This month, we’re shopping our kitchen in order to use up what we have so we can save money and clear kitchen clutter.
Here we go with Day 1 of the Pantry Challenge.
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Prepping for two Christmases took a lot out of me and my freezer stash, so I’m hitting the ground running on this challenge. I didn’t do much prep work: haven’t done a pantry inventory or anything like that, but it will come.
Having the Christmas and NY holidays on Wednesday throws a major crimp in my style. How about you?
What We Ate Today
Breakfast – I made this Sausage Egg Hash Brown Casserole that I’ve had on repeat for the last six months. I had cooked sausage and onions already in the freezer and added some spinach into the mixture as well. I typically substitute cottage cheese for the milk in the recipe and do extra egg whites instead of whole eggs to boost the protein. It reheats really well, so it’s always nice when there’s leftovers.
I’m really focused on getting at least 100 grams of protein each day, so I added a clearance Siggi’s (49 cents!) as well as a leftover Yogurt Topper from stocking stuffers. The yogurt and topping was a whopping 21 grams of protein. I definitely need to figure out the amounts to make yogurt toppers myself – 6 grams in one little packet?! That’s more than an egg.
Lunch – Bryan and FishChick16 made Chicken Fried Rice with the leftovers from last nights chicken-rice-vegetable dinner.
Dinner – There was a ham in the freezer (leftover from April!) so I made my Slow Cooker Ham with Garlic Green Beans and Scalloped Potatoes for dinner. So good!
We also had our Happy New Year Cake that FishChick18 baked and decorated yesterday. I insisted she use my Easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe and she conceded it was a good recipe. (Remember she was the kid who made it through several auditions for Kids Baking Championship back in the day.)
It was a good day overall.
What did YOU do for Day 1?
PS If you notice comments from last year below, go ahead and disregard them. I’m reusing past years’ urls but rewriting each post as we go along through the month.
Kathryn M
I am a little late jumping in to the chats, but I am doing the January pantry challenge. I am on the heals of another food challenge from December, so my pantry is a little picked over. I do need a good freezer cleanout and will be focusing on using up stuff from there for a while. Leftover tend to go in and never come back out of the freezer! I have garden veggies from 2 summers that really need to go away too. I see a lot of veggie soup in my future.
Anyway I raided the giant bag of frozen potstickers today. There are still some left though for later.
Heather M
Hello Jessica! Thanks for hosting this again, and it’s so fun to have you back posting again this year! And, I’m thrilled to see so many familiar people again. Happy New Year everyone! My Jan 1 was spent in NY at my in-laws, then panicking when our daughter and her BF missed their flight home even after arriving 2 hours early (pure chaos like she’s never seen) and delaying our drive home until we knew what was happening with them, then them luckily getting rebooked onto the last flight of the night to their home city! We got home at midnight(we live by DC). Starting the Challenge today, with a day off for my birthday on Monday (or maybe just dinner off). We are 3 this year, as our son moved home this Fall after receiving a masters degree and a graduate certificate and started real world working in late October. He’s welcome to live with us as long as he wants, to save money, etc, given how expensive rent is here. Our cupboards, freezer(only 1, attached to the fridge), and fridge are full, and since thanksgiving I haven’t cooked a ton, but bought stuff. I’m in the middle of cleaning out the fridge to assess the situation there. Maybe I’ll inventory the rest later. My rules are chill, but I’d love to not spend a lot. We will not be sacrificing healthy meals, so i’ll keep us in fresh produce and will buy anything we use regularly if we run out of it. Otherwise, buckle up, it’s time to use things up, rotate things out before they get too old, be creative in the kitchen, and a wise steward of our resources.
Kim in Colorado
Hello! I participated year before last but had to take last year off due to a busy January. Looking forward to working through my freezer to make room for summer garden spoils, as well as using those pantry items I keep ignoring. I do have a few months more in a master’s degree program so may not be a daily poster.
Jessica, I also relate to your second Christmas post. I work in a hospital and we are not near family so Christmas “day” is often not traditional for us. But flexibility makes it work so I see much fun in your evolving Christmases of the future 🙂
I worked NY day so brought leftover pizza, fruit, and ate random snacks for lunch and dinner. My family smoked burgers at home with chips on the side. I do think they went to store for buns and ground meat, but they didn’t eat out so a win! I am aiming to cut the grocery budget in half this month.
