Summer Food Plans

I go over this a bit in my post tomorrow for Food Waste Friday (and a massive, massive thank you to The Frugal Girl for getting me hooked on doing this!), but I wanted to talk a little about my summer plans, food-wise.

P is out of town for the remainder of the summer doing an internship, so this leaves me on my own almost until the fall semester starts. I was poking about my freezer and pantry, and I realised that I have quite a lot more food than I think I do. And really, food that needs to be used up a little more frequently. There's a lot of meat and fish in the freezer (and not just meat that belongs to Francis) that I haven't really been using. So I'd like to go through it all and use it up, oldest to newest. I believe there's actually enough meat in there to last the remainder of the summer, given that I only eat meat a couple times a week. Today, I'm using up the remaining frozen shrimp in a tom yum (I have a mix for the soup, but it needs shrimp and mushrooms added to it). If there's any left over (which I can't imagine there won't be), then I can finish it tomorrow. Additionally, I'm making a lentil salad to snack on (which will get posted Saturday, I'm thinking). I've got some lovely chicken artichoke sausages to eat, some Hebrew Nationals (2 packages!), chicken, you name it. Lot of meat.

But aside from the meat, I've also got piles of frozen pumpkin pulp, corn, peas, spinach, other veggies, lemon rinds, and fruit. A LOT of frozen fruit. My blender is on vacation in another city right now, so I'm thinking that I might be able to make some smoothies with the immersion blender. Otherwise, I might make pies. Or little hand pies. Or who knows what might happen? I've also got tons of flours that I don't use a lot - semolina, tapioca flours (2 kinds), rye, etc. So there could be some more breads and strange cakes and stuff too.

In the pantry, I just have a truly unreal amount of food. Canned goods, beans, pasta galore, home-canned soups, sauces, jams, jellies, etc. I'd like to work on rotating out some of the older stock. Basically what this means is that aside from fresh produce and dairy, I pretty much have everything already in my kitchen that I could possibly need for the whole summer (okay, okay... I don't have enough pickles. One can never have enough pickles). So I'm going to be trying to spend no more than $10/week on food, which mostly will be going to olives, pickles, cheese and produce. Occasionally I suppose I'll need more flour or canned goods. We'll see.

As I go through this little venture of trying to eat without really spending much time or money grocery shopping, I plan to post all the wacky little food creations my mind comes up with. However, since I am only one woman, I might wind up only cooking every couple days, to make sure I eat everything I make (or pawn the pastries I might make off on others). If you guys have any suggestions for things you'd like to see make an appearance here (specific pastries, vegan options, carnivore options, ingredients you have trouble working with, etc), please say so and I'll try to work it in. I'm expecting this summer adventure to be a lot of fun, and I'm glad to have you all along with me!

Gratuitous photo of Francis that has nothing to do with the above: