What's in your fridge?

What do you keep in your fridge?

On the average day we have Milk, eggs, cheddar, feta, organic Parmesan and shredded Mexican blend cheeses, mozzarella string cheese, broccoli, orange and apple juice, sweet tea, some kind of meat, bagged salad, a Brita water filter, apple sauce, peppers(banana and jalapenos usually), leftovers butter and condiments.

I have decided to take pictures of my fridge as often as I can remember. I think it will hopefully make me think twice about what I put in there and help me to see what sits in there and doesn't get used and what gets used a lot.

These are a few pictures from today and descriptions to go with them.



In our fridge today:

Top shelf - Brita water filter, leftover spaghetti sauce, broccoli, salsa, margarine, organic yogurt, cherry pie filling, a caprisun juice pouch, bagged salad, kosher hot dogs and the rice from the stir fry I made tonight for dinner.

Middle shelf - Two Sun Drop sodas, one large container of green grapes, one large container of red grapes, bagged salad, two and a half dozen eggs, half a head of iceberg lettuce and a large jar of applesauce hidden behind it all.

Bottom shelf - 1% Milk, Simply apple juice, no pulp orange juice, iced sweet tea, whipped butter, feta cheese, ham steaks, leftover re-fried beans and fresh mozzarella cheese

Left drawer - Mozzarella cheese sticks, Mexican blend shredded cheese, block of cheddar cheese and limes

Right Drawer - carrots and corn on the cob



Now the door:

Top shelf - soy sauce, Greek dressing, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, Caesar dressing, pure maple syrup, grenadine, banana peppers, pepperoncini, jalapenos, A1 steak sauce, white bean salsa and a Caesar salad kit dressing and crouton packet.

Bottom shelf - dill pickle chips, ketchup, teriyaki sauce, grape jam, BBQ sauce, yellow mustard, strawberry jelly, honey teriyaki marinade, moscato wine, Italian dressing, mayonnaise

The Freezer:



Eggo waffles, ice cubes, chocolate moose tracks ice cream, strawberries, collard greens, tater tots, chicken, bananas, Parker house rolls and chili frozen in slabs.

The door of the freezer:



Baking powder to keep it nice and fresh, crinkle cut fries, steak fries, thin mint girl scout cookies, mint chocolate chip ice cream, vanilla ice cream, jamocha almond fudge ice cream, lean ground beef and peanut butter cookie dough.

By the look of this freezer you'd think we ate a lot of ice cream. Truth is most of those are full and completely iced over, we should probably throw them out.

I try to make good use of my freezer by buying lots of meat when it's on sale and then freezing it. I also try to make large batches of things like soup, chili, spaghetti and meatballs or meat sauce so we can freeze it and have it for a night when we are busy or are feeling lazy. It is also nice to have for lunches and nights when I'm not going to be home and the hubs is fending for himself.

I hope you enjoyed taking a peak into my fridge. More peaks to come!

Stir Fry

Tonight for dinner I decided to try something new, chicken stir fry over fried rice. Again I just kind of took a stab at it and didn't follow a recipe. From what I understood stir fry was pretty straight forward, meat, veggies and noodles or rice if desired, so that's what I did.

I used one large chicken breast sliced thin. A package of premixed stir fry veggies from the produce department at my grocery store, a little bit of oil for the pan, white rice, soy sauce and a large egg.



First I cooked the rice in a rice cooker, then rinsed it in cold water and put it in the fridge to chill.



Then I put some oil in a bowl with the sliced chicken and the package of veggies along with some ground ginger, garlic red pepper flakes, ground pepper and a few tbs of of soy sauce and mixed it all up to get everything coated and spiced up.



Next I put a couple tbs of oil in a large fry pan (I don't have a wok), put it on high and tossed all of the veggies and chicken in. I stirred it as it fried up. I added a little bit of water to the pan near the end I threw on a lid and let the veggies kind of steam a little. Then I added a little more soy sauce stirred it up a little more and put it in a bowl and covered it with foil.



I rinsed out the pan and added some oil again, brought it back up to high and then added the egg and stirred it around until it was almost all the way scrambled. Then I added soy sauce and the chilled rice. I let it fry in the pan until it looked like fried rice.



After it was done I platted the fried rice in noodle bowls and put the veggies and chicken on top.



It was really good and it was really easy to make, didn't take long and leave out the chicken and its an all veggie dish.

Enjoy!

A cheesecake project

SO this has nothing to do with my own cooking skills, more my love of cheesecake. I love a good cheesecake as much as the next girl and my husband is right behind me in line for a big piece of creamy goodness. So we have been two by two trying all of the cheesecakes that The Cheesecake Factory has to offer and we are a little over half way through the cheesecake menu, so I figured I would share my thoughts so far.


The Original

This is a classic, delicious but too plain for us.

Fresh Strawberry

I don't like strawberries, I know I'm crazy... but I do love the sugary goo that surrounds them. This is a good choice if you want something simple and topped with fruit, especially for me and my husband who loves the strawberries and could care less about the goo!

Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake™

I love cheesecake and I love red velvet cake and this concoction was supremely disappointing, as in I had two bites and decided I couldn't eat any more of it.

30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake

Again this mix of chocolate cake and cheesecake was disappointing, just because two things are delicious doesn't mean they need to be layered with one another.

White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle®

This was really good. I don't usually like anything white chocolate in anything but this is probably one of my favorites so far.

Godiva® Chocolate Cheesecake

When I am in the mood for something chocolaty this is my go to cheesecake. I love myself some Godiva and mix it with cheesecake and I am in heaven.

Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake

I wasn't very excited about this entry on the list, but keeping with the task at hand to try every cheesecake they have to offer we got it. I have never been happier to put something banana flavored in my mouth EVER! It was like banana pudding which I love, except firm and creamy and over crust.

Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple

This is very rich, very good, but rich. Definitely share this with someone, it's not something you can eat alone.

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake

This was not as good as I hoped it would be. Especially because I love lemon and raspberry, those were our wedding cake flavors, lemon cake with raspberry filling. It was just a strange piece of cheesecake and I probably wouldn't get it again.

Dulce de Leche Caramel Cheesecake

This will probably be in my top 3 cheesecakes when this project is said and done. It is just all around good, especially when you are sick of fruit and sick of chocolate, which happens on occasion.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle®

This is another great option for a chocolate cheesecake. Definitely in my top 10.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

This is my all time favorite cheesecake, not to mention my all time flavor of anything. If I could eat something pumpkin flavored every day I would.


Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

This is only OK. I love Pecan pie and Pumpkin anything but I was disappointed with the combination.


Maybe sometime soon I'll post a little blog about my first attempt at making a cheesecake... it wasn't pretty and ended with a hunk of baked cheese that you could use as a brick.

Pulled Pork

So being the lack luster blogger that I am, of course it took me a hundred years to remember to take a picture. And I only remembered to take a picture at the end. Anyway, here we go, I didn't use a recipe, I don't with a lot of things I make, I'm too lazy to look up what other people think I should do. So for this I got some advice from my brother who could out cook me any day of the week.



Pulled Pork

I used 3.5lbs. of picnic pork roast

I mixed:

1/2 c white vinegar
1 c bbq sauce (use your favorite)

A few shakes of:
fresh ground black pepper
red pepper flakes
garlic
kosher salt

I poured all the spices and sauce on the roast in a croc pot cooked it on low for 9 hours and then pulled it apart.

After I pulled it all I put it on a baking sheet and baked it at 375 degrees until the top layer was a little bit crispy. And then served on buns with bbq sauce.