I spent some time with my GCE Club worksheets, thinking through my priorities for this month. Super helpful!
Answering just a few questions on this worksheet helped give me the redirect I need for these last ten days of the Pantry Challenge.
Why am I doing this?
There is empty space in the freezer and a dwindling number of proteins, something that could make me nervous. But, getting excited about doing some freezer cooking next month helps me reframe it and see the inventory shortage as a good thing.
I will have the space to refill in ways that benefit us more.
While I’m trying not to do a ton of shopping, I do want to keep up my weekly habits, namely heading to Ralphs for clearance shopping once a week. I usually do this on a Thursday or Friday morning. Since I know tomorrow will be busy with meetings, I went today.
Saving money while building the pantry
There wasn’t anything exciting marked down in the meat department, thought I did get a flat of the sale chicken breast ($1.99/lb) to make Brysons more burritos this weekend.
I found some clearance bread and produce and really good sales on crackers and yogurt. And since Ralphs is the place where I would buy buttermilk (ALDI doesn’t carry it) and dill pickle relish, I grabbed those things as well as other produce items on sale.
I ended up spending $56. This brings us to $423 so far for the month. I will likely do a Walmart or ALDI run over the weekend to top us off for the final week of the month.
Our meals for Day 21:
Breakfast: The usual (oats, smoothies, toast and eggs, etc.)
Lunch: I took FishBoy16 out for his turn at lunch. We went to a local pizza place. Bryan had lunch at work; the other kids had sandwiches and leftovers.
Dinner: Thursdays are frozen food nights this month, so I thawed a package of Daphne’s gyros and a package of naan.
I made some Tzatziki, a big Greekish Salad and cooked up the last of the Israeli couscous I had in the pantry. I also roasted the last eggplant I had on hand and the brussels sprouts, not because they coordinate with the meal, but I know we’ll eat them if they’re already cooked.
Kim
B-oatmeal
L- sandwiches, fruit, chips
D- Jessica’s chicken fried rice! We did add in egg at the end. And somehow I had no soy sauce so substituted teriyaki sauce and salt instead. Was really good! My youngest son was so confused how we had Chinese food not from a restaurant, lol, but loved it. And I didn’t have to buy any ingredients!
Jessica Fisher
Glad to hear it was a hit!
Sarah
I love the new look!
So in good news – my kitchen inventory list is down to one page for fridge/freezer. I have a second page that I use for only baking supplies to keep them separate since they tend to last longer and I didn’t want to keep writing it out. So it feels like a win in my book!
B: coffee w/ cream
L: leftover meatloaf and cauli mash
D: garlic butter chicken thighs w/ Gf macaroni (our last box of pasta!) and roasted fennel
S: ham and cheese roll up; mini Brie; yogurt parfait
I have to do a bit of meal planning today and shopping tomorrow. We still have more chicken thighs to cook but I might put them in the freezer until I’m excited about them again.
Jessica Fisher
Thanks! It’s been a work in progress.
Maureen
Two lists is a great idea. I had my chest freezer organized in a couple of sections (a few years ago) and it worked great until I stopped maintaining it and it got out of hand. That’s my goal again when I wrap up the challenge…in March. It makes it much easier to know what I have.
Heather M
1/21 another good Challenge day. I finished up my food inventory by surveying the lone freezer we have(in the kitchen attached to the fridge. I wish we had a place for even a small second freezer. Alas). Then transcribed all my info from the old, very messy inventory paper onto new clean paper. Feels so good knowing what we have, and I’m looking forward to those neat papers getting messed up as we use things up. I ran to pick up prescriptions(at Target) first thing, since my husband was leaving a little later than he has all week for work, and picked up a few things while there, spending $13.50. We are at $163 for the month now. Should be able to keep at $200 for the month, and I won’t need to shop for fresh produce over the weekend now-can push it to Monday.
