A Week of Mystery Meals....

A few weeks ago I decided to attempt a week of meals without a trip to the grocery store. It was interesting to say the least. I'd heard a friend from church mention she'd tried it and thought it would be a fun challenge. It was pretty rewarding to make meals from all the 'stuff' we had on hand. I will say that we didn't suffer too much. I had meat in the freezer, plenty of staples, and several cans of veggies. The most exciting part of the week of meals was the stockpile of mystery cans I finally dug into. A year ago (yes, a year) I was 'gifted' a huge bag of label-less cans at a white elephant gift exchange. Thanks, Andrea. Well, until now I've avoided the cans. I decided I couldn't stand to see that bag take up space in our pantry, so I started opening a few cans every day. Some mixed veggies made a nice 'side' for a meal and two cans were tomato sauce, which I used for a really great spaghetti and meatballs dinner. Here are a few other recipes I discovered and tried out that week:

Spaghetti and Meatballs - I tweaked this one because I didn't have any onions by the end of the week, but it was really delicious anyway.

Refried Beans - I found a bag of pinto beans that had been on my (or my mom's) pantry shelf for years. I decided to try making homemade refried beans. They were awesome! The recipe is actually called 'refried beans without the refry'. They cooked in the crockpot all day long! Our tacos ended up being a little more like tostadas, with fresh tortillas made from corn flour (we were out of tortillas and chips).

Breakfast Pies - These aren't really pies...and they were for dinner for us. Basically, little biscuits with sausage and eggs baked in ramekins (or a muffin tins). They were yummy and warmed up great for breakfasts the next couple of days!

One of the cans I opened was of potatoes....canned potatoes. What in the world do I use them for? I'd love any ideas you might have, as they're still in a tupperware in our fridge.

This coming week we will be going without desserts OR meat! I'll explain why in another post, as well as the recipes I find to eat 'vegitarian'. The one we ate tonight was OUTSTANDING!