The calendar says it’s officially spring and I guess I have been subconsciously bit by the spring cleaning bug! Specifically I decided we needed to do a pantry and fridge/freezer clean out. We are very blessed by people who think of us when they find themselves with excess. But because we get so much given to us we sometimes have things that sit around not being used up.
As I went through and took inventory I pulled all the things that were opened and needed used. I also set the things we wouldn’t use at all, or wouldn’t be able to use before they were out of date and prepared to take those to a blessings box.
I haven’t joined the Tik Tok movement, I still take to YouTube for inspiration on everything, and I love a good pantry challenge video. Inspired by that I decided to share my pantry clean out creations!
I ended up with fruit flavored marshmallows, a variety of cereal, plain Greek yogurt, frozen blueberries, dried blueberries, a couple bags of frozen breaded chicken, eggplants, homemade tomato sauce, bread ends (I always stuff my bread in its original bag in the freezer for French toast casserole), almonds, oats, baby potatoes, chicken fried steaks, a bag of stir fry, and vanilla almond milk.
I made a buffet for lunch out of the chicken, potatoes, steaks, and stir fry. The cereal and marshmallows became cereal treats. We had some Lemon Blueberry Muffin mix that I added the dried blueberries and frozen blueberries to, and in place of oil I used some Greek yogurt.
French toast casserole was the answer for my bread ends, and that was the reason they were saved anyway. I didn’t measure anything, but for a rough idea I was able to fill an 8×8 pan and a loaf pan with the bread heels I had saved. I mixed up the approximately 3 cups of vanilla almond milk, 4 eggs, and about 2 tablespoons of sugar. Mixed my ingredients, tore my bread, and poured the mixture over the bread in the pans. I will bake both for breakfast and share the loaf pan with my parents. (Baked at 425* for 25-30 minutes)
The eggplants were purchased for Eggplant Lasagna, and I just about waited too long to make it. I also purchased ricotta cheese to go in it, and learned by googling my plain Greek yogurt can compliment this meal as well! To begin I sliced all my eggplants and removed the pieces that were yucky and set those aside for compost. I added salt on the eggplant and let it set for about 10 minutes. The salt draws out excess moisture. I wiped down the eggplant to remove the salt and moisture. The next step was roasting my eggplants.
If you wondered if I was getting tired of being in my kitchen, the answer is no, but my kids were less than thrilled by my plans. Eggplant cooked at 400* for 20 minutes and I finally ventured out to play with my kiddos before I assembled my lasagna for supper.
Once I was ready to finish up with supper I set the oven to 350*. I browned 1 lb of hamburger, and added in my gallon bag of tomato sauce. I also added half a bag of frozen spinach, about 6 oz. I seasoned with garlic powder, cumin, paprika, onion powder, salt, and pepper. If duplicating this recipe this is where most people would add herbs. However, I didn’t because all I have is basil and an italian seasoning blend that also has basil and a baby screaming for several hours because the basil transferred to her just isn’t worth it. But anyone else could skip the cumin and paprika or add in addition to more traditional additions to lasagna. I digress. I also noticed my tomato sauce was very acidic, so I tossed in a pinch of sugar to help with that. I let it simmer for about 5 minutes, that’s how long it took for my spinach to break up and not appear frozen.
I don’t recall ever making lasagna, and I also don’t like looking at recipes for much other than cook time and temp so I wing a lot. I dumped some meat sauce, plopped some ricotta cheese on it, some shredded cheese, then laid my eggplant slices down, and repeated until I ran out of my eggplant. I topped with a lot of shredded cheese and covered with foil to bake. I cooked at 350* for 20 minutes.
I used the oatmeal and almonds to make chocolate chip oatmeal almond cookie bars. We will be set for a while on snacks, and have some to share with friends! Best of all I know what is still in my fridge, freezer, and pantry; I’m setup with things that should now last a little bit if I don’t get to them right away and I’ve cut down on food waste!