Breakfast: L took a mini Kind bar(these are pricey but he loves them and one thing I grabbed at Target was a box of these since they are a good $2 cheaper at Target than the grocery) and a mandarin/cherries; I skipped
Lunch: L took the last of the cajun pasta(finally gone!), a cucumber/tomato salad; and pistachios; I had turkey/cheddar on whole wheat and a mandarin
Dinner: defrosted chicken breasts(just enough so no leftovers!) and made a sort of chicken tagine, with a north african seasoned lemony sauce, using up the last of some spicy green olives and a little pouch of more green olives(is anyone else like me where it feels like half the fridge is full of longer term open items like condiments, asian mexican and other sauce ingredients, various olives, pickles, capers, relishes, spreads, better than bouillons, jellies, etc etc etc? It feels so good to get rid of even one jar taking up space)- it was so delicious! instead of couscous since we had it Monday, I made some rice(with purposeful leftovers) and mixed it with some riced cauliflower. And a big side salad w/ lettuces, red cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumber.
Lily R.
Good job on the food inventory! I bet it feels good knowing everything that you have to work with. Your tagine sounds delicious. We are not fans of olives here so I usually sub a can of chickpeas in ours. And yes to all the jars of condiments! We have so many for all different types of dishes. It’s a good thing they last awhile huh?
Heather M
I guess we are a little the opposite, since we adore all kinds of olives, lol. I’m so glad to know I’m not alone with all those jars. I’m so glad they last a long time. It would be such a waste and such a loss.
Karen J
Our Grocery Outlet has had mini Kind bars 8/$1 recently-definitely a good buy! I like to keep them in the car for a snack.
Heather M
Oh I wish we had that deal somewhere here. I’m glad you do. That’s an amazing deal.
Sandi
Yes! Even when there’s no “food” the fridge is still half-full from all the condiments. It’s a little frustrating sometimes.
I know you shop Costco; have you looked for the Kind bars? Ours has had regular and mini sizes before. I don’t recall the prices, though, as I don’t believe I ever bought them. I just ate them in the good ol’ days of samples.
Heather M
I’ll have to see what our Costco carries! He’s especially fond of the cherry chocolate cashew kind. If they have a box that doesn’t include that flavor I’ll just keep hoping for sales and buying at Target otherwise 🙂
Maureen
Absolutely! I feel like 1/2 the fridge is condiments, etc. I put a Lazy Susan in there for easier access. It has helped, but not everything fits. Too much stuff, but I can’t figure out how to pare it down enough. It’s a constant battle.
Heather M
Same situation, though no lazy susan. I have clear low box things that are about the depth of the shelves and use those to help make access easier, since I have way more bottles and jars than door shelves. It is, as you say, a constant battle. 🙂
Sandi
1/21/2021
B: l/o apple oatmeal
L: southwestern-style salad
D: grilled pork chops, yellow rice, mixed veggies
Maureen
I love hearing everyone’s reasons, thoughts, etc…it gets me thinking. I answered the questions on your sheet, Jessica, and now I have clear direction and strong motivation to continue through the end of February. I think it will take that long to get rid of enough to easily get all my food storage completely organized and defrost the chest freezer. I’m going with the slow and steady plan so that I don’t disrupt life or anger the people too much.
I pulled a few things from the freezer to eat up. Some are now gone and a couple are ready in the fridge. We ate a lot of leftovers for lunch and dinner. Hubby and I got takeout sandwiches from a food truck that was in our neighborhood for dinner, but the kids weren’t interested. To support local, we’ve had food trucks every couple of weeks for the last 7 months coming to our subdivision. The truck didn’t sell sides, so I made a salad and hubby grabbed some chips from the pantry. Not many leftovers in the fridge going into the weekend, so if I stay ahead of the family by prepping we can make some progress on the freezer.
Heather M
Oh I love that you’ve had food trucks in your neighborhood! That’s such a good idea. I wonder how all the food trucks(and their people) in our region are surviving given so many people who frequented them work from home these days. Neighborhood visits sound like a great alternative!
Lily R.
Slow and steady wins the race! And they are less likely to revolt that way. I also like the food truck idea and trying to support them.
