|
Post by imamess on Nov 1, 2015 14:52:07 GMT -5
My fridge is 28 years old and huge. It has two veggie bins on the bottom that I can't see through, so unless I'm overflowing with produce from the garden and doing a lot of canning, I don't use these bins because I forget about them. It's hard enough to use up what I can see.
I was so proud of myself this week when I bought a pound of ground chuck, used half for supper one night and immediately put the rest in a zip lock bag and popped it in the freezer. I'm really bad to not use up meat in a timely manner unless I freeze it. I have a vacuum sealer that I use when I buy a whole pork loin and slice it, but I didn't get it out for the ground meat since I'm planning on using it this week.
|
|
|
Post by dtesposito on Nov 1, 2015 16:57:06 GMT -5
this optical illusion has helped decrease our food hoarding significantly.
Howardsgirlfriend, this is just fascinating to me!! It's like when the grocery stores are out of stock on things, they go around moving the remaining items (or other items) to the front of the shelf so that the shelves LOOK full, even though they aren't--maybe so the store looks efficient? Or so the shelves look appealing and people will buy more.
Arid, I agree that keeping things neat in the kitchen makes cooking much more pleasant (and possible, even) but when I say a functional kitchen, I mean one where the appliances work. My kitchen sink does not have running water, and my stove doesn't work at all. Plus my kitchen has no counter space (well, about 1 square foot of it, plus there's the top of my non-working clothes dryer). I would love to see how I would be with working appliances, especially now that I've changed other aspects of my home so much.
Every time I commit to using up my pantry hoard people start giving me food. Today my senior client gave me 1/3 of a head of cauliflower, and 2 slices of a very expensive, very good quality whole grain bread that she buys from a bakery. She knows that she wastes a lot of food so she gives me small things on a regular basis as soon as she comes home from the store. I came home and used the bread right away in a sandwich for lunch--I love this bread and for sure, did not want to waste it.
Diane
|
|
|
Post by dtesposito on Nov 1, 2015 17:00:22 GMT -5
Ima, your fridge is 28 years old? I thought mine was doing well at 19 years! And it's been making some odd noises for a year or two now, so I expect it to break down at any moment! Diane
|
|
|
Post by angela on Nov 1, 2015 17:11:21 GMT -5
Oh my gosh, thank you for starting this thread dtesposito! I tamp down on acquisition impulses in one area (decor, books) and then they pop up in other areas, right now it's food! I've been on the edge of being a food hoarder for a very long time and had created a rule for myself to never turn down free food. This is from when I was so poor I was living on ramen noodles, govmint cheese, peanut butter, and powdered milk. My cupboards are packed. Earlier this summer my dear friends in chat helped me clear out and clean the food shelves. I got rid of a lot of stuff, much of it things that S had gotten and hadn't used. A lot had to be trashed but some went to Freecycle. I think for maybe a couple of wonderful weeks I knew what I had and was using what I had and was being very sensible about acquisitions. Now, I've got more than I can use, don't know what I have, don't plan for what I have, and have been acquiring foods I don't know how to use, think I should use, and are otherwise wasting. Ugh. So that's really my list: Inventory, again, what I've got. Use or lose what I've already got. Make a rudimentary meal plan, even if only for a cooked meal a day. Stop acquiring, as always, tell the truth about whether I will really, truly, actually use it. Other obstacles abound. I simply have to get my counters clear again too. Right now, I have fenced myself into prep space of about 1' by 2'. Stuff, all over the counters. 'Cause it's a flat surface dontcha know. :/ It's fall here so the kitchen is cold and damp again. The last thing I want to do at the end of the day is stand in a freezing, dark kitchen trying to prepare a meal. I don't really like to cook and kind of refuse to spend a lot of time preparing food. I need quick and simple meals. I've thought about putting some kind of cooking station upstairs so I can do some meal prep in heated comfort.
|
|
|
Post by angela on Nov 1, 2015 17:19:20 GMT -5
As for the optical illusion, I have become so out of sight, out of mind that I have sometimes thought I would do better with very shallow shelves. I have a couple of rotating shelf trays and have thought of those little stair step shelf thingies.
