Dinner tonight was beef/bok choy stir fry, using leftover sliced roast beef from the freezer, served over leftover rice. The leftovers from dinner will become tomorrow's lunches.

I took inventory of the fresh vegetables I have in the fridge: in addition to the baby bok choy I bought today, I have leeks, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, daikon, celery, and carrots plus a head of lettuce that is starting to wilt.

I have some fruit (oranges, apples, plums, persimmons, kiwi, 2 dried up tangerines, and a pear that is beyond its prime), but I think I might want more fruit for the week.

So working to use up all the veggies in the fridge, I made a mixture of multi colored peppers, carrots, spanish onions, green onions, black olives, celery, and cucumbers and added imitation crab and lobster meats(on sale for $1/package-from the regular $3-4 price) and shredded cheddar cheese. Then decided to try a louis style dressing since I had all the ingredients(leftovers again) to mix in with it. Waaaay to rich....ended up adding a balsamic vinegarette to tone it down and some extra lemon juice & worcestershire sauce. Put the salad mix on a bed of shredded lettuce.....yummy. lunch for 2, dinner for 2 and will take the last for lunch today as well.

Plenty of food in the house and want to work through the freezer and get it more organized so SO can "see" things more easily, if that is even possible! dry goods were just redone and found a couple cans of fruit cocktail so with a 70cent purchase of flavored jello, have 2 batches of multiple desserts.

Working this weekend and SO has his son for a long weekend with MLK holiday so I am imagining we will be seeing pizza and boneless wings as that is his 2 favorite foods. He loves Little Cesar's pepperoni pizza and that is a ready made $5 dinner. I can add a salad & we are set. A package of Nestle's drumsticks for desserts and the guys will be happy!

EC: My daughter requested "chicken on the bone" last night too. I had some chicken breasts in the freezer, but they're not as fun to eat as chicken on the bone. That's too funny.

I need to buy some snacks for DS's winter survival trip. I'm thinking small packs of peanut butter, some granola or gorp mix, jerkey, and some chocolate bars. He's camping in below zero weather, without being able to use a tent. They can do a snow cave or make a lean-to (spelling?) However we have very little snow fall this year so they won't be able to do the cave. Every two hours they'll need to eat to keep there core temp up.

Tonight I pulled some shredded beef out of the fridge. I'll use up the beef, refried beans, tortillas and make some enchilada sauce for enchiladas. I have enough salad mixings for a nice side salad as well.

The fridge is still full!

Is this an ok section to post this in? I'm looking for help on breading...... he likes this mixed seafood bag of stuff we get in the freezer section. Not my favorite (one of the pieces has eyes) but I can tolerate it. Last time we tried breading with eggs (as I remember my mom doing) and bread crumbs (as he remembers his mom doing). Didn't stick too well. I think we fried it. Then I remembered my mom did chicken breading with egg & flour, not bread crumbs.

Anyway, we took that bag out of the freezer for tonights supper along with some scallops that I'll like better. Just not sure how to prepare them.

Oh another question - I often make "soup" just by doing bullion with some sort of small pasta and frozen veggies. Supper easy, quick and cheap. He is wondering if the broth can be made thicker. Last night we just put more veggies in but I'm wondering myself. This weekend I'm making hamburger soup which I think I found on here two years ago!

I'm still trying to adjust my fridge temp and discovered I have to start with the freezer adjustments!

Diane, any dredge or breading will stick better if you first pat the food dry, then dredge in a bit of flour (lightly seasoned), then in something wet (egg or buttermilk, etc), then in the final coating (crumbs or seasoned flour).

You can thicken broth-based soups by stirring in a slurry of cornstarch & water (I think most boxes have the ratios) if you like a clear, but thickened, soup. If you start your soup with some sauteed fresh onions, garlic, celery, etc, then add the broth, pasta, and veggies, then thicken in the last five minutes, you'll get even better flavor.

Grilled cheese and soups tonight; pizza last night. Chicken-on-the-bone was used for lunches and snacks by DD4, too. I didn't make it grocery shopping, so we're still working on in-house supplies.

Had an honest look at the fridge and freezer and started sorting, sort of matching the layout of my grocery stores. Before it was a case of move the tub of spinach if you need the strawberry jam. "Oh look, beans!" "Wait, is that a canteloupe?" Now I can see everything, and will not likely have spoilage as a result. Not that I had much but I hate finding that cauliflower that should have been used way back when, like putting money in your garbage can.

The freezer is next and needs the same approach, I buy healthy bread on sale (it's always so expensive!) and toss it in so it is mixed through like freezer croutons amongst the meats and juice/baking etc.

Once I know what I have, I am going to meal plan for one week to see if I need to actually buy anything besides milk and veg/fruit. Never actually done this so should help with the constant trips to the store, which will save $$$ in the long run.

Diane, I do an egg/milk wash that I dip the food into then ddip in a flour bath seasoned with salt and pepper. Then redip in the egg wash and put in the final breading mix, generally seasoned bread crumbs. SO introduced me to his specialty breading for fish which is a combo of crushed captain crunch, corn flakes, frosted flakes and assorted seasonings(thyme, dill, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper)....and even though it sounds like a weird combination, the flavor was fabulous!

I use a roux for thickening soups and gravies both. Melt some butter in a pan and add flour to it and brown it. When I add this to the liquid, I generally mix it with some of the broth first before adding it to the final broth mixture so there are no lumps. browning it first also gives it a nuttier flavor.

Another thing I have done(like when I made the broccoli cheddar soup earlier this week, was to boil up a potato, saving some of the water(for the starch/thickening ability)mashing the potato into the water and mixing that in with the soup.

Another quick thickener is to add instant gravy mix to the soup for increased thickening power....also a very quick and flavorful addition!

Have So's son and assorted friends this weekend and of course the favorite dinner was the cheap pepperoni pizza and ice cream drumsticks! Cheap and fast.

Dinner tonite is SO's choice as I work til 730. Since no school for son and mlk holiday for SO, he said they will have late dinner when I get in, figuring out what comes out of the freezer for tonite.

Thanks BL for the tips! We ended up just doing flour Friday night. The first batch came out great but it seemed as though he didn't sift enough flour out of his hands/food before he dropped them in. The 2nd batch by then had a bunch of flour in the oil and it never browned up much. So I got my smaller pan out and heated new oil and that seemed to work ok - MUCH better than the first time we tried it. Very interesting all the different methods there are for this!

I am baking a blueberry pie. If the little strips of leftover dough that I baked mean anything I think I may have mastered flaky pie dough. When the pie is done I am going to pick up take n bake pizza to bring with us to our friends for the game. Big Packers game today. Lots of excitement in our area of the country and state. Go Pack Go.

I made beef stroganoff with egg noodles for supper last night- I have enough for 1 supper left this week.

Tonight I am going to make a chicken and veggie stir-fry with rice for supper tonight- would probably have leftovers for at least 1 night.

I still have some pork roast left in the fridge that will be one more meal during the week.

I try to cook as much as I can on the weekend for during the week when I am at work everyday.