A Weekend Filled with Use-it-Up Success!

Good morning world, it's Monday!

In this household that means a very tired mommy and daddy, because little dude did not sleep well.  On the bright side, it's a new week, the house is fairly clean, our fridge is stocked with great food for the week, and there is caffeine brewing in the Keurig. 

On Saturday I went a little crazy with the Use-it-Up theme.  To start off, I absolutely had to use-up six bananas that had gone black.  My kiddo likes his bananas (and hence the name of the blog) so each week I always buy a few.  On one particular trip, the grocery store got smart and placed a banana stand in the middle of the aisle where he could reach them at his height. He proceeded to grab a big bunch and accidentally dropped them on the floor.  I didn't think it would be right to put them back, so into the cart and that's where we got our extra bunch of bananas. 

One of the classic things to do with aging bananas is to make banana bread.  Of all the recipes I have made, this is an area where I feel the most fearless.  I love to try a new recipe, and if it doesn't quite turn out, I don't feel bad because it was practically free.  On Saturday I set Jett to the banana mashing, which was a whole lot of fun! 

He did a great job, and I picked out two new "low-fat" banana bread recipes.  Low-fat because I was out of butter but did have oil and applesauce.  One did not turn out great, and had a strange consistency, even after I tried to save it with Nutella.  The other was great and will be one I go to again and again.  I really enjoyed Joy the Baker's Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread.  I did not have old fashioned rolled oats, but the quick oats I had seemed to work just fine.  The bread had a great nearly oatmeal cookie consistency, but with a light delicious fruity flavor.

After the bread was out of the oven, I took a tip from the Queen of Quick Cooking - Rachael Ray, and made a five-minute soup.  I had all that great leftover chicken from the first day of Use-it-Up, which made for great fajitas one night, but I still had some left. 

The steps to five-minute soup are simple.
Chop some carrots and celery, or whatever vegetables you need to eat up. Next, heat 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil over medium heat in your soup pot.  Throw in garlic, chopped onion, thyme, rosemary or whatever flavorings you like and stir. (I didn't measure, but just put in a modest amount that looked good.) Toss in your veggies, turn down heat slightly and allow to cook until softened.  (At this point I also went to my freezer and grabbed a bag of half-eaten asparagus stir fry mix and threw that in too.)  Pour in a can or about 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, and simmer.  While the veggies are cooking, do a quick rough chop on your chicken leftovers, and into the pot they go.  At this point you can allow to simmer until the chicken is warmed up, or for a bit longer to allow the flavors to develop.  Jett and I had a beautiful, veggie packed soup for our lunch that was prepped in 5 minutes and ready in 30 minutes.

For dinner I went one more step toward Use-it-Up obsessed and mixed up some bread dough in my bread machine, and used up leftover spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, and cheese to make a quick homemade pizza.  Jett yelled "Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!" when I took it out of the oven, so I think that was a hit too!

I hope this post gave you some ideas for how to Use-it-Up this week.  On the next post I will share how my first Costco shopping trip went.

The BIG Overstuffed Kitchen Reveal

"The most expensive food in your kitchen is the food you are throwing away." - Melissa D'Arabian

That is exactly what Use-it-Up is really all about.  We are so fortunate to live in a country of abundance, of overabundance at times, and as such it becomes too easy to throw food out without really thinking about its value.  Not just its cost (which is important) but also on a slightly deeper level its value, what did it take to get those eggs from the chicken to your refrigerator.  How about that avocado that's traveled pretty far to get to the Midwest in the middle of winter.  Not to get too heavy here, but that kind of thinking starts to reshape how we think about the food we buy and the opportunity to use it, not loose it. 

I stole an idea straight from the binding of Kathleen Flinn's "Kitchen Counter Cooking School" (which I'll tell you more about another day...I know, the suspense!)  Kathleen did a personal exercise where she went through the contents of her refrigerator and stuck a post-it note on every perishable item with an estimated price.  If she threw the item out without using it, she stuck the note to the inside of her cabinet as a physical reminder of the cost.  I did this last night and have already racked up $2.25 that in hind site, I really wish would be going to a Starbucks latte and not into the trash.  In just about 10 minutes, this little exercise totally helped me rethink what I was going to serve last night and for the rest of the week. 

You might have noticed that in the last post, the "What I Used-Up" listing included a bag of pre-packaged Caesar salad.  I rarely buy this, but it was on sale 2/$4 and I thought it was a good deal, which it is unless you toss it without eating it.  Truthfully I had no plans to eat it until I had to put that $2 sticky note on it. 

