Workin' the Fridge

This past Sunday, I went to Barnes and Noble with The Boy, and I spent practically the whole time there looking at this book. There were chapters on budgeting (duh) and saving money on big purchases (e.g. cars and houses). My attention, however, was caught by a whole chapter on saving money on food purchases--totally up my alley! The main take-aways, though? Firstly, cut down on the number of grocery trips (ideally to once a month ... wHAT?). Secondly, freeze. Literally, freeze everything ... even the milk! Well, at least it works for them. They spend $350 per month on food for 7 people. I spend almost that much on myself. Hm.

So, my fridge is packed, so I thought I might as well do my bi-weekly scourging of the fridge to see what can stay, what be used, and what should go. Apparently, my freezer revealed that I'm still very much a victim of buy-'n-forget. In other words: I bought, I froze, I forgot ... and I forgot much more than I thought I did. I had boneless chicken thighs, chicken quarters, chicken hearts, half of a frost bitten steak, flat iron steaks, pork chops, and some unknown (to me) cut of pork. Oh, and shrimp. Obviously, my desire to have better "husbandry" of my food purchases has "slightly" evaded me.

I decided yesterday that I had enough to cook with at home, and did my usual list-making of what I had:

• meat (as described above)
• salad lettuce
• cabbage
• mushrooms
• red onion
• mangos
• rice stick noodles
• mochi blocks
• fresh noodles (called "vermicelli" but they were much more like udon)
• quail eggs

I knew I wanted to use the chicken hearts and mango together in some sort of salad, and the pork and quail eggs together for a main dish. I ended up making the following:

• salad, using: lettuce, mushrooms, mango, red onion and chicken hearts (with my usual dressing of rice vinegar, soy and sugar ... but with minced-but-more-like-pulverized red onion)
  
• noodle soup, using: fresh noodles, cabbage, unknown cut of pork (sliced thin) and quail eggs

Both roomies and The Boy actually really really liked the salad. I did as well, and I'm sure I'll make it again. (I have another mango and chicken hearts left.)

Now for the rest of the meat!