Clean Out the Freezer Recipes

This may be something I will never want to refer back to, ha ha, but if nothing else, maybe it will fuel some future inspiration. We went camping with a bunch of teenagers (most of them boys) and spent a lot of money on food. This week all of my sons are away, which leaves just me, my husband, and my daughter. So, the only thing I will buy this week for groceries will be some fruit, veggies, milk, and ice cream (the staples, lol). The dinner meals will be a collection of concoctions made from stuff around the house. Hoping I might find a gem in the midst.

Day 1: pasta with breakfast sausage and kale. Sound horrible, I know, but once I made it with frozen chopped spinach and it was good enough for me to write down on an index card (my system before this blog came into fruition). I don't have any spinach, fresh or frozen, but I do have a bag of chopped kale. My husband will be on board, he eats a salad with kale every day for lunch. I will be the one that has to choke it down, but hopefully that won't be the case. We have tons of breakfast sausage left over from camping, so we haven't seen the last of it! BTW, my daughter will fend for herself with some other goodies we have in the pantry and freezer.

Day 2: Daughter is having a sleepover birthday party, so we will buy pizza for her and her guests, but my husband and I will be having soup made with sausage, kale, beans, carrots, and celery. And some biscuits. This soup turned out really good, but I forgot about the beans! I added instant mashed potatoes to thicken the broth. I could have thickened it with the beans if I was thinking.

Day 3: We have some collard greens in the freezer too, bacon, and possibly some canned black eyed peas - oh, the possibilities!)

Day 4: By now my daughter may have run away... we have tons of canned soup in our storage pantry, leftover from hurricanes and other storms that took away our electricity. It's probably time to use some of them up, so I will start with those, then throw in some chicken from the freezer.

Day 5: Will have to see what is left, oh, never mind, it is my daughter's birthday, can't do that to her on her birthday. We will see what she wants. I am guessing it will be lasagna.

Yummy Taco Casserole

If I put yummy in the title then you know I really liked it.

I was trying to use up stuff. We had three open bags of tortilla chips in our pantry, a partially used tomato, three open jars of salsa, plus two large open bags of shredded cheddar cheese in our fridge.

So I bought @ 2 pounds ground beef (a little less) and a head of iceberg lettuce.

I cooked the beef with the contents of two of the salsa jars (and I will ONLY use powdered taco mix again if we are surviving on food storage only), heated a can of refried beans, cut up half of the head of lettuce and the  leftover tomato, oh, and opened a can of sliced black olives.

Then I layered a large roasting pan with the refried beans (heated first in the microwave for about a minute to make them easier to spread), most of the ground beef mixture, olives, tomato, some tortilla chips, then lots of cheese.

Baked in the oven at 350 for, maybe 10 minutes, just to get the cheese melted nicely.

At the table we added lettuce and more chips if we wanted.

It was really, really good.

No sour cream! The refried beans added enough creaminess.

I still have lots of salsa and chips and cheese, so next week I may cook some frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot with salsa and try it with the chicken.

The leftover meat was mixed with leftover rice and made a very yummy lunch the next two days.

Bonus!

A Tasty, Healthy, Simple (if there are leftovers) Lunch

note to self: ground beef and rice are a match made in heaven

taco meat (lean ground beef and salsa)
brown rice
a few black beans
heated and stirred together

chilled cooked broccoli
olives
slice tomatoes
italian dressing

a big glass of ice cold water

Leftovers...Mashed Potatoes

My favorite way to eat up leftover mashed potatoes has become

(photo courtesy of google images)

To stir them into soup

(photo courtesy of google images)

It thickens the broth and gives it a nice but subtle potato flavor.

Just passing it along.

Hoppin' John? Delicious

There appears to be many versions of Hoppin' John, black eyed peas being the main ingredient.

The version I tried came from a can of Bush Beans, however, I think it was so delicious because I used this particular brand of canned black eyed peas:

(Purchased from my local IGA)

Anyway, it was easy and very, very good, but not kid friendly. This is what Kraft macaroni and cheese is for, feeding the kids so you can have dishes like Hoppin' John.

Hoppin' John with Sylvia's Black Eyed Peas

1 C chopped onion

1 sweet red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 C cooked ham

2 T vegetable oil

2 cans Sylvia's Blackeye Peas

1/2 to 1 t hot sauce

3 cups cooked white rice

Salsa

Sour cream

Cook onion, peppers, and ham in oil for 4 minutes.

Drain peas, reserving 1/2 C liquid.

Add peas, reserved liquid and hot sauce to ham mixture; stir to combine.

Spoon over rice and top with salsa and sour cream, if desired.

(I didn't need the salsa and sour cream; it was tasty enough without it.)

Bean Soup That Smells Delicious While It Cooks

One pound dried beans, pre-soaked (used small white this time)

Ham bone or leftover ham

2 quarts water

One large onion, chopped

1 C chopped celery, more or less

1 tsp salt

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp rosemary

Simmer on stove about 2 hours or in crock pot on low for 8 hours