Now, off my soap box (or more appropriately - cereal box) and on to the BIG REVEAL.  I think it might be worse than last year.

Cupboard

Round-a-bout

Refrigerator

Ugly Unorganized Freezer

And last but not least, the Spill-Over

What To Do With a Trunk Full of Chickens

How many chickens fit in the trunk of a Ford Pinto?

As my witty sister would ask; what is the volume of a chicken?  For this I do not have the answer, but I don't suggest Googling it either.  This is not a question I would typically ask myself on a Saturday morning, but a couple of months ago I pondered it as I met the "Chicken Man."

My Grandma and Grandpa have a neighbor who raises chickens on his farm, and for the past few years Grandma has negotiated a great price for farm fresh chickens.  One morning she called to ask if I would be home on Saturday morning at 10:30am because the Chicken Man would be stopping by with a dozen for me and my mom. 

I waited and waited, and around 11:05am a beat up Ford Pinto parked across the street from our house, and out slowly climbed a rugged countryman and his trusty hound dog.  Now you need to understand that this rugged countryman was not like the Pioneer Woman's husband Marlboro Man, no definitely not. He was like one of the characters on Duck Dynasty.  As he looked around wondering if this was the place, I immediately recognized him, this was Chicken Man.

Chicken Man greeted me with a kind smile and walked to the back of his car and popped open a truck full of chilly, very freshly processed chickens.  I wish I could have taken a picture, as the sight of several dozen individually bagged bright pink, headless, featherless, farm fresh chickens in the back of a broken down sedan is something that really should be seen.  The good thing is that I'm fairly certain all of our nosey neighbors did.  He proceeded to tell me to go ahead and pick out the ones I wanted.  A chef's dream, not particularly mine.  I tried to quickly conjure up my limited knowledge of poultry selection from watching Top Chef and The Food Network, and carried chickens two at a time into our house as my husband burst out in laughter.

I carefully placed 11 chickens in the freezer and left one out to cook for dinner.  What I soon realized is that farm fresh chickens still come with all the innards, which my Grandma had kindly spared me of dealing with in past years by removing them from my batch.  Instantly I was brought back to the sink of my childhood home, sometime in my pre-teens, when my mom made me remove the innards and prepare the chicken for supper.  I specifically remember being incredibly grossed-out while listening to her tell me that I would have to know how to do this some day.  With this memory front of mind, and channeling my best Julia Child, I stood at my own kitchen sink, reached in and grabbed whatever was in there, all while doing my best Julia Child impersonation, much to my husband's chagrin.  "You must not be afraid of the chicken!  After all the creature is already dead!" 

So tonight in honor of my experience with a trunk full of chickens, and the first "Use-it-Up" recipe of 2013, we are having a an Asian inspired marinated roast chicken on carrots and sweet potatoes. 

First, to recap what Use-it-Up is all about.
Basics: Use-it-Up is super simple, I will dramatically cut back on my grocery buying habits and only purchase perishables like produce, eggs, meat, and dairy from the grocery store, while trying to "use-up" the other staples and odd-ball food lurking in my overstuffed cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer. 

Benefits: Savings on the grocery budget, thoughtful home cooked meals, less waste, and cupboards ready for another Trader Joe's splurge in a few short months.

Full Disclosure: I will post our grocery spending over the next two months, and promise to let you know when I cheat on the rules.

2013 Inspiration: Kathleen Flinn's "Kitchen Counter Cooking School", two fabulous Christmas gifts: a membership to Top Chef University online cooking school, and a Costco membership. 

Now on to dinner.  Left over from a New Year's Eve veggie and fruit tray I had carrots and orange slices.  This and a lonely sweet potato and a quarter of an onion became the base for which my bird got to sit. 

The marinade included the following:
2 Tab vegetable oil
2 tsp soy sauce
1Tab rice wine vinegar
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp minced garlic

The ginger and garlic were from a jar, but I'm trying to use them up and buy fresh in the future.

I stuffed the ugly bird with the other quarter of an onion and orange slices.  The next part is where my Julia Child impressions come in handy.

I slowly poured the marinade over the fowl and rubbed it under the skin for flavor.  "You must give the bird a good rub down to make sure all the flavor gets in it, otherwise you might as well just order out!"  (In my best high pitched, slightly drunken Julia voice.)

Into a hot 425 degree oven it went for 80 minutes, until the breast meat reached 180 degrees.

Delicious!

