Yep its time to start cleaning out the Freezer and Pantry... Lets see what we all can come up with...

[LovesTimone]

I've never made a good chicken noodle soup LOL but I am going to try a lemon chicken orzo recipe.
I do a creamy cauliflower cheese soup that I add broccoli too but I've never made a traditional broc. and cheese one.
My plans for soups include a couple different lentil soups (vegetable lentil, one with sausage, a Moroccan one, a curry one).
Other plans are for a vegetable coconut curry, a pumpkin curry, roasted red pepper & tomato, chicken fajita, sausage and bean, chickpea curries, split pea, and a potato ham chowder. I'd love to find a copycat Panera creamy tomato too.
Some I have made and some are new recipes. I'll take a day each week to make a couple for that week and use my instant pot and/or stovetop.
I love soups especially in the fall and winter, and I'm lucky to have a household full of soup eaters. They are so easy to make and good to have to pack in lunches or quick dinners paired with a salad or sandwich.

I have beef and wild rice soup recipe that is pretty darn tasty, its really hardy and filling. There is a orzo and meatball soup recipe that I have kinda like Italian Wedding soup, it has more a Mediterranean feel, it's lighter... then I make Summer Chili which is a concoction of my own, this is a much lighter version that regular chili... Pretty tasty if I do say so myself...

I plan on making the Summer Chili and Orzo and Meatball in the next couple of weeks...

To make the beef and wild rice I have to wait to have enough left over from chuck roast to make this..

 

[barkley]

I need to figure out what to do with some paper and plastic goods, that I use for picnic's, boating, and holiday gatherings... right now I have a giant basket that they are just thrown into...

do you have a large cooler (ice chest) you use for these events? if so you can store the stuff inside it where ever you store that item. i also store this stuff inside new plastic garbage bags out in my garage. i put them on top of my freezer where they are out of the way but handy when the occasion for using them pops up (the garbage bag keeps them dust and dirt free).

we've been working our way through frozen leftovers. got through 2 quart sized containers over the weekend, and this morning i pulled out a package with a decent sized chunk of roast beef. when it defrosts dh will slice it and we can make french dip sandwiches for dinner. my freezer is still pretty stuffed but a big part of that is gallon ziplock bags of pizza bagel bites and good quality chicken nuggetts-both have been spotty to find as well as much higher in cost so when i caught a good sale at costco i decided to stock up for winter (oldest is on the spectrum and has limited number of foods he will eat-if i have these i'm ensured there's always something he can consume).


YIKES-i just looked at today's grocery ads and found 93 percent ground beef for $3.99 a pound/boneless cross rib roasts for the same. think i'll be stocking up (and dh will be cutting roasts down into 2 pound packages for soup/stew cuz i can't find soup/stew meat at that price).

 

[LovesTimone]

do you have a large cooler (ice chest) you use for these events? if so you can store the stuff inside it where ever you store that item. i also store this stuff inside new plastic garbage bags out in my garage. i put them on top of my freezer where they are out of the way but handy when the occasion for using them pops up (the garbage bag keeps them dust and dirt free).

we've been working our way through frozen leftovers. got through 2 quart sized containers over the weekend, and this morning i pulled out a package with a decent sized chunk of roast beef. when it defrosts dh will slice it and we can make french dip sandwiches for dinner. my freezer is still pretty stuffed but a big part of that is gallon ziplock bags of pizza bagel bites and good quality chicken nuggetts-both have been spotty to find as well as much higher in cost so when i caught a good sale at costco i decided to stock up for winter (oldest is on the spectrum and has limited number of foods he will eat-if i have these i'm ensured there's always something he can consume).


YIKES-i just looked at today's grocery ads and found 93 percent ground beef for $3.99 a pound/boneless cross rib roasts for the same. think i'll be stocking up (and dh will be cutting roasts down into 2 pound packages for soup/stew cuz i can't find soup/stew meat at that price).

Op Here.

I have several coolers, but not a big one that would hold everything that I have.

I stopped at Ross yesterday to see if I could find anything and they did not have really anything. I think what I am looking for is some kinda small cart with or plastic thing with pull out drawers, like I have for my crafts and fabric... finding one that will fit what I have and fit under the bottom shelf is going to be tricky...

