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 14 of the Pantry Challenge!
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Hello from Disneyland! I’ll share more details of our day later this week in the weekly ramble.
The girls and I had such a good time with my eldest and his wife last May at Disneyland that I’ve been saving up the cash to take the whole family. Today was the day!
Everyone was free to buy treats in the park with their own money, but I’ve learned from experience that no current meal offerings are enticing enough to pay the price. It’s not as high as it used to be since California fast food has skyrocketed, but homemade is still better.
The Mickey beignets are pretty yummy, though!
What We Ate
Breakfast – I baked the rest of the Christmas scones yesterday as well as a batch of muffins. We had these on the road.
Lunch – I packed sandwiches, oranges, apples, and chips for our lunch, bringing the cold stuff into the park in a cooler and securing a locker just inside Main Street.
Dinner – I pulled the last of the Christmas tamales from the freezer yesterday and cooked up a pot of beans and opened some canned beans. I made these into boxed dinners that each person could microwave in our hotel when they wanted dinner.
Per their requests, I also packed salsa, sour cream, and shredded cheese for topping.
How did Day 14 go for you?
Kathryn M
breakfast – found a greek yogurt in the fridge, banana
lunch – last of the enchilada casserole
Kinda skipped dinner and just snacked on trail mix and crackers.
Karen J
Yesterday were on an overnight mini vacation so no pantry challenge adventures to report. I did have a gift card that paid for over half of our hotel and we had discounts for dinner so I felt at least a little frugal. And we had a wonderful time!
Coming home today we had leftovers for lunch and salmon burgers from the freezer for dinner.
Jessica, I’m looking forward to hearing more about your Disneyland visit. How fun to go with adult kids! A much different experience than going with little ones.
We’re going to a Murder Mystery on Saturday hosted by two of our friends. My husband’s assigned role is a chemist and I am a Victorian rich lady. I found my outfit at the thrift store for under ten dollars and he found a lab coat to wear with his safety goggles and bow tie. I signed up to bring a dessert and found a cranberry bar recipe that I can make with ingredients I have at home.
Tasty
That sounds like fun Karen. We went to one longtime ago when we lived in the city – definitely a good time.
Heather M
Karen, what a fun week you are having!! Love your costume plans for saturday. Hope it’s lots of fun!
Kathy in Denmark
Your family trip to Disney sounds so fun, Jessica! And you definitely prepared well regarding food.
I’m reporting from two days.
Day 13:
B: Kids had their usual porridge, DH had Greek yoghurt with HM granola. I skipped, since I had to take DD2 to an appointment at the orthodontist. I also ran errands after dropping DD2 off at school, so I was quite hungry when I got home.
Bruch: Scrambled eggs with veggies (onion, spinach, bell pepper, tomato) and toasted sourdough bread. Coffee
L: Rye bread with toppings for DH, packed lunch for the kids
D: HM tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
DH could choose from a variety of Christmas gifts from his work and ordered a panini grill. I had mentioned that I thought we would like one, so that’s what he got 🙂 We used it to make the grilled cheese, and it was so much easier than doing them in a pan! The grill can also be used to make all sorts of other things, so I am sure we will use it. I made the grilled cheese sandwiches with some fancy cheese from Christmas, and they were delicious.
Day 14:
B: Kids had their usual porridge, DH had oats and milk. I had Greek yoghurt with a small banana, an orange and topped with chias seeds, hemp seeds and chopped almonds.
L: Packed lunch for DD1, School lunch for DD2, DH eats at work. Bulgur wheat salad with tuna, boiled egg and a lot of veggies for me.
D: Pasta and tomato sauce with grated parmesan for DH and the kids. I was still quite full from lunch and had to go to choir practise, so I had a small banana. I had another small banana during our break at choir practise.
Late snack: Toasted sourdough and a small boiled egg when I got home.
Heather M
What fun to have a panini grill!
