I Needed Help With Using What's Left In Fridge...

Discussion in 'Recipe Central' started by Rakhii, Nov 14, 2018.

  1. Rakhii

    Rakhii Moderator IL Hall of Fame

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    Ladies, I am back again with a request. Hope you can give me some creative ideas. I have the below items in fridge/ shelf and I wanted to clean things out before I buy more food. Its driving me crazy looking at hoe high the grocery bill gets and only 50-75% gets used. Would appreciate your suggestions:

    Can I make it last for 10 days? i.e until 23rd Nov? OK, 9 days to be specific as we order pizza Friday night.

    Below is what i have:
    1. Paneer (1.5 blocks Nanak, 600 grams to be precise)
    2. Khoya ( 400 grams)
    3. Tomatoes (2 pounds...around there i think)
    4. Onions
    5. Cabbage (big head)
    6. Orka (500 grams)
    7. carrots ( 1 kg/ 2 lb)
    8. Celery
    9. Lettuce
    10. Eggs (30)
    11. Potatoes (4 lb bag)
    12. Chicken (2 lb)
    13. minced chicken (1 lb)
    14. Canned (kidney beans, chick peas, coconut milk, tomatoes)
    15. Frozen (methi, tindora, cluster beans)
    16. Dry (Rice, quinoa, spaghetti, noodles, all kinds of flour, sago)
    17. Cold cuts/ dairy (Ham (i would say 3 servings), cheese, yogurt, milk, cream)
    18. All lentils (toor, moong, masoor, channa)
    19. Also have caramelised onions for gravy, chili/coconut/cumin paste, jerk seasoning.

    Is 10 days doable? Need some ideas. pls... if you can. When I write it down like this, it feels like its doable but i am always scouting the fridge/shelf wondering what to do.
     
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  2. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    That's a fair amount of groceries. What do your average meals consist of?

    - 30 eggs will make 4-6 breakfasts for a family of four (scramble, omelettes), or combine with caramelized onions and coconut milk to make egg curry.
    - Cold cuts for breakfast, work lunches, snacks.
    - I use a little less than half a block of paneer in palak paneer or mutter paneer, or 3/4 block in a shahi paneer or paneer pasanda type dish. You should be able to get 2-3 uses out of the paneer you have.
    - You have all the components of a mirepoix (onions, celery, carrots) plus tomatoes and beans. If you have some dried basil, or Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese you can do a few variations on bean/chick pea soups. They are hearty and warm and filling. Great for winter nights. You could get creative and use up whatever spices/herbs you have. Add some pasta to make a minestrone.
    - Jeera aloo, dum aloo, aloo parathas or latkes to use up the potatoes.
    - Meatballs with minced chicken for a curry or spaghetti.
    - Chicken can used in any number of ways. Marinade and roast to add to butter chicken, salads, tacos.
    - Frozen methi can be pureed and added to dough to make methi puris, parathas. I like adding it to yellow mung dal, or kadhi/mor kuzhambu.
    - Use the khoya for a khoya mutter or a khoya kaju dish, or use as stuffing in sweet puris or parathas.
    - Cabbage, okra, other frozen veggies can be used to make the usual sabzis.
    - Dals and sambars should be your go to until you shop again.

    I think with some creative meal planning you can make it to 10 days. Worst case you will have to replenish some perishables but I'm sure you can manage without a full fledged shopping trip.
     
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  3. virtualkv2020

    virtualkv2020 Platinum IL'ite

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    Here's what I can think of...
    With Paneer
    1. Paneer and khoya combo to make deserts like kala jamoon,kalakand.
    2. Paneer butter masala using paneer, onions,tomatoes,cream.
    3. Paneer tikka/kebabs using cheese,yoghurt,cream and few spices.

    With Eggs
    1.Onion tomato egg bhurji.
    2.Onion egg bhurji.
    3. Roties and cheese omelettes for breakfast.
    4. Vahchefs street style Egg biryani with boiled eggs,basmathi rice,yoghurt and spices.
    5. Vahchefs egg pulusu (boiled eggs in tamarind gravy) and serve with cooked toor dal and rice.
    6. Onion tomato gravy with boiled eggs to go with rice or roti.
    7. Egg puffs using boiled eggs and puff pastry sheets.
    8.Boiled egg masala using lots onions,boiled eggs,ginger garlic and spices.

    With Cabbage
    1. Keema cabbage fry with onions, cabbage and minced chicken.
    2. Cabbage slaw with cabbage, carrots, lettuce,celery.
    3. Cabbage,onion,chana dal subzi.

