Going, Going___ Nowhere Near Gone

This has been my baking week. I was directly exposed to covid and kept away from everyone for most of the week. I did have one meeting I had to go to, but we maintained distance and I had no symptoms of covid. Other than that, all my errands were either at a drive through or the pick up option at a couple of stores. 

When I am upset or bored I bake, and I was plenty bored this past week. Throw in the fact that I had about 3 cups of sourdough discard and it meant I really had to do some serious baking to use it.  

Monday Meals

Breakfast: sourdough toast, coffee

Lunch: leftover chicken and stuffing, leftover tossed salad

Dinner: vesuvian* over sourdough bread, tossed salad, brownie a la mode, wine

Tuesday Meals

Breakfast: morning glory muffin, coffee

Lunch: leftover tossed salad, ranch dressing

Dinner: coq au vin, orzo pasta, chop salad, tea, brownie

Wednesday Meals

Breakfast: coffee

Lunch: cobb salad (Met TheHub for lunch before a meeting. We sat about 15 feet away from anyone else)

Dinner: corn on the cob 

Snack morning glory muffin

Thursday Meals

Breakfast: morning glory muffin, coffee

Lunch: vegetable soup

Dinner: tamale pie, green beans, coleslaw, tea

Snack; brownie

Friday Meals

Breakfast: coffee

Lunch: leftover coq au vin

Dinner: white chicken chili, cheese toast, pickled okra

Snack: pineapple upside down cake

Saturday Meals

Breakfast: coffee

Lunch: leftover tamale pie

Dinner: tuna steaks, coleslaw, biscuits

Snack: chocolate chip cookies

Sunday Meals:

Breakfast:coffee

Lunch:canned mushroom soup, oyster crackers

Dinner:leftover spaghetti meat sauce over angel hair pasta, tossed salad

Snack: Sourdough toast with mayhaw jelly

Auxiliary Preps (because I have a ton of starter discard from feeding the starter)

Brownies. . . good but a little too chocolaty

Morning glory muffins. . . good

Biscuits. . . they were just biscuits

Pineapple upside down cake (very small cake, truly good)

Discard chocolate chip cookies. . . cake textured and not terribly sweet but good enough.

1 loaf sourdough bread . . . just a nice tangy bread

Bought this week

Small vanilla Ice cream (Brownies__duh)

1 lemon

6 cartons mushrooms (on sale, stock up for dehydrating)

1 bag coleslaw 

2 bottles chili sauce (Aldi seasonal product so I bought 2 while they were still available)

1 dozen eggs

3 boxes protein bars*** (TheHub takes these to work. He bought them)

bananas** *(theHub's recreational shopping purchase)

small container cut watermelon ***(ditto)

Used this week 

From the freezer

Small pack cooked ground beef with onions

1 chicken breast

1 ear of corn

small pack (1 serving size) vegetable soup

small pack ground chuck

small pack green beans

2 servings white chicken chili

1 cup dehydrated pineapple slices**

2 tuna steaks

small pack shredded Monterey Jack cheese

leftover spaghetti meat sauce

1/2 bag corn niblets

From the refrigerator

butter

6 eggs

sourdough discard

leftover chicken and stuffing

leftover tossed salad

greek dressing (gone now)

ranch dressing (still about 1/2 bottle left)

french dressing (still a little left)

sour cream 

leftover tossed salad

John's slaw dressing

hot sauce

leftover coq au vin

angel hair pasta

parmesan cheese

cheddar cheese

monterey jack cheese

Produce

2 1/2 bell pepper

8 cherry tomatoes

6 radishes

lettuce

1 cucumber

8 carrots

1 apple

1 orange

3 onions

1/4 cauliflower

1 bunch scallions

bananas (I have no idea how many. I hate bananas and don't keep count of TheHub's total)

remaining cabbage

partial bag coleslaw mix

remaining cherry tomatoes

watermelon (1 small container)

From the pantry

bread

coffee

5 Earl Gray tea bags

3 lemon ginger tea bags

1 zevia Ginger Root Beer

2 cans La Croix 

1 diet Dr Pepper

flour

sugar

salt

pepper

vanilla 

cocoa 

chocolate chips (almost 1 bag)

envelope of brown gravy mix

olive oil

shredded coconut

walnuts

Armagnac

balsamic vinegar

baking powder

baking soda

dehydrated mushrooms

3/4 container chicken broth

4 quart tea bags

splenda

brown sugar

herbs and spices

mushroom sage olive oil

corn meal

1/4 huge jar sun dried tomatoes in olive oil ( I had no idea I had this. Using it as often as possible)

1/3 jar pickled okra (another pantry find I did not remember having)

1/2 cake mix

vegetable oil

brown sugar

honey

red wine vinegar

1 can green chilis

Weekly Wrap Up

By Tuesday I was out of regular coffee. I had several partial containers filled with flavored coffees, but I don't like them for my morning coffee. I also had a lot of decaf, which is pointless in the morning even though it tastes pretty much like regular coffee. Since I use a Keurig with refillable k cups for my morning coffee(s) the solution was to fill each cup partially with decaf and add ground espresso to it. Not perfect but it worked for taste and a caffeine kick.

Even though I do not need to go to the store I want to. No idea why, I just want to because I am bored looking at the same things. There is some weird dichotomy going on though, because the more restless I get using what we have on hand, the better tasting our meals have been. I guess I am trying a little harder to cook something different, or maybe the meals have been made with intent instead of just throwing something on the table.  I am not sure, but I know I am over any "thrill" I had initially by using some of our food inventory. I have 3 more days to complete this challenge. I know I will do it, because I have a stubborn streak in me that is about a mile long, but it does not mean I will quit griping about it.

Put in the freezer this week (bummer)

Morning glory muffins

biscuits

brownies

* Delicious ground chuck, veggie, and brown gravy concoction served over garlic bread, My Beloved Sister's creation. She is not a great cook and certainly not kitchen creative so I have to give her props when it is due. It really is good.

** Whenever Aldi has pineapple on sale I buy a couple of them. We eat part of one as fresh pineapple then I dehydrate the rest of it. I do keep it in a bag in the freezer. Most of the time I just grab a slice out of the bag and eat it as it. The result of dehydrating is is a chewy, intensely pineapple flavored treat, but this week I rehydrated it to use in pineapple upside cake. It worked perfectly. I can always tell if a treat is a success by whether or not if TheHub goes back for seconds. The cake was very successful!

***I am not counting TheHub's random purchases as me going off my challenge. He is an adult, has his own money, and can buy whatever he wants for himself. I am not about to tell him what he can or cannot do with it as long as it is not part of our daily meals. If he wants to have watermelon or protein bars for a snack, that is strictly his business. 

I do know he will be happy that I did this challenge before Super Bowl Week, so he can have all the junk associated with football watching.

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan, or with no plan at all.