Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday I was up bright and early and ready to get started on projects.  I worked all day as I mention in my previous post and then after running our houseguest home it was time to fix my family some dinner and none of us wanted to eat, let alone cook.

I was on a mission to use up all the odds and ends of food and leftover items in the refrigerator and freezer.  I detest food waste.  To me it is just like throwing money straight into the trash.

I rifled through the freezer and found cooked pasta and shrimp.  One quick pan of shrimp linguine and a couple of cans of clam chowder heated up later we were well fed and ready for some much deserved down time.

Monday I started my day by putting a big pot of beans on to cook in my largest slow cooker before washing up two loads of laundry and hanging them up on the line outside to dry.  Then back inside to clean up and re-organize the refrigerator.  I had recently spring cleaned it but you wouldn't know it to look at it.  It was a wee bit messy inside.

Before

After - much better!

With that job completed I moved onto the pantry which was in serious need of some spring cleaning.  It wasn't messy, but it has been awhile since I had washed the shelves or mopped the floor.  Once that was done I put all the food away and moved the collection of empty canning jars to garage where they belonged.

I put leftover taco meat away in the freezer to use keep until later in the week.

Pantry - all squeaky clean

We were having company for lunch too so I got busy and put together a gelatin and fruit salad.  Then I made a big green salad and a batch of homemade macaroni and cheese with sliced smoked sausages in it.  It was a delicious lunch.

Later that day I made a huge batch of refried beans.  I put them into containers, labeled them and put them away in the freezer.  I also put a container in the fridge for lunches.

Refried beans

After a parent's meeting at my youngest's school on Tuesday evening we stopped at Albertson's and I picked up two summer bus passes for the girls.  Once we got home we dined on leftover macaroni & cheese and salad.  The girls and I had leftovers for our lunch the next day too.

Wednesday I used more cooked pasta I had stowed away in the freezer and a vegetable ragout I made out of the veggie tray I had bought for the weekend along with some leftover pizza sauce to make baked pasta.  It was delicious.  I had leftovers for a couple lunches too.

Used a rubber spatula and scraped out enough peanut butter for a sandwich

Thursday we cooked up some of the fish sticks the girls had bought a few weeks back to make homemade fishwiches.  We still have a bunch of those fish sticks left and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that.  We also finished up the potato chips and gelatin salad left from Memorial Day.

Friday we ate the last of the leftovers for our lunches and then enjoyed breakfast burritos for supper using up leftover grated cheese and flour tortillas.

Naptime with Mom in the recliner

Saturday the taco meat came out of the freezer and we had tacos for supper.

I washed out several Ziploc bags in a variety of sizes to reuse.

I gathered up a bowl fo hodge podge items to use up last week
It worked out pretty slick

We gave the hens our kitchen scraps.  I also cut them a lot of milkweeds from the backyard which they absolutely loved.

How was your thrifty week?