Skip to Content

Five Frugal Things | a tidy-the-fridge edition

On Sunday afternoon, I put my earbuds in, set my phone to play the audio version of a chapter in my book (Caring for the Older Patient, if you are curious!) and set about organizing/cleaning my fridge and prepping the contents for use.

Kristen smiling at the camera.

I always appreciate the efficiency of combining a head task (listening to the textbook chapter) with a body task (the fridge work, which is largely mindless).

I have a terrible time paying attention to audio versions of learning unless my body is busy, so this is a perfect combo for me. And I always listen to things at 2x speed, which is fast enough to tickle my brain appropriately. 🙂

Kristen pointing to her earbuds.

earbuds from eBay, because Shelley chewed through my original pair years ago

This was a very lonnnnnnnng textbook chapter, so I got a lot of food tasks done.

1. Kale two ways

I used part of my Hungry Harvest kale to make this kale salad from Gimme Some Oven.

Gimme some Oven kale salad

I did not have enough craisins, so I used a combo of craisins and raisins.

Also, I had no lemons, but I did have some limes that were going a bit soft, so I juiced those and used them in place of the called-for lemon juice.

And as always, I used onion instead of shallots because onions are always what I have around. 🙂

I used the rest of the kale in a small batch of Zuppa Toscana-ish soup, which also handily used up some marked-down Italian sausage, some homemade chicken broth, and some potatoes from my Hungry Harvest box.

Yay me!

I did not have any bacon handy, so mine is a no-bacon version this time.

2. I cut up some mangoes

I had two huge mangoes that had gotten ripe at a time when I didn’t have a sec to cut them up.

Sooo, I did both of them at once and now I am rich in ready-to-eat mango.

mango in glass containers.

3. I roasted sweet potatoes

While I was cooking, I threw the three Hungry Harvest sweet potatoes into the toaster oven.

Now they’re in my fridge ready for me to grab; I like to make a quick mashed sweet potato eat with my eggs some mornings, or sometimes I slice and brown them to go with my eggs.

eggs and sweet potatoes.

4. I froze some bananas

The last bunch of bananas I bought turned spotty brown seemingly overnight.

Or maybe I just was so busy that I accidentally ignored my bananas for a few days. I don’t know!

I’d thrown them in the fridge as soon as I saw they were going spotty, and on Sunday I sliced and froze them to use in smoothies or to make this strawberry vanilla banana “ice cream”.

5. I made a batch of granola and a batch of yogurt

I may not make everything from scratch these days, but granola and yogurt are two of my stand-bys. Ok, and also chicken broth; I’m pretty consistent with that.

This is the granola I make; it is so quick to throw together and it requires no stirring during baking. PERFECT.

granola in glass jars.

And here is how I make yogurt without a yogurt machine.

Since I spent this time prepping food, now I have quick and easy options to grab, and that makes it easier to avoid waste, and also to avoid buying food outside of the house.

fridge shelves with glass containers on them.

I just noticed I didn’t push several of those lids down all the way! I know that will make some of you twitchy. Sorry. 😉

Plus, several of these efforts help support my goal of always eating more fruits and veggies. Anything that helps me eat more kale is a win in my book. 😉

Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Jody

Monday 23rd of September 2024

Your granola is the best! I just made a batch this weekend. And as a retired RN, I am cheering you on as you work so hard to achieve your goal!

Isa

Monday 23rd of September 2024

I'm absolutely trying this ice cream!

Heidi

Saturday 21st of September 2024

Just throw your ripened unpeeled in the freezer. The freezer will turn the outside of the banana black but the banana itself is fine. No need to cut up. When you use for a smoothie I break off how much I need frozen. I use 1/2 banana per smoothie. Microwave a few seconds and it will slide right out of the skin. For banana bread or a baked goods I throw all the banana that I need in microwave for about a minute cut off the end without the stem and again it will slide right out

Nora8

Saturday 21st of September 2024

Nothing earth shattering here.

1. I returned my cans for the deposit. 2. I continued rummaging through the freezer. Yes, this task could be more organized, but for now I'll be happy to remove a few things every week. This week I used a pound of ground turkey and moved some older ice cream to the kitchen fridge so it gets eaten. 3. When I put away my groceries I made sure to move the old cans/milks to the front and put the new ones behind. FIFO! 4. I scheduled next year's mammogram when I went for this year's. One less thing to think about. 5. I cleaned out one of the two closets that didn't get touched in last winter's thorough house cleaning. Many things went to the trash, but I did find some that went to the sell pile. And, I reorganized the rest so we know what we have.

AW

Wednesday 18th of September 2024

My Frugal 5’s 1) My generous friend treated me out for a meal at the newly opened Japanese restaurant for watering her garden and taking care of her place this summer. 2) She also cleared out her fridge and garden since she’ll be traveling out of state to visit a friend and gave me acorn squashes, summer squashes, tomatoes, oranges, lemon, celery, green peppers, jalapeños, basil, and a beautiful bouquet of zinnias. 2) Got leftover food from the food pantry that they weren’t able to give out. It really felt like Christmas! I got pastries, croissants, baguettes, a loaf of bread, grapes, strawberries, fruit bars and candies. 4) As part of my girl’s birthday experience gift, I took my girls out to a free lunar event at the science museum. We did fun activities, watched a movie, and looked at the sky through a telescope. We also had free coco, cookies and chips to eat. They had a blast! 5) Listed baby items from my church for free through our Buy Nothing group. In the process of cleaning out the church, I got a set of frisbee golf discs and a table tennis racket for free which I’ll use for another birthday experience gift.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.