Erin in Ontario
Two days’ worth of meals here, since this week has been busy. I can’t for the life of me remember what anyone had for lunches, but breakfasts were oatmeal or bagels.
Monday: Teenager and I were watching a cooking competition show together in the afternoon and he decided he’d like to make supper. He made roasted garlic mashed potatoes with green onion, and sheet pan roasted kielbasa with lemon broccoli.
Tuesday: A friend took me out for lunch to an all day breakfast place (my favourite!) and we had a great time catching up after a busy few months.
I was too full for dinner, but I made tiropita (Greek cheese pie in phyllo) and a big salad for everyone else for supper. Teenager also finished off all the leftovers from the day before as part of his “light” supper. 🙂
Jessica, I think the individual meal prep was brilliant! I bet you saved a fortune.
Heather M
Tiropita sounds delicious! And, how awesome for the teenager to volunteer to make a yummy dinner!
Kathy in Denmark
Way to make dinner, teenage son! That sounds so delicious.
Maybe I should watch a cooking show with my 13 year old, you never know 😉
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
The Greek dish sounds delish. And hooray for a teen son who cooks! That’s an impressive meal from him.
I tried with my son and daughter. My daughter laughs that she “makes” reservations! LOL. But she actually is carrying on my mother’s tradition of baking pound cakes. Luckily her husband loves to cook meals. My son’s a bit better in the kitchen and he and his wife take turns.
Jessica Fisher
We did! I estimate that it would have cost at least $150 to feed everyone each meal. I computed the sandwiches and fruit/chips cost me about $25. Tamales are harder to compute, but I’m guessing no more than $30-40 for our dinner.
Allie from Ontario
No shovelling needed today as we have a “move it while it’s fluffy or be sorry tomorrow” house motto 🙂
What we ate on Jan 14:
Brunch – toast for both of us early…as good as it is, we sometimes struggle to get through a loaf of homemade bread (ie no preservatives). I would prefer not to freeze a chunk of it but may have to. T then went to help with snow at his father’s & then at a friend’s parents place while I worked on it here. We were hungry after that (!) and finished off the cheesy meatball leftovers.
Dinner: I had 4 boneless skinless thighs thawed & made a sauce from various jars including the end of some sweet Thai chili sauce that I made in the fall. We ate this with Jessica’s broccoli recipe that includes onion, garlic, Marsala wine & lemon zest (very good!) and some couscous with basil butter (the last of it from the freezer) & slivered almonds (also in the freezer).
I continue to make dents in pantry dry goods & fridge jars and to empty lots of small containers from the freezer which was my goal for this year’s challenge.
Heather M
Delicious dinner!! You’re inspiring me to be better about using up the many jars and condiments in the fridge. We use so many different types of flavors and things that it feels like half the fridge is these.
Kathy in Denmark
Way to go emptying containers and jars! There is definitely an ebb and flow regarding containers. I always know when it’s time to use up some stuff, when I have nothing left to put leftovers in!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Kathy you’re right. No containers is the hint that there’s too much in the fridge or freezer!
Heather M
Jessica, I hope DIsney was sooooo fun!! And, I’m beyond impressed about the bringing of food for meals. When we go up there from my parents, we just eat there. And drive up in the morning and home when it closes, often very late lol. It’s been since before Covid, though. We might do it differently next time, since so much has changed with getting on rides.
Jan 14:
Great challenge day; also stopped in for a couple things at the store- having our son back definitely has changed some food habits here. Grabbed sourdough, bogo tomatoes, onions(out of all but red and green! I cannot cook without onions!), deli turkey, and found a thing of spring mix on clearance. Spent $18.67. Should get us through the weekend.
B: I had more christmas stollen; L skipped; C treated himself to a starbucks coffee
L: L took a salad with turkey, a pear, and almonds; C had toasted cheddar/turkey on sourdough; I had an open face toasted fancy cheddar on sourdough with chutney (YUM!) and some air popped popcorn
D: took the rest of the ground turkey and made a white chili with cannellini beans and a bunch of good seasonings(I created this recipe years ago), made cornbread from scratch(so easy and fast!), and we had raw veggies with more of the street corn dip which is almost gone!!
