Can you guys believe we’re almost 1/3 our way through the Pantry Challenge? Time is flying.
Today I spent the better portion of the day cleaning up post categories here on the site and watching/listening to Bones reruns. I also started a new audio book called The Jane Austen Society.
As for meals….
Our meals for day 9:
Breakfast: Some of the boys ate leftover gyro and eggs. Bryan had his oatmeal. As did FishChick13. Since she eats vegan, she made herself a bunch of Instant Oatmeal Packets minus the powdered milk.
I had my Greek Yogurt With Muesli and Blueberries. FishBoy16 had leftover pancakes from last night.
Bryan took FishChick12 on an outing this morning and got her Chick-fil-a for breakfast. It was hard to be annoyed since I knew it was a good outing for them.
Lunch – Before I started my work I made this Slow Cooker Taco Soup Recipe. I try to increase the overlap of vegan v. omnivore, so I reheated Pork Carnitas from the other day as well as leftover rice, and laid out sour cream, shredded cheese, and chopped cilantro and scallion. Each could top it how they liked.
I had a salad with Hard Cooked Eggs I made on Sunday.
Dinner – Early in the morning I made Sourdough Hamburger Buns (recipe in the Good Cheap Eats cookbook). Bryan grilled 16 hamburgers and 10 chicken legs, 2 plant-based “chick’n burgers”, an eggplant, a bell pepper, and a red onion.
It was all super yummy!
I had intended there be a lot leftover for lunch tomorrow, but I don’t think that will be the case. If so, I’ll make chicken or tuna salad instead.
Michelle S. in California
I have been terrible about posting so l’m trying to catch up! I feel so unmoored with everything going on that l’m struggling to be organized.
Breakfast was oatmeal and fruit for two of us and my daughter had a leftover roll with butter and fruit.
For lunch my daughter was on her own and my husband and l had a “date day”. We are still trying to support our local restaurants, so we ordered sushi for takeout from our favorite place, drove nearby to Atascadero Lake Park and ate in the car while watching all the waterfowl, then walked a couple of times around the lake. It was really nice.
Dinner was brown rice with some Hawaiian sausage from our half pig share, broccoli and fruit salad.
Heather M
I really feel your unmoored feeling too. also, what is a hawaiian sausage like? sounds delicious. Love that you took some time out with your husband and got sushi from a local place. The outing sounded so peaceful and heavenly. We, too, are trying to support local businesses we love. We went all out last week spending more than usual at an upscale local italian place, but it was for my birthday. It’s easy to feel bad for people like the owners of that place-it opened in 2019 to rave reviews, a chef-pastry chef couple who left NYC to open their own place here where they thought it would be easier to raise their family, and then dine-in disappears. They haven’t opened again for dining in, even though it’s technically allowed in VA. But they have figured out a really solid take-out system and I’ll support them for special occasions, so we can hope to eat in some day in the future. And so they can keep themselves and others employed. Same goes for the other places we get take-out from. If we are lucky enough to not have our finances changed from the pandemic, it feels like a requirement to do this. 🙂
Michelle S. in California
It really does feel necessary to support our local businesses. We are in an area of mostly wine grapes and wineries, ranching and farming, so it is a very tourist-driven economy and our businesses are struggling. Our town only has about 28,000 residents, so they are feeling the strain, for sure. I am drooling over thoughts of your delicious Italian dinner!
As far as the Hawaiian sausage goes, the local butcher who processed our pig had different flavors of sausage to choose from, so that is one of the types we chose, along with Southern-style and ginger sage. The Hawaiian one has some pineapple in it and red chili flakes and l think maybe ginger? It’s kind of mildly spicy and sweet and very tasty! We have been loving all of the different cuts from the pig share and it came from my friend’s farm, so that’s a plus.
Hang in there!
