So, as you might have seen, a good part of Colorado was hit overnight with some massive, historic-level floods. North of us in Boulder, south of us in Colorado Springs, the pictures have been rolling in.
But in our little pocket on the southwest side of Denver, it's only lightly drizzled all day.
It's cool enough to warrant the first batch of homemade chili, which has made the house smell fantastic since morning as it simmered in the crock pot. It was also a good plan because, starting yesterday, we are down to Apocalypse Rations, as I call them. Apocalypse Rations are those things that keep getting pushed to the back of the pantry in favor of other things regularly replaced by the weekly shopping trips. Since we didn't make it to the store because of the trip to Texas, and we only did a quick refresh trip the weekend before that because of busy schedules, we have hit back-of-the-pantry dinner ideas now.
I didn't have any tomato paste, but I found a can of petite diced tomatoes that I ran in the blender to substitute, a couple of cans of beans, and a pound of ground turkey in the back of the freezer. Throw in some chili and onion powder, a pinch of kosher salt, and voila -- one pot of chili. I also discovered a box of cornbread mix! Score.
I started counting up how many more dinners I could get out of what's on hand, and I have to say, we could go a lot longer than I'd previously realized. Granted, we could only get one spaghetti dinner with meat (which is slated for tomorrow night), but with all the bottles of tomato sauce and spaghetti noodles socked away in there, we could dine on meatless spaghetti for another week. Sadly, there is only a single piece of abandoned frozen garlic Texas Toast. Dibs.
Oh, and we only have enough sandwich bread for three more sandwiches and about that much deli-turkey, so let's count that as one meal.
Thanks to Sam's repeated stockpiling of Ramen, we could get by another week just on that.
Thanks to more beans in the back, I could whip up a meatless Taco Bean Soup that we could stretch to three nights, as well as a week's worth of Red Beans and rice.
Also possible: one night of shrimp Étouffée; a night of horrible boxed mac and cheese as long as we could also agree to split a lone can of Spaghettios three ways; in the freezer there was a box of frozen fish and a package of sweet potato fries plus I have tartar sauce; and with three cans of Campbell's soup and crackers, we're at meal # 26!
Still not done, though. With some canned chicken and the last of the rice on hand, we could stretch a casserole with the last of the milk (not used on pancakes with syrup, but no bacon) for two nights with some canned potatoes and green beans. With the other can of chicken, we can get a round of cold pasta salad with the salad dressing and peppers/olives in the fridge. Down at the very depth of the freezer: a few chicken nuggets, as well as a bag of frozen broccoli and carrots that we could fight over. Grand total? 33 meals.
At that point, we're down to the last of the peanut butter, which is mostly my natural stuff, which Bob and Sam won't touch, so I'll clearly outlast both of them in this contest.
Once I'm out of that, though, all that's left is a few various condiments (we'll have barbecue sauce and nothing to put it on, and plenty of mustard) and, finally, the alcohol, which, let's be honest, wouldn't last the month if we actually tried to use up everything in the house before restocking.
Realistically? I'll make spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow night and hit the store Saturday morning.
But in our little pocket on the southwest side of Denver, it's only lightly drizzled all day.
It's cool enough to warrant the first batch of homemade chili, which has made the house smell fantastic since morning as it simmered in the crock pot. It was also a good plan because, starting yesterday, we are down to Apocalypse Rations, as I call them. Apocalypse Rations are those things that keep getting pushed to the back of the pantry in favor of other things regularly replaced by the weekly shopping trips. Since we didn't make it to the store because of the trip to Texas, and we only did a quick refresh trip the weekend before that because of busy schedules, we have hit back-of-the-pantry dinner ideas now.
I didn't have any tomato paste, but I found a can of petite diced tomatoes that I ran in the blender to substitute, a couple of cans of beans, and a pound of ground turkey in the back of the freezer. Throw in some chili and onion powder, a pinch of kosher salt, and voila -- one pot of chili. I also discovered a box of cornbread mix! Score.
I started counting up how many more dinners I could get out of what's on hand, and I have to say, we could go a lot longer than I'd previously realized. Granted, we could only get one spaghetti dinner with meat (which is slated for tomorrow night), but with all the bottles of tomato sauce and spaghetti noodles socked away in there, we could dine on meatless spaghetti for another week. Sadly, there is only a single piece of abandoned frozen garlic Texas Toast. Dibs.
Oh, and we only have enough sandwich bread for three more sandwiches and about that much deli-turkey, so let's count that as one meal.
Thanks to Sam's repeated stockpiling of Ramen, we could get by another week just on that.
Thanks to more beans in the back, I could whip up a meatless Taco Bean Soup that we could stretch to three nights, as well as a week's worth of Red Beans and rice.
Also possible: one night of shrimp Étouffée; a night of horrible boxed mac and cheese as long as we could also agree to split a lone can of Spaghettios three ways; in the freezer there was a box of frozen fish and a package of sweet potato fries plus I have tartar sauce; and with three cans of Campbell's soup and crackers, we're at meal # 26!
Still not done, though. With some canned chicken and the last of the rice on hand, we could stretch a casserole with the last of the milk (not used on pancakes with syrup, but no bacon) for two nights with some canned potatoes and green beans. With the other can of chicken, we can get a round of cold pasta salad with the salad dressing and peppers/olives in the fridge. Down at the very depth of the freezer: a few chicken nuggets, as well as a bag of frozen broccoli and carrots that we could fight over. Grand total? 33 meals.
At that point, we're down to the last of the peanut butter, which is mostly my natural stuff, which Bob and Sam won't touch, so I'll clearly outlast both of them in this contest.
Once I'm out of that, though, all that's left is a few various condiments (we'll have barbecue sauce and nothing to put it on, and plenty of mustard) and, finally, the alcohol, which, let's be honest, wouldn't last the month if we actually tried to use up everything in the house before restocking.
Realistically? I'll make spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow night and hit the store Saturday morning.
0 comments:
Post a Comment