Jessica Fisher
A lot has changed! I’m going to write a big post on LifeasMom to explain some of the things we did to make it great.
Tasty
Love how you made meals for each person for the hotel stay, Jessica. Eating out because of a trip sure gets expensive! Have fun while you’re at Disney.
Day 14
B: hubby had his usual, I had a grazing plate with banana, cheese, yogurt and one of the eggnog cranberry muffins.
L: we had a late lunch at a coffee shop over on the mainland. I opted for chilli while hubby had a breakfast sandwich.
S: neither of us was really hungry but I knew I would be later on so had a small tuna salad a d hubby fixed himself a ?? sandwich.
Probably not the healthiest day of eating, but we got out together for a couple of hours that we wouldn’t usually manage.
Heather M
Tasty, on the mainland? I just assumed you lived on the mainland of Canada, lol. Glad you two were able to escape for a few hours! That’s always fun.
Tasty
If you look at a map with Lake Ontario you see a little chunk of land that juts out into the lake, to the west of Kingston, to the east of Toronto
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Okay Tasty, I looked at the map. Are you on the peninsula that juts out or the island? Wondering if you’re an islander like me?
Also noticed that Hamilton is in your general area of Ontario. I worked with children with disabilities for 45 years. The CanChild group through McMaster University in Hamilton is an AMAZING resource for those of us supporting children with disabilities from AROUND the world. You residents of Ontario and Canada are to be congratulated for such an amazing scientific community. That site was bookmarked for me and I referred to it constantly. It helped me do better by “my” kids. Kudos and thanks.
Tasty
Technically I guess we arenot literally an island but the piece of land joining the 2 is only a roads width. Your connection with Hamilton just shows how small a world we live in these days.
Danielle L Zecher
I love the little microwave dinners! 🙂
Breakfast: McDonald’s on the way to work. This seems to be the hardest habit to break. I do well on my work-from-home days, but the in-office days always seem to involve a fast-food breakfast.
Lunch: It doesn’t really work out for Nick to take lunch to work or come home for lunch, so he went out for pizza. I had a burrito bowl with leftovers from Monday night.
Dinner: Nick had leftover burritos. I made a pesto pizza (pre-made dough and pre-made pesto, so very easy).
Heather M
Those pesky habits that we love….
Stephanie M
Wednesday, January 14, 2025
B – Paul had a bagel with cream cheese and a yogurt parfait. I had a yogurt parfait.
L – Paul had the last package of hamburger soup from the freezer from a previous meal and also a buttered roll. I had a salad with grilled chicken and whole wheat bread.
D – we had leftover ravioli with meatballs and sausage.
During the day I had a snack and used up the last of the cherries and the last of the almonds. I did have to buy another bag of cherries though.
Heather M
Buying cherries…buying fresh produce you’re going to easily use up is a great “rule” to have during the challenge. Healthy eating is a good thing, and you are a great example of that. 🙂 Hope you enjoyed having Paul home for a quick minute, glad his travels are almost done for now.
Stephanie M
Aahhh Heather. You’re so right. And healthy eating has been something I’ve been actively doing since 2017. I still weigh all of my foods and get the proper amount of carbs and protein. Unfortunately two servings of fruit is all I can have in one day so I make sure I get that because I love it so much. And I always bulk up with fresh produce especially the non starchy kind. Especially on the challenge though I give Paul all of the things I prefer not to eat and he’s a good sport about it.
It was nice having Paul home for a short visit. lol. He left this morning for Savannah. Can you believe going from Virginia required two planes??? So not used to this.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Stephanie, I was wondering how long it had been since you began your healthy eating journey. 2017. I remember that well. You are one of THE most disciplined people I know. Congratulations on staying the course all these years.
