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 13 of the Pantry Challenge!
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It was a quiet day at home, with mostly fend-for-yourself when it comes to meals.
What We Ate
Breakfast – We ate through a couple loaves of Sourdough Bread along with a variety of eggs, cereal, etc.
Lunch – A variety of leftover pizza and chicken.
Dinner – We made chicken quesadillas with the leftover chicken from Thursday.
How did Day 13 go for you?
Heather M
Jan 13: quiet day at home for me, L worked all day from home beginning at like 9am(things really need to calm down). And we finally got together with our best friends who we were supposed to spend Dec 23 and Christmas Day dinner with (with all of our families, too) but had to cancel since I got Covid etc etc. It was just the 4 of us and so much fun!
Brunch: pancakes with blueberry sauce, chicken maple breakfast sausages (pancakes from a mix gifted to us last year, blueberries I froze in September store leaving town unexpectedly- I’ll tell that story one of these days- it was 1/2 quart sized ziploc worth and have 2 more similar amounts left in the freezer, sausage was just over 1/3 of a package frozen since Christmas 2022!)
Dinner: at our friends, where we were from 4:45pm thru 12:30am, we ate appetizers- raw veg and dip, chips and salsa; steak(perfect little round steaks), twice baked potatoes, garlic green beans; dessert we had ice cream, see’s candy, and pirouline cookies while playing games all night with the football game on in the background.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Sounds like a lovely day with delicious food! Glad you could finally catch up with friends.
Karen J
Breakfast-oatmeal with berries from the freezer
Lunch-this week’s leftover turkey pot pie soup, the last bowl
Dinner-curry with chicken and vegetables, rice
I have yet to spend any money on groceries this month and we are doing fine. I gave the grandkids hot cocoa made with powdered milk-left from pandemic shopping- and there were no complaints. So far it’s been easy as I was really overstocked. The next few weeks will be more challenging to my creative spirit, but I am going to see how long we can go. We do go out for breakfast occasionally and haven’t changed that. And I did buy cat food but that doesn’t count, according to my self made rules.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Well done Karen on the no shopping. (And I think excluding cat food makes sense)
Kathy in Denmark
Day 12:
B: Oats and milk for DH, Oat porridge for DD1, rye porridge for DD2, toast and coffee for me
L: DH eats at work, packed lunch for the kids. Rye bread with assorted toppings for me.
D: Fried potatoes and eggs, rye bread, cut up veggies on the side
Day 13:
B and L: Same as the day before
D: HM pizzas on naan bread
S: Leftover Christmas candy for friday movie night
Heather M
Day 13:
B: L skipped; I had 2 pieces of toast with cinnamon bun spread
L: L grabbed a bag of cheetos at work; I finished my subway sandwich midafternoon
D: I wasn’t very hungry and still pretty worked from thursday’s stuff, so I heated up the box of frozen Korean fried rice that I bought on sale in early December when my diet was weird and wanted easy options for L. He ate it up. I eventually had a couple pieces of toast with butter
I think the weekend will get me back into a groove of cooking and for sure will need to pick up a few things on Monday (i don’t want to hit any stores over the weekend).
Maureen
I haven’t commented in a while, but just caught up on everyone’s progress. I also haven’t been as dedicated to the challenge as I’d hoped, but still plugging along. Imperfect is better than giving up. I needed a few things at Costco (including eggs) so I grabbed those this week. I only got a bag of new chips that weren’t on my list that I think I’ll stash for a movie night in the next week or so.
We’ve done well with eating up leftovers and using up some of our glut of potatoes. I served the high and middle school choirs pizza last night and ended up bringing home almost 2 pizzas of leftovers. Hopefully my girls will eat them up in the next few days. The next few months will be crazy busy after school for everyone, so we won’t be eating as many “normal” meals together. The kids are old enough to fend for themselves, so I’ll focus on meals that can be cooked individually throughout the evening and having healthy snacks, grab and go foods, and ingredients for things like quesadillas on hand for everyone. That should allow me to use up some odds and ends from the freezer, but will require my attention to do it. I need to wipe out and organize the fridge today and plan to do a little prep, too.
Kathryn M
Day 13
B – yogurt
L- cheese quesadilla. I used a small amount of random cheddar that had been in the fridge a while onto mine, also with using my usual colby jack blend.
Snacks – cookies
Dinner – made some Cantonese steamed fish (online recipe), rice, and mixed stirfried veggies. I used two different pieces of fish and SO and I split them so we each got a variety. I used up some teriyaki sauce on the veggies. One bottle down at least two more opened bottles to go! Like I said – condiments get out of control in our fridge.
Got rid of the sad looking green pepper and cleaned up some scallions. There is now a nice container of chopped green onions ready to use in the fridge.