 

What I Used-Up:

Left over baby carrots
One lonely sweet potato
Half of an onion
Defrosted farm fresh chicken
Yukon Gold Potatoes for mashed potato side
Pre-packaged Caesar salad mix

In the next post you will get to experience the big cupboard, refrigerator and freezer reveal.  Stay tuned!

Wrap-It-Up!

Each year on the 23^rd, my sister and I go crazy and wrap gifts.  We’re not sure why it’s the 23^rd exactly, but for as long as we can remember we’ve wrapped gifts on that date.  We pull out the wrapping, the ribbon, and the creativity. 

While watching Elf and sipping hot cocoa, here is the before.

 

Gifts to my husband are always a strange size, bulky, huge, or just plain awkward. Notice the gigantic floor jack in the middle of the photo.  How does one actually wrap something like that?  Lillie had the challenge of wrapping him some equally awkward dust masks this year.  It only took about 5 seconds of rolling on the floor laughter to find a way to display this gift.

I hope your Christmas was full of favorite traditions, lots of love, and the blessing of time with family. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Coming up, stay tuned as I kick off the new year with the 2013 Use-It-Up challenge.

The Heart of Giving

A couple of weeks ago I got to experience bell ringing for the Salvation Army for the first time.  It was so much fun to see people make a point to stop and put a little something in.  Most of them did it with joy,   but one guy did not.  He reached into his wallet, folded up a couple of bills and put them in the bucket.  I wished him a Merry Christmas, and he looked me in the eyes and glared.  I happened to be standing next to the store manager at the time, and I turned to him and laughed.  He said, “That is the grumpiest man I have ever met.  He comes into the store twice a week, I swear, just to yell at a checker in the aisle.  I can’t believe he just put money in!”  We laughed and commented on the Christmas spirit getting the best of everyone. 

It got me thinking, why would the most grumpy man IN THE WORLD make it a point to stop, reach in his wallet, and put money into the Salvation Army bucket?  I’ve witnessed a lot of giving over the years and charitable deductions, fiscal cliff, armagedon, guilt, whatever…people give because they want to give, because they have compassion or feel inspired, and most importantly they want someone to experience a gesture of love from their hearts. (Even if they glare while doing it.)  This experience got me thinking about when giving from the heart started for me.

Each week on Wednesday morning, the teacher would collect our chapel offerings for the week.   A quarter, a couple of dimes, maybe a dollar or two for something really special.  We were being taught to give, taught the concept of tithing, and taught to do so from the heart by connecting our donations to giving that really meant something to us as kids. When I think back to all the weeks from Kindergarten through Eighth Grade, two special campaigns come to mind, Heifer International and Secret Angel Tree.  As a kid, both seemed like the coolest opportunities ever to get to be a part of.  Give money and get to pick out an animal from a catalog to give to a family in a country super far away to either raise or eat. Wow, now that’s fun stuff! I can still see the chalk board with tallies under goat, flock of chickens, rabbits, and sheep for the class to vote on our animal of choice. 

The teacher told us why Secret Angel Tree was important, because not all children in our community would get presents on Christmas morning.  Some people didn’t have basic things like warm winter clothes, good food to eat, or even a home to go to.  As a kid, it was unimaginable and pretty darn sad to think that someone like you might wake up on Christmas morning and not have a present to open, and so around this time of the year it’s fair to say that our chapel offerings increased.  Extra presents to give to the angel tree families poured in, and if you were a REALLY lucky kid (who happened to be the kid of a teacher) you might actually get to go to Wal-Mart and help pick out the gifts.  My mom always let my sister and I pick a couple of additional angels off the tree in the fellowship hall from our family too.  We always had a great time on this shopping trip, thinking about what was on the family’s list to Santa, thinking about what we had circled in the toy catalog that they might like too, thinking about the color of stocking cap that might make a little girl proud to wear.  I imagined the joy I experienced on Christmas morning and wanted to give that to a kid like me. 

Later when I was fortunate enough to marry a teacher, this tradition continued with my husband now charged with shopping for the Secret Angel family, and getting to tag along and help pick out gifts.  As a couple we picked out a family to buy for personally too.  Over the last couple of years, our giving has changed a little bit, but the idea behind the Secret Angel Tree has continued, with a special gift given through Care Corps, Salvation Army, or Toys for Tots.  Even though he’s too little to understand now, I hope that in a few short years, Jett will also learn about the joys of giving from the heart, and how special the matchbox cars or pillow pet may be to someone just like him on Christmas morning.

Let your LIGHT so SHINE!

