Eat Whats In the House Challenge

I have decided that I waste way too much food.

To give just a small amount of back ground into the thoughts in my head.  I generally cook dinner at least 4 nights a week at my mothers house.  The rest of the time I cook meals at my own house, we eat out or we just don't eat.  So, I end up wasting a great deal of food for which I regret. 
At the moment, I have a kitchen with various amounts of food items in it and not one but two freezers.  My mother has a freezer full of things we need to clean out, eat what we can and get rid of the rest, not to mention the packaged food and staples at her house.  I have no idea yet how I am going to achieve the plan, but my plan is to see just how long I can go with making creative meals for my family with what I have.  I plan to have to purchase milk, maybe bread and some cheeses through out the time, but other than that, I can not think of what I might HAVE to purchase.  Daily, or so updates to follow. 

Any encouraging words and ideas would be very welcome!!  OR if you want to join my challenge, jump in and we can encourage each other.

Banana-Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients

Muffins

2/3

cup sugar

1/2

cup vegetable oil

2

eggs

2/3

cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 small)

1

teaspoon vanilla

1 2/3

cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1

teaspoon baking soda

1/2

teaspoon salt

1/2

teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping

1/4

cup sugar

1/2

teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4

cup butter or margarine, melted 

 

Directions

• 1 Heat oven to 375°F. Grease bottoms only of 12 regular-size muffin cups with shortening or spray, or line with paper baking cups.
• 2 In medium bowl, beat 2/3 cup sugar, the oil and eggs with wire whisk. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Stir in remaining muffin ingredients just until moistened. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
• 3 Bake 17 to 21 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately remove from pan to cooling rack.
• 4 In small bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Dip muffin tops into melted butter, then into cinnamon-sugar. Serve warm.

Going to bake up a bunch from the bananas we have that need to be used and pop them in the freezer so that we will have them for single servings.  

                       

Libbys pumpkin pie with fresh pumpkin

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups of fresh pumpkin or one 15 oz can of pumpkin
  

• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
• 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
• Whipped cream (optional)

Directions

MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.
. 

So far today,

I started out this morning with a container of goat milk yogurt that kind of tasted like a milkshake, a banana, and a pot of coffee.  (yeah I know)

Lunch turned out to be 2 small peppers from the bag of peppers I bought, and a ceasar side salad from Wendy's and a fruit punch (yeah I know) 

Afternoon snack has turned out to be two stalks of celery with peanut butter and a bottle of water and the rest of my fruit punch. 

Dinner will be unknown at this moment.

New way of consuming calories

http://www.livestrong.com/article/240074-what-foods-are-eaten-on-the-negative-calorie-diet/

I need to loose about 30 lbs as I am really tired of certain things I am dealing with inside my skin so, here I go. And since I seem to have changed my ways over the last 5-6 years to go from one who gets sick at the sight of food under times of stress to being a stress eater of anything handy at the time, this seems to be necessary for the first time in my life.   Is this unhealthy?  Not that I can figure.  I am just increasing the amount of certain fruits and vegetables in my diet and decreasing others.  I have been on the scales to see where my starting point is but don't choose to share that at the moment.  The rest of my family can do as they please as they are all pretty much adults and can cook for themselves.  And clean up after it, haha, as the benefit of much of what I am looking at here will be pretty much raw.  At least breakfast and lunch as I figure it.  So, here I go.  This morning is a cup of Greek yogurt, and an apple and some coffee minus sugar.  Don't get upset, this is more than I normally consume to start out my day.  Normally its just the coffee.   Lunch is going to be celery and peanut butter, a peach, some carrots and cucumber.  It may also include a couple of tomatoes off my vine if there are any ripe.  Dinner tonight will be any bodys guess at the moment but I will figure that out later. 

I think, from some of the things I have read lately, its a very good tribute to my mother who taught me to eat food as it comes, so I personally LOVE the taste of most fresh vegetables and fruits just they way they are, right off the plant.  I have let myself get way too much in to preservatives, sauces, and additives.  Lets see what I can do to UNDO that. 

I plan on keeping a log here. Watch if you want, ignore if you want, or join in if you want. 

We are going on an adventure:

A fast and furious trip will begin here in just an hour or so.  I plan to look at a great deal of this adventrue  from a food type angle.  Not saying where I am going until I get back and share my findings.  Keep an eye out in the next few days.

Butterscotch Fudge

This recipe came from my very own brain when the girls were little and couldnt eat chocolate.  I didnt think that was fair because so many holiday candies of all the holidays were based around chocolate so I wanted something that would be special for them.  It took a great deal of trial and error and I honestly am still perfecting it all these years later but this is THIS years recipe.

Ingredients:
1 package of butterscotch chips
1 stick butter
half a can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cups powdered sugar
@ 1 cup of nuts of your choice,  I use slivered almonds or macadamia nuts chopped.. but they are optional

Sometimes I use nuts sometimes I don't


In a double boiler melt the chips, butter and sweetened condensed milk until very smooth.

With a wire whisk mix in the 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar.  Fold in the nuts if desired and pour into a greased pan to cool and set up.  Cut into small squares and store in an air tight container for several weeks if needed.