Food Budget Out of Control

As a mom of four I have come to accept that I will only have to keep increasing the food budget over the next several years! It amazes me how much we actually spend and then also how much we end up throwing away.

I have a few picky eaters, one that will not eat leftovers and 2 that if can be eaten they will comsume it. So, I am always looking for easy, flexible dinner ideas that use leftovers (without anyone knowing). I am getting to be a pro at reseasoning beef, pork and chicken for use in soup, stew, between tortillas or in gravy. Sometimes we reheat, then set out a wide variety of sauces for "doctoring it up", cheeses and a choice side. (They say it is kids choice night.) Most of the time the kids think I worked really hard to make several things... Little do they know they are eating last nights hambergers crumbled with pizza seasoning on their homemade pizza or the leftover brats sliced and fried with the cut up extra baked potatos and then scrambled with eggs for breakfast....I figure what they don't know won't hurt them. :)

Tonight I opened my pantry and found 2 gallon sized bags of cookies, left over from a family celebration about 10 days ago. The ones that were left were not to the liking of my kids.. so now what do I do. Make them into bars! Here's what I did....

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Crumble cookies (I took all 3 kinds- oatmeal raisin, peanut butter and sugar)
Melt enough butter to make cookies moist
Grease a 9x13 pan
Pat cookie mix into bottom of pan
Mix up a family size (enough for 9x13 pan) brownie mix and spread over cookie mix
Add any additional goodies desired ( choc. chips, nuts, coconut etc.)
Cook for about 20 minutes or until done
Let cool
(I know, no specific measurements... sorry, that is how I cook.)

So, now to figure out what to do with all that other stuff just hanging around the pantry and fridge. Here's to hoping reducing the amount of food I make, and reusing the leftovers helps out the good old pocket book! CHEERS!