Kim
Haha! I love your honesty about the family, and relate! I, too, will likely carry over the challenge, but probably only make it a couple weeks into February.
Tasty
Same ol’, same ol’ around here. Fruit, yogurt and muffins for breakfast. I had to head into town for some bloodwork in the morning ( really glad there was no fasting required). While I was in town, I did pick up our mail but no stops at grocery stores – happy about that. Lunch was egg and cheese with a big salad. Trying to make sure the salad is eaten before it gets the chance to go off. I made supper really easy – the last of the ham chowder from the freezer, herb bread also from the freezer with ice cream for dessert.
Jennifer
Plugging along here. And I haven’t hit Starbucks before work yet this week so I’m feeling good about that.
B – homemade chocolate chip muffins (can you tell they are a fave around here?) and raspberries
L – I took a chicken sandwich, dried apricots and skinny dipped almonds, I have no idea what dh took or what the others ate except ds had school in person so ate there.
D – I had a package of random sausages from our summer CSA that I thawed. I sliced them up along with about 8 diced potatoes and topped it with the remains of colby jack cheese. Everyone loved it. Also had the last tube of crescent rolls from the holidays and I sliced up a cucumber.
S – I saw my oldest eat several things of yogurt !!!, toast up a bagel, grab a muffin. My youngest had a bowl of cereal after practice.
I don’t always see what they eat, but I see the dirty dishes when I come home so I know they eat.
Heather M
Must feel so good(at least mentally—your taste buds might be missing it) not stopping at Starbucks all week. Imagine your homemade choc chip muffins have helped. You’re inspiring me to bake muffins this weekend. And also, your dinner is reminding me that I have sausages and potatoes I need to use up soon- maybe early next week I’ll do a sheet pan dinner with them. Thanks for all the inspiration. 🙂
Lily R.
Are those skinny dipped almonds good? I saw them at the store and was tempted to buy them lol.
Marci
B= coffee and the last of the carrot cake.
L= yellow rice w/stuffed grape leaves
D= charcuterie & wine :), kids/hubby had corned beef.
I had to make a grocery store run and spent $100, so now Im at $800. Still pretty good, since my normal grocery bill is usually over $1300/month.
KMM
Skipped breakfast today.
Lunch: leftover crockpot chicken and stuffing with green beans.
Dinner: I was going to go get carryout pizza, but I ended up stopping into walmart for a frozen one instead. Much cheaper!
I bought about $15 in groceries today. 5 lb bag of potato – this will be a lot of my sides for a while. Bananas for the week (I try to eat one a day for the potassium.) I picked up a few clearance items that I will use up this weekend. I got 3 cans of chili for $1 each. I got some peanut butter that I really didn’t need yet, but grabbed it for later since it was on markdown. I did pretty good on shopping for this week and am way under budget for the month.
Jennifer
Potatoes are high in potassium as well! Great job on the clearance stuff.
Lily R.
Day 21
Breakfast: I made banitsa as I had a package of filo pastry dough to use up.
Lunch: we finished up the Spanish spaghetti.
Dinner: hubby made a great tuna noodle casserole.
Our snack today was Bakewell tart. I made it this morning as I already had the oven going for the banitsa.
Jessica, I like how you turned your negative thought of having no proteins into a positive by focusing on the fact that you will replenish with freezer cooking! Getting to choose what we eat is such a privilege.
Heather M
What is banitsa? And, you made a Bakewell tart! So great! Thanks to the Great British Baking Show I know what this is, lol. 🙂
Lily R.
Hi Heather, banitsa is a Bulgarian(Balkan) dish. You can either roll or layer filo with an egg, yogurt and cheese mixture. You brush the pastry with butter and bake it. There are several variations/mix ins you can use but I made the traditional one. I used feta because I had it but you can also use sirene cheese (harder to find depending on where you live).
Haha yes, I love a good Bakewell tart! There are so many great dishes out of the UK! And I watch that show too : )
Heather M
Oh that does sound yummy! I’m not surprised you watch GBBO. 🙂
Tasty
Nothing beats a Bakewell tart from Bakewell!t