Week 2 NO Food Shopping Challenge

Day 8
Breakfast: Coffee*, I forgot to have anything else
Lunch:  Leftover Pimento Cheese and Triscuits
Dinner  Stuffing Filled chicken roll ups, Turnip Greens with Garlic, Onions and Peppers, Cooked Carrots

Used: Remaining pimento cheese, 2 packs frozen chicken, leftover chicken broth, remaining stuffing , 1 package frozen turnip greens, 2 cloves garlic, 1 onion, 1 bell pepper

Day 9
Breakfast: Cold Leftover Chicken Roll Up ( I had taken it out of the fridge to take a picture for the recipe posting) Coffee
Lunch: Grapefruit and Crackers
Dinner: Spaghetti, Salad, super quick yeast rolls

Used: 1 grapefruit, 3/4 pack spaghetti, i jar spaghetti sauce, assorted herbs, 3/4 pound of frozen ground something ( unsure if it was ground pork or turkey), 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 head lettuce, 1/2 pack cherry tomatoes ( last of them) 2 scallions.  (Salad fixings are getting scarce) 3 cups flour, 1 egg,  4 1/2 teaspoons yeast (from a big bag of it kept frozen), oil for salad dressing and dinner rolls.

Day 10

Breakfast Leftover Roll:Grapefruit Half
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Crackers
            Son3 Leftover spaghetti noodles mixed with leftover chicken fried rice
Dinner :Pastitsio, tossed salad

Used: 1grapefruit, leftover roll, few crackers and peanut butter, small frozen container chicken fried rice, leftover spaghetti noodles, 1 pan frozen pastitsio, 1/4 head lettuce, 1 small bell pepper, oil and vinegar dressing


Day 11

Breakfast: Coffee, Grapefruit half
Lunch Son3 and me  Leftover Chicken Roll Up
Dinner:  Tossed Salad with Cheese and Crackers

Used: 1/2 Grapefruit ( down to 1 1/2 grapefruits) 1/2 head lettuce ( down to 1/4 head remaining) 1/2 small pepper. last scallion, 1 tomato, 2 inch cube leftover jarlsburg cheese, remaining chicken roll ups, remaining almond crackers.

Day 12
Breakfast: Blueberry Pancakes, Clementine**, Coffee
Lunch: Dandelion Salad, Tea, Triscuit
Dinner:  Hamburger with Lettuce, Tomato, Onion and Cheese on Home Baked Hamburger Buns, Peach Cobbler

Used: Remaining pancake mix, 1 clementine,  1 tomato, 1/2 onion, 2 slices cheddar cheese, 2 lettuce leaves. 1 pack frozen peaches, 2 tablespoons butter

Day 13

Breakfast coffee
Lunch: B-B-Q Turkey Sandwiches on Home Made Buns
Dinner: Chinese takeout

Used: 2 frozen smoked turkey legs. 2 homemade buns

Day 14

Breakfast: Toast, Clementine
Lunch: Leftover Chinese Food/ Leftover Pastitsio
Dinner: Sunday School Class Dinner

Used: 1 clementine, 1 slice bread, leftovers in fridge




* For Christmas 2012 TheHub gave me a Keurig as a present.  I had griped about not wanting one since I have a perfect brewing system.  What a nut I was for complaining .  It is one of the 10 greatest wonders of this world. I am now a K-cup addict, so you might wonder how I am managing my 4-6 K-cup daily habit and not going to the store.  Several months ago I got tired of the waste from the plastic cups.  If I was using 4 cups a day that was 28 K-cups I was contributing to a landfill weekly.  Doing the math for the yearly total is astounding, so I brought some of the copper mesh refillable K-cups.  Several months ago The Pig was selling coffee that had reached it's "sell by " date for 99 cents a pound.  I bought 10 packages and sealed them with the Seal-A-Meal and stuck them in the freezer.  I still have 3 pounds, so my coffee habit can stay intact and my Keurig addiction has not suffered at all.

** I was out of all fresh fruit with the exception of 1 apple and 1 1/2 grapefruits (plus a couple of lemons I use mainly for cooking) .  We are having issues with our water right now.  I refuse to drink yellow water.  TheHub stopped by Publix on his way home yesterday to pick up a few gallons of drinking water.  He saw the clementines and knows how much I love them.  They came home with the water.  I did allow for buying some fresh fruit so technically I am still maintaining the no grocery statute, but I personally would have waited until the remaining fruit was gone and I had used the 2 cans of pineapple in the pantry.  Oh well!

