Making Amazing Meals From The Pantry - #4

 

There have been a lot of amazing meals made in this kitchen of mine lately.  I love this time of year when produce becomes more seasonally available and tastes so much fresher too.  Asparagus is one of my favorites this time of year and I’ve been taking advantage of that not only to prepare as a side dish now, but also to blanche and put away some into my deep freezer for later on in the year.  My frozen asparagus not only saves me money, it tastes much better too.

 

Beef patties I found on markdown made for some excellent meals.  I consider these to be my fast food or convenience food items as I can fry these up rather quickly and then use the pan drippings to sauté asparagus spears or whatever vegetable I happen to be preparing.  I added a bit of cheese to the patties and then mashed half of an avocado on top of each one.  This made me two meals.  Delicious!

 

Since I hadn’t used it yet I chopped up a head of cabbage I had picked up at the end of February and put it into a gallon size Ziploc bag and into the freezer to use later.  It will be very handy to add to soup or make eggroll in a bowl.

 

I used the last two packages of 2023 ground beef to make a meatloaf which I “baked” in my slow cooker.  The last hour of cooking I added a partial package of frozen whole green beans to steam.  The green beans were tossed with a little bit of butter and some seasoned salt.  I had plenty of delicious leftovers for three meals and it was so good.

 

A piece of last year’s Easter ham was placed in the slow cooker with the last of the cranberry sauce left from Thanksgiving to make an easy glazed ham.  Set on low for four hours it heated up perfectly.  I steamed a bag of broccoli florets sprinkled with a bit of cheese and served it alongside the glazed ham.  This meal made me two meals.

 

Steak marinated overnight in my own homemade Italian salad dressing was grilled in a pan.  After the steak was cooked I added sliced mushrooms and once they were cooked I deglazed the pan with a splash of red wine.  I sliced the steak and topped it with the mushrooms.  A fresh green salad with avocado went along with the steak perfectly.  That mushroom topping on the steak was amazing!

 

My homemade and canned soups and chili filled in as my soup meals between the other meals I made.  I also made a lot of delicious vegetable loaded green salads topped with chopped egg and feta cheese.  Spinach salad with dried cranberries, sliced mushroom, pecans and chopped egg was another favorite.  Sliced apples along with a scoop of peanut butter as well as some nutrient packed berry smoothies was my go-to for a few brunches.  So many delicious options!