This was a very busy work week. On several occasions, we just ate over at my sister’s house, since we were all there so much. 2 of those nights, we ate leftovers from a meeting they attended Sunday, so that was easy! My aunt dropped in to check on Jake one night and stayed and ate with us, so that was a nice addition:). She brought him some of his favorite cookies and he ate exactly 1 before falling asleep…

On Wednesday morning, I had a few hours. I made 3 kinds of soup–split pea, chicken-rice, and vegetable-chicken. I used the broth and bits from the Costco chicken to make the 2 chicken kinds, so they have very little meat in them, but still taste really good. The split pea is vegetarian. I hauled some of the chicken-rice soup over to Jake, who ate it for dinner the next 2 nights. His mouth is healing, but slowly. The second set of antibiotics helped him heal more, but he had a very rough time of it for a few days.

On Wednesday morning, I cooked up an Instant Pot of brown rice. Part of it was combined with frozen turkey bits, broccoli from last year’s garden, cheese, and a sauce made from milk, sweet rice flour to slightly thicken it, dried onion, a can of mushrooms, salt and pepper. It was really, really good. I took some of it over to my sister’s for Thursday night’s dinner. My aunt brought over some salad fixings she wasn’t going to be able to use up before they went bad, and we made salad to go with the casserole.

The rest of the brown rice was combined with previously cooked and frozen pinto beans (thawed out of course), cheese (including some Cojita cheese I got for my Friday Freebie a couple of weeks ago), salsa and a little enchilada sauce, both home-canned last summer. I wrapped this filling in tortillas, then foil, then labeled and froze for quick dinners for Patsy when Rob is home with her and I’m at work. She loves them and ate most of the ones I made a few weeks ago.

Our daughter, Lovana, plans to come visit later in the month, and she is a vegetarian. I froze some of the burritos and some of the split pea soup to have on hand while she’s here. Since she lives in Hawaii now, she’s sure she going to freeze to death here, but I assured her she can wrap up in how ever many of her Dad’s old coats she wants to:)

I made a turkey enchilada from the turkey bits in the freezer. With the 2 casseroles I made this week, I was able to finish that fairly large bag of turkey bits up before they lingered too long in the freezer.

The past 2 weeks haven’t been the easiest, but with everyone pulling together, we’ve all been able to eat tasty, healthy, economical meals. This week will have a much lighter schedule. Whew!!!

I decided to attack the winter squash that was left from last year’s garden. I got such a good crop of my acorn squash, was given 4 Butternuts, and my compost pile grew a couple more all by itself! We’ve been eating it all along, but when I went and looked at my still-large bucket full, some of them were starting to get bad spots on them. I cut each and every one of them open, threw away anything that was bad, and cut the rest into chunks, which I roasted in a 425 degree oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. I got 2 pans.

We ate a bunch.

I made ginger apple-butternut squash soup. I found a few apples in a box on the covered porch from last fall. They were a little wrinkly, but still good, so I wanted to target them as well. The soup was very different than what we usually make, but Rob and I both liked it.

I made quinoa bowls with quinoa, carrots and spinach on the bottom. Pieces of Rob’s BBQ’d chicken thigh meat with a chipotle-lime sauce and roasted squash came next and it was topped with a apple dressing. I started with a recipe from Gluten-Free and More Magazine, and changed it up quite a bit. We liked it!

We got 10 lbs of frozen chicken hindquarters for $5 last Friday. Rob barbecued the whole bag and we’ve been eating it all week. We’ve been pulling things from the freezers and eating them–lots of veggies, odds and end of things, etc. Patsy ate some frozen burritos one night from the ones I made and froze a few weeks ago. I’m going to have to make some more before long.

I made a mixture of hamburger and black beans with Mexican seasoning and we had tacos/taco salads one night. One night I sautéed some frozen shrimp that was in the freezer for myself after work.

We’ve also had some leftover pork chops from the ones my sister made last Sunday for Family Sunday Dinner at her house. I took leftover salad bar items from what was left when we had our friends over last Saturday.

I’ve had to adjust my February plans for food a bit from what I thought it was going to look like last week. I was out of a lot more things than I thought I was. So, I will not be saving grocery money this month. I will be spending every cent of my grocery budget, and perhaps a bit more. I’ve already gathered several kinds of gluten-free flour from the store, and my mom gave me some almond flour she was not using. (Thanks, again, Mom!). We’ve used a LOT of produce and I will be getting more weekly. I already got baking powder, baking soda, and 5 pounds of butter. I still need to get bulk spices, salt and pepper–you see how it is:). I went ahead and grabbed “Michaela and Jake” foods as the kids are spending next weekend with us and froze the things like bagels and ww bread.

I feel like my January use-it-up project was very successful and the goal of rotating my stocked food was met. I don’t mind buying more to keep the pantry full, and it’s nice to know that things are staying fresh out there. I plan to keep digging into the cupboards, freezers, and pantry and will continue to use up older things that are there. I will still attempt to do the weekly post about our menus and showcase the items I am using up.

Best of all, Rob continued to lose weight over the month and my blood sugars are a bit better than they were 3 months ago, even with the challenge and the holidays.