Added Bonus!  Son2 has been at the beach for a few days.  When he came home he brought back 2 tomatoes and an additional bag of clementines. Score!

Weed or Feed? Dandelion Salad

I am going to ask a question of any of you "Stay At Home Moms" who might be reading this.  Exactly how many of you plan and eat whatever sounds delicious for lunch?  How many just look in the fridge, see whatever is left over and eat that?  I fall in the latter camp and I have had many leftovers lately with the exception of salad, and I miss it. Since starting this no food shopping for a month I have been very conscious making just enough salad for our meal with none remaining.  Smart planning? Yes, and it does stretch lettuce and salad fixings but it is also cutting into my lunch options.

Today was a glorious day, so I spent part of it outside puttering in yard.  I noticed my parsley bed was huge and needed to be cut immediately.  While I was harvesting it I spied a gigantic young dandelion plant* in the center of the bed.  Being the hipster that I am (not) I thought a big dandelion might equal lunch, so I brought it in the house to prepare to eat.

I washed it well, then tore it into bite size pieces and plated it. A half of a tomato and about a quarter of a Texas sweet onion in cut large julienne strips went on top of it.  I tried topping it with a drizzle of oil and vinegar with ground pepper and a dash of salt.  After tasting it, I found it too bitter for my liking so I topped it with a little Ken's raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing.  The sweetness in the dressing offset the bitterness of the greens and created a really nice lunch salad.  After reading about them I understand the closer they are to blooming the more bitter they will become.  This one had not yet bloomed and it was still fairly bitter so I think the blooming ones might be almost inedible.

If you have any dandelions growing in a place untouched by pets or pesticides you might want to try this.  * These were in a raised bed the dog doesn't bother and is not sprayed with chemicals, so I felt safe eating it.

Super Quick Yeast Rolls

Last week I tried making French bread.  We all thought it was delicious and thought I would be baking it weekly, but a funny thing called life happened and I have not always been hanging right around the kitchen to punch down rising dough or start early enough in the day to have it ready for dinner. Yesterday was one of those days.  We were going to have spaghetti and what would have been better than French bread with garlic butter?  The only problem was, I didn't think of making it until noon and just did not have time for 3 bread risings. Punt!

 I found this recipe for quick yeast rolls I had cut from a magazine many years ago.  I have no idea what magazine and am very sorry I can't give them credit for it. They actually called them Quick Yeast Rolls, but I thought they were quicker than just quick, hence...

Super Quick Yeast Rolls

1 1/8 cup lukewarm water
4 1/2 teaspoons yeast ( that is equal to 2 individual packages)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter*
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg

The recipe had basic bread making directions for mixing by hand  ( mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl and let rest for 15 minutes.  Add the flour, salt and egg and mix well, turn on a floured board and knead) but I am going to write how I actually made it, because I don't think I should do anything by hand if my Kitchen Aid will do it for me.

Using the paddle, mix at a low speed the water, yeast, melted butter and sugar.  When thoroughly combined turn the mixer off and let the yeast start to grow for about 15 minutes.  Add the flour salt and egg and mix to just combine with the paddle.  When it begins to hold together change to the dough hook and let it knead the dough at a low speed for about 3 minutes.  Let the dough rest for about 5 minutes then form it into 12 balls.  Put them in a greased 9x13 pan. ( My advice is to use a metal pan.  I used a clear pyrex dish and the bottoms were too brown).  Cover with a towel and place in a  warm place for 30 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Bake the rolls for 10 minutes and enjoy.

This is not as light as a traditional dinner roll, but it is much lighter than a biscuit. The rolls were slightly sweet and very yeasty tasting.  I had one for breakfast and they were just as good a day later. Easy Peasy and delicious.  I am going to experiment using various herbs and spices and cheeses to see what other flavors will work with this dough.

* I used sunflower oil in mine.  Since I am not going to the grocery store until May, I wanted to use something other than butter for baking.  It worked perfectly fine.

Cornbread Stuffing Chicken Roll Ups

Tonight I decided at the last minute to use some of the chicken I had thawed.  When I cleaned the pantry yesterday I found a ziploc bag of Pepperidge Farms cornbread Stuffing.  So chicken and stuffing was kind of a natural conclusion except ___I had under a cup of stuffing, about 1/2 cup of chicken broth in the fridge and 2 small packs of chicken breasts.  Hmmmm.  I also knew I had a bag of frozen turnip greens in the freezer and about 5 carrots I had cooked over the weekend.  That would have to be the bones for dinner.