Lisa S
B and L were LOs as usual. But dinner kinda was too today. My family’s new favorite way to eat fish is in soup. So I used leftover broiled tilapia in some broth from the freezer, rice, veggies from the freezer, garlic, celery seed, tomato paste, herbs de provence, and served it with warm biscuits. Sometimes I make this more of a chowder esp. if it’s salmon or shell fish leftover. Only spent $140 so far this month out of my usual $1000. But we are almost out of fresh items, so I’ll be heading to Kroger Tuesday for pick up.
Kathy in Denmark
Day 9:
Brunch: Toasted hot dog rolls, rye bread, softboiled eggs, smoothies. coffee
S: Cut up veggies and ?? probably chocolate fudge or some other leftover Christmas goodies
D: HM veggie burgers and HM oven fries
Patties for veggie burgers were in the freezer. I use The Prudent Homemaker’s recipe for black bean burgers as a guide. It calls for liquid smoke, which I never buy, so I ususally just use smoked sea salt instead. It’s a really good recipe!
I walked to our nearest store to get a few things, including eggs which we were low on. I got out without spending a lot 😉
Alice E
Kathy, I have been occasionally using smoked sea salt and love it. Glad to hear it works for you.
Sarah
Day 9:
Brunch: I made an oatmeal bake that will last an eternity between two people lol it is really good and used up my steel cut oats and some other pantry items. I added peanut butter to mine and made cooked apples for BFs.
Lunch: leftover chicken and quinoa from lunch with clementines and frozen spinach tots. I had frozen sweet potato fries with mine since there weren’t enough tots.
Snack/late dinner: takeout sushi. I’m mad at myself for doing it but we only got one roll each.
Cindy
1/9
Breakfast – up and out of the house before 7 am, headed to our son’s – Robert Irvine’s pb fit crunch bar and coffee in the car.
Lunch was mid-afternoon so more like a snack that a meal, Tillamook cheese slice, cranberry walnut bread and a mandarin
Dinner was poached salmon in miso & seafood stock with broccoli, bok chop, Fresno and bell peppers and shiitake mushrooms – so good!
Jodi
I can’t recall if this is for Saturday or today so I doing today (Sunday).
Breakfast: cereal for everyone. coffee for me.
Lunch: It started snowing! so i made some frozen pizzas so boys could run in and out. They played out there for almost 5 hours. We are in Texas so this was a big deal! I am from up north so i was less excited.
With them playing outside, i had time to do a little prep for week. I made egg bites for my breakfasts this week and I am trying to figure out a copycat recipe for Core bars, which i like pretty well. I have a lot of oats and dried cherries so I’ll figure out how to put that together.
Dinner is French dip sandwiches in the Instant Pot. I also roasted some squash and carrots in the air fryer. I am really pushing to get in at least 1 extra serving of veggies a day so I think using the weekend to make a bunch will work out best for me.
This week’s goal: make someone eat all those Bagel Bites they cried for me to buy!
Heather M
laughing over the bagel bites…. isn’t it how it is 😉
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/9/21
B: toast and coffee for me, cereal and milk for DH
L: We decided to have a big lunch. Picked up delicious fresh oysters (plus slaw and fruit) from the restaurant at the local seafood market. (If there are any Wicked Tuna Outer Banks fans, it’s in the village where they do the weigh ins 😉
D: still full so ate only 1/2 pimento cheese sandwich
Did have to finally grocery shop for the basics: eggs, peanut butter, bread, potatoes, carrots, peppers and tomato paste needed for a recipe. Lean ground turkey was half price so I picked up 2 # for added variety. Total was $22.19 with total for month $23.21.
Good to hear everyone’s plans and savings!
Jennifer
Yesterday was different because dd and I traveled out of town for a gymnastics meet. Eating out was called for.
Breakfast – I found a can of Annie’s cinnamon rolls leftover from Christmas buried in the fridge so I made that. Also grapefruit. Some had cereal.
