Inventory in Cold Storage in Fridge and Freezer

I was trying to clean out the fridge and the freezer and take an inventory.  It was the last thing in the kitchen to get inventoried and the first thing in order to get a plan for next month's menu plan.

I started with the fridge because it really needed to be cleaned out.  I combined some Ranch salad dressing, Parmesan cheese and some other things to clean it up a little more before wiping down on the shelves.  I use silcone trivets on the top shelf under the milk, marinate, Kool Aid and Iced Tea to make sure that the shelf doesn't get really dirty.  It makes it way easier to clean.  It really isn't super full or empty but I just went to Aldi so there is still a few things in there which you can see the list below.

Top Shelf

Spiedie Chicken Marinate

Gallon Milk 1/2 full

Kool Aid (almost gone) My husband finished it after work

Apple Cider (almost gone)

Raspberry Lemonade (almost gone)

Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice

Sausage Spaghetti Sauce

Salsa (almost gone)

Gatorade individual size

Chocolate Milk individual size

2nd Shelf

16 Eggs

Margarine Tub

3rd Shelf

Chicken (going to be cut and frozen)

Grapes 2 lbs

Leftovers

Peach

Sprite (open can) 

Left Drawer

7 String Cheese

2 Turkey Lunch Meat (almost gone)

1 Turkey Lunch Meat

1 Roast Beef

16 strips of Fleischmanns Yeast 

Cubed Turkey

Bag of Pepperoni

Right Drawer

4 blocks of Cheddar

2 blocks of Mozzerella

1 block of Monteray Jack

Blue Cheese Tub

Cubed Pepper Jack Cheese

Pepperoni Sliced for chopped salads

Lime

Container with 2 slices of cheese

Doors

5 Salad Dressings

Duck Sauce Packets

Popcorn Container

Parmesan Cheese

Yeast Jar

Spicy Mustard

Soy Sauce

Steak Sauce

Horseradish Mustard (almost gone)

2 Pickles (relish and sliced)

Minced Garlic

2 Flavored Icee Syrup

Pancake Syrup

Miracle Whip

Worcestershire Sauce

Ponzu Sauce

2 Jelly

 The freezer on the upstairs fridge is always jammed full and a little dirty because I throw the things from the store when we get home and they never make it downstairs.  We also had a weird water thing when the power came back on after an outage with the ice maker so there were some frozen water areas still around that needed to be cleaned up.  I love the top shelf with the ice and I also store all my ice packs there (didn't count in inventory but bought on clearance at CVS years ago).  I also have one bottle of frozen water for rolling under my feet at night (we call it foot water which sounds super appetizing but not including in the inventory because we are never going to eat it).  The other side is the smaller stuff like little ham and sausage containers to make pizza or fried rice.  I also keep the outside of the butter to use to grease my pans because I don't have nonstick sprays anymore.  After I cleaned it out, there were just a few things left and you can look below for my inventory.

Freezer

Ice Cream Sandwiches

Chloe Fruit Pops

Ice Cream Bars

Whole Fruit Push Up Pops

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (very little left)

Peanut Butter Smores Ice Cream (very little left and only my dad eats it)

Chocolate Chips (big Sam's Club Bag from my parents)

Whipped Cream (like Cool Whip near bottom)

Tater Tots (almost gone)

Chicken Fries (opened)

Popcorn Chicken (opened)

Peas

Oats

Corn Meal (coarse and fine)

Fruit Zest in containers

Meatballs (one meal)

Cheese Ravioli (one meal)

Blueberries

Raspberries

Blackberries

2 small diced ham

2 small cooked sausage

Enchilada Sauce

1 Hamburger

The downstairs freezer is a mess and really needs to be defrosted but I still haven't done it.  I said that I would get it done by March but that has already passed up by.  I need to clear some things out and I just keep putting more things in.  LOL!!! Below is what I have jammed in there currently.

