Working in my kitchen

If your family is anything like mine, you hear "I'm hungry. What's there to eat? I don't see anything." A lot. And not just from the kids.

In this generation of packaged, pre-made items, and quick microwavable food, we've fallen into a trap that if we look in the kitchen and don't see lots of boxes, that means that we are out of food.

My refrigator is almost empty. My freezer is only about half full. My usually bursting pantry has holes in it. My husband and kids want to know when we are going shopping because there's nothing to eat.

Wait a minute!!! Just because you don't see boxes and cartons and containers doesn't mean that there is nothing to eat. Just because you can't grab something and have it ready to eat in 30 seconds or less doesn't mean that we need to go to the grocery store.

What is does mean is that Mom needs to spend some time in the kitchen. We are so conditioned nowadays to just grab something that we have really gotten away from making things from scratch, using what we have and not going to the store whenever the impulse hits.

We really have a ton of food. It just requires some time and effort. Which is what I did today.

Actually, let me back up and share some other foodies things I did this week.

Tuesday we had spaghetti. But I only used half a pound because the sauce that I used wasn't the normal 28oz and I wanted to make sure that it didn't get too dry. I put the other half pound in a bag in the freezer.

Wednesday I pulled out the chicken carcass that has been sitting in my fridge since Friday (oops!) I had roasted a chicken, but it was kind on blah, so we didn't eat more than one meal off of it. Then, with my mom coming in, I didn't deal with it. I was afraid it was already spoiled, but it still smelled good, so I said a prayer over it and tossed the whole thing into a pot of water and set it to boil.

I boiled it good for about two hours. Then, I pulled all of the meat off the bone, which was very easy to do after the good boiling. I took out the leftover spaghetti noodles from Tuesday, used the chicken broth that was produced by the boiling chicken and made chicken tettrazini. It was delicious!

We had enough leftover to have it for dinner again on Thursday.

So, two different dinners made two more dinners. That's almost free food!

Back to today :)

First I made a chocolate cake. One of the first things that make us feel deprieved is not having goodies around. I know that it's more healthy to not eat junk, but honestly, we feel more deprieved when we don't have a treat so this is a good way to feel better. I love Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake recipe. Since I'm dairy-free I experimented by making it with Rice Dreams. No difference-it was yum!!!

Then, I pulled out a package of half breasts that I had thawed (89 cents a pound!). I trimmed the breast from the bones to make my own boneless-skinless breasts. Those went into a dish with the remainder of the Lawry's marinade that I got free last week.

The bones I tossed into a pot and boiled. When those were cooked, I pulled the rest of the meat off of the bone, bagged it and put it in the fridge. I will use that to make chicken enchiladas for dinner tomorrow.

While the bones were cooking I also made a box of Suddenly Salad (Free) and put that in the fridge.

It was lunch time, so I pulled out a package of hot dogs (77 cents at a recent Fry's deal), buns (79 cents off the bakery clearance rack), chips ($1 bag recent sale) and apples (NOT on sale anytime recently, grrr).

Dinner was grilled chicken breasts, Suddenly Salad, and the rest of the frozen corn on the cobs. Chocolate cake for dessert.

I currently have beans soaking overnight. They will be for lunch tomorrow. I will also make a double batch of tortillas tomorrow morning. One will be with the beans. One will be for the chicken enchiladas. I will mix leftover beans with the chicken that I put in the fridge today for the filling, and make my own enchilada sauce.

I have chuck steak defrosting in the fridge which I will put into the crockpot along with potatoes and carrots on Sunday morning so that we will have a nice dinner waiting for us when we come home from church.

So, we are set through Sunday. See how much food we really go have? It just took a little time and effort, and test me, we will get fat, fat, fat. :)