    With Okra
    1. Bendi kurkuri using okra,besan flour,spices - deep fried or baked.
    2. Okra subzi with okra and onions.
    3. Okra pulusu (okra in onion tamarind gravy from sailus food website).

    With Carrots, celery, lettuce
    Lettuce chicken wraps with grated carrots,celery,lettuce,minced chicken and spices.

    With Potatoes
    Methi aloo,aloo kurma with onion, tomato and coconut gravy,aloo pakoda, aloo fry, aloo bujia,potato salad,Potato cheese balls with potatoes,cheese,beaten egg and bread crumbs.Aloo tikki with boiled and mashed potatoes, cheese,carrots and spices.

    With Chicken pieces
    1. Methi Chicken curry with tomato, onion, methi and spices.
    2. Chicken korma with onion, coconut gravy
    3. Chicken biryani with basmati rice,yoghurt and spices.
    4. Andhra style chicken iguru with onions, chicken.
    5. Chicken pulav with basmathi rice,onion,spices,coconut milk.
    6.Vahchef's ginger chicken fry using onions,chicken and other ingredients.
    7.Tandoori chicken using chicken,yoghurt and spices.

    With Minced chicken
    1. Chicken cutlet with onions,potatoes and minced chicken.
    2. Chicken keema patties
    3. Chicken aloo fry
    4. Vahchef’s garlic pepper meat balls
    5. Vahchefs sheekh kebab

    With Kidney beans
    1. Use in salads or make a curry.

    With Chickpeas
    1.Chole with poori
    2.Chickpea salad

    With Coconut milk
    1.Coconut pulao with coconut milk, onions, tomatoes,basmathi rice to go with any chicken curry.
    2. Thai coconut milk soup.

    Canned tomatoes
    1. Creamy tomato soup with tomatoes,cream.
    2. Tomato pulav/rice from sailus website
    3. Tomato pachadi

    With Frozen methi
    Methi tepla, methi dal using toor dal and tomatoes.

    With Frozen tindora
    Onion tindora dry subzi

    With Cluster beans
    1.Kitchdi with carrots, onions,potatoes, moong dal, cluster beans,rice.
    2.Cluster beans dry subzi

    With Sago
    1. Sago potato cutlets
    2. Sago murukku with besan,rice flour,yoghurt and few spices.
    3. Sago kheer with sago, milk, little khoya.
    4. Sago idli.

    With Noodles
    1. Egg soft noodles using scrambled eggs, boiled noodles, carrots, cabbage, onions.
    2. Noodle cutlet with potatoes and boiled noodles.

    With Milk,cream,cheese,spaghetti
    Use with a combination of chicken and/or veggies to make an Italian meal or continental soups.

    With Lentils
    1. Combine all lentils - toor, moong, masoor, channa, soak overnight to make adai, mixed dal dosas.
    2. Dal with toor dal such as dal tadka, tomato dal, sambar.
    3. Moong dal sprouts for salad,moong dal cheela,moong dal pesarattu,moong dal pakoda for breakfast, can also add cheese as a topping for cheela and pesarattu.
    4. chana dal vada,chana dal pakoda kurma,chana dal namkeen - soaked chana dal can be deep fried or baked with little oil.
    5. vahchefs sarvapindi with chana dal, rice flour,onions and other spices.

    With Quinoa
    Combine cooked quinoa with other veggies for a salad

    Rice and flour can be used overtime, any left over veggies can all be mixed together with besan and made into vegetable pakodas,use your carmalized onions,masala pastes accordingly.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2018
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  4. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    That is a lot of raw materials. As the OP had noticed, writing it all down helps. A lot. Plenty of recipes volunteered already; google would surely add more. Info on how many are in this lifeboat, adults-kids, dieters, etc.. would surely help. Even in the absence of these, it is a goodly amount of food. Easy to stretch (celery, chicken, legumes) with soups, if necessary.

    The homework assignment for the OP would be to write down what would be used up for each day.... for those 9 remaining days.

    Many forum threads which start out with a grand problem, would go on to receive lots of solutions to the problems for the OP to choose from. And then pooofff... the thread would peter out, and nobody would ever know how the OP ended up solving the problem. NO statement on the "closure".

    Writing down the planned use of the fridge-pantry inventory for each day, would result in such a nice and pleasant closure.
     
