Waste Not, Want Not

I hate throwing out food. On Monday nights, Kevin begins to empty the house trash to take the cans to the street and asks me to go through the refrigerator to throw out any bad food. Before I quit my job I felt like we threw food away all of the time. We ate out more and leftovers would go bad. Or we would forget about the leftovers all together. Cheese would mold. Broccoli would turn yellow. Half gallons of milk would expire. But since being home, I have become much more diligent about buying what we need and using everything we have. (Probably because I am now very aware of every dollar we spend.) Thus, I have become very resourceful and quite creative with our meals (if I do say so myself.) This week was a huge win for me in using leftovers, and I felt the need to share it with the world.

My story actually begins two weeks ago. Whole chickens were on sale for 75 cents a pound and I picked one up to roast on Saturday morning. I had visions of roasted chicken sandwiches for lunch on Sunday. I dressed the chicken with butter and seasoning, and stuffed that sucker full of onion and garlic. The kitchen was just beginning to smell wonderful when the power went out. We had been having some crazy wind and I expected it to come on any minute. After 20 minutes of waiting, I knew I was going to have to cook this guy somehow. Luckily, I have a gas stove. I pulled out my stock pot and somehow got the guy in it. I pulled out our lighter and lit the stove. I added a bunch of veggies, some sea salt, and I simmered the sucker until he was done. The power was off for an hour and a half and I'm glad I didn't lose the chicken completely. I pulled all the meat off and threw the bones and skin back in the pot to simmer and make some chicken broth. Frustrated that I didn't have a juicy roasted chicken, I chopped the meat and stuck it in freezer so I could use it for casseroles and such. Then I froze lots of chicken broth.

My "should-have-been-roasted-had-to-be- boiled" chicken. And yes, I take pictures of my food often sending them to my husband or mother.

On Friday night we had grilled chicken and corn on the cob while we were in Solvang visiting with my family. My parents lovingly sent the leftovers home (two big chicken breasts, and two ears of corn) with their poor, destitute children so they could have food to eat. I took the corn off of the cob, chopped the chicken, added some onion, chilies, tomatoes, black beans that I had soaked the night before, and threw it in my home made chicken broth. I picked up some cilantro and served it with sour cream. It was probably one of the best soups I have ever made. We had it on both Monday and Tuesday.

On Wednesday, I made pulled BBQ chicken to take to a potluck and of course, brought home the leftovers. So tonight, Friday, I made some pizza dough in my handy-dandy bread machine. To the leftover chicken I added some chopped bacon, sauteed onions, more sauce and some of the leftover cilantro from Monday and made mini calzones. Except I didn't have any mozzarella so I don't know if it can be considered a calzone. We didn't miss the cheese and it was just a tiny bit less fattening.

My little calzones, baking away.

But Thursday's meal takes the cake . . . or pie, rather. I made my very first chicken pot pie. I pulled some of that chicken out of the freezer as well as some more chicken broth. I had potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion on hand as well as half a bag of frozen peas. Using my Betty Crocker cookbook from 1952, I made a gravy for the very first time. I also made my very first pie crust. Two recipes, actually, as my mixture ended up being too big for just one pie. It wasn't amazing and there is definitely room to improve the recipe but I loved making dinner from everything I already had on hand. (Except for the flour I had to borrow to make my gravy.) And I have another pie in my freezer!

It's a small thing but I am enjoying cooking more and more. I am using flour and eggs like crazy but it's worth it. Especially if we eat it all and I don't have to throw any of it out!