Stuffed Peppers or How to Cook a Delicious Meal with Bits and Pieces of Leftovers and Free Food

Last Sunday I decided to see what I could make with some of the odds and sods that were hanging out in the fridge and the pantry.  As it turned out, with a little imagination, I had the makings of a delicious meal! This doesn't happen very often when all of the little containers of leftovers can work together and make something that is greater than the sum of its parts. But...it worked...and I was delighted as this is SO NOT MY FORTE!
Well, let's see what we have...in the fridge...a hunk of cheddar that is starting to dry out at the edges. Not too appealing on its own.

 In the pantry - a box of black beans and rice. Now, I don't buy these sorts of packaged foods but for 7 years I had a parent pack me a big bag of mixes and spices and packaged sauces at Christmas and at the end of the school year as a gift. He was retired from McCormicks where they make all of these things and they cost him next to nothing. My daughter LOVED all the free packs of Swiss Chalet sauce and I appreciated the abundance of spices!

In the fridge - TOO MANY PEPPERS! (Why does this make me think of that childhood book ' "The Five Little Peppers"? By mistake both Michael and I had bought a package of peppers the previous week- what was I going to do with them all??

A jar of leftover tomato sauce....ok, an idea is starting to come to me...

A handful of wilted green onions - cleaned up and chopped up they don't look so bad...

I got a good amount of grated cheddar from that partially dried out block.

I won, yes won, a bottle of Frank's RedHot sauce (yum yum) at school when we had our chili lunch - those who brought in chili to share, like me, got a nice little gift box and this was in it! LOVE this stuff!

 I had an over abundance of zucchini thanks to buying an extra large package at Costco - need to get rid of some of them as they don't last long....

 The result?  Stuffed peppers, vegetarian style! I don't usually cook by the seat of my pants like this, this is more Michael's area of expertise whereas I usually use a recipe. But as he was in Miami at a conference for the weekend and because I was feeling inspired by this mix of available ingredients I went for it!

First I put cleaned out the peppers and added a big spoonful of tomato sauce.

I cooked up the black beans and rice and added a healthy portion to the peppers... along with a shake or two of Frank's hot sauce :) Did I say I LOVE that sauce??

 These two pictures are reversed...I added chopped up zucchini then another dollop of tomato sauce.

 and another shake or two of Frank's hot sauce, truth be told...

Then I topped the whole thing with grated cheddar.....

 covered with tinfoil and baked for 25 minutes in a 375 oven.  I tested the peppers with a fork as I didn't want them to get mushy but I felt they needed more time so I popped them back in for another 15 minutes for a total of 40 minutes in all.

Perfect! I added a few chopped green onions and dug right in! Sooooooooooo tasty! Even my daughter had one....or two...
Close...

Closer.... 

Closest!

 A nicely balanced vegetarian dish with a little red wine on the side...nom nom nom!

Leftovers for lunch! I felt pretty proud of myself for using up some things that had sat in my pantry and fridge for awhile and might have ended up getting tossed out as food waste. Cost of this meal??

Hmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what I can create out of free/old stuff today???

Hoarders Part Two

So here's the thing: one of my original goals when I started this blog was to decrease my STUFF drastically so that when I make the final move to PEI I would have a lot less to move. 


A.LOT.LESS.


I did really well for a while.  A short while. I even got rid of this:

However...I have accumulated more since then though most of it through no fault of my own...unless you call falling in love a "fault"  (I'm sure some would) so when Michael moved in we had to assimilate his stuff into an increasingly smaller condo.  


Then when I bought my future home in PEI I decided to sell this:

 which was packed full of blankets, towels, dishes, clothing, sleeping bags, garden tools etc etc

AND came with a shed full of stuff too which I packed up and made 2 or 3 trips with the car to bring it all home to what was now a miniscule condo. 


Most of you advised me to DONATE DONATE DONATE and forget about the money. I agreed with that advice (you can't put a price on an uncluttered mind) and went downstairs to face the MONSTER! I took a few deep breaths and thought about walking back upstairs as I was feeling overwhelmed but I stayed and made a start.  A small start, but a start nevertheless. I sorted into three piles: keep, donate, trash.