 1st Shelf

27 Chicken Broth

1 Turkey Broth

2nd Shelf

5 Ground Beef

3 Chicken with 6 tenders

1 Chicken with 5 tenders

2 Chicken with 8 tenders

1 Spiedie Chicken

1 Cranberry Blue Cheese Chicken

1 Chicken taco

2 small Lasagna

11 Ham Steaks

1 Italian Herb Sausage

2 Brown Rice

3 Diced Onions

1 Diced Onions and Celery

3 Cream Cheese

5 Vanilla Cupcakes

3rd Shelf

3 Applesauce

4 Chicken Broth

1 Lasagna 8 x 8

2 packages Breakfast Sausage

3 packages Brats

1 bag Popcorn Chicken

1 bag Chicken Fries

3 Whole Fruit Bars

2 boxes Chloe Fruit Bars

1 Halo Top Ice Cream

2 boxes Chicken Eggs Rolls

2 containers cooked sausage

2 containers Chicken bones for broth

1 container turkey meat

1 breakfast quesedilla

Bag of Green Beans

Bag of Tater Tots

4 Corn Dogs

Bottom Bin 

2 bags bread crumbs

3 bags bread cubes

2 bags Sister Shuberts Rolls

veggie ends for broth

2 bags rolls

2 bags bread to be cut up

1 bag Bones for Broth

Door

12 Chicken Broth

3 bags of Meatballs

Yogurt Tubes

Coffee for Guests

Icings

Amish Friendship Starter

Mixed Berry Drinks

Shredded Coconut

Applesauce container

This is our extra freezer which is just the bottom of the drink fridge in the basement.  We store a few extra things in here that aren't in the big freezer.  Normally because there isn't enough room in the other one.  I have to take the oats and blend them a little to make quick oats.  The inventory is below:

Basement Extra Freezer

14 lbs popcorn

Bag of Masa

4 Chicken Broth

1 Chicken and Rice Soup

Container of Chiptle Peppers in Adobo

Oats

8 bags of Cheese Ravioli

Small Amounts of Mint Chips and Butterscotch Chips

I only threw out a few things that had been in there awhile that I hadn't used which I knew were going to not get used.  I have lots of things everywhere around the house.  I think that I have a lot to get us through the next month and I can't wait to clean out the freezer (okay I can totally wait).  I am going to sit down with the menu and see if I can come up with some yummy meals for October and hoping for cooler weather because I am just not in the mood to cook with the temperatures that we have been having recently.  Stay tuned for menu plans and I hope that you are able to use all the things in your house to make lots of great meals too!! 

The Proving Book Review

I was excited to read another book by Beverly Lewis because I love all of her books.  I wasn't sure whether this was part of a series or stand alone book but I was ready to enjoy it either way!  The Proving by Beverly Lewis appeared at my door soon after placing my order and it was all I could do to read a few other books that I needed to first.  It did get pushed up a little in the order that I was supposed to read it but I was looking forward to finding out what was going to happen.

Amanda Dienner hasn't seen her Old Order family in five years when she receives word that her mother has passed away and left her Lancaster County's most popular Amish bed-and-breakfast. Now an Englisher, Mandy is shocked: Her twin sister should have been the obvious choice! What's more, the inheritance comes with a catch: The farmhouse inn will only truly be hers if she is able to successfully run it for twelve consecutive months.  Mandy accepts the challenge even though it means returning to Gordonville and the painful memories she left behind at eighteen. Still, she's determined to prove she is more than capable of running the bed-and-breakfast, no matter that its loyal clientele are expecting an Amish hostess!  The inn isn't Mandy's sole test, however. Rubbing shoulders with her married twin sister reopens wounds that Mandy isn't ready to forgive. And an Englisher guest with a difficult past of her own just complicates matters.  Can Mandy fulfill the terms of her inheritance? Or will this year in Amish country prove a dreadful mistake?

 It really reminded me of another series with an Amish Inn so I immediately felt at home in this Amish Bed and Breakfast.  Mandy is trying to make her own way while not relying on her family or church.  She realizes that something is missing from her life and when she returns, she starts to remember all the good times that she and her family had growing up.  She finally makes some decisions and changes her ways to connect herself back to her family.  She is coming up to the 12 month time frame and can sell the bed and breakfast and start the life that she really wanted away from all the memories of the past but can she make the break with the life that fit so well.  You know that I won't tell you and you have to pick up the book and see for yourself!  This wonderful writing and characters pulls you in immediately and has you feeling sorry for all the things that Mandy isn't doing right.  She can't mend things with the community so the people working at the bed and breakfast all quit.  She can't mend things with her family so she sees them very infrequently and under great strain. I hope that you check out this character building adventure because I know that you will enjoy it as much as I did!

**I received a copy of the book for my review but all opinions here are my own.  A positive review was not required and opinions stated here are my honest opinion.

Menu Plan Monday 9/25

Monday- Chicken fries, Buffalo Chicken with homemade fries
Tuesday- Pasta
Wednesday- Salsa Sloppy Joes with mac and cheese
Thursday- Grilled Chicken with rice
Friday- Leftovers
Saturday-Lime Chicken Tacos and rice
Sunday-Grilled Roast Beef and Cheese Sandwiches

Last week seemed like a blur to me but I got Monday and Tuesday meals on the table without a problem.  Then Wednesday night I forgot to take out the meat because I was too busy focused on making the lasagna for Thursday night that it slipped my mind.  We went with Philly Cheese Steak Pasta because I already had the meat cooked and ready so it was an easy meal.  We had lasagna and garlic bread with salad on Thursday as planned.  I made some flatbread grilled sandwiches, salad with leftover lettuce, and other leftovers.  We did a good job clearing out the fridge between that and Saturday lunch.  Saturday night my parents treated us to dinner out after soccer at my son's favorite restaurant.  I am tired and didn't get a lot of things done to make it better for next week but we had a pretty tasty week and horrible fallbacks even if I wasn't ready to make the dinner on the meal plan.  I hope that you have a great week and enjoy some yummy meals.

