Operation Clean Out!

Thank you for all of the nice comments yesterday! Honestly, I hated writing that I was kinda down. I mean seriously, who wants to read about Debbie Downer. Then again, this is where I write about what I am going through. So, I thought I would share. We all can't be happy all of the time! Today is better and I have high hopes for this week! At least I am putting my best foot forward...whatever that means!

Now, let's talk about operation clean out! I have a secret first...ssshhh, don't tell my kids, but summer is over in 3 weeks. So, that means it is time to clean out the old and bring in some new. Well, in the kitchen anyway, not the kids. We started the summer off with a huge "staples" grocery trip and we really need to keep the rotation going. It is always good to have "staples", but we have a tendency to get some stuff and have it sit in the freezer or pantry for too long. You know that freezer burned bag of funk in the back of the freezer that you can't see for the ice cream cartons sitting in the front...yep, I ate it!

All I can say is that this can lead to some strange and delicious discoveries! I found some cranberries and rhubarb in the freezer. The rhubarb had been opened before, so it really needed to go! Trust me, it needed to go. I, of course, will not just throw things away. I made this mixture that was like sour patch kids gone wild!

I mixed some rhubarb and cranberries together, microwaved them, added a little Crofter's Asia and a few drops of vanilla NuNaturals stevia. I tasted it thinking it would be a tart little fruit salad (Max stole the last apple which would have been perfect in here-healthy eating kids can put a damper on your last bit of fresh food in the house)back to the mixture...um, it was crazy tart. Then I decided to put some unsweetened cooked oats on top...perfect. This would be my version of a "yogurt"snack without the yogurt. The oats definitely cut the tart, added creaminess and it was a delicious snack on a rainy day! If you like sweet/tart things...I highly recommend doing this! It's like grown up candy! Also, the cranberries and rhubarb are loaded with good stuff for you!

The next part of operation clean out was frozen vegetables. The boys had pasta bake the other night and the bake idea sounded good to me. I chose to go a different route though. I made a quinoa vegetable bake with Daiya on top! This was a couple of cups of frozen (defrosted) broccoli, a cup of canned diced tomatoes, 1 cup cooked quinoa on top of the vegetable mixture with 1/4 cup Daiya broiled on top!  YUM! By the way, in case you haven't tried it, Daiya freezes incredibly well! I used it frozen on this and it even browned up on top!

I was definitely happy with cleaning out the last of the coconut vanilla sorbet for dessert!  Now I can make more!  I needed to get rid of the cantaloupe too.  Sadly, the cantaloupe have not been that great this summer.  However topped with this...definitely helps out the lack luster produce!

So, do you like sweet/tart foods?  I used to eat the heck out of Sour Patch Kids...until they burned my mouth.  I don't even want to think about the chemicals they put on that stuff!

Do you do a seasonal clean out of food? We are doing one now because we have things we noticed have been hanging around too long...i.e. the cans of bean and bacon soup the illustrator got before he was diagnosed with celiac!