Something From Nothing

Welcome to my daily struggle, ok daily might be exaggerating, but it is defiantly monthly if not weekly.  What is my struggle you ask? My struggle is cooking supper. Of course I have the normal struggles of what the hell am I going to make that everyone will want to eat and coming up with different ideas so the kids don't get board of eating the same thing over and over. When it comes to this time of the month, the last week, my struggle isn't just what to cook it becomes HOW am I going to make supper. Its nearing the end of the month, we have little food in the fridge and pantry and even less money in our bank account. No fault to our own we have put ourselves in a position of house rich, money poor. Of course, Covid19 does not help the situation any.  But I'm not here to play my violin and get everyone to feel sorry for us, I'm writing this to share with others that yes! we struggle to put food on the table too, and how I come up with ideas, hacks and money saving tip of how to feed 5 something, from nothing.

First thing I do is take inventory, what do I have, what don't I have? From there I think of meals that I can create from the stuff I do have. Then google the substitutions for the stuff I don't have. Bam! I have supper.  So tonight's meals is going to be Hash Brown Casserole, I google a recipe to base mine off of, making substitutions as I go. (Click on the link to see the original inspiration recipe.)

What I do have:

• 1 Bag of frozen hash browns
• maybe 2 cups of cut up ham that I found in the bottom of the freezer and have no idea how long that has been their because I can't remember the last time we had ham. (yum)
• frozen bread, to be made into crumbs
• milk
• maybe 1 cup of cheddar cheese (I guess I could add some cheese whiz)
• maybe 1/2 cup of sour cream
• onion
• garlic
• 1 can of mystery soup, I have no clue what is in this can, it came from my MIL house without a label because my FIL thought it would be funny to take all of her labels off her cans, it has peaches written on the top which is a lie, because it's defiantly a soup can, betting all the chips that it is mushroom soup. Omg, what if it is tomato.

What I Don't have:

• enough cheese
• egg
• enough sour cream
• condensed cream of chicken soup

OMG is this even going to work?? How am I going to get it so the casserole hold together without cheese and egg? Ok lets think, when I make meatloaf without eggs I use Bread crumbs and milk.  When doing my food inventory I found 2 full bags of bread ends so I should have enough bread crumbs. This is why I keep the bread ends, you can always find a use for them in the end.  What about the cheese? I can add cheese whiz😝 but that won't help it stick together, what will?  Lets check the fridge for leftovers, we have mashed potatoes, that will work! Right? Ok this should be interesting, good thing I'm working evenings tonight and will miss out on this gem of a meal, hehe.

Ok lets assemble this...um...stuff? First off I'm going to dice my onions and garlic, but seeing I need to get this done quick and I need them small enough so the little girl doesn't know that onions are in it I'm going to use my Tupperware Food Processor. I think that is what its called, this kitchen tool is amazing for chopping up anything. Talk to your local Tupperware rep to get yours, yes she might ask you to host a party but be supportive, she is just trying to make some extra cash to feed her family.  Then I'm going to cook these until the are translucent, because it taste better and they become invisible (again so little girl does not see them).

Continue prep. Shred the poor excuse of cheese, scrape the mold out of the sour cream. Use the Tupperware thingy again to make bread crumbs, now realizing I should have made bread crumb before using it for onions. Next time I will remember to do it that way, lol yah right. Ok so now I'm going to mix the bread crumbs with milk, I have no clue what the ratio is or what I used I just wing it, all day. If you can already tell.  I do know that the bread has to soak in the milk for a few minutes before adding it to your..um..stuff. (I'm not sure what I'm making any more, lol)

We should probably preheat the oven sometime before we are ready to put the stuff in the oven, preheat to 350. Lets assemble! So I get out one of my bigger bowls an dumb in the stuff I do have, cheese, sour cream, bread crumbs, mashed potatoes, onion garlic mixture, and the mystery can!

Ok last chance to place your bets on what is in the mystery can!

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Awesome! Its tomato soup, well that's not going to work, I guess I know what I will have for lunch tomorrow.  I stir all of the ingredients together in a bowl, I'm thinking that I don't really need the soup anyways or the cheese whiz, thank god.  I season the stuff with some, seasoning salt, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. I'm going to cook the stuff in a glass baking dish, I should of greased it first, but my husband will be washing the dishes so I don't really have to worry about cleaning the dish. Haha evil, I know. Top it with my surprise ingredient parmesan cheese and toss it in the oven. 

I'm going to cook it for 45min, then cover it with tin foil and turn the oven off, then when my husband get home from work all he has to do is feed it to the kids, oh so glad I will be missing that episode. This dish does need more vegetables, so I would serve it with frozen corn if I was at home, but my husband won't. 

Well fuck, I burnt it, LOL. Can it get any better? It still taste good, almost like a stuffed potato. It is soooo stuck to the sides, my husband is going to have fun with that haha.

That, my friend, is how you make something, from nothing. Please feel free to comment your tricks of the trade.

Stay tuned, my next something from nothing I think will be Beef bone soup.