|
|
|
Post by imamess on Nov 1, 2015 18:17:35 GMT -5
Ima, your fridge is 28 years old? I thought mine was doing well at 19 years! And it's been making some odd noises for a year or two now, so I expect it to break down at any moment! Diane Yep, 28 years old! I too expect it to break any day. It was the first energy star appliance I had ever seen. The rubber magnetized strip is leaking some air because in the summer it molds around the edge. I wash it off with a Clorox wet wipe and the mold stays away for a long time. I think I have gotten my money's worth, don't you? It would help if I could pull it away from the wall and brush or vacuum the coils, but I can't because it took three men to put it on shims the way it is because the floor is not level.
|
|
|
Post by imamess on Nov 1, 2015 18:26:46 GMT -5
Other obstacles abound. I simply have to get my counters clear again too. Right now, I have fenced myself into prep space of about 1' by 2'. Stuff, all over the counters. 'Cause it's a flat surface dontcha know. :/ It's fall here so the kitchen is cold and damp again. The last thing I want to do at the end of the day is stand in a freezing, dark kitchen trying to prepare a meal. I don't really like to cook and kind of refuse to spend a lot of time preparing food. I need quick and simple meals. I've thought about putting some kind of cooking station upstairs so I can do some meal prep in heated comfort. Angela, I have a 1 x 2' prep area too and it's pretty cluttered right now. I have a little counter area on the other side of the sink, but it's way too cluttered to use. I don't like to cook for one. I had cereal for supper tonight. Right now my back is hurting and I want to cook some dried beans in my crockpot tonight. I put diced celery, carrots and onions in the beans. I don't feel like standing at the counter to chop all those things, so I will get a bowl, a towel, a knife, put the washed carrots I want to dice in the bowl and go sit on the couch, spread the towel over my lap and watch tv and cut carrots. Then I will get up and so the same with the celery. I will probably stand up at the counter for the onion and to wash and pick through the beans. Throw all of this in the crock pot with some water and in the morning I will have several meals. I invited Fence Guy over for supper tomorrow night (he is going through a divorce and has been sleeping on friends couches for 3 weeks). He will be working in the area and really needs some nutritious meals, plus he needs to learn how to cook for himself.
|
|
|
Post by Arid on Nov 1, 2015 19:46:56 GMT -5
Ima's right!!
Who said that all kitchen prep work has to be done in the kitchen?!!
Just this afternoon, I sat on my couch while I was peeling and slicing up apples for a dessert I was making. I washed the apples at the kitchen sink; then, I peeled into my little round blue enamel roaster, and I put the thinly sliced apples into my large stainless steel mixing bowl. The roaster was in my lap; the mixing bowl was on the couch beside me. It worked well!!
Arid
|
|
|
Post by italianlady on Nov 1, 2015 20:11:45 GMT -5
Over the past few years, we have had problems with ants and pantry moths, and have had to discard/compost much of our food. Plus, my husband loves to buy in bulk and stock up. I understand about being prepared, but geez, we leave the house almost every day, and pass a store every time. In order to avoid cramming our cupboards with food that will attract pests and eventually be discarded, I started storing cookware in the backs of the cupboards, so they look full most of the time. I don't hide them or otherwise deceive DH, but this optical illusion has helped decrease our food hoarding significantly. We have any problems too in the spring and summer. In the fall and winter its mice. I tried everything with the ants. They were mainly in the kitchen coming in under the baseboards. My house was built in the 90s, you'd think things would be tighter but they aren't. Here is how I handle them. I use both natural and poisthestuff and my feet. When I se ants first it's usually only a few. I get a bag of grits, regular grits, not instant, not quick, just regular. They are cheaper too. First I step on the few I see or just Windex them alive and wipe them up with a paper towel. Then I sweep and mop my kitchen floor really good even if I did it earlier. I take the grits and pour out a handful on the floor near the wall and with my hand or a ruler or piece of straight edge cardboard I spread it out into a line about 1/4 thick and pushed all the way nextbto the quarter round at the bottom of the baseboard. Then I move down and do it again. I make sure the walls near the outside have that in an unbroken line. Then I put it on the floor up nextbto the cabinets. There is no food in the bottom cabinets but once they crawled up to the top ones. Just to it all the way around for the best safety. In front of and around the side of the fridge and with a line across the small crack between the fridge and cabinets and in front of the stove too and across those cracks. By now you would have the 1/4 thick line surrounding the kitchen floor with only None across the door thresholds. If you have no pets and will remember to pick up your feet then put them across too. Otherwise get a can of Raid ant and Roach and spray a ton of it across. If you'd rather you can lay toilet paper across and then saturate it with the spray or if you have pets just put a ton in a thin line across the doorways and lay tp right in top of the sprayed areas. If you'd rather, you can use Windex. It works about the same as a bug killer. Then get the grits and put them inside up next to all the edges, of your food cabinets. You can also put them on windowsills. Do whatever room you have them in like this. Leave it down and be careful sweeping for a week. Everyday check it and make sure there is still the same thickness. Add more when needed. To keep them from around the sink, you can put grits out but you'll have to keep cleaning up and replacing or you can saturate paper towels with Windex and put them along the back behind the faucet etc. If you see anymore, spray them with spray or Windex real quick and try to follow them back where they came in and cover it with grits. Grits will kill the ants in an ant bed too, if you can't burn for some reason. This is the best ant prevention I've ever used. It works better than when we had the Cooks man. Girts are food and ants know it. One piece is aunt size and they eat on it and if you ever cooked grits you know what they do when they come in contact with moisture. They swell up a good bit. The amount of one grit that an ant will eat is enough to swell so much he explodes. I've not found any dead ones inside so I think they eat some and carry the rest outside to their bed. They explode pretty fast. I can also tell you a natural way to keep flies from coming in screenless open windows and doors in the summer.
