no sugar, no no......lol

preserving ginger by pickling in vodka started me thinking of pickling ginger in rum. lol

I don't drink much at all anymore but wouldn't a nice rum punch, with a little umbrella sitting by that waterfall, be so nice right now

I've started rotating in the older of our freezer selections. I started stockpiling early, just in case. This also helps me keep our grocery runs to once a week.

I took some ground lamb out of the freezer yesterday to make my Shepherd's Pie.

This is a particular favourite of mine and I always make enough to last several days

I put some lamb riblets (from the freezer) in the slow cooker yesterday, on top of a layer of sliced onions (from the pantry). The onions & juices from the lamb went into the blender for a gravy base, added a dash of cream, and found a small container of sauteed chanterelle mushrooms in the freezer, so added them too (as well as a few things from the spice shelf). Roasted (frozen) cauliflower on the side, and some noodles (pantry) for DH.

yum ! Lamb is so tastey.

As soon as I read this it made me think of this:

"MMMM So good and tasty"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FrpuPLYnvY

(comedic relief)

I stocked some frozen fruit to use in cheesecakes. Last time was an excellent cherry version, and right now I'm overnight fridging (that's when the magic happens) strawberry rhubarb. Also, this cuts down on my prep.

Juggling fresh at this time is too tricky, since this is becoming a "quarantine staple." If I come home with fresh berries AND make a cheesecake that day, it could happen. The more I make a recipe, the faster it goes, of course.

Getting the fruit as frozen means I always have it handy. I not only love fruit cheesecakes, this lets me cut the sweetener by more than half from the original recipe directions, which was 2/3rds of a cup.

My adaptation, Cheese cake recipe from this thread:
https://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=32185

1/4 cup almond flour
2 tbl softened butter

This is mostly eyeballed so I can mash it around at the bottom of a pie pan. You want to make a crumbly layer at the bottom of the pan. Let it sit in the oven while it preheats.


2 packages 8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup monk fruit/erythritol sweetener
3 eggs
splash of lemon juice, like 2 tbl
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

soften the cream cheese and beat in all ingredients until smooth. A mixer would be great but I can do it by hand.

add

1 cup frozen fruit, thaw a bit on low power in microwave to cut up easily

Pour into pie pan. Bake at 325 for 50 mins.

Cool completely, then overnight in fridge.

Even Mr WereBear loves this and it's sweet enough for him. It's very keto friendly, depending on fruit used.

Berries and cherries are the lowest carb of all fruits, but if that's an issue, adding 1/4 cup cocoa (or to taste) will make it chocolate and low carb. Or use flavoring and orange or lemon zest for a citrus variety that also low in carbs.

I will try a key lime version at some point

I had the leftover lamb for my dinner this evening. Not enough for DH, and he isn't super fond of lamb anyway. So he got not-at-all-LC pea soup from the pantry, with a bit of ham from the freezer tossed in. Soup was his mother's recipe; I make a big soup pot of it once a year, and can it for the pantry. Quite nice, but the only thing in there that I am eating these days would be the ham or sausage :-)

I've been doing a pretty good job of using up older food from the freezer. We had beef stew last night that was from November, and I had some beef in BBQ sauce for brunch this morning. The stew tasted great!

Tonight, we're having cauliflower bacon soup.

omg cauliflower bacon soup !!

While editing son's paper, 8 pages DS, with son hanging over shoulder, he kept reheating single serving stews from the freezer. Great to have a microwave in his room, so we could keep working.

3 containers down.

Cauli bacon soup is one of my winter faves! I started making it because I'm regularly tempted at work by our potato bacon soup. You can take any potato bacon soup recipe pretty much, and sub cauliflower. I usually use frozen. The soup freezes really nicely. I just avoid adding cream and the bacon until it's ready to serve. The bacon can get rubbery.

Today's freezer use will just be some kitty mush to stretch out the expensive cat food. May as well not go to the pet store again until we have to.

I defrosted a pack of pork tenderloin for dinner yesterday, and cooked them on the grill. This is enough for 4 or 5 meals for the two of us. I also have a chicken defrosting in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner. Between the pork and the chicken we'll be eating well for the week, just need to add veggies. We had some cauliflower gnocchi (TJ's, frozen) last night with the pork; DH has become a fan now, as well as of cauliflower rice.

Today is "clean out the fridge & freezer" slow-cooker soup day!!

Thawed a 1 lb tube of frozen ground turkey, browned, crumbled then threw in the crock .. plus thawed home-made chicken bone broth, water of course, chopped red onion, celery, garlic and fresh parsley, some frost-bitten frozen green beans and okra .. and a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes. Sea salt, dried thyme and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

It's still slow-cookin' .. but I found a small white turnip in the vegetable drawer that needed to be used. So I cut into small dice, microwaved for 2 minutes then added to the slow cooker. Now there's something low-carb that resembles diced potatoes

Good eating for a few meals, at least

Another single serve meal used!