Cornbread Stuffing Chicken Roll Ups

1 cup ( more or less) Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Stuffing
3/4 cup chicken broth (or less plus water to equal about 3/4 cups liquid)
1/2 small onion chopped in small cubes
1 rib celery minced
4 boneless skinned chicken breasts
adobo seasoning

Chicken gravy ( Homemade or from a jar) optional

Put the dry stuffing in a bowl and pour the liquid over it.  Stir lightly and let it sit until the liquid is absorbed.  You should be left with a soft paste like consistency.  Stir in the onion and celery and blend together well.  Take each chicken breast and put it flat on a plate.  With the back of a spoon spread 1/4 of the cornbread mixture over the chicken breast.  Starting at the small end of the breast roll it like a jelly roll.  If you would like stick a plain wooden toothpick in it to hold it together.  I simply put it seam side down in an 8x8 oiled baking pan. Repeat with the other breasts.  Sprinkle with adobo seasoning. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Check for doneness and bake a bit more if needed.  Serve seam side down on a plate.  Top with warm chicken gravy if desired.

Super  Freezer Turnip Greens

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion julienned
1 seeded small bell pepper sliced thinly. ( a red or orange looks best)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 thawed bag of frozen turnip greens
2 tablespoons bacon bit (real bacon not that fake stuff) optional

In a saute pan, heat the oil to hot.  Put the onions in the hot oil and wilt.  After wilted the onions add the pepper strips and continue cooking for about a minute to wilt them also.  Turn the heat to medium and add the garlic, stirring constantly for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add the frozen spinach and stir well to mix all ingredients.  Put the lid on the pan and let the greens steam for about 4 minutes.  When nice, hot and well wilted remove from heat and serve immediately.  If you have them and would like, top with a smattering of bacon bits.

This was a pretty big hit with everyone here.  I had no gravy and no pan drippings to make any with.  I think it would have sent this over the top but it was dang good without it.  The next time I roast a chicken I am going to deglaze the pan and stick the liquid and chicken bits in a small container in the freezer so I will be able to whip up a small amount of gravy whenever I want to.

I was skeptical of how the turnip greens would be.  I really do hate frozen greens.  I had bought these for New Year's Day but then found gorgeous fresh collards to cook instead.  I cooked these just like I do fresh greens and they were surprisingly delicious.  I am honestly not sure I could tell the difference.  Next fall, when they are in their peak season, I am going to do some serious greens freezing.

Another day of not shopping and eating decent food accomplished!

Week 1 No Food Shopping Challenge

Day 1

Breakfast Grapefruit half        

 Lunch crackers and peanut butter
Dinner Turkish  baked chicken breast, squash casserole,cole slaw

Used: 1 grapefruit, crackers ,1 tablespoon peanut butter,1 pack frozen squash, 1 egg, 2 frozen chicken breasts

Day 2 

Breakfast Blueberry pancakes ( not because I wanted them but because I had a box of blueberry complete mix and it took only water to create breakfast.  Glad I had some sugar free syrup in the fridge. grapefruit half

Lunch Son3  2 grilled chicken breasts,  chocolate milk shake. 

Me, leftover broccoli salad

Dinner Cottage pie, steamed asparagus salad, french bread

Used: 1 serving pancake mix grapefruit, 2 frozen chicken breasts, last serving vanilla ice cream, 3/4 lb ground beef, 4 potatoes 1/2 bag frozen mixed vegetables 1 bunch asparagus.

Day 3

Grapefruit

Brunch son3  leftover cottage pie

Lunch p band crackers 

Dinner  (Drats)  Purchased olive oil. (We were at the lake. Thought I had a bottle of olive oil there but didn't.  Would have taken on from home had I realized it was not there)

White BBQ sauced grilled chicken breasts, pasta salad, carrot raisin apple salad  French bread

Used: grapefruit,crackers, 2pks frozen chicken breasts, 2 carrots, 2 apples 1 tablespoon raisins

Day 4

Breakfast Leftover apple carrot raisin salad

Lunch Son2 Son3 leftover grilled chicken, couscous

Lunch me crackers and 1 slice cheese

Dinner pork tenderloin, succotash , leftover couscous, cucumber onion and tomato salad, French bread

