My No Plan Results

This is the first week of my unplanned meal plan, using what I have here at the house. My first step was to start by seeing exactly what I have on hand. This meant cleaning out everywhere I keep foods stored, which is a lot of different places. 

I have a standard side by side refrigerator/freezer, a double free standing bar type cabinet that contains all of my baking supplies, a lazy Susan in a corner cabinet filled with spices and seasonings, plus a small closet pantry in the kitchen. 

The laundry rooms holds a smaller refrigerator/freezer, plus an upright freezer. Additionally I have 2 deep shelves of dry goods and staples, plus 3 boxes filled with canned fruits, veggies, and a few cans of meats.

 Then comes the butler's pantry. Since my butler is named Anne I figure she can use it any way she wants to use it. Along with cabinets of dishes and glasses, it also holds all of our adult beverages and snack type foods (chips, crackers, pretzels,  etc) 

I have not made it to sorting the freezer yet, but I have been through everything else and am amazed  (horrified) at what we have accumulated. Though some is by design, a lot of it is my  shopping  habits, forgetting what I have in stock and buying it again (and again sometimes). Nothing I can do now but take inventory and move on.

Because I am doing a use it up challenge I am listing each meal instead of my normal dinner only list. This is mainly for me, so I can keep up with what I am truly using.

Unless it is the weekend the breakfast and lunch meals will only be mine. TheHub goes out to eat every workday at lunch, most days for a working lunch, thus I am not including his meals (unless he brings home a doggie bag that becomes a meal or partial meal for us).

Monday Meals  

Breakfast: Cheese toast, coffee or hot tea               

Lunch: Out to eat, Brunswick stew, coleslaw (me) Pork bbq sandwich, baked beans (TheHub) 

Dinner: TheHub: Leftover taco soup, bread slathered with butter

              Me: Open face turkey on sourdough with turkey gravy over it, coleslaw

**Our neighbor texted me to see if I would like fresh out of the oven sourdough bread. 

Yes please! We had planned on having turkey sandwiches but did not want to ruin really good bread with a traditional sandwich.**

Snacks: Remnants of Christmas past (cookies)

Tuesday Meals

Breakfast: Sausage casserole, coffee

Lunch: Wasn't hungry, diet Dr.Pepper, handful of pecans

Dinner: Meatball beef stew, fennel/apple salad, sourdough bread

Snacks: Mandarin and some cherries

Wednesday Meals

Breakfast: Coffee

Lunch: Taco soup, less than stellar English muffin

TheHub called to say he would not be home for dinner. No point in cooking just for me.

Dinner: 2 or 3 bites of assorted leftovers (not satisfying but it cleaned out some containers)

Snack: Persimmon muffin (failed baking experiment. Ate one before tossing the rest)

Thursday Meals

Breakfast: Coffee

Lunch: Picked up a fast food meal on the way to volunteer at IP

Dinner: Kraut and wieners, niblet corn (got home late and needed a quick meal)

Snack: Spicy pistachios (found when cleaning out the baking center cabinet)

Friday Meals

Breakfast: Coffee

Lunch: Out to eat with Son2, TGS, and My Beloved Sister

Dinner: TheHub did not feel great, so we just had a baked potato

Snack: Biscotti and coffee

Saturday Meals

Breakfast: Grits and tea or toast and coffee

Lunch: Leftover stew, leftover 1/2 club sandwich (from TheHub's lunch Friday)

Dinner: Taco salad

Snack: Chips and some chocolate

Sunday Meals

Breakfast: Granola (remnants of a recreational shopper purchase) coffee or tea

Lunch: Soup (TheHub still is not feeling great) or leftover kraut and wieners

Dinner: Chicken pot pie, brussels sprouts

Snacks: 1/2 apple (split it with TheHub) 2 graham crackers, envelope of hot chocolate mix

Bought this week

Nothing, zero, zip, nada

Used this week

From the freezer 

Sausage casserole* 

1 pack ground chuck

1/2 pack meatballs

1 pint chocolate ice cream (TheHub)

1 cooked chicken breast

1 ready made pie crust

chicken broth

From the fridge (on hand) 

leftover taco soup ( totally gone now)

sliced turkey

butter for bread and cooking

leftover green bean casserole (went into the beef stew)

English muffin (somewhat stale but toasted it was ok)

1 pack Hebrew National hot dogs

1 jar sauerkraut (for some strange reason we had opened it but never used it)

leftover apple fennel slaw

leftover beef stew (about 2 bites)

leftover green beans (about 2 bites)

macadamia nut milk (end of the carton)

almond milk (about a cup)

cheddar cheese 4 oz.

Produce used (on hand)

tail end of the coleslaw

fennel bulb and stalks

2 apples

2 potatoes

2 carrots

4 stalks less than stellar celery

1 onion

orange

cherries

lettuce

cherry tomatoes

1 persimmon 

orange

From the pantry

 partial jar turkey gravy (bought for Thanksgiving but never used)

1 envelope beef stew seasonings

1 can stems and pieces mushrooms

coffee, duh!

1 can niblet corn

flax meal

flour

brown sugar

granulated sugar

walnuts

vanilla

baking powder

salt

pepper

4 individual snack bags of chips (counting TheHubs 3 bags in this total)

shelled peanuts (TheHub)

leftover tortilla chips

pack of taco seasoning

tail end of a bag of granola

spiced pistachio nuts

quart size tea bags

splenda

individual tea bags

honey

1 can veg-all

graham crackers

pouch of hot chocolate mix

4 dehydrated** mini marshmallows

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

Going into this week I know we will be watching the NCAA National Championship football game, so there will be some type of football watching meal. No clue yet what that might be but whatever it turns out to be will most likely be something from the freezer. In fact we should have a week of things mainly from the freezer since the only leftovers this week are small amounts which will become lunches for me. 

I will be volunteering at Independence Place a couple of times this week, and plan to go sit with my cousin another day.  I see crock pot meals happening. Whatever they might be still remains to be seen.  

I still have many salad fixings, some fruit, carrots, onions, 2 potatoes, a gigantic head of cabbage and a whole cauliflower in the crisper, plus several bags of frozen veggies. Other than bananas for TheHub, I should be ok without buying additional produce this week. But the jury is still out. I have not seen this weeks ads, and the possibility of stock up prices for proteins is still out there.

*The sausage casserole is not a casserole in the traditional sense. It is breakfast sausage, brown rice, herbs, celery, onions, peppers and tomatoes sautéed in butter then mixed together. It has no binders or sauces other than the juice from the vegetables. Still it is pretty dang tasty and is honestly better for breakfast than it was for dinner when we originally had it. I am just glad I opted to freeze those leftovers  in smaller packs (about 3 breakfast servings each).

**I found that we never used an entire bag of mini marshmallows before they became dried out and stale. I started dehydrating them and storing them in a jar with a tight lid. When we have hot chocolate (the only time we ever use them) I put a few on top of the hot drink and stir. In about  minute they have rehydrated and start to melt like fresh marshmallows.