Clean out your pantry
We are getting packed up for our first family trip and when I say family, I mean the whole darn crew. My parents and mother-in-law are coming, too. We are off to visit even more family and friends in California. What we thought would be a sunny and warm trip is turning into a forecast of rain and crisp ocean air. I am still super excited but I just have trouble packing for such a variety of temperatures and humans.
The one thing I do think I am good at is clearing out my fridge and not wasting any food. I knew I didn't want to grocery shop or get take-out before going on an expensive vacation. I get overly happy about cleaning out my fridge and creating new recipes based on what I have to use up - like right now.
Here's what I came up with this time...
I had a bundle of overripe bananas and some opened granola that was going stale. So I made banana mini-muffins with chocolate chips and granola. We froze half and ate the rest this week for breakfast.
I had a bag of sweet potatoes and a bunch of random vegetables to use up. I made POTACHOS!! What? Yes, sweet potato nachos with black beans and tons of old opened cheeses that needed to get used up. They were fabulous. We added scrambled eggs to them the next morning and rolled them into vegetable burritos. Best idea ever...and they freeze well, too. Just wrap them in foil and throw in a ziplock for another time.
Anything else that needed to get used up went into a vegetable stock. All my extra herbs, vegetables and citrus, I put in the instant pot. I added a special spice blend and let her rip. Literally 30 minutes later, I have an empty fridge, a full freezer for my return home, and a feeling of pure happiness. We are taking the kids to Disneyland rain or shine (ponchos from the Dollar Store already packed :) I will check in when we get back to let you know how it went. I hope you try these '“clear out your fridge” ideas.
