Inside My Fridge

Inside my fridge: two kinds of fresh cucumber salad, two kinds of water kefir (peach and ginger), and homemade fermented pickles....so many probiotics! The watermelon and cabbage are wrapped in wax paper and freezer paper vs. plastic wrap -- both are wonderful alternatives!

Inside My Freezer - January 2015

Ahh, real life! What you can see when you open my freezer are frozen peas, salmon patties, jars of cooked/frozen beans and stocks. Some frozen fennel for making beans, my "Stock Bag", a jar of Jack Daniels Sea Salt Caramel from my sister, freezer packs for the kids' lunches, and on the far right is the bag of shrimp shells I'm saving up to make a nice stock for a seafood bisque.

Inside My Fridge - September 29, 2014

Hurrah! I cleaned out the fridge!

I've got a pot of beans in the back, and I think I'm going to try some red bean hummus. I've become a bean convert after reading (and subsequently purchasing) An Everlasting Meal; cooking them with Tamar Adler's method and mindset yields an abundance of blessings, for both palate and soul.

It's a busy week, but I think we're in good shape. In the foil packs are leftover chicken ( which I am planing to freeze for easy chicken-noodle soup on the first chilly/rainy day) and country ribs (which I can't eat so spouse will probably take for lunch). We've got plenty of fruit (there are still local-ish peaches here, but they're going fast), cucumbers, squash, tons of yellow peppers from my dad, two pints of yogurt and a little half-pint of almond pesto. You can see some homemade sauerkraut on the top shelf; I've been making an active effort to consume more fermented items, and find that this crunchy kraut is great on a sandwich!

Also (not pictured) I have my first butternut and acorn squash, though I know I'll pick up several more at our last Farmer's Market. I'm thinking to do soup with white beans for the acorn squash, and probably roast the butternut and toss with pasta and the rest of that leftover chicken. I also have a few Brandywines I need to pick before the critters get to them and one gorgeous eggplant that will probably have to become Eggplant Parmesan.

I really love Eggplant Parm, but if no one else was enthusiastic about it, I'd probably make that dish once during the growing season, and just roast or sauté the eggplant the rest of the time (which the kids will eat, but not much and not with gusto). This will be the third time this summer for me to make this dish, and it's because...well, who could say "no" to a 6-year-old who begs for eggplant? Not me!

Inside My Fridge - August 15, 2014

Why do I share pictures of what's inside my fridge? Well, as I said on my first post on the subject (four years ago), I initially planned for this to be a weekly series. In America, where children routinely go hungry each day, we throw away almost half of our food. It boggles the mind. 

Frugality is not just about "not buying stuff" or "not spending money," but about using what we have, using it all. To that end, a weekly cleaning and assessment of the fridge ensures that we find items before they go bad, so that we can use them up. The weekly "Inside My Fridge" picture was meant to be a vehicle for me for refrigerator cleaning, and some meal planning. If you click on the "Inside My Fridge" tab at the top of this blog, however, you'll see that I quickly abandoned the weekly commitment.

I didn't clean my fridge pre-picture, but I have a pretty good idea of what's in most of the fridge right now. The majority of those tomatoes will go into a sauce for pizza tonight. Pizza is also the plan for the chunks of fresh mozzarella in the jar by the peanut butter, and for the roasted zucchini slices in the jar to the left of the basket of oranges. I ran out of containers, so my cantaloupe is covered with plastic wrap; I'm happy to report that plastic wrap is used rarely in our home these days.

I've been experimenting with sourdough lately, so you can see my jar up yeast up there on the top shelf, next to a "mixed berry" homemade yogurt. The white crock is full of yogurt to strain/flavor tomorrow. Today, I'm making pickles with cucumbers, and with onions/peppers!

If you haven't seen a fridge picture in a while, send me a challenge! Post on my Facebook page Becky's Favorite Things: https://www.facebook.com/MakeYourFavoriteThings and ask me to post a picture....right now!, or post your own there if you're feelin' froggy.

And if you find refrigerators as fascinating as I do, you'll enjoy visiting my initial inspiration for the "Inside My Fridge" project, Mark Menjivar's "You Are What You Eat" project (warning: his pictures are much more professional than mine!).

Inside My Fridge - April 2014

I haven't done one of these in a while. Beautiful spring asparagus this week. I'm also really enjoying my homemade water kefir (green bottle) when it gets hot. We're also getting down to the last of the pickles I made last summer. The farmers markets are getting going here in the next week or so, and I've got cucumber seeds in the ground. Glad for spring!

