Happening in the kitchen

[Lady Maverick]

Food spreadsheet updated.

I just realized that I can't remember the last time we threw away food. By putting an expiration date on each food and tracking in a spreadsheet, it makes it easy to monitor. I can keep up with what food is closest to expiring and find a way to use before it goes bad.

Food Ingredients added to our ready-to-eat selection today -
** 8 cheeseburger patties (1/4 lb each)
** Baked potatoes in the instant pot. Technically they aren't baked but they perfect in consistent and SO EASY.
** Green breans
** Zatarins rice & beans
** Chicken weiners
** Hot dog buns
** Chocolate milk

[Nancy]

LM I have some half & half or cream I use for cooking that I need to use or drink.
Cooked an egg for my breakfast.

Made myself a yummy tky sandwich on home made break for lunch had to remember
to thaw out the sliced meat this morning was glad I did.
Pork wrap I had frozen was my dinner.

Dinner Options
Fish portions [Gorton's]
HB patty to cook
Mini Pizza I made a froze up before the stove was out.

[Lauralind]

Well I just dig through the fridge. I have so many leftovers in there I hope I can use it all up. Between the potluck east meal and the kids here first the weekend...

Tonight I should figure out what to use up my chicken and shrimp fettuccine. Over estimated the amount of spaghetti and there are 2 big containers of it. Made it for dd and dsil Sunday night. Make a bit more sauce and put some cheese in top and bake it?

[CathyS]

I have decided that today would be a good day to wipe out the fridge. I think I might do the fridge in the garage as well. That particular freezer is almost empty other than a package of hot dog buns and a package of hamburger buns and a couple of bottles of maple syrup. I need to put all the maple syrup in the same freezer to see how much we have.

[Lady Maverick]

This morning, I spent 40 minutes in the kitchen prepping, cooking, and updating the food spreadsheet. The result is an abundance of ready-to-eat food to feed everyone without needing to cook the rest of the day.

Food Ingredients added today -
** 14 hard boiled eggs. Will turn part of them into deviled eggs, use part of them in tuna salad, and enjoy the rest whole.
** Tuna Fish Salad
** Green salad
** Weiners - the teens are in a hot dog eating phase. I have bought hot dog buns 3 times this past week.

[Twins' Mom]

You sure do stay on top of your refrigerator/pantry situation, LadyM! Instead of going out to eat tonight dh took brats out of the freezer for us. Not my favorite, but he's trying...

[Lady Maverick]

I do find joy in preparing our food. I try for the best quality I can find.
The spreadsheet is bringing an organization to our food that I haven't experienced before. I have tried dozens of times to use other people's methods for menu planning and tracking, but each time I quickly became overwhelmed. I am intentionally trying to go slow on developing this spreadsheet with the hope that I can do it without overwhelming myself.

Happening in the kitchen today -
** Hard boiled eggs cooked yesterday are turned into deviled eggs. The family doesn't like the dryness of hard-boiled eggs, but they will devour deviled eggs with praise for how good they are.
** Ham taken out of the freezer. We prefer ham with minimum sodium. Purchasing a ham butt and slicing it ourselves has been the best solution we have found to get less salty ham. After slicing up the big ham, I package the slices into bags containing a few servings. It is easy to pull out a bag from the freezer as needed.

I had planned to cook parmesan chicken and spaghetti today but have decided to postpone that until tomorrow. Instead, we are going to eat and visit with a VDFriend that cooks unique BBQ dishes on Friday's.

[Lauralind]

I see you use a spreadsheet? I think overwhelm is a problem for me too. As well as I struggle so much to make a habit. Somehow I have to break the cycle of habit resistance. Is there a way of explaining how you keep track and what you do,?

[Lady Maverick]

I started the spreadsheet because I didn't know when food was bad until after it was in total YUCK state.
I am passionate about not having YUCK food so that is my why. I created the spreadsheet by writing what date the food was put into the refrigerator and how many days it would be good. I am okay keeping most food for 3-5 days. The spreadsheet uses the incoming date and the # of days that it will be good to automatically calculate the expiration date. Knowing the expiration date is my primary reason for doing the spreadsheet.
Everything that has been captured in the spreadsheet after that is a bonus.
Each day I sort the food items by the expiration and make menu plans according to the information that provides. Then I sort the food in other categories (see below). I have teens that eat from this ready-to-eat food, so it disappears at a fairly rapid pace.

Happening in the kitchen today -
** Updating spreadsheet with food items that were delivered to our door yesterday. 2 kinds of Sardines, beef steak strips, and protein drinks.
** Updating spreadsheet with food purchased at BBQ restaurant yesterday. Brisket, beans, cornbread
** Reviewed protein ready-to-eat foods in the refrigerator, (12 selections) pantry, and freezer
** Reviewed Dairy ready-to-eat foos in the refrigerator, (14 selections) pantry, and freezer
** Reviewed Carb ready-to-eat foods in the refrigerator (3 selections), counter (5 selections), pantry, and freezer
** Reviewed fruits in refrig (1 selection), freezer (5 selections), and pantry (3 selections)
** Reviewed Vegetables in refrigerator (3 selections), pantry, and freezer

We have an abundance of food ready to eat. I might hold off on cooking parm chicken today. The raw chicken was frozen when i moved it to the refrigerator so it will keep an extra day.

[Lauralind]

Oh that's such a good idea. I bet it would help reduce waste. I am so bad at using stuff on time.