Doing a Pantry Challenge is a great way to save money, avoid waste, and enjoy great meals because you’re forced to be creative instead of spend.
Here we are close to ending week 3 of the Pantry Challenge? How did that happen? Whew. We’re starting to see more white space in the fridge and freezer and even in the pantry.
There’s still some randomness, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve made a conscious effort to work through some of those lesser used items.
The goat cheese that I portioned and froze before we went to Hawaii, for one. Also, I’ve made a significant dent in our supply of stocks and roast drippings.
There are some packs of cooked chicken that I’m a little skeptical of tackling. Ahem.
Tonight I used up a container of blended bean soup that I made after someone had their wisdom teeth pulled. Spoiler: I used it in tonight’s Pantry Challenge Minestrone.
And no one was the wiser. 😉
I’m going to Ralphs tomorrow for some of their sale items and to cruise the clearance. We’re currently at $261 for the month (out of a monthly budget of $1000), so I think we’ll end up at or under my halfway goal.
Unless all hell breaks loose next week.
We’re out of some regular items, such as oats, avocado oil, and black beans, but I’ve got some things that I can use as substitutes. Those would normally prompt a trip to Costco, but I’d like to hold off on that until February, so we’ll see if I declare them “needs” before the end of the month.
There’s fish that we don’t love in the freezer, but I need to just bite the bullet and cook it. Maybe we’ll go the fish taco route and bury it under crema and salsa.
Anywho, we’re doing okay. We’ve got full bellies and more food left to eat.
Breakfast
I had the usual. No surprise there. Kids had a variety of smoothies, eggs, toast, and the last of the waffles and cranberry bread.
Lunch
Lunch was a pull everything out of the fridge and fend for yourself kind of thing. I had a salad with the aforementioned goat cheese. One child had leftover lasagna and broccoli. One made mac and cheese from a box. The others had snacky type, throw-together stuff.
Dinner
Since Bryan was feeling better today we had our date night. We went to a local taco shop and got there 1 minute before happy hour ended. They honored our request to order from that menu so we got $2 tacos and B had a $2.75 beer.
I had made the kids minestrone before we left and FishChick13 made Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits.
So it was a good day.
Heather M says
Hi everyone! Posting the past two days. Finally getting into a Challenge groove. I often post my cooking in my Instagram stories and one friend loves the idea of the Challenge and said she’s joining me, and I doubt she’s ever seen your awesome site, Jessica. But love that she’s intrigued by the idea. Also, Jessica, thanks for sharing my stories when i do post! 🙂
Day 19, Wednesday, January 33:
B: we both skipped
L: L took turkey/salami/lettuce/tomato on whole wheat, apple, last of some spicy plaintain chips; I had a pile of crackers and cheese. A friend gave me some fancy harbison cheese for christmas (long story–we watch Top Chef together and during last season Tom Colicchio said it was his favorite so we tried to find some then to try with no luck. She found some in December at Trader Joe’s so of course bought some). I decided it was high time to try this soft cheese before it went bad. It’s quite delicious.
D: made a vegetarian soup with tomatoes, cannellini beans, and mini cheese raviolis from the cupboard, chopped onion & carrots from the fridge, green beans from the freezer, a bunch of seasonings, and veggie broth. So yummy. I also made 2 ingredient breadsticks with that “recipe” of self-rising flour and greek yogurt that people use to make fake/healthier bagels, I rolled the dough by hand into sticks and rolled them in everything bagel seasoning and baked them. Easy side for the soup.
Day 20, Thursday, January 23:
B: L skipped; I had a few butter waffle cookies
L: L took turkey/ham/salami/lettuce/tomato on whole wheat, pretzels, clementines; I had lunch at a friend’s house. She made us these amazing vegan wraps with vegan cream cheese, avocado, chopped lettuces/spinach/broccoli slaw/yellow bell pepper/tomato, and a little vegan creamy cilantro dressing on Trader Joe’s multigrain lavash bread. Wow So delicious. This friend is vegan except butter, and no refined sugar, only sparing use of other natural sweeteners. She has to have butter. She also made a healthy no sugar apple pie. It was delicious,
D: we needed to use the last of the potatoes so we had loaded baked potatoes with bacon, light sour cream, a little cheese, and green onions. would have made a salad but i was good without, after the huge wrap she made me, and L didn’t even eat until 9:30pm and wouldn’t have eaten a salad by then.
We are really low on fresh vegetables(2 tomatoes-not really a veg?-, half a head of green leaf lettuce that needs to be eaten soon, 1 limp bell pepper, and tons of carrots plus some onion and half a head of garlic), but I’m trying to stay away from any stores until next week. And even then I’ll keep my spending to super specific items. My list is growing on what needs replacing (fish sauce, etc.), but most of that can wait until February. We have so many other things to eat and be creative with, including plenty of frozen veg to tide us over until next week. It really needs to be only perishable items until I can’t take it anymore. We also have leftovers and plans this weekend so should be able to wait until Monday at least. I also need to go to Costco but only plan to buy absolute necessities, which at this point are mainly household items and not food. I hope I can stay faithful to my list then!
Pat says
It’s hard to believe we are on Day 20!
My chicken sheet pan dinner turned into 3 different kinds of chicken–Basic Spice Mix as a rub, bbq and plain. We had that with huge salads.
I did make an Adli run today and found eggs for $.74, avocado for $.33, garden salad mix for $.20. My total for the month is $80 which is less than half of my $200 budget. We still have plenty of food for the rest of the month.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks says
1/24 Day 20
Jessica I like the star shaped biscuits!
I stopped and bought a bag of Romaine so I could have some salads for the end of the month. That brought my total to 26.04 so far. It was a good day for finishing up some bits in the freezer.
B: peanut butter toast, coffee
L: yogurt, apple
D: I had LO creamy chicken and mushrooms that I had frozen over the last piece of rye bread from the freezer. Salad with apples, craisins, nuts. Also found some strawberries in the freezer which I defrosted and ate. DH wanted something different so had LO pork and the last sweet potato.
I did my baking for the event at work in the morning. I made the banana cake with the frozen bananas so got them out of the freezer. Made scratch buttercream icing. Yum. It’s been a while since I’ve made that and it was good! So I wound up getting 4 items out of the freezer. When we go visit my son on Friday I’m taking him some soup out of the freezer too so that will help too. I KNOW there’s some more white space in there somewhere!
Since I’m heading out for the weekend, may need to catch up on Sunday. Hope everyone continues to be successful as we press onward!
Karen J says
Today I went to Costco to return a few Christmas gifts that didn’t work. Then, for the first time ever I think, I bought only one item. It was one of those under $5 six packs of romaine (I swear Lynn and I buy the same groceries on the same day), which will take us well into February. On the way home, I stopped by Safeway and bought a loaf of bread for 0.99.
A fail today was making croutons out of the rest of my homemade bread. I forgot to tell Alexa to set the timer and they burned.
B-out with girlfriends
L-ham salad out of the last of a small freezer bag of ham, red onion, dill pickle relish, and a little mayo (which I am rationing as I’m almost out)
D-coconut curry chicken using chicken thighs. I added cauliflower and peas from the freezer, sliced carrot and served it with jasmine rice. There’s enough left for another meal.
Lynn at NC Outer Banks says
Oh Karen J that’s too funny There’s more! I’m short on mayo too and have been rationing it as well! I’m thinking I have a few little packs from the deli somewhere that I can use when I get really desperate! Creeping toward Feburary!!
Alice E says
I have gone to Costco and only bought one or two items. I always feel strange among all those carts full in the line. I wish you were next door. I could give you some of the extra mayo in our pantry. Now that I am limiting fat it hasn’t been getting used up. I had hubby pick up some lunch meat so he can have sandwiches, and I think I need to make him some pasta salad of something to use it up.(grin)
Karen J says
Thank you for the offer to share your mayo! I wish we all lived next door to each other!
When I visited my friend the other day she gave me two apples and an orange. (I had given her kielbasa and cranberry bread) My people know how seriously I take Pantry Challenge! I’m not above trading.
Laurie Gaither says
Hubs is really under the weather. He has spent nearly the entire day in bed. The only thing he wants to eat is toast, chicken noodle soup and apple cider. I haven’t been cooking, just pulling stuff out of the fridge and freezer.
B – peanut butter toast, two pieces of l/o kabob meat and milk
L – grilled cheese sandwich and chips (I didn’t realize we had so many packages of shredded cheese so I froze some)
S- an orange I just picked off our tree
D – l/o hummus, raw veggies and a few pita chips
Lynn at NC Outer Banks says
Wow. Picking oranges. I’ve picked apples and peaches from our trees but never oranges. Jealous!
Heather M says
Jealous of the orange off the tree, too. Bet is was delicious!
Julie Smith says
Breakfast: eggs
Lunch: packed lunches for everyone else, my dad is in town and took me out to lunch
Dinner: Southwest pork chops (the last meal of my big freezer meal fill back in August), leftover rice, green beans
Our freezer is looking bare bones!
Maureen says
My middle schooler is on an eggs for breakfast kick this week, so she’s been cooking for herself before leaving for the bus. I hit the store for a few things…mostly produce and milk. Lunch was a hodge podge from the fridge. I got frozen strawberries at the store, so we had smoothies for afternoon snack using up some other frozen fruit. DH came home from his trip, so we had a “real” dinner…pasta, garlic bread from some buns that needed to go, and lots of fresh fruit and veg. I should have grabbed some protein from the freezer for it, but it took me longer to finish what I was working on before dinner than I thought and I didn’t want to delay dinner for that. Popcorn and more fruit/veg for snack after that.
Tasty says
Thursday January 23rd
B – our usual fruit and yogurt etc. Hubby had a piece of the tea brack, I had an English muffin with homemade lime marmalade. This was made to use 5 limes I had leftover from another project. Beats leaving them to go soft and then be thrown out.
L – eggs on toast
S – pot roast, mashed potatoes (l/o from Christmas), Brussels sprouts, apple pie with a small scoop of ice cream.
I was in a different town in the afternoon and did a little shopping, including some stuff that was not NEEDED but the prices were so good I wasn’t going to pass them up. But that tends to be the way I shop normally. Buy on sale and stash it away until it’s needed. It does mean that I will be continuing the pantry challenge into February and beyond.
Alice E says
B – Oats, eggs, hot tea and mandarins
L – he took pb sandwich and cookies, I had l/o soup with a can of tomatoes added.
D -threw together a one pot rice and ground turkey with bits of veg, served it with beets from the freezer
It snowed overnight, so winter for the third day in a row. Planning to cook a big pot of beans today and add the rest of the ground turkey I cooked up yesterday.
Terry says
Dashed out in the morning for a haircut with a coupon to great clips. Then stopped on the next block at Fred Meyers for milk, and some fresh veg. Ran into a sale on 2# tillamook cheese at 5.99. I bought three so hubby can smoke some. It put me over my 100.00 monthly budget but I don’t care. We will be enjoying it for months to come.
Breakfast was banana pancakes. I had maple steamed apples on mine. Hubby had his with fried eggs. The dog had hers plain.
Lunch was split pea soup with garlic croutons.
I baked potato bread with leftover potato soup, but it fell, so the chickens got that. Dinner was a scrambled egg and cheese sandwich on a grilled bagel.
I bought milk yesterday so I took the half gallon left in the fridge and the last of my yogurt and put my instant pot to work. This morning I have half a gallon of lovely Greek yogurt.
My sprouting lentils are looking great. I might have the first of those in a salad today.
Lynn at NC Outer Banks says
Terry you smoke cheese? How does that work?
