The driest pitas in history (a freezer update)
Hello! I am here with yet another freezer challenge update. Here's what I started with last week.
Peaches
I made a smoothie.
And another smoothie.
And another smoothie.
So, I made it through all of the peaches. Yay me!
Ground meat
I used this to make some taco bowls.
Edamame
I made the veggie-heavy Aldi copycat chickpea salad, and I put in extra edamame to use up the bag entirely.
Bread Cubes
I made another pan of baked French toast, and now all of my frozen bread cubes are used up. SWEET.
Beef Jerky
I did make a dent in this, but it was too much jerky to eat in a single week!
I will keep chipping away at it.
Pita bread
I tried steaming one to make it bendable enough to use as a scrambled egg wrap. But my resuscitation efforts were largely unsuccessful.
Please note the splitting:
So I decided to embrace the dryness and turned the other two pitas into pita chips.
Unfortunately, I did burn some of them, even though I was following a recipe. It's probably because my pitas were so dry to start with!
So, if you try this, watch 'em carefully as they bake!
Here's the end result of this week's efforts.
Next Week's Collection
I think after this one, I'm going to call my freezer good. It's not empty, of course, but most everything in there is relatively up to date and does not need to be used in a hurry.
Also, there's plenty of space now, which means I can restock the freezer with some new bags of frozen fish and chicken.
Ok, so here are my last four items:
I've got some burger buns there because I often freeze a partial package; Zoe and I never eat 6-8 burgers at one time! We will have some burgers this week to use these up.
Second, another bag of peaches (last one!), so I see some smoothies in my future again.
The pack of Hawaiian rolls is from a double pack I got from Sam's. I'll use them to make a pan of the ham and Swiss sandwiches that Zoe likes.
And lastly, those tomatoes appeared in a previous week; they're making a second appearance, and hopefully this time, I will actually use them!
When I was taking out some frozen strawberries for a smoothie I noticed a bag of taco wraps which I'd put in at the start of September, as they had sugar in them. I used them up this weekend 🙂
Oh wow, you were taking your no-sugar challenge VERY seriously. I'm impressed.
Thanks! I still ate fruit and I'm sure I ate and drank some things with sugar in, but I tried to avoid anything where I saw sugar as an added ingredient and didn't buy sweets.
Love these posts! Maybe a pantry challenge could follow the freezer challenge?
Used another frozen veggie burger and frozen bun.
Used up frozen peas alongside a baked potato.
Heated up the frozen Trader Joe's spanish tortilla and served it with sauteed peppers and The Frugal Girl's cilantro sauce.
Fridge vs. freezer challenge: Prepped an entire cantalope and stored the cubes in two large mason jars. When I had a craving for something (anything) to snack on, I opened the fridge, saw the melon, and made the healthy choice.
Pantry vs. freezer challenge: Cooked the last bag of rescued, expired macaroni noodles. I use them in several ways, including in scrambled eggs.
I’ve never thought to freeze jerky before; does it thaw okay or does it change the texture/taste?
I have a few different items I need to use up from my freezer:
- various buns and English muffins that I got from Franz Outlet $1 sale
- a bag of grilled chicken patties we bought to try
- the last of some frozen tilapia fillets from a big sale box we got from a local restaurant store earlier in the summer
- various popsicles, most especially the backlog of not-desired orange popsicles (we don’t have AC and went a little wild with our favorite lemon popsicles this summer to beat the heat, and we also bought a box of cherry/grape/orange popsicles and ate all but the orange because it tastes like frozen Sunny D to me, and I am not a fan…)
The English muffins are pretty easy, I’ll use them mainly for toast, maybe some mini pizzas and Pb&js for lunch.
The buns I will use mainly for chicken burgers, and maybe veggie burgers.
The tilapia I won’t be able to finish up in one week, but I will make a dent in it making baked tilapia for dinner. My husband and son like it when I either bake with lemon slices and thyme, and serve with potatoes & veggies; or if I do it with more “taco” style spices and lime juice, then use it in taco bowls.
Maybe I can channel my inner “Chopped” fan and figure out how to use the sickly sweet orange popsicles to melt down into some sort of citrus sauce or reduction for the tilapia? If that doesn’t work, I suppose I could also just eat them, but I will be very grumpy doing it, haha. 😆