Pantry Purge #2 - Week 3

    It's been a LONG week.... being gone last week left me with a lot of chores!   The yard is overgrown.... the house needs attention.... and my son needed his annual homeschool testing done.  I am late with that one - I've been pre-occupied with son #1 and graduation / college stuff and completely forgot the testing for son #2.

Anyway - on to the PURGE!

This is a weird list of food - not an interesting list - just weird!  I'll be glad when I have PURGED it and can come up with a new list! 

Many are loose items, bought for my grazing... so using them up will be virtuous, but not creative :-)  I can't think of much to do with an individual container of sweet gherkin pickles... except eat them, of course!  I could throw them in a cold salad (which no one in my house will eat except me!) but I have an open jar of homemade relish for that so I may as well just eat the things...

All the fruit makes me think of smoothies.... I ran across a recipe for a Blueberry-Ginger Smoothie
at Money-Saving Mom , one of my favorite "GO TO' sites.

It wasn't bad.... I like both blueberry AND ginger.. but am not wild about the combo.... great to try though! I think I prefer my own version.... blueberries, 1/2 banana, a bit of vanilla, protein powder & almond milk.... yum :-)

By merging a store special on Vidalia onions, the bread project and my frozen Swiss cheese, we had a super supper of Crockpot Onion Soup with homemade bread & melted Swiss.  SO easy and so good!  I will have to put this on our menu more often!

I am starting to eat the Laughing Cow cheeses with Wasa bread.... one at a time.  I had purchased a couple of these on sale just before I was advised to give up all 'cow products'.  They used to be a 'go to' crunch snack - 3 Wasa crackers and a little cheese wedge - less than 150 calories and reasonably healthy food.  Now they will be again until they are gone.  Apparently 'cow products' aggravate my allergies - and while I have no evidence to dispute it, I have learned that a little won't bother me too much one way or the other.... AT this point in time!  So, I will work my way through those.

That's it for this week...  but am planning to make a bigger DENT next week :-)


Used up:
open container of mayo
1 pkg bacon pieces
1 container cottage cheese
2 containers sour cream
jar roasted red peppers *used in salads
1 pkage sliced Swiss cheese
1 bags frozen blueberries
 1 banana
 1 cntr sweet gherkins

REFRIGERATOR
  Last Month Leftovers: 
3/4 jar wheat germ

ADDED:
  2 containers of Laughing Cow cheese
 
FREEZER:
  Last Month Leftovers:
  frozen orange juice (not to drink)
ADDED:
   1 bag of dough balls (for rolls or monkey bread)
   1 box of veggie bacon
   1 frozen banana
 1 bags frozen blueberries

PANTRY:
    Last Month Leftovers:
   bag sundried tomatoes

ADDED:
       Spicy brown mustard *opened to use
       Bleu Cheese Dressing
       Green Salsa
       German chocolate cake mix & icing
       yellow cake mix
       brownie mix
       Liquid Smoke (what is this, why do I have it and what do I do with it?  LOL!!)
       individual envelopes of Italian dressing
      cream of chicken soup
      canned carrots
      3 different bottles of hot sauce
      1 pkgs bacon bits
      french-fried onions
     4 ind cntrs of berry flavored applesauce (didn't care for the flavor)
     1 ind cntrs of sweet gherkin pickles
     box chicken soup
     jar pepperoncini
     tomato soup
     can water chestnuts
     jar szechuan sauce
     wasabi sandwich spread
     marinated artichokes