Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Pantry Buster

One item on the menu last night was green beans. When canned vegetables are on sale at a good price I tend to stock up on green beans, whole kernel corn, creamed corn, garden peas and mixed vegetables. The only problem is that we don't eat the green beans all that well and I seemed to have accumulated quite a few cans of them. I put together this side dish last night using two of them.

I also had some small potatoes and some ham bits for seasoning vegetables. So I made a pot of green beans, potatoes and ham bits. It was pretty good, nutritious, fairly low calorie and went well with the bbq chicken.



I carefully checked for the oldest cans of green beans by checking the expiration dates. That's an important thing I am trying to be consistent about. Over the weekend I found a can of cranberry sauce and a box of brownie mix that had recently reached their expiration dates, so I made sure to use those immediately. I was so glad to save them from being wasted.

Once I opened the package of ham bits/seasoning meat, I divided the remainder into 4 or 5 small individually wrapped packages and placed them in a labeled ziplock bag in the freezer. That way they won't spoil before I can use them. Since each package contains just enough to be used in one side dish, this will be very convenient.

Most of our main dishes come from the freezer and the side dishes come from the pantry. I hope to put together winning side dishes that we will come back to over and over.

Tonight its fried bologna sandwiches!!!

4 comments:

Little Penpen said...

First, I like your new blog look. My dtr. is going to help me spruce mine up today. :o) I try to use up what I have too, but sometimes I do end up tossing stuff that has been in the freezer for too long... esp. leftovers. Sometimes I will freeze a little of this and that, as a leftover, and rarely go back to use it. However, I did take some frozen spaghetti sauce out yesterday, to use today. Go me!

Alexandra said...

We had this the other night! Yummy. I ended up with a lot of green beans(and peas) as well.

Anonymous said...

Hi Debbie,
You are doing the same thing I am. using what I have. I really hate to waste food.
Hugs,
Mrs. E

Auntie M said...

Debbie,

A can or so of the green beans would be a great addition to the pot of vegetable soup when you do that again!! In fact, when you open that gallon bag of soup, you can simply add a can of the beans.

Keep cooking frugally!!!!

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