ZC from MA
1/12
B: overnight oats with hemp milk, nut butter and strawberries
L: Trader Joe’s butter chicken with rice
D: carrot soup, toast with a slice of ham
S: an apple, granola
1/13
B: overnight oats with soy milk, nut butter, coffee
L: Trader Joe’s soup dumplings
D: instant ramen with cabbage, ham and shrimp
S: an apple, a slice of toast with nut butter
Krista
Would you share how you made the ramen? Thanks
ZC from MA
I just use the ramen packets I get from an Asian grocery store (Sapporo Ichiban, I like all their flavors but particularly the tonkotsu one, which I used here). Instant ramen are rather infamous for being “unhealthy” so I try to eat them sparingly and add veggies/protein when I can.
In terms of cooking, I dump the flavoring packet, veggies, frozen shrimp and the noodle bar to a pot of water. Bring to a boil and once the noodles turn soft, give it a stir to break up the strands. Cook the noodle to the desired doneness. Because I use shrimp it’s super quick to cook, and the meal is ready in 10-15min.
Emily
B- Eggs, bacon and toast
L- leftover cauliflower soup with a grilled cheese sandwich and a couple gummy candys from Christmas.
Snack- a mini kind bar and a gf bun that’s was just awful but at least I used up the baking mix in the pantry.
D- quesadillas and a half an orange. I was going to make Buffalo chicken quesadillas using this bag of plant based chicken I got on clearance once but it was so gross and rubbery I tossed it and just made regular.
We also had and evening snack of a bowl of popcorn.
I think today is the day I defrost my basement freezer now that is is so empty.
Kimberly
Nice work emptying the freezer!
Tasty
Friday January 13th
B- the usual fruit combo. Hubby had a muffin and I had toast and lemon curd.
L – we cleaned out the fridge of leftovers – chicken, potato cabbage mix and apple pie
S – bacon sandwiches.
Stephanie M.
Friday, January 13, 2023
B – I had a yogurt parfait
L – Paul had a bagel and cream cheese and an apple. I had the last of the egg salad on whole wheat.
D – grilled Asian salmon, using up the last of the salmon from the freezer, rice pilaf, and salad.
Kimberly
1-13
B-cereal
L-lots of veggies on a sandwich, chips, fruit
Snack- mini charcuterie boards, I found a wedge of Gouda in the fridge and lots of random opened crackers from the holidays, added some deli meat and fruit and ended with a fancy after school snack
D- French dips on French bread (I had to buy about half the ingredients for this but it is a family favorite, so worth it), fruit
1-14
B- cereal or pop tart
L- lo broccoli cheddar soup with lo cornbread, hubby’s work treated him to pizza
D- had a Trader Joe’s green curry simmer sauce I impulse bought a few months ago, added in a chicken breast, a potato, some matchstick carrots I am still using up, and broccoli from fridge, served over ramen noodles from pantry, came out pretty darn good…but was a little spicier than the kids prefer so they made a sandwich…oh well, can’t win them all
Also made pumpkin banana muffins with bananas on their last leg and freezer pumpkin puree, everyone did like those!
Heather M
Isn’t that simmer sauce yummy? We love a lot of the sauces from Trader Joe’s. I’m sorry it was too spicy for you kids. We are lucky— ours were downing spicy salsa by 15 months, somehow. But most people it seems like their kids take time in developing that spicy palate. Meanwhile, glad you were able to enjoy it! (and also, love the snack charcuterie! What fun when they got home from school)
Kathryn M
B: cranberry orange muffins
L grilled bacon and cheese sandwich with a pickle spear (i have 4 open jars of pickle in the fridge ?? what the heck???)
D homemade pizza – I used up an older bag of mozzarella that needed to go away. I put some bacon, ham, red and yellow bell pepper, black olives, and onion on it. I forgot that there were a few mushrooms in the fridge.
Lily R.
B: Hubby has been wanting scones for awhile now so I made some caramel glazed cardamom scones and iced lattes to go with it. It’s freezing here but we love iced coffee year round!
L: leftover tahdig and kebabs with side salads.
D: Bouillabaisse with toasted baguette.
Snacks were cashews and dates.
I am going to prep some ingredients to make the next couple of days go easier and I also have the makings of croissant dough getting ready for tomorrow morning. I hope you all have some fun plans for the weekend : )
Jen in Ohio
B: Scrambled eggs w/ sauteed bell peppers (from freezer), onion and mushrooms. DF ate his with hot sauce, and I had mine in a tortilla with chopped tomatoes. DS is out of school again today (and tomorrow) while we wait for the Covid PCR test. He slept some, and then had crackers and peanuts late morning.