Inside My Fridge - June 1, 2013

Roasted marinated mushrooms, pear custard bars (using up the giant block of cream cheese on the bottom shelf), pears, grapes, avocados, various fruits, giant bag of broccoli, water kefir (delish!). After taking this picture, I realized the only meat is some pepperoni in the cheese drawer. Interesting. We have plenty in the freezer, I promise, though less than I used to store.

Inside My Fridge - Jan. 31, 2012

Christmas leftovers, New Year's Eve supplies....tomorrow I will freeze what I can because I am giving up meat and most dairy (along with alcohol, as usual) for my most ambitious Lint ever. This is the third year I'm embarking upon my own abstemious spiritual practice, modeled on the Catholic season of Lent I practiced as a child and young adult. This is my third year for Lint, and I am a bit surprised to find myself looking forward to this period of self-imposed austerity right in the heart of winter. I am also a bit annoyed that I haven't come up with a better name for it yet,  but I suppose the name will come when it's ready.

Happy New Year!

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Inside My Fridge - Dec. 7, 2012

Fruits and veggies, fruits and veggies, fruits and veggies!

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Inside My Fridge - Oct 2012

From earlier this week: a big pot of chicken stock, homemade carrot soup (gone now), homemade pickles (delish!!) and, up top, a jar of recalled peanut butter. BBQ this weekend!!
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Inside My Fridge - April 20, 2012

I'd planned to go be inspired by seasonal veggies at the Farmer's Market...until my 4-year-old woke up with a fever. Such is life! I am really craving some fresh, local strawberries and I bought some phyllo dough to encase some fresh spinach, but those tastes of the season will have to wait.

We have plenty of things for our Friday pizza/movie night and I also have a spaghetti squash to make this yummy-looking gratin (a Pinterest find, so yes, I do find it useful). It's supposed to be chilly here tomorrow, so I think it's a perfect day to make some homemade chicken stock with my stock bag from the freezer. That means we'll probably do a soup on Sunday, maybe the Moosewood carrot soup with some ginger! 

On the lower right shelf, I have yogurt straining to make it thicker -- it really makes it delicious. That would actually be perfect to top carrot soup, so I think I've convinced myself! I also have ingredients to make a version of this boiled egg/pasta/pesto dinner from The Weekly Greens which I think will be a family-friendly hit with some warm artisan bread (it's hard to see, but my bowl of dough is in the back on the left, bottom shelf).

I am crazy for sprouts this time of year -- they are perfect through the late winter and early spring before the lettuces get going. They add some nice texture and crunch to wraps and sandwiches and they also happen to be very good for you. I grow my own in a Mason jar! and store them in a saver in the fridge (they're on the middle shelf on, also on the right). Super easy!

What's in your fridge right now?

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Inside My Fridge - March 26, 2012

Leftovers Galore!


Here you see the remains of our Spring Smokeout: cole slaw, pasta salad and probably 10 lbs of pulled pork and some ribs. We make a ton and share it the first night with friends, eat leftovers the second night with family, then freeze the remainder in upcycled aluminum pie pans in smaller portions. Makes a great quick weeknight meal or easy to take to someone's gathering. You can see my husband's awesome homemade BBQ sauce balanced up on top of our water pitcher.


Speaking of water, the number and type of cold beverages in the fridge seems to grow as the mercury rises. In this picture, I can see the milk and water (which we always have) along with sun tea, green/mint coldbrew tea, homemade limeade, and margarita mix.


Viva la Lifestyle Change!!


We also have lots of fruit and salad greens right now. I recently stumbled across the Super Healthy Kids blog and loved their "50% of what you eat should be fruits and vegetables" approach to filling one's plate. How Simple! How Easy!


I really don't believe in "dieting" unless I have a medical condition and it's prescribed by my doctor. This is my way of saying that (unless my doctor tells me to) I absolutely and categorically refuse to count calories, weigh food, completely eschew any food group (like no carbs, no meat,), etc. But I also want to be healthy, so I need to find easy ways to guide and form my natural inclinations and choices so that I am enthusiastic about choosing healthy food.


In the last few years, I've taken the "Eat Real Food" banner and run with it, but I have found that this 50% guideline is great way to guide how I fill my plate. I cannot expect my children to do what I do not, so I have been trying to lead by example since I first read the Healthy Kids blog in January. Besides feeling better overall, I have dropped 5 lbs since without really "doing" anything else new. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but a general guideline that is helping my whole family choose and enjoy a lot more good things!


Viva la Lifestyle Change!!