|
|
|
Post by dtesposito on Nov 1, 2015 23:26:07 GMT -5
Ima, can you give me some details about your crock pot beans? What kind of beans, how many, and about how much of the chopped veggies? (Yes, you probably don't measure, but maybe an approximation?) Do you soak the beans in water first? How long do you cook in the crockpot? Angela, that's just what I'm doing--I clean things out, but without even realizing it, I fill back up again. I need to pay attention and do better! Do you also have people giving you free food? Tonight's dinner was a little weird, I had some of the cauliflower a little earlier, later I had some oats (I usually eat those in the morning but this morning I had the veggie wraps instead) and then I ate up the salad and a little of the mostaccioli from the party. Right now I have a ton of food just in my fridge, never mind the freezer and pantry! I will have to eat strictly from that fridge for the next few nights. Oh, and my dry erase board is probably too small for everything I want to put on there--I want the current fridge food, plus my shopping list, but right now I have half of it sort of permanently covered with a list of things I get from certain stores. For example, there are only certain foods I like to buy at Aldi's, but they're really good and cheap, so every time I go there I like to look at that list so I'm reminded of the things I like to get there. The same with Target and Walmart--if I ever get the opportunity to go to those 2 stores, I like to have a list of the usual things I buy there to see if I need any of those things. I guess I could put that list somewhere else, it's just so handy there. I'm not buying a larger dry erase board... Maybe I'll leave that list where it is and take one of the many little pads of paper I have, and keep a running shopping list near my computer--I certainly spend enough time sitting at this desk for me to remember to write things down here! For those of you wanting to eat from your stock, how did you do today? Diane
|
|
|
Post by italianlady on Nov 2, 2015 0:05:54 GMT -5
I promise I'm still going to write my list. I've just been busy. I saw several mentions of crock pot and I thought I'd give you guys this recipe.
Beef Burgundy
Medium size tray of need tips or stew meat Flour A little oil One can Campbell's golden mushroom soup Two cans chopped mushrooms One envelope onion soup mix Soup can Burgundy or water
Flour and browm meat in a small amount of oil. Drain. Put in crock pot. Add the soup and one can wine or water. Add mushrooms and onion soup mix. Stir. Cook all day from morning on low or half day on high. Serve over mashed potatoes or rice
Mac and cheese
8 oz cooked macaroni One good size block cheddar shredded One small can evaporated milk 2 tbsp minced onions from spice aisle
Combine in crock pot. Cook all day on high.
Crock pot cocktail weenies.
I assume almost everybody knows this but just in case some don't
Pack cocktail weenies Pound of bacon with strips cut in half to be shorter Box brown sugar Toothpicks
Wrap a piece of bacon around each weenie and secure with toothpick. Pour on brown sugar. Don't stir. Cook at least four hours on high
I've heard some people say they use a jar of grape jelly instead of brown sugar. I never tried it
|
|
|
Post by imamess on Nov 2, 2015 10:52:58 GMT -5
Diane, you guessed right, I don't measure. I use navy beans, pick through them, rinse them and pop in the crock pot with carrots, onions and celery chopped approximately the size of the swelled bean or less. Amounts vary but about half the amount of chopped veggies to beans. I don't put as many chopped onions to the mix just because I don't like an overpowering amount of onions. Add to crockpot with at least 3 times the amount of water to beans & veggies. Last night I started mine on high and should have turned them on low when I went to bed. I usually wake up in the middle of the night and turn them off, but not this time and they were beginning to scorch, so 4 or so hours on high should do it. I usually salt a few minutes before serving since the salt will make the beans tough if you put it in to begin with. It is traditional in my area to cook the beans with a salted cured piece of pork. I've found that a small amount of butter or margarine instead helps the taste and can be added when you start the beans or close to the end. Pintos would also work, my late DH just didn't like them so that is why I use Navy beans.