Lunch – Remember the extra pizza I made Friday night and saved for my lunch in the car? Well the gymnast wanted it. And we had zero bread products in the house and there wasn’t much I could eat while driving. She wanted to stop at Starbucks and get coffee so I bought their egg bites as my lunch. Other dd had leftovers. Dh and 2 ds’s scrounged but I don’t know what they ate.
Dinner – dh and dd at home made a veggie quinoa dish. Both ds’s were working. Gymnast and I ate at Moe’s Southwestern Grill after the meet. Dining in is not allowed so we sat in the car to eat.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jennifer, I remember all those out of town gymnastic meets fondly (most of them, anyway!) though gymnastics made for a very busy season in my life back then!
Heather M
Here to report days 8 and 9. We are still pretty lost in the mire of events, as my husband is working a ton right now and all from home. I have yet to have a decent night’s sleep(i am one who fights with sleep-stopped napping at age 2, when things are stressful i don’t sleep well/much, and that’s been a lot this entire past year. sigh.). But we are here and I was able to figure out dinners for my guys/myself. My son is here until the 17th when he heads back to university 2K miles away. Same state as his sister, though their schools are about 2hr 30min drive apart from each other.
January 8:
Brunch: I was in the mood for bacon, so made some for everyone; son had bacon and snacky food like chex mix; husband had bacon and leftover panang chicken soup I had made the other day from leftovers; I had bacon, chips and queso, and leftover focaccia made into pan con tomate-I’ve been on a tear eating this since we went to Madrid over spring break 2019 though I don’t make it traditionally which requires grilling the bread. I just toast it. Then it’s either sliced tomato with garlic and olive oil drizzle, or chopped tomato tossed with garlic and olive oil spread on the bread. Simple but so good. I typically use the Trader Joe’s garlic salt blend in place of raw garlic.
Dinner: chicken burgers from costco(had bought these in early december for when both kids were around but we did too much takeout), smothered in sauteed onion, bell peppers, and mushrooms; finished off the leftover rice pilaf from Tuesday.
January 9:
Brunch: I had popcorn and a sunnyside up egg; the guys I have no idea
Dinner: quesadillas. Husband and I had ours on low carb whole wheat tortillas, son on regular. We all had refried beans mixed with enchilada sauce, cheese, and chicken on them; son also had turkey pepperoni; husband and I also had leftover sauteed veg on them and we had avocado on the side
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, it’s totally understandable re: your lack of sleep. Hang in there. My daughter typically works a few blocks from the White House so I’m very thankful she is working from home for now.
Heather M
Oh gosh I’m glad she’s like most DC workers these days, able to work from home right now.
Kathy in Denmark
Fellow non-sleeper here!
Hang in there, Heather.
By the way, your meals all sound lovely! I’ve never been to Madrid, but I have been to Catalonia and they make a similar bread. Toasted bread rubbed with a fresh clove of garlic, then rubbed with a cut very ripe tomato and drissled with a little olive oil. It’s so good and a great way to use up overripe tomatoes 😉
Heather M
Glad to know I’m not alone with sleep… haha. Oh the tomato, garlic, olive oil on bread combination is just a perfect delicious yet so simple food. I definitely don’t mind when I have an overripe tomato these days. 🙂
Alice E
Here’s hoping for better days. I haven’t been sleeping that well either. Sounds like you did really well with meals. Hang in there.
Heather M
We’re doing what we can, aren’t we, Alice. 🙂
Julie Smith
Super chill day here, the usuals for B/L and we are out for dinner in another installment of “Smiths find the best local cheeseburger in town.” Lol. It’s an ongoing thing we’ve been doing for the past few months.
Karen J
Day 9
breakfast- oatmeal with blueberries and pecans
lunch-leftover mongolian beef from take out the night before-more onions than beef, but tasty
dinner-creole sausage and rice, green salad I didn’t have a green pepper so subbed a lesser amount of jalapeño. Whooee! Spicy!
