Saturday, March 30, 2013

Too Much Mustard


 I'm on a mission right now to clean out my kitchen.  I'm reading American Wasteland and feel a little embarrassed by the number of varieties of mustard in my fridge.  I count 7 now, but that's only because we finished off the last little bit of 3 jars this past week.

It's not just the mustard, though.  I've got a whole shelf of hot sauces and varieties of beans I've never even used before.

So here's what I've been eating to clean out the foods I've been neglecting at the back of the fridge and pantry.

1.  Black beans with millet, pickled limes, cumin-coriander-apricot chutney and harissa kale chips.  (pickled these limes 3 years ago)



2.  Roasted broccoli and carrots with WW Israeli couscous and last year's frozen pesto.  (Just enough couscous left for a couple servings.  Been sitting in the pantry for months.  I also poured a little thinned-out mustard over the broccoli and called it a mustard sauce.)














3. Barbecue pinto beans and chipotle lime Gardein strips over romaine lettuce and carrots.  With ranch dressing, of course.  (Finishing off some barbecue sauce and pintos).



 4. Butternut squash ravioli with edamame and pesto.
(Frozen ravioli.  Frozen edamame.  Frozen pesto.  Cleaning out the freezer!)
5. Chora dal na pooda with barley, saag, apricot chutney.  (The last of the hulled barley and finally tried the chora dal!).

I'll have more to share soon.  I have weird cereal no one wants, urad dal, and so many dried garden herbs.  It feels like Iron Chef trying to plan my meals around these ingredients.

4 comments:

Jenni (aka Vegyogini) said...

I have many mustards in my fridge (and different types of miso and jams and...), as well! And many types of beans in my pantry and some things I could clear out of my freezer. I love clearing things out!

Yoakumputer said...

Ugh. I feel you! Going through a serious pantry challenge this month myself. Perhaps you may know the answer to this too... for how long would you trust Amish jam? It looks fine...but it's about 9 months old in my fridge. Bought it from a house up in our local Amish region. Not sure if basic pectin (I'm assuming that's what they use) keeps a product that long. I just don't eat enough jelly obviously...

Sarah C said...

I've been working on clearing out my freezer and pantry for the last few weeks too. It's a spring thing for me, I think. I've only lived in this house since August, and the kitchen is already stuffed with bits and bobs and stuff we don't use - how does that happen? Thanks for the inspiration to keep working on the clear-out!

Anonymous said...

I love your clean out the fridge/freezer/pantry meals! How inspiring.