L: DS: ramen plus the turkey pepperoni, grapes and cherry tomatoes that were prepped for his school lunch today (if his sore throat was completely gone, they said he could come back today, so we had a lunch ready to go in case. Quarantine rules keep changing here, and I know his school is trying their best to respond to the changing situation)
I had some L/O potato leek soup; based on the dishes in the sink, DF had a taco salad with leftover taco meat/rice/beans
D: homemade lasagna (first time I’ve done it), copycat Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits, salad
Freezer cooking/prep: 5# packs of ground beef were on sale this week, as low as they go anymore. I ordered one, but it got subbed in our pickup for two 3# packs. I used 1# in the lasagna, froze two packs of raw for future meals, and sauteed the remainder with mushrooms and italian seasoning. Then cooled and froze into 3 meal-sized portions.
I started doing this a few months ago, and it makes for a quicker pasta dinner on busy nights, since I can just heat the cooked meat with a jar or 2 or marinara and boil the noodles.
lisa s
B: coffee
L: tikka masala and fruit
D: well, I was supposed to make chicken and pesto orzo and a salad. hubby made a lovely italian seasoned chicken that was delightful. however my brain took a vacay, and looked at the wrong day on the list, and I started making chicken curry. Since I was halfway thru making the curry and the rice to go with when I realized it, we had a lovely italian chicken curry. I added fresh basil to my normal recipe to go with the chicken he made, and it might be how we do it from now on cuz it was really good.
Heather M
Still not feeling 100%, but have been in touch with my dr, so we are on it. I did run a quick errand yesterday and grabbed a few things. So far, have spent $70 on groceries and I’m feeling good about that, especially considering we had virtually no fresh veg, little fresh fruit, etc, since the holidays. We are well-stocked, though I expect maybe Tuesday I’ll grab some more fresh produce and maybe some bread. On to updating the past two days:
January 12:
B: both skipped
L: he had some of the quinoa tuna salad and cherries; I had a tuna avocado sandwich and some air popped popcorn- very much needing comfort food and this is one of my versions of that (if you know me, you know I could eat a tuna sandwich every day of my life. I love it so much)
D: more comfort food required so I made one of our favorite soups, which is heavily pantry-focused- chicken corn chowder (it uses cans of chicken, cream of chicken soup-the only reason I keep any at all, it’s not something I use often-, green chilis, cream of corn; then chopped onion, garlic, cumin, cheese, and milk) and a side salad
January 13:
B: i had a few ginger cookies (gifted christmas goodies), not sure what he had
L: he had more quinoa chicken salad and peanuts; I didn’t eat until 3, and had a toasted cheese sandwich and a pear
D:I wasn’t hungry, so I heated up the tiny bit of chowder and the leftover mexican rice and beans for him
Of course at 11pm I was finally hungry, and I don’t do well eating within 3-4 hours of bed, so I had a handful of cashews and a couple more of those mini ginger cookies
Heather M
Sorry – he had more quinoa tuna salad, lol. I wasn’t paying attention as my fingers just typed away…
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/13/22
Sounds like you were able to squeeze some quality family time in, Jessica. That’s a win every time!
B: Both had avocado toast, coffee
L: I had a ham sandwich and cheese stick DH: picked up Reuben for lunch
D: LO Chicken Marsala, LO rice, cabbage and fruit medley
Snack: chocolate from work
My son has said that he and his fiancée 🙂 are coming for a visit at the end of the month. I should still have plenty of proteins for that visit and probably many of the sides as well. I will have to keep that in mind as I plan the next couple of weeks, but I think I can still do okay. Of course, if I don’t think I can fix appropriate meals for them, I’ll purchase what I need.
Hubby was asking about “good” (wide pan) bread, almond milk and peanut butter since all were out, so I made a quick grocery trip today. Eggs were in stock and on sale so I added several dozen and also a few on sale apples. Monthly total so far $14.71. The ground beef on sale was out, but other specials were in stock so no other empty shelves that I saw.
Tasty
Thursday January 13th
B – fruit, yogurt and granola for hubby, rhubarb, yogurt and a muffin for me.
L – nachos – used up the chips, a little bit of beef mixture from the other day and emptied the tex-mex cheese pack
S – mandarin chicken, mini potatoes and Brussels sprouts.
Stephanie M.
January 13
B – Paul had peanut butter toast and a yogurt parfait. I had a yogurt parfait.
L – Paul had weight watchers soup and two clementines. I had a roast beef sandwich and a banana.
D – leftover chicken and veggie stir fry over rice.
Sandi
B – I had some l/o chicken salad. Just straight, nothing with it. He had his usual cereal.
L – chili
D – another late evening, didn’t feel like being creative, just ate l/o chili to be easy