As I was reading back over the entries from the last couple of weeks, I noticed a couple of things: 1) we ate A LOT of chicken and 2) the common theme was the leftover-makeover. I probably could work on making meals in portions that are more suited to what we will actually eat in one sitting, but truth be told, I have quite enjoyed the challenge of the leftover-makeover.
So without further ado, here is how the first two weeks on my journey to less food waste have shaken out:
Jan 3: We had some dear friends over for supper, and I just happened to have a ten pound chicken (yes, it was a chicken not a turkey) that I thought would be perfect for company. So, I roasted it, and we had shredded chicken with sweet corn and green salad.
Jan 4: Believe it or not – we had some chicken leftover, which I took advantage of by making chicken salad sandwiches for lunch and chicken bacon ranch sandwiches for supper.
Jan 5: Chicken salad was on the lunch menu again and we enjoyed Hot Beef Sundaes for supper at the local Cattlemen’s meeting this evening. You cannot believe how nice it was to have beef again after so. much. chicken.
Jan 6: There was still a fair amount of chicken, and a little bit of corn, that needed to be used up before it was too late. So, even though we had eaten it almost every day in the New Year, I tossed the remainder of the shredded chicken in the crockpot with the corn, a can of black beans, sprinkled it with taco seasoning, and let it cook together for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, I made some Spanish rice, using up the last little bit of salsa that we had open. The chicken, corn, and black bean mixture wrapped in a tortilla with some rice, sour cream, and cheese actually turned out a pretty mean burrito.
Jan 9: This was a Saturday, and more specifically Bountiful Baskets (BB) Saturday – the day when we get our baskets filled with ½ fruit and ½ veg. It may not sound like much, but it is a lot of food for a mere $15.00 contribution to the co-op. If you haven’t checked them out yet, you totally should. Click here to find a location near you.
The fruit and veg from one of our past Bountiful Baskets contributions.
This time I also ordered an add-on, a 25 pound box of clementines, to split with my BB buddy, Lacey. However, the majority of the clementines in the box were smashed – edible, but smashed. I assumed that they wouldn’t keep as long as un-smashed fruit, so I went to work juicing the little buggers. It was a lot of work, but turned out some really tasty juice and the box didn’t go to waste. I’ll take that as a win.
Jan 10: On the 9th, we had spaghetti for supper as per requested by Tripp. There were plenty of leftovers that with the addition of an oven safe baking dish and some cheese were transformed into a yummy spaghetti bake.
Jan 11: On the menu for supper – Ridiculously Tasty Roast Beef Sandwiches with a side of jicama fries. We were blessed with a crazy amount of jicama in our Bountiful Basket. Normally, jicama is something that goes to waste at our house, but not this time. I found a recipe for jicama fries and tried it on the fam. While I cannot say that the fries were a hit, no jicama was wasted. Every last fry was consumed by a human – not a chicken (that’s who normally gets the jicama).
Jan 12: Using some of the leftover roast beef, I made Ridiculously Tasty Roast Beef Alfredo. If you think that sounds delicious – it was. And if you are dying to know how to make it, you are in luck because I will be posting that recipe here over the weekend.
Jan 13: Last night’s leftover Ridiculously Tasty Roast Beef Alfredo made today’s lunch. For supper, we had Ridiculously Tasty Roast Beef Salads made from the romaine and one bell pepper out our Bountiful Basket and topped with shredded carrot, the last of the roast beef, and croutons made from last night’s leftover garlic focaccia bread.
We still have a long way to go on our journey to less food waste, but I think the first couple of weeks have gone pretty well. I am excited to share the rest of this journey with you, so stay tuned next time for more leftover-makeovers, project refrigerator clean-up, and how we are getting our kids to clean up their plates.
In the meantime, I would love to hear some of your favorite leftover-makeover recipes – to share, simply leave them in the comments or shoot me a message using the Contact Me page.
Hello! I’m Terryn – the wife, mother, food safety enthusiast, Stormy Kromer fanatic who has slightly (okay, a lot) random tendencies, dabbles in photography, and shares (maybe a little too much) here at FFB.