Here's what I'm keeping:

One bag of toiletries & bug repellent from the trailer - I won't have to buy any lotion, conditioner or hand soap for a very long time. 


And this is the DONATE pile:

This is all stuff from the trailer: cushions, towels, a bag of clothing that I didn't even open and go through, a doggy bed and food bowls for a puppy I never had(?), sheets etc. Most came from Talize to begin with and back it all went! I made the drop-off immediately so I wouldn't be able to change my mind.  Not shown is the three garbage bags that went to the dumpster.


That is only the tip of the iceberg but I pledge to keep going. The longer I persist the easier it will get. Anything of considerable value I will list on kijiji or craigslist. Unfortunately we don't get a tax receipt for donations here in Canada but that's ok. 


I'm doing this for ME.

Weekly Wrap & Other Crap (How to get Great Stuff for FREE!!)

Only one week left of October - that's CRAZY!! Where did the month go?? Well, I slept the last week away in a kind of daze, that's why I've been MIA for the last few days. (daze - days - I'm a poet!!) I have been feeling VERY TIRED, can't get rid of my cold, and work has been crazy-busy what with progress reports, IEPs, parent/teacher interviews, meetings......so for a few nights I was going to bed at 8 or 9pm.


"Ok - Exhibit A" (maybe I missed a career as a rapper!)
The Good News: I did NOT go food shopping yesterday! And yes, it wasn't easy to stifle that habit but I did it! Even so I'm still very close to my $400 total monthly food budget due to overspending on Thanksgiving. Our fridge/freezer is definitely less packed but there is more than ample food to get us through to the end of the month. Sharon and Laura - how are you doing on this??


Other good news - DEBT and SAVINGS columns dominate my Spending Diary graph. Sometimes (ALWAYS) I feel guilty about my MISC purchases (read unnecessary purchases) but when I see the height of the MISC column compared to the DEBT and SAVINGS columns I can actually smile, laugh at my silly self (ha ha ha ha) and cast off those dang guilty feelings:)


The Bad News: I wish I could say there wasn't any bad news but there is a wee bit. I won't be able to make that extra deposit into my EF this month as planned because I had a few other expenses to cover and used that money up. You could say that's also Good News since I didn't have to take money out of savings to cover them. I had to buy a bulb for one of my headlights this week (well the car's headlights not MY headlight AND that's a whole other story!!) and I also took the car in for an oil change which always ends up costing way more than just the cost of the oil change - a brake light was not working, a filter needed changing etc. So the extra EF money was spent on the car instead and I am OK with that.


The extra expenses this month were more than balanced out by TWO GIFTS I received this week; one from Michael and one from Kazi. 

This gorgeous leather jacket is a gift from Kazi.  She works as a bartender for a popular club in London. Every couple of weeks unclaimed coats left in the coat check are given away to the Goodwill.  This one she nabbed and brought home for me - it fits perfectly and goes really well with Michael's gift:

Michael gave me an early Christmas gift this week - my first pair of Blundstone boots! Now that he's working at Fodemisi's he gets a great discount making these unaffordable boots affordable!! They are the most comfortable boots I've ever worn and I never want to take them off - EVER!!


Aren't I lucky?? All I need now is a Harley!


Other Crap:

• Sarah - I've fallen off the Scissors wagon but I do plan to get back on. It's just been one of THOSE weeks.
• KAZI PASSED HER DRIVING TEST!! SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO TAKE ANOTHER DRIVING TEST TIL SHE'S 80 YEARS OLD!! WOOT WOOT!
• After much taste testing Michael and I agree that the best chicken wings in London can be found HERE!  However, just to be sure we'll need to try them again....and again....
• the SMARTBOARD that I received for my classroom in September has finally been hooked up!! It's so much FUN!! My students will be using it for the first time tomorrow - I can hardly wait!! More about this in a future post!

I think that's a WRAP!