I think you can do some simple baking in your crockpot if you have a cake pan that will fit down in the crockpot. To get the hot pan out, you fold 2 long strips of aluminum foil and criss cross them in the bottom of the crockpot before you put the cakepan in and fill with batter. The other trick is to put a spoon in the lid so you won't have as much steam. I've never tried it, but have seen several recipes using this method.
|
|
|
Post by ohblondie on Nov 2, 2015 12:15:29 GMT -5
THis is the fine line I constantly walk - keeping enough of the basics in the house to get thru a snowstorm or bought with the flu or low money week - without hoarding too much or having things go to waste.
I always like having a dozen or so cans of soup on hand. (We used to have 6 in the house but we are down to four - so that is only 2-3 cans per person. A weekend in my book). I also like having cans of tuna and spaghetti sauce and a few cans of vegetables and fruit and beans. I also like having the basic baking supplies, as well as a couple of boxes of brownie or cake mix and frosting.
I find I waste fresh fruits and vegetables and cold cuts. I buy these things on Sunda with every intention of eating healthy all week long. HAH.... I never make the salads or sandwiches.
I also want to get my freezer under control. I need a new fridge as the freezer part is so full of frost. I have a freezer in the basement that is not easily accessible. (funny thing.....huh)I earn free hams and turkeys at the local gorcery store nd have no place to put them.
Maybe I will start with an inventory of what I have and what I think I will need. THen cut what I think I will need in half and get that.
|
|
|
Post by Arid on Nov 2, 2015 13:28:13 GMT -5
Diane: I've learned to shop for certain things at Aldi's, too!
I keep a running grocery list of needed items. (That is, as we become aware that we need to buy something, we write it down so that we don't forget it!) If it is something that I normally would buy at Aldi's, I put the letter "A" beside the item. If it comes from a different store, I put the first initials of that store next to the item. If the list is long enough, I re-write it, grouping all the "A" items together, all the "S" items together, etc.
Arid
|
|
|
Post by dtesposito on Nov 2, 2015 21:24:14 GMT -5
Thanks for the bean info ima, I've cooked dried beans in the slow cooker before, but since I soak them overnight, they soak up some water and I never know how much water to put in if I'm adding any kind of veggies. In other words, if I'm just cooking the beans to use in recipes later, it doesn't matter if there's leftover water--but if I want to add veggies, I want all the water to be gone when they're done. I usually eat black beans but would like to try something different so I'll try the navy beans. I'm afraid of pinto beans because I don't know if they count as "red" beans--because red beans have some kind of toxin in them and you can't cook them in a slow cooker unless you boil them first--which kind of defeats the purpose of easy cooking in the slow cooker. My slow cooker is sort of elliptical shaped, not round, so I don't think I can put any kind of baking dish in there. Ohblondie, do you take lunch to work, or buy it out while there? If you take lunches, you can cook on the weekend with your fresh veggies, take a container of cooked food with for lunch, and add your nice healthy fruit to your lunch bag! I don't blame you for not wanting to cook a lot on weeknights, you work long hours if you add in your commute. For lunch today I had a sandwich which was made with a "sandwich thin", I found a whole package of them in the freezer. I think a few of them are sort of soggy from thawing out, but there are some that are still fine so I'll try to eat them up this week. For dinner, I had the second half of the lentil soup/squash/cheese dish I ate a couple of nights ago. I also ate up the rest of the cauliflower that I got for free. So, so far so good--but my next step is cleaning out my fridge, because I know I have odds and ends of things in both my cheese basket and my bread basket in the fridge--so it would be good to use those up before they spoil. I also have some fresh veggies that need to be eaten. Tomorrow will be my first test--I'm going to the grocery store with my shopping cart--I badly need cat litter and toilet paper, and I have to go to the bank which is near the store. I really only need a couple of food items that I can justify buying. So--we'll see if I can leave the store without any impulse buys, and with only a couple of food items which will actually help me eat up some stuff from the pantry. Diane
|
|