Then over to the dollar tree for my parents, to stock them up on Kleenex, hand sanitizer, white erasers and those bathroom fragrance things with the twist cap thingy... Heck I don't know what to call them... I walked around and did pick up some fall crafts for my grandson to do... and some of the Betty Crocker plastic container, as I had thrown a bunch of them away that had seen their better days... I really wanted some of those foil pans with the lids, I use them for my brother in law and parents when I take food to them, and the aisle was pretty empty... so Zero on these.

I also went to Aldi yesterday with my list, I was shocked they only had chicken thighs, and the family packs of Chicken breast.. Which was so weird... so I picked up one of each, and a couple steaks, and trout, and Lemon Garlic pork loin ... I was going to pick up some wings they were 18.00 for wings I was like No thanks... plus they were pitiful looking... I did pick up some canned beans, Cannellini/white beans, and light kidney, flavored tomatoes I think garlic and basil, and some Stokely canned corn. They normally carry some decent spices and yesterday they were stocking the shelf with new products, I picked up some organic cumin, and that's really all that they had that was on my list. They had just put out the pumpkin muffin/bread boxed mix so I did pick up 2 box of these, now I wish I would have gotten more... I might go back later to see if they still have some.. it looked like they were starting to stock the shelves for the holidays...

I need to sit down and figure out what we are going to do for the holidays, and kinda think about what I am going to cook... Plus this year we are having a Christmas party, which we haven't had in 4 years. So I need to really get started on making my list... multiple list that is... so that I am prepared for sure...

Last night we had Johnsonville sausage cooked on the grill, and homemade potato salad, and fresh corn on the cob... I went through what I have left to use up...

2 packages of Johnsonville sausage,
2 maple flavored breakfast sausage
2 packages frozen scallops
1 rack of baby back ribs
Some odd and end frozen veggies, which I think I'm going to just make some simple veggie soup with.. for my brother in law. He has some special needs and really just likes plain food...
A box of frozen dumplings ( PF changs these are pretty tasty for a Sunday afternoon snack), cheese sticks, and I know that there was something else
As well as some homemade meatballs, that I plan on using next week for meatball subs...

That's about it...

 

[ronandannette]

...growing up the local grocery store wouldn't sell them dented or with torn up/off labels so they sold them to their staff at cost. we had a family friend who worked there and saved on their family grocery bill by buying as much of their canned goods as possible from this source-he had it down to a science where he could pick up a fully unlabeled/unmarked can and just from the size/shaking it-could identify it's contents (his kids would tell you this came after years of trial and error on his part which resulted in some very odd re configuring of meal preparation on their mom's part).

Decades ago in my hometown it was a tradition to throw a separate “kitchen” shower for new brides and it always included a ton of cans with the labels torn off as a joke. I can only imagine what some of those newlywed meals ended up like.

 

[yeahdisney]

It is time again to eat out of the freezers. to see what is in there and to keep it fresh.

I saw 4 bags chicken breasts down there and a box of green giant something something? That did become supper last night.

 

[barkley]

i told dh that december is THE month to eat through all the pre thanksgiving prepared foods in the freezer. it's mostly stuff i make larger batches of to freeze for future meals.

so far we've gone through (with the help of our visiting elder kiddo)-

large container of mac & cheese
6 prepared shake & bake pork chops
3 large containers of soup
1 small container of bbq beans
1 rack of bbq ribs
1 ham bone/1 package of honey baked ham slices (which did generate enough ham & beans such that we will be eating these before months end).

i still have-
a container of homemade italian meat sauce
2 containers of smoked pulled pork (and the bbq sauce dh makes to go with it)
2 containers of enchilada sauce (i'll do meat in the crock pot one night to use this up)
a smallish chunk of corned beef (hash anyone?)
a single precooked smallish steak (breakfast night-omelettes)
a thanksgiving casserole that my oldest is salivating over-i'll pull this one of the nights he comes over within the next couple of weeks.

i've got allot of turkey in there that will be used over the remainder of the winter and christmas will generate another batch of ham/ham bone that will serve for multiple meals/batches of split pea soup.