Looking forward to all the ideas provided by everyone’s posts.
Jessica Fisher
Thanks for your encouraging words, Kim. Looks like you’re off to a good start!
Laurie in Texas
I really need to make a lot of progress on our two bottom freezers of our side by sides. I had bought a bone in ham right before Christmas so I tore it apart yesterday and made navy bean with ham soup and cornbread for dinner. We both ate a slice of ham for lunch. Breakfast was ever man for himself.
Kathy in Denmark
So happy that you are hosting this challenge again, Jessica!
Of course I’m in 🙂
Day one:
Brunch: Scrambled eggs, toast, coffee and juice
S: Crisps, Christmas cookies and candy
D: Chicken nuggets, veg. nuggets for DH, chips (fries) – all from the freezer, mixed salad.
DH and I have both been under the weather since before Christmas, which hasn’t been great for my energy level. So after NYE I pushed the easy button and I have zero regrets! At least the nuggets were from free range chickens and the fries were made with organic potatoes LOL
I’m happy to see some familiar names and some new ones as well. Looking forward to the rest of the month.
I have frozen a bunch of leftovers from Christmas, so I have some easy meals waiting. I am feeling better today, so I hope to be a little more creative meal-wise during the month.
Jessica Fisher
Get well soon, Kathy! Always great to see you here.
Kathy in Denmark
Thanks, Jessica!
I really enjoy this tradition. It helps me so much regarding the way I shop and I always get some great new ideas!
Heather M
Hello Kathy! So happy to see you back here again this year. Hope you’re starting to feel better. Fun fact for you, I started learning Danish on Duolingo the past several months, after enjoying enough shows from Denmark inspired me. Look forward to interacting again this month! Happy New Year!
Kathy in Denmark
Happy New Year, Heather!
Kudos for taking on learning Danish. Danish is notoriously difficult to learn, since we have vowels no one else does and a lot of very hard consonants (especially R).
We also tend to mumble a lot, it’s a bad habit 😉
Held og lykke til dig 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Hello Kathy! Great to see you here again. Feel better soon.
Kathy in Denmark
Great to see you too, Lynn!
Erin in Ontario
I’ve been following along the last couple of years, but was too shy to say much. This year we’re looking to replace our septic system here in the boonies, so I am all in on joining the pantry challenge with everyone! Thanks, Jessica, for hosting.
Day 1 we ate leftovers. It was a fix-it-yourself kind of day with the exception of a slow cooker full of homemade dog food from holiday turkey. Various things I saw eaten: cheese quesadillas, a spinach pizza, a large tomato and cucumber salad with hummus, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs (from our spoiled hens, who have started laying again after the cold snap).
Today I’m more organized, so I’ll share Day 2 tomorrow.
Jessica Fisher
Thanks for delurking, Erin! Great to see you! You’re off to a great start.
Danielle L Zecher
Your meals sound awesome. It’s great to see so many familiar names in the comments. ?
The freezers are in better shape than they have been in years. I’m in western NC, and we were hit pretty hard by Hurricane Helene. We lost everything in our fridge and nearly everything in our chest freezer. I’ve done some restocking and meal-prepping in anticipation of January being my busy time at work, but the freezers aren’t packed like they usually are going into the Pantry Challenge. I need to focus on using up some of the dry ingredients like spices (my spice cabinet is out of control!), flour, beans, etc. I’ve set a grocery budget of $100.00 for the month, but my stretch goal is not to spend any actual money. I have some Walmart gift cards and Walmart cash, and I’m hoping that will see us through the month. We had to replace our entire HVAC system/furnace and all of the ductwork, the sump pump, and have some electrical work and drainage work done as a result of the hurricane, so I’m looking to divert as much grocery money as possible toward paying all of that off.
Day 1 was super easy. I made several appetizers/snacks (meatballs, devilled eggs, egg salad, hummus/veggie tray, fruit/dip tray, cheese/crackers, and cake) for NYE, so we munched on those leftovers all day yesterday.
Heather M
Happy New Year, Danielle! I sure hope it’s a better year after Helene. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Also happy to see you here, and ready to cheer you on during your busy month. 🙂
Danielle Zecher
Hi Heather, thanks! I’m glad to see you again, too. 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Hello Danielle. So sorry to hear of the damages you sustained from Helene. We have family in your area that luckily sustained only minor damage. Such an awful and tragic occurrence. :’( I’m worried about WNC with the colder weather heading our way.