I chuckled about Paul needing 2 flights to get to GA. For me to fly out from the Outer Banks, I either have to travel 2 hours to Norfolk, VA or 2.5 (or farther) to Greenville NC and THEN have multiple flights! LOL.
I know you said you’re now in southern VA. Don’t know if that includes the southeast and the Virginia Beach area, but I’m heading that way tomorrow to see an orthopedist. I addition to flying out of VA, we often need to head to VA for specialist medical care. 🙁 Ah, the sacrifice of “living in paradise”!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/14/25
Jessica, what.a.clever.idea to put together meals that can be heated in a hotel microwave on a road trip! I would never have thought of that. I take snacks and sandwiches for trips but always wind up needing to go out when on the road. I’m going to remember that. Hope y’all are having a great time. The beignet looked delicious!
B: had another boiled egg and coffee. DH had an English muffin.
L: both had more of the chicken tort soup I made. DH finished off the chicken salad. We both had a few crackers with the soup.
D: LO bbq chicken thighs, (today evidently was chicken day 🙂 cauliflower with hm sauce, last of slaw. DH had a sweet potato with his meal.
S: popcorn at “Wicked” which we thoroughly enjoyed!
Heather M
Yay Wicked! So great! I also love how several of us here have only just seen it in the past week. Better late than never and also so great to see it on the big screen!
Kathy in Denmark
Chicken day should be a thing LOL
Glad you enjoyed Wicked, and I agree with Heather; so fun that so many of us have seen it within a week 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I had to wait for it to make it to our small theatre! I didn’t realize it was a longer movie. It was great fun. I tell you, as a child those flying monkeys terrified me! During Wicked, when the flying monkeys made their appearance, I was glad I wasn’t drinking my drink. Had I been, my husband and I both would have been wearing it as I about jumped out of my seat!!
Maureen
You did a fantastic job of eating on the road! I’ve been impressed with many of the meals everyone is posting lately, too. My lunch yesterday was various bits and bobs from the fridge. I had a dinner meeting, so I ate out. The girls ate various leftovers and DH had some charcuterie that he got for Christmas. I had an appointment today, so I grabbed lunch out with my mom. And another dinner meeting had me eating out again. They had french toast for dinner at home. And I brought home some feta bread from our local pizzeria for second dinner. My girls (14 and 17) usually eat a meal after school and another after their evening activities. So, now that most of my meetings for the month are done, it’s time to prep and cook more.
Kathryn M
Lunch Chicken salad sandwich with pickled onion and sweet pepper, a side of bread and butter pickles. You can say I am a bit “pickled” – HaHa. I do like chicken salad in case you haven’t noticed!
Dinner – I made a bean burrito and smothered it with some of the leftover nacho cheese. I added a dollop of sour cream to make it look fancy.
On the inside I used the refried beans, shredded Mexican cheese, and a packet of Del Taco sauce for some flavor. Those little fast food packets just seem to accumulate around here, so I try to use them every once in a while.
Snacks – chips and more christmas candy. A gal at work gave me some homemade peanut brittle too.
Diinaus
Slightly better day.
B: made Kids a crock of rice porridge with coconut milk. ( muggins me forgot to put aside half so the critters aye well today)
L: lo masamum curry and boiled veg
D: Salad dinner with fried eggs…
Karen J
B-out with son and family to celebrate his job promotion-blueberry pancakes with a lemon sauce, yum
L-skipped
D-fried rice with bits of leftover pork and chicken from the freezer, plus veg and egg, kimchi (our kimchi container is a bit past dated, but I figure it’s fermented and it still tastes fine so all’s good)
Heather M
Congrats to your son! Also, I imagine the kimchi would be good well past its date. Fermentation is a good thing that way. I wonder what Google says, lol
Karen J
We became fans of kimchi after getting our first container at Costco on sale. Other than having it with fried rice, we like kimchi quesadillas with scrambled eggs. Plus from everything I’ve read, fermented food is healthy so there’s that.
