Kelly, I couldn't think of anything to go with your kitchen question last week, but it has made me more mindful of using what we have on hand. Last night for our pizza, I finished up a jar of pizza sauce, leftover pineapples, and several random bags of grated cheese (saved when I grated too much at some point). Made for a yummy pizza!

I bought a bag of potatoes last weekend at the store. Now my friend calls and says she is bringing me a bunch of potatoes (her dad is a potato farmer). Time to use up the potatoes. I know they keep awhile, but don't want them to go bad. So I am rearranging my menu to have baked potatoes tonight for dinner.

kevin's parents left some odds and ends here from closing up their cabin. A 5 lb bag of carrots that was getting very dry. Guess what veggie we have had every night at dinner? Hamburger buns? We had hamburgers. It feels so good to make the most of what we have and not let food go to waste. Y'all give me your examples of how you have used up random foods items before they went bad.

Well we picked a bajillion apples a few weeks ago, and I don't have your energy to can Jennifer! I have been making a big pot of applesauce ever few days and it gets gobbled up. I also am going to try and make apple pies and freeze them before cooking. Anyone do this? I want to put the pie all together, wrap them and freeze them so that I can take them out and bake them at a later date.

I know I have some olives and feta cheese in the fridge that are about a half hour away from being funky. Maybe I'll do a greek pizza this weekend.

I know I really need to dig through my freezer for all the itty bitty bags that I throw in there. Random bananas... maybe I have enough for banana bread. Bagels... we never seem to eat a whole bag and I end up freezing one or two before they get moldy, then we forget about them!

A few weeks ago I got 3 loaves of white sandwich bread for $.30 each. My kids almost refused to eat it, but grumbled every time. I need to have french toast for dinner or something else that will wipe out the last loaf. So much for a deal on bread when the kids won't eat it!

Laura please post and let us know how the apple pies come out. This is a good idea.

Phyllis

Ive been doing this too.  I made a chicken pot pie with a leftover chicken breast and some carrots that were getting dry.  I made a banana bread.  we had 2 peppers leftover from when I made stuffed pepper soup, so I added some zuchini and stir fried them up, threw in a can of diced tomatos and cooked some linguini, that was dinner one night also, Ive got a block of cheddar so tonight is gonna be homemade mac and cheese. 

We are bringing things home from the freezer at camp this weekend so I will come up with dinner for sunday night from that somehow. 

Glad I could be an inspiration, Jennifer, lol!

I've used up a couple of other things recently. I had a bag of corn tortillas from Angel Food that has been in the freezer for quite awhile. I don't really care for them but hate to waste them. I also had a can of Mexicorn that has been in the pantry for awhile and a ton of shredded cheese bought on sale this summer. Take all the above plus some leftover chicken----and you have Cheesy-Corny Chicken Quesadillas. The corn tortillas were actually pretty good as quesadillas.

I had to come up with something different to do with fresh green beans. The past 3 coop deliveries have had big bags of them. I'm tired of cooking them in the crockpot and freezing them. This time I roasted them. OMG--SOOOOOOO DELICIOUS!!! I could have made a meal out of just them and almost did!!!

I've also been more mindful about using what is around. Especially with our produce coop stuff. We got TON of small Yukon Gold potatoes last time so I'm trying to incorporate more mashed potatoes, seasoned potato wedges, etc. into our meals. You get the picture, lol!