After a long, frankly pretty stressful couple of days, all I wanted to do was go home, put on pajamas, cuddle with my kiddo, and eat the leftover birthday cake hidden in the back of the freezer.  So I sent my mom a text message that said, “What r ur thoughts on church?” Hoping she’d say, “up to u” or “Jett is a little cranky.”  Instead the message said, “Meet you there at 4:30.” 

And praise God it did.  I didn’t need the pajamas or the cake (although I ate it later anyways.)  I needed to hear and see the joy of the season.  I needed to experience His light, through His children.  And boy does light radiate out of kindergartners, first and second-graders.  Loud, proud, joyful praise in song and message about letting the Light of Christ shine in the darkness.  Letting the world know who the Light is.  It was a beautiful first advent service of the season and I am so thankful that I went. 

As I sat with my baby on my lap, I couldn’t help but think that he’s not too many years away from standing on those risers, and yet how strange it is to remember so vividly what it felt like to be up there.  The new black tights, the stiff shiny shoes, the beautiful (but itchy) Christmas dress.  Excitement and a little nervousness, but pure joy at the chance to get to sing praises and celebrate the birth of the Savior. 

I’ve thought a lot this season about traditions.  I’ve wrestled with the Elf on a Shelf (not literally, I think that’d be against the main point of the book, not to mention strange) and all the new cool Pinterest-y stuff.  What are the traditions we want to start in our house?  What are the traditions that we’ve always had in my family?  What traditions did Kevin have in his?  What are the things I love to do year after year, but never realized that they were actually traditions. 

We’ve decorated the tree for the first time since Jett was born, and put out the nativity early this year.  I have a new wreath on the front door, and I’ve been listening to Christmas music since Thanksgiving.  I ordered Christmas cards on time and the first batch were sent this morning.  I feel very joyful about the season, and I'm incredibly excited to share the meaning and the traditions with my little guy.

A couple of weeks ago God laid on my heart to sing in church during the Christmas season.  It’s been since before Jett was born that I’ve sang beyond just the pew (while searching for binky and scooping Cheerios off the floor.)  It’s time to restart one of my most cherished Christmas traditions, singing in church.  It’s time to be like those little children and let my light shine so that others can see and know the Good News!

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some more of my favorite traditions!

Black Friday Guilt-less

A writing from Black Friday 2011, just so that we ALL remember what happened last year...

Recovering from any holiday weekend, it’s easy to have a little extra guilt on Monday over too much turkey, stuffing, rolls, and pie.  Even running the Turkey Trot this year at the YMCA didn’t save me from that regret.  However, I got lucky and have no guilt from a Black Friday shopping spree.

This year my sister and I lost our minds and decided to try Black Friday shopping.  While the media had pumped up this 2011 event as one of the biggest with retail stores opening on Thanksgiving Day, and people all over the world condemning American commerce, Lillie and I got the itch.  I think it was the thrill of the idea of being in the mall in the middle of the night that got to us.  So at 7 p.m. after learning of a super great, can’t miss deal on car seats at Toys R Us, we devised what I thought was a brilliant plan.  Pick Lillie up at 8:15, Toys R Us by 9:00, in and out by 9:30 with the car seat, The Muppet Movie at 9:45, back to Younkers by Midnight.  Brilliant!  Ha!

We arrived to Toys R Us to find crazy women who had been lined up since 5pm, and a growing queue of additional crazies lining up past the entrance of Khols.  We stood in line patiently for about five minutes, before my shopping ADD kicked into full swing and I started devising a plan to cut, line jump, and/or bulldoze my way to the front.  (I didn’t want to miss the singing puppets after all, as we had pre-purchased to avoid lines.)  Well that was another stupid idea, as crazy, deal-driven shoppers know their surroundings like gazelle at the watering hole. So, we abandoned ship and went to the Muppets. 

There is something wrong with a country whose people are lined up for hours to save 20% off and stand in line for another hour checking out, but where the Muppets is empty for the late show.  It was a terrific movie that I could see again and again.  I’m glad we didn’t miss it.  We did however miss the car seat deal.  We tried Younkers and the mall, but the mystique couldn’t beat the wall to wall people carrying as many pillows as they could hold.  We left with $8 earrings and an oath to shop online next year. 

So today, I may have stuffing guilt and a little pie guilt, but I have no Black Friday guilt.  So I tried to cut…some crazy woman pepper sprayed the people behind her at a Wal-Mart.  I probably would have been the victim if we hadn’t had the sense to go see the Muppets.