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Inside My Fridge - Dec 2, 2011

"Inside My Fridge" version of Where's Waldo...see if you can spot:
Last of leftover gravy?
Turkey stock to freeze?
Turkey noodle soup?
Turkey enchilada casserole?
Turkey tetrazzini (hint: it's gone)

I also made turkey pizzas last night for our Friday "Pizza and Movie Night" extravaganza. The best thing about pizza is that you can use what you have. Both had a tomato sauce base, but one had turkey, mexican-blend cheese, onions, olives and the other had turkey, artichokes, lots of onions and all the leftover Thanksgiving brie (amen!).

Inside My Fridge - August 8, 2011

I still have loads of cucumbers! In addition to cucumber salad and many batches of icebox pickles, the last of which you can see bottom-center. I tried a version of this tomato-cucumber soup that was quite nice, but need a creamy, cold cucumber soup this summer, so I'll find one this week.

We have oodles of pattypan squashes, which are possibly now my favorite squash. I've been slicing them and layering in a pan with olive oil, salt/pepper and a bit of parmesan, then baking. Simpler is better for truly fresh food and it doesn't get much more simple than that. My dad has promised me several of the cute-and-tiny pattypans which I plan to stuff with cheesy breadcrumbs and maybe some bacon. My husband wants to try an oyster stuffing for these as well, so if anyone has any recipes, let me know.

The paper bag contains some not-totally-ripe tomatoes from our CSA. This is a great tip for those massive heirlooms you grow at home that split if you leave them on the vine, but are green on top if you pick them when the bottoms are ripe. Just put them in a paper bag for a few days; this captures the ethylene gas and allows them to finish ripening to delicious perfection.

Also, you may see the store yogurt on the bottom shelf and wonder if I've given up making my own. Funny story there...my three-year-old became constipated, which given the amount of fresh (mostly raw) fruit and vegetables she eats is rather odd and the pediatrician recommended adding some probiotics and specifically mentioned Activia so we immediately procured some. A little research over the weekend indicates that, yes, homemade yogurt does indeed contain lots and lots of probiotics, so that's good to know for certain. Oh, the funny part of the story? As it turns out, between my husband and myself we'd given her an inhuman amount of cheese over the previous two days. Communication failure there...

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Inside My Fridge - July 31, 2011

Tomato Season

I have oodles of sweet little cherry tomatoes, so that spells soup with some of my newly-dried dill. The skins are no problem if you have a sieve and a blender. I'll make a batch of icebox pickles to add to sandwiches or eat as a side dish (or snack). Tonight's plan is a fresh corn/tomato salad and some leftover ham. Later this week, I'll roast free-range chicken and make my 4-year-old's green been/potato recipe as a main dish.

We tend to eat light in the summer. Besides the leftover ham, the chicken will be the only meat cooked this week, although I do admit to having bacon in there that my husband plans to use for BLTs. I like BLTs but can't justify eating them as often as I eat tomato sandwiches -- nearly every day until the end of tomato season. We end up with several different types of tomatoes and I never get tired of a simple sandwich with mayo and basil. Since I rarely even buy tomatoes out of season, it's a lunch I will only be able to gorge on enjoy for another few months.

Everything spoils so quickly in the summer! Once the bananas reach their perfect spot of ripeness, I put them in the fridge. They will stay at that perfect spot much longer; they'd only last another day or two on the counter before being too soft for me. Even apples transform into a magic cooling treat if kept in the fridge.

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Inside My Fridge - June 5, 2011

In my fridge this week, we are in CSA heaven already. We only got one head of kohlrabi, not enough to try this kohlrabi puree, so that will have to keep. We have sugar-cured sliced ham, napa cabbage, bok choy, a massive head of broccoli, some gorgeous purple onions and assorted salad greens. I finally have beets enough (lower shelf in the middle) to make these Beet Chocolate Cupcakes, so that will definitely happen this week!

Also bottom-right I have some jasmine rice with peas and carrots (right next to the highly-recommended Summer Shandy). My time-saving tip of the week is to cook twice as much rice or pasta as you need and store the rest for quick sides or to make up easy vegetarian meals. The peas are homegrown! Next batch will have our own peas and carrots, if those ever last long enough to make it inside.

I have gone a bit crazy with cold summer beverages. You can see some homemade lemonade (in the Mason jar), so easy with citrus simple syrup, but there is also some green tea and cold-brewed coffee. Yes, that's right, I found a way to make a superb iced coffee -- no heat required because it is getting HOT here in the mid-south.  I will share details in a future post!

