Cleaning out the Freezer - and Pantry

It's been a while since we've done one of these posts, but one of the more recent chores was defrosting the freezer, and it's time to use up some of the items that have been languishing for a while.

A ham bone and some black-eyed peas - leftover from our pandemic ham/roast dinners. We actually liked the kale in that recipe, so I figured we'd try something similar. No kale in the house, but we did have spinach. This concoction combined the meat from the ham bone, the black-eyed peas, some onions and carrots and spinach and a bit of liquid from cooking the ham bone. It made a great variation of rice and beans!

Chicken breasts - Even though we downsized to a five-pound bag from the ten-pound one, it's still been in the freezer for several months. We finally made a dent in the bag while also using up the chow mein noodles in the pantry.

The next package of chicken was used in Chicken Mozzarella. The original plan was Chicken Parmesan, but we were out of Parmesan. Just plain Mozzarella works just as well.

Ground venison - We barbecued venison burgers, and they were quite delicious. There are still a few packages of this in the freezer; what should we try next?

White pumpkin - We've had this in the freezer for a bit, and while this was thawing on the counter, Wayne thought it was applesauce! I think to avoid confusion, we'll stick with orange pumpkins, but it was a nice experiment, and it worked well in our favorite Pumpkin Soup.

Queso sauce - We opened this can as part of our mini baked potato for lunch - sharing a leftover potato and also using up some leftover broccoli and pimiento strips. And then we had tried the recipe on the back of the can - chicken and spinach quesadilla - along with regular nachos.

Shallot - The bag of salmon steaks hasn't been languishing in the freezer for several months, but we don't want it to, and there's been a lone shallot in the pantry for a while. This recipe combined both ingredients, along with some horseradish-style Dijon mustard from the fridge, and was quite delicious.

Shrimp Columbia Sauce - I added some pulled pork to this leftover sauce, along with some roasted red peppers from this recipe.

Bread Crumbs, Pulled Pork, and Mushrooms - There were several bags of pulled pork in the freezer! I cooked a couple of them with chopped onions and mushrooms and canned tomatoes, creating a simple Pork Ragout. (Here's the inspiration recipe.) Because we were sharing this with our daughter-in-law on a gluten-free diet, I didn't add the pasta to the stew. Instead, I made a separate batch of Grandma's Macaroni and Cheese, which was the perfect way to use up the leftover garlic bread crumbs from last week's salmon recipe.