Sounds like you are off to a good start, for the challenge. Glad to “see” you again.
Danielle Zecher
Lynn, I’m glad your family was okay after Helene. I still can’t believe how bad it was (and still is) in some places.
Karen J
Happy New Year! May our 2025 be filled with adventures and good health!
Upon doing my inventory I found that, as usual, I have an overabundance of food after Christmas so I am very happy to be pantry challenging again this year! Thank you, Jessica, for hosting. I have several containers of those dehydrated hash browns from Costco so will try your breakfast casserole later this month.
Breakfast-egg sandwich in my egg sandwich making machine. We accidentally left ours in a condo on the Oregon coast in November, but my good friend found me another in a thrift store-so yay!
Lunch-veggies and dip, Christmas cookies from the freezer
Dinner-crock pot pork roast (using a big roast from the freezer), mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn. Lots left over for the two of us.
Allie from Ontario
Very happy to be back here for another run at this fun challenge! My focus this year is INGREDIENTS from the fridge, freezer, canning cupboard and dry pantry. We are currently well stocked with meat after a late November “city” run and fresh produce after a mindful shop on the 31st to refill the crispers and I do have a good sized cookbook collection which really helps me keep the variety up.
So on Jan 1st…here’s what we ate
Brunch = I had a bowl of some broccoli cheese soup I made on the 30th and T had some yogurt & finished off some mashed potatoes with some cheese melted on top
Dinner = I made a small pan of enchiladas using roasted tomatillos, chicken stock, black beans, corn and a big mix of both sweet & hot diced peppers all from the freezer. Seems like a good start for us 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Happy New Year Jessica and Tasty!
The last few months of 2024 were chaotic for a variety of reasons. Though I can’t believe it’s 2025 (wasn’t it just yesterday we were worried about Y2K?), I’m ready for a restart and that includes the budget. Due to said chaos, I didn’t even check my budget the month of December. So here’s to the do over.
Thank you Jessica for hosting this challenge again. I SO enjoy it.
1/1/25
B: LO ham and cheese sliders from the holidays, coffee
L: snacked on chips and queso, DH had a sandwich and chips
D: had our traditional Southern NYD dinner-ham (LO from Christmas Day), black eyed peas, cornbread, collards and pineapple. DH and I shared a slice of 12 layer cake we purchased when out of town.
PS Jessica I read your post on Two Christmases with interest. With my son’s family including our little toddler granddaughter being out of town, DD and hubby out of state, a soon to be 94 year old mother out of town and my sister’s family where my mom is, we had a lot of moving parts. Still trying to figure out how to make it all work.
Heather M
Hello Lynn! So happy to see you back here again for another Challenge! Hope you’re doing well. Fun fact for you: 2024 ended up being a year of getting to know NC finally. L and I did a long weekend in Raleigh/Durham in March and had a grand time. Then we spent the 4th of July week at the Outer Banks for the very first time in all the years we have lived here! When our kids were growing up we always went to San Diego to my home for the summer beach trip, unlike so many from the DC area who head to NC. We finally made it when our best friends rented a house on the beach in Nags Head and set aside a room for us! Best time, really enjoyed. Looking forward to interacting with you again this year!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, you did traverse NC a bit this year including my neck of the woods! Fourth of July here is THE busiest week with huge crowds! Glad you still had fun. Hard to compete with San Diego, but we do enjoy our miles and miles of beaches!
Looking forward to sharing here again this year.
Tasty
I am so happy to see the pantry challenge for another year. Somehow, ‘reporting’ here makes me much more accountable, so a big thank you Jessica. Must admit your meals sound really great. We did just fine today too!
B – hubby had a regular breakfast of berries, yogurt and granola, followed by some toast and lemon curd. Mine was similar – banana, yogurt, toast and jam.
L – hubby made cheese sandwiches for us.
S – lasagne, using ground beef and Italian sausages from the freezer, along with mushrooms and peppers and a jar a pasta sauce. Good eats for sure today.
Heather M
Hello Tasty! Glad to see you back here! Hope you had a good 2024 and look forward to seeing you here again this year. 🙂