Used: 1 box couscous, frozen pork tenderloin, 1 slice cheese, 1 sm pack frozen Lima beans, 1 pint h.c tomatoes, 2 frozen corn on the cob ears, 1 cucumber, 1 tomato, 1/2 onion

Day 5
Breakfast Sausage and Cheese Biscuits, Clementine
Lunch  Chicken Salad and Pimento Cheese Sandwiches on homemade French bread
Dinner Grilled steak, Asparagus, Baked Potato, Tossed Salad Homemade Greek Dressing

Used: 1/4 pound frozen sausage, 1/3 lb cheddar cheese, 1/4 lb Monterey jack cheese, 1 cup Bisquick, 1 clementine, 1 pack frozen cooked shredded chicken, 1 small jar pimento, 2 small packs frozen steaks, 1 bunch asparagus, 1/2 head lettuce, 3 green onions, 1/2 pack cherry tomatoes, 1 small bell pepper, 4 potatoes

Day 6

Breakfast Bacon and eggs
Lunch leftover chicken salad on crackers Son2 and Son3 frozen pizza
Dinner hamburger (purchased at Jack's)

Used: 5 slices bacon, 3 eggs, 4 slices toast, remnants of chicken salad, 1 frozen Pizza

Day 7

Breakfast Blueberry Pancakes, Grapefruit half, Son2 2 slices turkey bacon
Lunch  me Leftover Cottage Pie, Son3 Hamburger on sliced bread ( no buns in the house)
Dinner Sliced potatoes, onions and peppers  with smoked sausage

Used: 1serving pancake mix, 1 grapefruit, 2 rogue slices of turkey bacon (freezer find) 1 frozen hamburger patty ( I buy pounds of ground chuck on sale make individual patties and freeze them on a cookie sheet, then pack into ziplock freezer bags) 2 potatoes, 1 bell pepper, 1 onion 1 pound frozen smoked sausage.

It has been pretty easy to plan meals using what I have here, but a little more difficult to implement them.  It requires planning what I am going to cook in the morning, so whatever we are eating has time to defrost.  I decided I would like a little more flexibility cooking so today I took 4 items out of the big freezer to thaw in the meat section of the refrigerator.  I think by doing it that way I will be able to be a bit more spontaneous with dinner prep.  I never know in the morning what I want to eat at night anyway.

The one thing I will do on a somewhat regular basis is to continue making French bread.  Since it was so easy, all I really need is a day when I will be available to punch the risen dough down a couple of times and a couple of hours for shaping and the final rising.  It really takes only about 15 minutes of hands on work, the rest is simply rising times.
  I cleaned the pantry and the kitchen fridge so I know how much of each thing I have for the rest of the month.  The freezer does not look like even a tiny dent has been made in the food stored there.  I had forgotten how much produce I froze during the summer so I need to be using it a bit more.  Hopefully this week I will use more!

Julia Child's French Bread, Almost

When I started this No Food Shopping challenge, I mentioned having many pounds of butter in the freezer but no bread to use with said butter.  Well, that all changed this afternoon.  I found an old Youtube video of Julia making a very simple recipe she referred to as a French type bread.  I have never lived in France but all the long thin loaves of bread in the bread aisle here are called French bread.  If it is good enough for Publix and The Pig it is good enough for me.

Easy French Bread

Notice this photo is less than half a loaf.  I had to have everyone stop eating it so I could get a quick picture.  Even the dog loved it.


3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4  teaspoons salt
1 package instant yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons if using loose yeast.  Sorry Julia but I only had instant yeast)
1 1/2 cups warm water (between 120-130 degrees F.)