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  5. Princess23

    Princess23 Silver IL'ite

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    Rakhii,

    these are the weight loss receipes:):)

    Paneer salad
    Chicken salad
    Cicken soup
    Cabbage sabzi
    Okra fry (Oven)
    celery in salads and soup
    2 boiled eggs in a day
    Potatoes (salad, mashed one with sliced carrot and celery dipped in homemade mayo(eggless) with that mashed potatoes.
    minced chicken for cutlet and curry for chapathi
    Lentls for soup,curry and adai.
     
  6. Rakhii

    Rakhii Moderator IL Hall of Fame

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    @Gauri03 , Thank you so much! My average meal consists usually of (for 2 adults and 2 kids)
    Breakfast: overnight Oatmeal, boiled eggs, avocadoes, cheese, smoothies, muesli (weekends its usually pancakes with bacon on saturday, poori/roti/ idly/ dosa etc on Sunday)
    Lunch: sausages with veggies, chicken with veggies, pasta with whatever sauce is available, occasional rice, sandwiches, you get the gist. Throw in a salad here and there.
    Dinner: usually rice or roti with curry/fry/dal/sambar

    As you can see, pretty typical menu that would be in a working household.

    I like the eggs idea. Maybe I could bake 8-10 of them with cheese, some shredded potatoes, spices. That should give us good 4-6 servings
    Noted about the paneer. It does freeze well isn’t it? I have never tried freezing paneer on its own. Mirepoix! What a great idea! This is a staple that can be used to spinoff practically anything. Simple, onions, carrots, celery. Done.

    Noted about the paratha’s, rotis. Thank you so much again much appreciated!

    @kveena,
    thank you so much for the detailed suggestion, I appreciate it. This helps me a lot, not just right now, but even in future.


    I love the idea of egg biryani. It’s been years since I made it. I usually make it with meat but I remember relishing it during my hostel days at the nearby “bandi”, you know when I was still young and the metabolism was still at its peak. I will make use of this suggestion for sure.

    Egg masala is one of my favourites. I can use it as a combination for parathas or jeera rice.

    I love you kheema cabbage suggestion (meat and cabbage together will make a complete meal in itself and so does channa and cabbage. I will look up for some recipes.

    Okra, I don’t know why I buy anymore. It takes me a long time to cook (and hubby doesn’t like the opos way for okra). I am really at loss for words, thank you so much. I will make sure to use everything. Appreciate it.

    @Amulet
    2 adults and 2 kids. I simply don’t understand why I kept going on grocery shopping when all these months I have so many things that I haven’t used up.
    I will give you your closure, lol

    @Princess23 thank you so much! I do love some good potato salad. I will try it. Thank you so much for the suggestions. I will use the oven for okra. Its been a while since I made lentil soup, I will try it. thank you so much again!
     
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  7. Rakhii

    Rakhii Moderator IL Hall of Fame

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    Day 1 (Thursday night and Friday):

    Dinner for day 1 and Day 2 meal (for tomorrow as I normally cook a day in advance):
    Dinner: Cabbage and kheema (one pot meal). Will use 1/2 head cabbage, 1/2lb minced meat (store the rest properly)
    Breakfast: Overnight oats, boiled eggs for snack.
    day 2 lunch: Same as dinner last night

    Day 2 (Friday night and Saturday):
    Dinner: Pumpkin (canned) soup, over fried okra, quinoa.
    Breakfast: pancakes, hashbrowns
    day 3 lunch: same as last night dinner

    Day 3 (Saturday Night and Sunday)
    Dinner: Pulav (using rice) and methi chicken, raita
    Breakfast: egg bake (will make it Saturday night for hubby; sunday morning dosa)
     
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  8. Rakhii

    Rakhii Moderator IL Hall of Fame

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    I will be making a big batch of mirepoix tonight to be added into whatever I feel like.
     
  9. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    How did the meal planning work @Rakhii ? I'm thinking of something similar for December. I have an overstocked pantry and refrigerator. Plan is to try and use up everything instead of buying fresh groceries or restocking staples. Want to start the new year with a clean slate. : )
     
  10. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    I’ve begun doing this to clear out the fridge and pantry. I try and not buy anything other than milk/fruits/essentials like onions that I’ve run out of and make sure I use up everything in the fridge. I find it useful to deep clean my pantry every three months. I find stuff I need to use and put it to use. My main issue is forgetfulness so I do write down what I have in my pantry and google for interesting recipes with the said ingredients. I also try to use the instapots as much as possible to prove that two instapots are really useful!!!
     
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