Thinking Frugally, aka Don’t Buy Anything!
Right, this goes for me not you! You should all go to Twelfth Night and buy lots of glass. ;-)
I’m making a huge effort to live more frugally, but also in better style. I’m striving to cook things I’ve been wanting to learn to make and that are healthy and part of well balanced meals. I’m attempting to use up items and food I have on-hand (and preserve them if they are going to go bad soon), and trying to not buy any things, or if I really need to, getting previously owned items when possible.
When I moved out of the house in Newberg I somehow ended up with everything from the freezer, including everything that had belonged to my room mates because they simply didn’t want to deal with it. This is a mixed bag - there is stuff I wouldn’t normally use, and some stuff that is starting to get some serious freezer burn. In an effort to actually use it all I’m trying to defrost things bit by bit and evaluate their edibility, and also do more cooking in the crock pot. I’m also making more soups with leftovers and stuff I have fresh on-hand. Portions of the freezable soups are getting promptly frozen so I’ll always have something handy if I don’t feel up to cooking.
Today’s endeavors included having some leftover african peanut soup for lunch (I made a large batch of it on Sunday). For dinner I made what one friend called the best beer-cheese soup ever. I cooked thick-sliced pepper bacon (from the freezer), then sautéed a bunch of garlic in the grease from the bacon, and added salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, bay leaves, and then flour to the mix. Then I added a bottle of ale and mostly filled the pot with some defrosted duck stock that I made a while ago from the leftover Christmas duck bits. Lastly I whisked in shredded sharp cheddar that had been frozen, and some freshly shredded Tillamook extra sharp cheddar and ramano cheese. It was definitely tasty and I served it with the leftover herb dinner rolls from Sunday, which were getting a bit stale, but perfect for sopping up soup.
Later in the evening I remembered that I needed to use up the half gallon of milk in my fridge before it turned bad, which was probably a day or two a way, so I made paneer with milk, lime juice, cumin, salt, and a little thyme. This is my first recent cheese making experiment, and it turned out quite well. Tomorrow I’ll use the last of my spinach and make a version of palak paneer dependant on what I’ve got in the fridge.
I’m making a huge effort to live more frugally, but also in better style. I’m striving to cook things I’ve been wanting to learn to make and that are healthy and part of well balanced meals. I’m attempting to use up items and food I have on-hand (and preserve them if they are going to go bad soon), and trying to not buy any things, or if I really need to, getting previously owned items when possible.
When I moved out of the house in Newberg I somehow ended up with everything from the freezer, including everything that had belonged to my room mates because they simply didn’t want to deal with it. This is a mixed bag - there is stuff I wouldn’t normally use, and some stuff that is starting to get some serious freezer burn. In an effort to actually use it all I’m trying to defrost things bit by bit and evaluate their edibility, and also do more cooking in the crock pot. I’m also making more soups with leftovers and stuff I have fresh on-hand. Portions of the freezable soups are getting promptly frozen so I’ll always have something handy if I don’t feel up to cooking.
Today’s endeavors included having some leftover african peanut soup for lunch (I made a large batch of it on Sunday). For dinner I made what one friend called the best beer-cheese soup ever. I cooked thick-sliced pepper bacon (from the freezer), then sautéed a bunch of garlic in the grease from the bacon, and added salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, bay leaves, and then flour to the mix. Then I added a bottle of ale and mostly filled the pot with some defrosted duck stock that I made a while ago from the leftover Christmas duck bits. Lastly I whisked in shredded sharp cheddar that had been frozen, and some freshly shredded Tillamook extra sharp cheddar and ramano cheese. It was definitely tasty and I served it with the leftover herb dinner rolls from Sunday, which were getting a bit stale, but perfect for sopping up soup.
Later in the evening I remembered that I needed to use up the half gallon of milk in my fridge before it turned bad, which was probably a day or two a way, so I made paneer with milk, lime juice, cumin, salt, and a little thyme. This is my first recent cheese making experiment, and it turned out quite well. Tomorrow I’ll use the last of my spinach and make a version of palak paneer dependant on what I’ve got in the fridge.