Food Pantry Fare

Technically I didn't pick up any canned goods when I left from volunteering yesterday because we have plenty right now. I just don't feel right taking more even though I am assured that they have plenty. Still, there were leftovers that needed to get used up, so I took some home. I should have taken a picture of it before I gussied it up. There was some meatloaf and some macaroni salad. The meatloaf was a little dry, so I added some BBQ sauce that I picked up last week on sale for a dollar. Then I chopped up a bunch of vegetables and added that plus some vinegar (to break up the mayo a bit) to the macaroni salad. A nice, mostly free meal.

Too hot to cook, but did anyway

It is over 100 degrees if you take in the dew point factor. Still, the family needed to eat, so I set to work in front of the stove. We don't have air conditioning on because of the cost.

First I made a chicken teriyaki with chicken thighs that were on sale for .99 cents a pound. Not a great sale, but that was the best they had besides the very yummy steaks for 4.99 a pound, but I resisted. I cook the thighs skin side down with a weight on it to really get a nice brown and to really get rid of most of the fat from the skin. I could just skin them, but the skin adds to the flavor and they brown nicer. Then they simmered in a homemade teriyaki sauce.

I also made collard greens. They were sliced up and simply boiled for twenty minutes then tossed with a bit of butter (also on sale). The collards were from my produce box. With the collards were boiled fingerling potatoes, also from the produce box and also tossed with a bit of butter.

The pictures still suck, but you get the idea. I didn't use anything from a food bank for dinner, but we did for breakfast and lunch. We volunteer tomorrow, but will not take any canned goods because we have plenty of food right now.