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer* because it makes everything so much easier.  Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly with the paddle. ( use a very slow speed)  Slowly add the warm water and mix until the flour is mostly incorporated.  Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for a couple of minutes.  Swap the paddle for the dough hook and knead for about 3-3 1/2 minutes.  The dough will feel rather elastic, but is not a dry dough at all. Move the dough to a slightly floured board and let it rest another couple of minutes.  Put it into a clean large glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise to about 3 1/2 x's its original size.  ( About 3 hours) On a lightly floured wooden board punch the dough down, put it in a clean bowl, cover and let it rise again.(This time is will rise about 3 times it's original size.  About 1-1 1/2 hours) Remove  to a floured board and divide it into 3 parts.  Fold each part into thirds, let rest a couple of minutes and then pat it down and  shape into desired size.  ( I chose shorter fatter loaves.  See here for explicit directions for making baguettes.)  Put a piece of parchment on a large baking pan.  Sprinkle lightly with corn meal and set the shaped loaves on the pan.  Cover and let rise until the dough is 3 x's its original size.  Make slash marks in each loaf right before putting in the oven.   This is where Julia and I parted ways.  Instead of spritzing the tops of my loaves with water, I brushed them with a tad of oil ( I wanted it a bit softer).  Bake in a 425 degree oven until golden brown.  I think it cooked for about 25 minutes. You are supposed to wait until it is perfectly cool to cut it. (Right!!  We ate it hot with butter.  Yum!

This was incredibly easy to do, but I would recommend starting this very early in the morning.  Since the dough requires 3 risings it takes a bit of time in between steps.  It was so easy that I am starting another recipe of this tomorrow morning.  We are going to the lake for the weekend and I am going to pack the rising dough to take there.  I will bake it tomorrow night .  So worth the little effort it too to make this.

*Very doable without a mixer.  Stir to mix all the ingredients together.  Turn out to a floured board and knead for about 5-7 minutes until the dough is elastic.  Then just follow the remaining steps

No Food Shopping Challenge Day 1 Pitfalls

I was sitting here today wondering exactly why I thought it might be a good idea to even think about not going to the grocery store for a month!  First things first!  I decided ( perhaps a day late) to inventory the pantry and freezer just to see what foods are available.  I realized I had NOT thought this through completely from the beginning.  It is very typical of me to launch into something without truly seeing what my options are before beginning.  This morning it hit me, I needed to assess the food here so I could make plans for use.  I don't usually have to think about rationing items.  After all I have 3 large grocery stores within a mile and a half of my home.  Additionally I have a husband who calls me every afternoon on his way home from work to see if he needs to pick anything up. (TheHub has a love affair with Publix)

( Truth here:  I did notice I had only 1 onion before starting this journey so I bought a 3 pound bag yesterday. We were out of eggs and I purchased 2 dozen.  Son3 has been cooking a lot of omelets, so buying them was  an act of sheer kindness on my part. Luckily I also remembered that Easter was upon us so I bought a small ham in advance.  I understand that is kind of cheating, but our extended family usually comes here for Easter lunch.  I will still be at the mercy of whatever is in storage for the remainder of the Easter meal, and thought it would not be fair of me to invite them to a possible Easter Tamale Pie lunch.)

For storage I have a closet pantry, refrigerator/freezer combo in the kitchen, small fridge in the laundry room and an upright freezer.  That is a lot of space where food can hide.  To say I was surprised at what I found and also surprised at what I don't have is an understatement.

I thought I had many packs of broccoli in the freezer. Wrong! There is only one.  Vegetables are going to be challenging this month.  Hopefully some of the lettuce seed I planted will start producing soon.  If not we may have to call rosemary leaves and mint vegetables, cause that is the only thing currently growing.  On the other hand the 9 cans of green beans in the pantry will come in handy.

 I have steaks, roasts, chicken, ground beef and pork tenderloin out the wazoo plus I found a surprise package of bacon. There are a few frozen fish filets also.  Proteins should not be a huge problem but TheHub is already talking about cold cuts for lunch Saturday afternoon and there are none. (Who, besides him, has to worry on Tuesday what they will eat for lunch on Saturday?)

Because of a recent sale at Aldi there are about 7 packages of butter in the freezer, but zero bread products to butter.  Ditto for jelly and jam, as a result of home canning last summer.  I also have an extensive pickle and hot sauce collection.  Nine 8 ounce packages of cheddar, monterey jack and swiss cheese live in the freezer.  Aldi had a $1.49 sale a while back and I stocked up.  No milk! But there were a couple of pouches of instant milk in hiding to reconstitute as needed for cooking.

It turned out to be lucky I inventoried everything.  I was getting hungry this morning and found 6 grapefruit  in the very back of the small refrigerator.  They were completely forgotten and looked a little wonky but were perfectly delicious to eat.  Guess what breakfast will be everyday this week?

This next month is going to take a lot more planning and structure that I thought it was, and this is just day 1!  I may be in over my head plus this is going to be a lot of work.  I guess time will tell if this is a really good or really bad idea. Who knows?