Kickback Book Review

I can't believe how quickly I can go through these books because I can't put them down.  There is so much going on that it is so hard to get other things done but I also knew that I had a deadline on this one because it was due back to the library with no more renewals.  Luckily, I got it done in plenty of time...okay, enough time.  Robert B. Parker's Kickback (Spenser) by Ace Atkins was the 43rd book in the series that always has me glued to the edge of my seat and this was no different.

PI Spenser, knight-errant of the Back Bay, returns in this stellar New York Times–bestselling addition to the iconic series from author Ace Atkins.  What started out as a joke landed seventeen-year-old Dillon Yates in a lockdown juvenile facility in Boston Harbor. When he set up a prank Twitter account for his vice principal, he never dreamed he could be brought up on criminal charges, but that’s exactly what happened. This is Blackburn, Mass., where zero tolerance for minors is a way of life.

Leading the movement is tough-as-nails judge Joe Scali, who gives speeches about coming down hard on today’s wild youth. But Dillon’s mother, who knows other Blackburn kids who are doing hard time for minor infractions, isn’t buying Scali’s line. She hires Spenser to find the truth behind the draconian sentencing. From the Harbor Islands to a gated Florida community, Spenser and trusted ally Hawk follow a trail through the Boston underworld with links to a shadowy corporation that runs New England’s private prisons. They eventually uncover a culture of corruption and cover-ups in the old mill town, where hundreds of kids are sent off to for-profit juvie jails.

This book dealt with the lives of children which is something that Spenser can't see being ruined.  Dillon Yates went to a juvenile facility because he started a twitter account and said bad things about his principal.  The judge in this small town bullies all the parents to sign away their rights to have a lawyer for their child and then sends even the smallest offenses to this prison island where they are given very little and have to work to earn their pillow and blanket.  There are so many things going on in this book but Spenser is focused on bringing Dillon home to his mother as well as closing the whole facility so that no one should have to live that life again.  It is amazing to watch Spenser and Hawk in action to take down the unknown bad guys and protect the lives of many children and families.  I hope that you check out this book for yourself because I don't think that you will be able to put it down either.  I hope that you read the rest of the books in the Spenser series if you like this too!

Marrying Jonah Book Review

I was excited and sad to get to the end of the series, Marrying Jonah (A Wells Landing Romance) by Amy Lillard.  I had picked this out at the beginning of the summer and not gotten to read them as quickly as I wanted with other things due back to the library and me having to return a book in the middle of the series and check it out again.  Luckily, I got to read it all from beginning to end not long after the summer was over!

Life isn’t always as simple as it seems for the Amish community of Wells Landing, Oklahoma. Neither is love. . .Everyone in town knows that Sarah Yoder is enamored with Jonah Miller, even though he’s been with his girlfriend, Lorie, for years. But all that changes when Lorie runs off with another man. Inconsolable, his faith in love shattered, Jonah resists everyone’s attempts to ease his pain—until the unexpected happens one night.  Jonah is filled with confusion. Sarah is not the woman he yearns for, yet he asks for her hand in marriage, if only out of honor. Still, he worries, can they live in harmony if their vows are built on a lie? As Sarah seeks spiritual advice, Jonah tries to look toward the future—and finally begins to see her for who she really is: A beautiful, strong-willed woman whose heart is pure and belief is true. But will it be too late for him to prove that he wants to be her husband?

I thought that this was an interesting book with a lot of emotion just like the other books in this series.  Sarah was in many of the books previously in the series and I was glad to finally get to learn more about her.  She was dealing with her whole group of friends being married off and the only person that she was interested in was in love with Lorie, someone one he couldn't have because she left the Amish to join the English world.  Jonah is living part of a life with most of his focus on his family and his farm with very little fun time with friends.  He is not ready to look for another relationship but Sarah confuses him with support on how badly he was treated by Lorie when she left.  Sarah and Jonah make a huge mistake and find their whole worlds falling down around them but you have to read it to find out what happens.  I think that you will be amazed at the drama in this small Amish women and how hard she fights.  I hope that you check out this book and all the others in the Wells Landing series.  I am sure you will love this small town and the wonderful writing.  I look forward to reading more by this author soon!!

