Using up what's on hand

I think that an important part of my "no-spend month" will be taking steps to make sure I don't waste food, by using up what I have on hand. This morning was a good example. Saturday mornings are always a time for a hot family breakfast, either pancakes or waffles. Usually I make up some multi-grain waffles from a homemade mix, but this morning when I walked out into the kitchen, I said, "Those bananas need to be used up today!" Banana bread wasn't an option... we made banana bread last week and it got moldy before we ate it all. I should have put half of it right into the freezer! So, this morning's hearty family breakfast was Banana Waffles. Here's the recipe:

Banana Pancakes/Waffles
2 ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp oil
1 egg
1/2 c oatmeal
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c milk
Mix banana, vanilla, oil and egg. Add salt, baking soda, baking powder and brown sugar. Mix well. Add flour and oatmeal, then gradually add milk and mix until well-combined. Cook on hot griddle or waffle iron. Serves 2.

I made a double recipe, and with three people eating, we had two waffles left over. They went into the freezer for reheating for breakfast later this week. If you really like the flavor of banana & nuts, you could add a quarter cup or so of chopped walnuts or pecans to this recipe to make them even more special.

The rest of the day has been devoted to using up produce that needed to be canned.

Ron picked me more green beans to can

I picked a basket of rhubarb to be canned.

So far today, I've canned chunky ketchup & tomatoes, and  peach syrup. Green beans and rhubarb should be done by bedtime, too. Sometimes stuff coming in from the garden can get overwhelming, so I need to stay on top of things so all Ron's hard work in the garden isn't wasted.

Oh, look at the nice surprise I got via Fed-Ex this morning: some goodies for submitting a recipe to the Frito-Lay "Tastes from Home" contest: 

The shiny metal object on the right is a cool recipe/picture holder. You slide the paper under a metal marble and then let the marble fall down, and it holds the paper very securely. Since Ron & Bethany were eager to try out the new flavor of chips, I changed today's lunch menu to hot dogs, baked beans and chips. We all loved this new flavor (I only sampled a few because I'm really trying to stick to my fruit & vegetable fast. I figured potatoes are a vegetable, so I could have just a little taste!)