 

[2China2009]

I have gotten very organized over the last 18 mos. I had my kitchen renovated and my daughter organized the entire pantry with OXO containers, and bins. We did the same in the fridge and freezer and all the drawers. It looks amazing and we can actually see what we have which leads to a lot of less waste. I do not stockpile like lots of people do. We have all groceries readily available. I have saved lots of money.

 

[LovesTimone]

Op Here.

I have several coolers, but not a big one that would hold everything that I have.

I stopped at Ross yesterday to see if I could find anything and they did not have really anything. I think what I am looking for is some kinda small cart with or plastic thing with pull out drawers, like I have for my crafts and fabric... finding one that will fit what I have and fit under the bottom shelf is going to be tricky...

Then over to the dollar tree for my parents, to stock them up on Kleenex, hand sanitizer, white erasers and those bathroom fragrance things with the twist cap thingy... Heck I don't know what to call them... I walked around and did pick up some fall crafts for my grandson to do... and some of the Betty Crocker plastic container, as I had thrown a bunch of them away that had seen their better days... I really wanted some of those foil pans with the lids, I use them for my brother in law and parents when I take food to them, and the aisle was pretty empty... so Zero on these.

I also went to Aldi yesterday with my list, I was shocked they only had chicken thighs, and the family packs of Chicken breast.. Which was so weird... so I picked up one of each, and a couple steaks, and trout, and Lemon Garlic pork loin ... I was going to pick up some wings they were 18.00 for wings I was like No thanks... plus they were pitiful looking... I did pick up some canned beans, Cannellini/white beans, and light kidney, flavored tomatoes I think garlic and basil, and some Stokely canned corn. They normally carry some decent spices and yesterday they were stocking the shelf with new products, I picked up some organic cumin, and that's really all that they had that was on my list. They had just put out the pumpkin muffin/bread boxed mix so I did pick up 2 box of these, now I wish I would have gotten more... I might go back later to see if they still have some.. it looked like they were starting to stock the shelves for the holidays...

I need to sit down and figure out what we are going to do for the holidays, and kinda think about what I am going to cook... Plus this year we are having a Christmas party, which we haven't had in 4 years. So I need to really get started on making my list... multiple list that is... so that I am prepared for sure...

Last night we had Johnsonville sausage cooked on the grill, and homemade potato salad, and fresh corn on the cob... I went through what I have left to use up...

2 packages of Johnsonville sausage,
2 maple flavored breakfast sausage
2 packages frozen scallops
1 rack of baby back ribs
Some odd and end frozen veggies, which I think I'm going to just make some simple veggie soup with.. for my brother in law. He has some special needs and really just likes plain food...
A box of frozen dumplings ( PF changs these are pretty tasty for a Sunday afternoon snack), cheese sticks, and I know that there was something else
As well as some homemade meatballs, that I plan on using next week for meatball subs...

That's about it...

OP here,

Wow and Wow...

I have been so busy, so now I am going to try to get back on track.. I did use up all the stuff in the freezer that I had posted above...

The scallops went with some shrimp for kinda a seafood scampi with thin spaghetti noodles, it was pretty tasty considering it was last minute for some unexpected company who got to town early before they started their Disney vaca.. so I threw it together with a green salad, and garlic bread sticks... It was a late lunch so all in all it worked out great.

The Johnsonville sausage went on the grill and then I took the leftovers out of the casing and use them to go into some baked beans for a party as my pot luck dish and they turned out pretty dang good...

Ribs on the grill for dinner one night, and DH used the frozen breakfast sausage for a breakfast at his work...

The homemade meatballs went for subs, I had a jar of pizza sauce I just threw it together in the crock pot, and toasted up some buns and added cheese, really simple yet very satisfying...

So my freezer was empty then I stocked it back up for our party, and now its empty again... So back to filling it with some homemade easy peasy meals basic's...

Suggestions are always welcomed...

 

[AndreaDM]

Well as I mentioned in another post, we are moving next week so I've not really bought any groceries since Thanksgiving, trying to use what we have so we don't have to move as much food. It has been interesting, last night was the most random salad ever lol. One of the things I'm most excited about in our "new" house is the huge pantry, can't wait to stock up and organize it!