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Inside My Fridge - May 25, 2011

My cup overfloweth with lettuces and strawberries. Apple juice/amoxicillin for the 4-year-old with a sore ear.  Rice/pasta for easy meals with green stuff this week as the adults recover from a stomach virus. Note the citrus simple syrup to the right of the milk -- my new favorite thing this summer.

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Inside My Fridge - May 8, 2011

First delivery of the Spring/Summer season from Avalon Acres! If you live in the Nashville area and want to join a CSA, this is a great one -- includes truly free-range meat, eggs, pasta, jams/jellies, etc., along with locally-grown, pesticide-free produce. The fresh strawberries are almost gone and so is half of that bok choy and a large head of farm broccoli after last night's dinner with my parents (udon noodles with steamed broccoli and carrots in sesame-peanut sauce and pork chops with bacon and bok choy, homemade vanilla yogurt and fresh strawberries).

I have lots of spinach in my garden and a big bag from Avalon, so I think I will do a spinach-pasta dish this week and that is as far as I've gotten with the planning. Avgolemono is a possibility since I have some lovely, farm-raised chicken breasts in the freezer. I also have not made broccoli soup for the kids yet, so that is an option. One terrific use for spinach and other greens: smoothies! They taste terrific and my kids love them. They get a kick out of eating greens that way....and so do I since that is the only way they actually consume greens thus far.

In case you have not yet figured it out, the "Inside My Fridge" picture is an exercise that forces me to inventory and tidy my refrigerator. Doing this weekly reduces waste and gives me an opportunity to be creative with meals instead of resorting to fish sticks or "the box" as the tubular pasta and dried, processed cheesefood is known in our house. A little planning goes a long way.

Fridge - March 11

This week: cabbage for the corned beef on St. Paddy's Day, homemade yogurt, bread dough, canned peaches/pears, lots of fresh veg for hubby's new favorite: the chopped salad.
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Weekly Fridge Pic - August 16

Taken on Monday, but I'm trying to get back in the swing of the blog.  We have lots of tomatoes, so a new thing I tried this week was my own homemade, very basic, marinara.  I used all those cherry tomatoes and some large ones.  Instead of trying to peel the wee cherries, I tossed them in the blender with a splash of water, hit Liquefy and let it go to town.  Then I pressed them through a mesh strainer until nothing was left but seeds and skin (total time here: about 30-40 minutes, so not bad).  It did take a bit longer to cook down because of the extra water, but came out really tasty!

Also on the menu this week is stuffed pattypan squash (tonight), eggplant parmesan (with that homemade marinara), butternut squash linguini with bacon and goat cheese and Friday Night pizza with fresh tomato, mozzarella, basil and pepperoni.  I'm also thinking of making a hot pepper sauce with those red peppers as a gift to my heat-loving spouse.

Here's last week (August 9).  We got a monster bag of mozzarella at Costco that I separated for storage in the deep freeze.  I've begun making Friday night "Pizza Night" since I found a terrific pizza dough recipe that I'll share soon.  Last week's menu included fresh country ham, scalloped potatoes, eggplant lasagna (try adding pesto to your ricotta for a veggie summer delight!), squash/tomato cassserole with ground beef (mini burgers for the kids) and icebox pickles, which have become a summer standard around here.

Since joining a CSA, we naturally eat a lot less meat and instead have lots of great fresh veggies, veggie sides and rice/quinoa, fresh bread on our table.  It's really a wonderful way to be connected to the cycle of nature.  And here, all this time, I though salads with lettuce were natural summertime food!  Not so in our home these days.  "Salad" in summer means tomato, cucumber, basil and maybe some squash.  Try some fresh cucumber on your sandwich next time -- the crunch and flavor is far superior to lettuce that was picked weeks ago.

Weekly Fridge Pic - June 29, 2010

We are swimming in fresh, tasty vegetables.  Cucumbers, squash, corn, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes....I am determined to put some of this in the freezer to enjoy a taste of summer six months from now.

But for this week, lots of vegetable dishes: red potato salad with bacon (in the bowl there), roasted red pepper hummus with peppers and fresh tomatoes, cucumber salad, pasta salad, hot dogs with mac-n-cheese and cold green beans for my son's Birthday Dinner.  Sitting on top of that quinoa/brown rice is a flank steak that we'll have for fajitas tomorrow with all that fresh organic corn.   

Also on the agenda: batch #2 of homemade yogurt, this time with whole milk.

By the way, Alice Waters' Summer Squash Soup with yogurt and mint is wonderful.  Maria at Gastronomical Three has posted the recipe so I won't bother to type it out again.  

I also made my first-ever, totally-from-scratch cake.