I did a small shop for milk, bread, and fresh veg. There is a wee bit of space in my freezer now. Still lots of choices for meals. I haven’t had to be too creative yet!
tasty
Fruit, yogurt and muffins for breakfast, leftover lasagne and salad for lunch with haddock, french fries and peas for supper followed by a bowl of ice cream.
This has to be a win because there are no leftovers in the fridge and there’s a little (and I do mean little) less in the freezers.
Sandi Gosnell
B – he had cereal, I just had coffee
L – chicken and lemon rice soup – the plan was to use up the l/o lemon rice from the other day so I used a can of chicken but I added too much broth. We now have yet another meal of it and unless we are going for very light meal, I need to add some more rice to the great volume of broth. I did add in some tumeric and I threw in some red and orange bell peppers that need to be used up so it was a lovely sunshiny color.
D – sliced turkey from freezer, skillet potatoes, and finished off a package of veggie mix I had purchased that we really disliked. Organic mix of 5 green veggies, seemed like a good idea, but they were not pleasant to our palate. I have had to severely doctor them to make them edible but the the vegetables were good for us and nothing really wrong with them so I couldn’t just throw them away. We opted to have an extra large serving to just get them finished.
Dessert – ice cream to celebrate finishing the nasty veggies
I noticed that my potatoes have gotten quite soft, so I am thinking there is likely a potato soup coming in the next day or two.
Maureen
Everyone was on their own for lunch/brunch, but at least 2 of us had leftovers. Hubby got a new smoker for Christmas and plays with it on the weekends, so he smoked a pork shoulder that we turned into tacos. The leftover meat (~5 meals) is already in the freezer. Not much snacking today, since there was so much sleeping and a large early dinner. I really need to reorganize the fridge a bit.
Pat
It is hard to believe we are a third of the way done already!
Day 9 breakfast for my son and I was the usual. My husband had oatmeal with applesauce and cinnamon and toast.
No one ate lunch.
Due lack of leftovers we had tortilla crusted tilapia, cheesy potatoes and broccoli. I also ate the l/o roasted veggies
Snacks were chicken dip made with the leftover chicken and cookies.
Lily R.
Day 9
Breakfast: Cornmeal pancakes with maple butter.
Lunch: Puerto Rican pasteles from the freezer that i made during the holidays. It makes a big batch so we have enough for awhile!
Dinner: We finished up the Caribbean rice and had side salads on the side.
Snacks today were pear/ginger coffee cake and mangoes.
I can’t believe we’re this far into the challenge already! I have only had to shop once so far and we have enough fresh produce to last until next weekend. I will be chipping away at the freezer by pulling out several items tomorrow for the coming week. Veggie prep will also be happening tomorrow.
Carol B.
Day 9:
Regular breakfast.
Lunch: leftover ramen and vegetables with some more new cabbage( from daughter’s CSA ) added to improve vegetable to noodle ratio. Squash, brown rice, feta, nut salad: all from frig or pantry. Supper: chicken thighs ( from freezer) carrots, mashed potatoes. Green salad and berries for dessert.
I took out two more packages of protein from the freezer to start to thaw. One is mystery meat since its label smudged too much to read.
Pat
Ah mystery meat–sometimes it can be a good thing and other times it’s a downer!! Here’s hoping your mystery is a good one!
Heather M
Puerto Rican pasteles? YUM! I lived there from ages 9-just turning 13 and have very fond food memories. As usual, loving your daily menus. The pear/ginger cake sounds delicious too.
Lily R.
Hi Heather,
Hubby is Puerto Rican and I love their food so I have learned to make make it over the years. Such a beautiful island with welcoming people and delicious food!
Thanks for the compliment on our food. We love to eat different things around here so when I meal plan it’s usually a new menu per month. Eating is an adventure! The pear and ginger coffee cake was yummy although we have so many goodies from the holidays still to finish.
Heather M
Ah! That explains it. That’s so great you’ve learned how to make Puerto Rican food! I haven’t had a good arroz con gandules in years and it was always a favorite! I mean, aside from so many other good things. 🙂