USING UP FOODS - WEEK END COOKING

Every week end I try to cook for the coming week. The pantry is a little slim right now, so worked on using what I had. There was a large bag of potatoes which were starting to sprout and I really did not want them to go bad.

With the old Saladmaster grinder/shredder I make some of the taters into hash browns, skins and all. After shredding them, I nuked them so they were partially done, spread them on an old pizza pan to cool and bagged them up for the freezer. I love

hash browns!

The Saladmaster was boughten at a flea market for $10 about 5 years ago. At the time I thought it was a bit spendy, but I have really gotten alot of use out of it. Amazingly the original manual was with it. There were 6 "cams" with it. The best part is that it is stainless steel. I need a small screw to put a knob on the handle, so will have to remember that when I get to the hardware store.

Some of the taters were peeled, as were some carrots, then boiled and mashed. If you have not tried this, you really should, as it is excellent. Babies love them too! The peels all went into my compost coffee can to be spread later this week on top of the snow over the flower beds. One of the gals from the Frugal Living Forum does this and says it works great.

There was turkey from Thanksgiving in the freezer that needed to be used up too. I had some sauteed celery and onions in the freezer (also saved at the spare of the moment) and, of course, some chicken broth, then added some mixed frozen veggies for turkey soup. I made a few egg dumplings, then all of it was cooled and put in the freezer.

I always save the ends of my bread and whatever seems to be getting a bit old in a plastic bag in my freezer. There was enough to make some great bread pudding. Bread pudding is wonderful for desert with a bit of milk or ice cream or for breakfast.

Bread Pudding

3-4 cups cubed dried bread. Wheat is ok! Dried, stale etc.
2 cups of milk heated, but not boiling (I used powdered milk)
2 T butter
1/8 t salt
½ cup sugar, I use brown sugar.
2-3 eggs beaten

1 t. vanilla
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
Raisins and - or dried cranberries

Heat milk (Put the raisins in it to plump them up) and butter then add bread. Supposedly you are to let this cool, but I never do.
Beat eggs; add the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 min. in a buttered or no stick pan.

Sunday morning I had put a small beef roast in the crocked pot, so had a fabulous dinner about 2:20 of roast beef, mashed tater-carrots and some frozen broccoli. Yummy!

Between cooking this and that, I wiped down the cupboards, throughly dusted the diningroom and livingroom and mopped up the laminate floors. Then I did a little rearranging of furniture to give things a new look. It lifted my spirits, if nothing else.

Sunday evenings have become bread baking time. My daughter gave me a bread machine for Christmas and I am trying to get the nack of it. The white bread comes out great, but my wheat breads are either crusty and dry or crusty and doughy in the middle. I have gotten a few ideas from posters and am going to try wheat bread again.