Brett and I have started the process of using up food items that have been hanging out in our pantry as well as many of Japanese ingredients I brought back from Tokyo last summer.
We have five and a half months remaining to use everything up. That feels like plenty of time, but experience has taught me we may end up cutting it closer than we’d like.
Some things I made this month and what they used up: the gingerbread used up molasses; Chinese 3-color salad used up rice noodles; fluffy pancakes finished a box of Japanese pancake mix; and pasta with Alfredo sauce & ham used up a jar of Alfredo sauce and some leftover ham. I also made a loaf of apricot nut bread with the last of some dried apricots, coconut flakes, and walnuts.
Things like pasta and sauces will be easy to use, but five cans of tuna? For some that might be easy, but for us . . . not so much. Twenty packages of CookDo sauces . . . we might get through half to two-thirds of those but thankfully they’re light and travel well. Bread and eggs . . a piece of cake. But four boxes of pancake mix? I don’t know. , , , ,
The key, I think, is going to be narrowing our monthly food budget even more between now and when we move out of the apartment and concentrating more instead on using what we already have. Time seems to finally be picking up speed, and this small dilemma of emptying our pantry and fridge is one more thing that will hopefully make our remaining time go more quickly. Other tasks will soon be popping up, so this is one thing I want to have a good handle on before everything else starts getting crazy.
Your menus always sound so delicious even when you are planning around odds and ends. I have great faith that you can use it all, except maybe the sauce mixes, and as you said, they are easy to transport. Plus you will likely want them in your new home. If I had five cans of tuna, I would make tuna patties with some bread crumbs and an egg, and green onions if I had some green onions. and I would lightly sauté in a little oil. The next week I’d make a Salad Nicoise with the tuna, hard cooked eggs and what ever else was lingering and looked good to add. On a rainy evening I’d make some grilled tuna salad sandwiches for dinner. An then later in the month I’d probably want some tuna salad, and I could use up some mayonnaise in the processes well.
Oh Carol, so many good ideas for those cans of tuna! I had totally forgotten about the salad Nicoise, which we love. I’ve got tuna melts on the menu for next month – I read somewhere to mix the tuna with spinach-artichoke dip to take it up to the next level so I may give that a try (we’ll have no problem eating the dip if it doesn’t work out). Otherwise I’ve been having fun figuring out what to do with the odds and ends in the pantry.
I love the idea of mixing tuna with that dip. It would be delicious! There is your creativity again.
I am really looking forward to trying this!
While we aren’t moving, I have had quite a few nights when I just look at the pantry and fridge and see what I can concoct with available ingredients. Some nights turn out better than others. ha! I’ve also been weeding through recipe clippings saved for years. Tried one I clipped from 2009 the other night and it was just OK, so I pitched the clipping. I have decided I need to stop clipping/printing recipes unless I intend to try them quickly. My recipes box and binder are neatened up and I need to keep them that way.
As for tuna, we go through a lot of it, as we both like tuna fish sandwiches for lunch, so it would be no problem for us to finish five cans. 🙂 I love the idea of mixing it with spinach-artichoke dip!
By the time we get to the last week of the month, I’ve found we sort of tired of the rotation, so I’ve learned to hold back on some things so that the last week is a bit more “exciting.” We had pepperoni pizzas this past week but next week we’ll be having them with sausage and marinated artichokes. I frankly am tired of cooking though so the easier the better for me even though it’s not very “exciting.”
It’s funny, we both like tuna sandwiches but only a certain way, with tiny bits of celery and onion in the salad on whole grain bread, and we never seem to have celery or the whole grain bread these days so we don’t want the sandwiches. We really need to get over ourselves with this. I’m hoping the spinach & artichoke dip will be a new delicious version we can get excited about.
I am always amazed at how many recipes I can make with ingredients I already have in my pantry. Usually I have to buy something ‘special’ like cilantro or a certain cheese but I typically have everything else. Last year, I made a meal plan every Sunday and wrote down the meals on a white board. Then I’d take a photo of it before I erased the menu to write the next week’s menu. Then, at the end of the year, I looked through all the photos and complied all the meals into categories (beef, chicken, vegetarian) and printed it out. Now when we can’t think of what to make we have a go to list that has things we actually eat (and not things we think we’ll make at some point). It’s been a huge game changer.
It’s the same here. I’ll tell myself there’s nothing to eat and then check the pantry and freezer again and can put together five meals!
I love your idea of writing the meals down every week. I’ve been doing the same with the monthly menus this year. Like you say, it’s been a game-changer.
One of my grandmother’s cousins hosted events for teens from our church. She served tuna-melt buns once, we LOVED them, and so our mother started making them for us at home. The ingredients included tuna, mayonaise, pickle relish, hard-boiled eggs, and cubed cheddar cheese. She put the mixture in hamburger buns, wrapped them each in pierced foil, and baked them long enough for everything to fuse and melt. Brett will remember.
LOL we had a similar sandwich growing up but your mom’s sound better! I’m eager to try the tuna and artichoke/spinach dip combo and see if we like that. We both like tuna salad but not often and we have several cans to use up right now.
Growing up my younger siblings loved a version like yours but with ketchup instead of mayonnaise and hot dog buns instead of hamburger buns. Messy but yummy!