Pantry Reduction Week 3 & 4

Where did my May go?!? Away, that's all I know.

Well, my pantry reduction project continues. This is going a lot slower than I anticipated. I suppose I should have expected that, given it is just me working my way through the freezers and cupboards. But still, it is frustrating to think I am making progress and then open up the chest freezer and think, "Aw, crap. It's not empty yet."

Here's what progress I did make in the last two weeks:

Spicy Honey Glazed Chicken (Every Day with Rachel Ray, June) 8

This used up a rather large chicken breast I had languishing in my upstairs freezer. I made two modifications: one was I did this on the grill rather than in a grill pan and I bought canned pineapple rings rather than a whole pineapple. The canned one's worked just fine and were thick enough to place on the grill as they were. However, I don't think my grill was hot enough to properly sear them. The honey redux that is made on the stove also didn't quite reduce enough for my tastes and remained rather runny. However, this was absolutely fantastic the next day. I re-heated everything on the stove and the flavors really popped. Perhaps this is more of a stove-top than an grill dish.

Skinny Chimichangas (From Sugar Rush from Weight Watchers) 8

I used up some extra shredded chicken from a very large chicken I grilled quite some time back and some frozen tortilla's. This dish was really good! The recipe did call for ground turkey and Erin (from Sugar Rush) recommended shredded. Awesome. Also upon her suggestion, I subbed pepper jack for cheddar, sprinking the cheddar over the top instead. Awesome. A delicious sauce is made on the stove, adding the chicken toward the end to let all the flavors meld together. Then the cheese and chicken is rolled up and placed on a baking sheet. Here I deviated again and after placing them on a baking sheet, I grilled them. These made 6 tortillas for me, but I suppose that was because I added extra shredded chicken. Delicious!

I served these with homemade corn chips: cut some corn tortilla's into wedges, spray with olive oi and lightly salt. Bake until nicely crisp (this was about 15 minutes on the grill at 350*). Yummy!

Pineapple Chicken Salad Pitas (Ckng Lght, May 2007) 6

Here I continued to use up the leftover shredded grilled chicken. I think next time I grill a chicken, I am going to make sure it is a small one and I am going to make sure the chunks are properly shredded before I put them in the freezer bags. I also skipped the pita's bit and just served this over lettuce with some crackers on the side. This salad intrigued me because there is no pasta in it - only chicken, mayo, seasonings, toasted almonds, carrots and pineapple.

Anyhow, I found this to be just okay. I over pureed my leftover pineapple rings (decided to save time and run them though the food processor) and I didn't shred the chicken finely enough so I had these awkward larger hunks of meat to contend with. So my low score is because I screwed up. Otherwise, the flavor is very bright and fresh and I thought it made a great lunch.

So these last couple of weeks I've used up:

1 chicken breast

3 (8oz) bags of grilled and shredded chicken

1 package flour tortillas

2 corn tortillas

carrots (still have nearly a whole bag left though)

2 sweet potato samosas

Next week I'm taking a little vacation - Viva Las Vegas! I have so many draft posts waiting to be posted that I may have to increase my posting to 3 times a week till I get caught up.

Here's what I have coming up:

Book reviews:

Olympus by Dan Simmons

Dreamsnake by Vonda Mycintre

His Majesty's Dragon by Naiomi Novik

Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Knitting Projects:

Knitting Project #4 - Dishcloths!

Knitting Project #3 - Sister's hat and Scarf

and One Awesome Vacation!