Gathering Threads Book Review

I was excited that Gathering the Threads: A Novel (The Amish of Summer Grove) by Cindy Woodsmall was coming out.  I have read the first two books in the series and was excited to see where this series was going to go next.  I was a little sad to learn that it was the last book in the series but looking forward to a great ending.  I will be on the look out for the next series by this wonderful author.

Finally back in the Old Order Amish world she loves, Will Ariana’s new perspectives draw her family closer together—or completely rip them apart?  After months away in the Englisch world, Ariana Brenneman is overjoyed to be in the Old Order Amish home where she was raised. Yet her excitement is mixed with an unexpected apprehension as she reconciles all she’s learned from her biological parents with the uncompromising teachings of her Plain community. Although her childhood friend, ex-Amish Quill Schlabach, hopes to help her navigate her new role amongst her people, Ariana’s Daed doesn’t understand why his sweet daughter is suddenly questioning his authority. What will happen if she sows seeds of unrest and rebellion in the entire family? 

Meanwhile, Skylar Nash has finally found her place among the large Brenneman family, but Ariana’s arrival threatens to unravel Skylar’s new identity—and her sobriety. Both Ariana and Skylar must discover the true cords that bind a family and community together and grasp tight the One who holds their authentic identities close to His heart.  Gathering the Threads is the third and final novel in The Amish of Summer Grove series.


I loved the first two books in the series and couldn't wait for the third one although a little sad that this is the last one.  I loved finding out how Arianna was dealing with more changes in her life when she returns to her Amish family after living with her English family for three months.  She loved being home and living with her family but things take a terrible turn when the religious leaders decide that she is a bad influence on the rest of the small community and preach at Sunday service about her bad choices.  Arianna is changed from her time with her family and realizes that it is going to be impossible to submit to all of the things that they want her to do.  It is great to watch the path that she takes and see this book straight through until the end.  Quill is still helping people get out of bad situations and trying to save people who have no other means of escape.  The truth about Freida was finally explained after being hinted at in the first two books.  At the same time, Skylar is going through her own identity crisis because she was raised in the English world with lots of different advantages but she still feels like she belongs in her Amish home.  Skylar finally makes some decisions about what direction her life is going to take.  It was a great conclusion to a wonderful series which I hope that you check out for yourself.  I know that you will enjoy it as much as I did with this great conclusion to all of these characters stories!!

**I was provided a copy of the book to read for my review but all opinions here are my own and no positive opinion was required.

Titus Returns Book Review

I had to put a break on the series to read a few other books in my pile so I was glad to return to the series with this book.  Titus Returns (A Wells Landing Romance) by Amy Lillard is the fifth book in the Wells Landing series.  I am glad that I can get back to the series now that I have caught up with some of my other reading.  I needed a lighter read after my last very serious book but this one wasn't that!!!  It was a great read but super serious.

In Wells Landing, Oklahoma’s warm and welcoming Amish community, there’s always hope for a new beginning—and a second chance… Five tumultuous years have changed Titus Lambert in every way. Back then, Titus was preparing to marry his longtime sweetheart, Mandy Yoder. Then came the unthinkable—a tragic car wreck that left Titus serving time for vehicular manslaughter.  Titus isn’t sure he belongs in this peaceful place anymore, but he must make amends. When he goes to visit the Kings, whose son, Alvin, died that terrible night, he’s shocked to see that their farm has fallen into disrepair. Alvin’s sister, Abbie, resents Titus’s reappearance, but there’s no denying she needs his help. Honest toil—and their evolving friendship—slowly help his soul to heal. But with his feelings for Mandy still strong, Titus must choose between two very different futures, and find the strength and faith to claim the surprising gift of a fresh start.

This book was written about Titus who just returned to Wells Landing after getting out of prison for a car accident where two of his friends died.  It was hard to deal with prison after growing up in the small Amish community and he ended up changing a lot through his time inside.  Titus carried a lot of guilt with him with the loss of two friends and his other friend being bound to a wheelchair.  It was the guilt that brought him home but also made him know that he wasn't going to be able to rejoin the church.  He wanted to make up for his hurt so he started fixing the farm of his friend Alvin.  While doing that, he noticed that there were a lot of problems going on with his family including a lack of milking cows, his father drinking and his mother's depression.  Titus tries to help and in the process really grows a deep friendship with Alvin's sister Abbie.  Abbie is going through a lot because she lost her twin brother and was left to care for her whole family.  You have to pick up the book yourself to find out what happens but I promise you won't be disappointed.  I hope that you check out this book and the rest of the Wells Landing series.  I know that I have really enjoyed this short series!  I can't wait to get to the last book next!!