This week the local store has many things we ordinarily purchase, on sale! My list is made and I will use all the rules for shopping that I outlined in a previous blog.  The sun and fresh air will do me good.  It's a beautiful day!

Kathi~