Terry says
Hubby smokes the cheese. He just cuts the 2# brick into 8 or 10 smaller bricks. Puts them on the racks in his little chief smoker. Soaks some hickory chips in water then starts the smoker. It usually takes just one pan of chips to smoke. Just a couple of hours. He only smokes cheese when its cool so the cheese doesnt melt. Then he seals each piece with the vacuum sealer and we put it in the fridge for a couple of months. If we can wait that long. The longer you wait the better it is. Sometimes when he smokes cheese I also have him smoke a pan of salt. Fabulous!
Karen J says
I’ve never heard of smoking cheese. Sounds delicious!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks says
Like Karen J, I’d never heard of smoking cheese which is why I asked about it. Very interesting. I was wondering why it didn’t melt. I’ve bought smoky edam cheese before and like the smoky flavor. Thank you for the explanation. Learn something new every day!
Alice E says
Lucky you. I don’t eat much cheese because of the fat problem, but real smoked sea salt is very pricey. I did indulge in a package but save it for very special use.
Natalie Kay says
B: I made a batch of freezer Mexican breakfast burritos so I pulled from that stash for my breakfast along with an apple.
L: I decided to make pancakes for myself since everyone else had already eaten or ate leftovers.
I spent the afternoon making a lasagna for a friend who had a baby so I just threw together a veggie fried rice from leftovers for us to have something quick and easy and not take out.
Roberta says
Thurs. 1/23/20
B: Hubs had cereal w/ banana, toast, OJ, coffee. Son and I had oatmeal w/ brown sugar and cinnamon, toast (son), OJ (son), coffee.
L: The guys had their usual packed lunches. I also sent extra food (2nd PB/AB sandwich, apple, yogurt w/ strawberry jam & granola) with Hubs since he had to work late. I had salad w/ a hardboiled egg and yogurt w/ home-canned peaches and granola.
D: Son and I had more pulled pork sandwiches, salad, and cantaloupe. Hubs had his extra “lunch” food at work and then had a bowl of chili when he finally got home.
I had originally planned for all of us to have chili, but since there was extra pork I let Son choose. There is still pork left (!), and of course all but one bowlful of chili, so we’ll be eating that down tonight and this weekend. I also made up a big salad and cut up some veggie sticks for future meals. It looks to be a relatively busy weekend, so having food already made will be nice.
Stephanie M. says
Thursday, January 23, 2020
B – bagel, blueberry Greek yogurt, and V8
L – Tuna salad on whole grain rye and an apple
D – I went to my mom’s for dinner tonight – Paul coming home on Saturday morning and then I get heavy on the challenge again.
Janet says
I have not seen this much white space in my freezer for months! We pulled out waffles, pancakes and chocolate bread from the freezer last night. We will eat these for breakfast this week. Since my gluten free child was not eating lunch with us, I made pizza and used up some breakfast sausage from the freezer.
B: Your choice of waffles, pancakes, or chocolate bread along with pineapple spears and green grapes
L: Sausage pizza and a no lettuce salad of cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, celery, and grated carrots with ranch dressing
D: Hamburgers, green beans, and the last of the fresh cherries (my favorite fruit)
Angela says
Today was a Pantry Challenge win.
B – fruit for Hubs, hot tea for me
L – Hubs took leftover peas & rice with some sausage he grilled on Monday. I took chicken soup.
D – Here’s the win:
On Monday, Hubs grilled steaks and we had one large sirloin left. I decided to make steak tacos. I warmed the steak in the oven, pulled out some extra rice, emptied lettuce from a salad package with just a little life left in the crisper, and carmelized an onion and some bell peppers from this summer’s garden. Rolled in a tortilla and topped with salsa and cheese, my guys were delighted. Hubs was EXTREMELY skeptical when I told him the menu… but he had seconds and declared it “very good”. WINNING! 🙂
Heather M says
Your husband was skeptical of a steak taco? Hmmm. Mine would have been sold at the first word-steak! lol. Glad it worked out so well for you! Tacos are so great!
Angela says
He doesn’t like leftover steak – he loves it fresh off the grill! He was concerned that it would have a leftover taste. ?