We are so proud of our son. He’s been rising with his company for over twenty years and this leap into an upper directorship is a big deal.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/14
B: I had a cheese biscuit and coffee. DH had a cheese biscuit, cereal and coffee.
L: I took out (and used up) a small container of taco soup from the freezer which we both had for lunch. A restaurant we used to frequent but is now out of business made a turkey havarti sandwich. It’s a family favorite so DH had that with soup. It’s chicken/ turkey, havarti cheese with Granny Smith apple slices on toasted bread. I use whatever apple I’ve got. I had the last of the cranberry turkey salad with my soup.
D: lo chicken thighs. DH was feeling a bit under the weather so I’d fixed rice and he had a lo applesauce cup from the pantry that I had bought to use in a cake I made. I had lo green beans and a Caesar salad with my chicken and rice.
S: I found some vanilla ice cream in the freezer leftover from Christmas eggnog. There wasn’t much so I finished it up to get it out of the freezer-lol.
We’ve been making daily trips to the beach before the frigid weather arrives. Hope all of you in northern climates will stay warm. Brrr.
Heather M
Must feel good to get the little bits eaten up and out of the kitchen! We woke up to a little snow today! We’ve not really had any snowfall that’s stuck in two years, so even the inch it was is fun! Especially on a holiday that L is actually taking off and able to not work all day (ok, maybe just a little). We are planning to watch movies and have a really chill day. Still envious you get to see the ocean all the time. 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I hope you had a great chill day and that L got to relax a bit. We haven’t had snow in quite awhile. I just want enough that looks pretty but will be gone in a day or so! Just saw a meme about driving in snow if you aren’t used to doing so-funny!
The beach has been lovely. But during the last storm, a wind gust of 102 mph was recorded on a pier in Nags Head! There was some mild damage in other areas, but just cold weather predicted this go round.
We’re headed your way around the middle of next week. It looks to be warmer then!
Jennifer
B – I had cinnamon toast with sausage, dh had oatmeal and yogurt
L – I made a childhood favorite – chipped beef over toast. I crave it about once a year usually when the weather is really bad. It was very tasty. We had grapefruit with it
D – BBQ chicken/apple/bacon recipe over cous cous. I used up broth from the freezer with the cous cous and the remains of 2 jars of BBQ sauce in the main dish. I served it with leftover pepper slices
S – we went for B1G1 mochas at Startbucks
Allie from Ontario
Jan 14
Brunch – On Saturday, we fished out a small chunk of roast from the freezer so T cooked it in the instant pot and sliced it for sandwiches. And as a result today we both had a sandwich & split the last of the cheddar beer & ham soup.
Dinner – It was “dinner salad” night so we had a house favourite Buffalo chicken salad. This used up a lot of greens & other veg add-ins, a small chicken breast (freezer) and 1 of the “more than one” packages of blue cheese in the fridge. And , almost forgot – the aging carton of buttermilk is also gone.
Jessica Fisher
I do dinner salad night (usually Chicken Caesar) at least once a week during the summer. Love it!
Heather M
Jan 14: L gone most of the day with meetings, I was gone a few hours midday for the same. Otherwise we watched football playoff games and relaxed.
B: i finished the stollen from our neighbors, L skipped
L: I had a tuna sandwich and a few chips; L skipped
D: all the leftovers. We had small bits of 2 different dinners and a decent amount of the arroz con gandules y pollo. It’s all gone now. L was hungry 🙂
Now I can cook new food again, hopefully without many leftovers
Tasty
It’s hard to cook without leftovers when you are cooking for 2, unless supper is 2 pork chops or 2 chicken breasts. Soups, casseroles and pasta we always have something that finds its way back to the freezer.
Heather M
Indeed! I do try to cut recipes in half with soups and such, if I’m following a recipe. Am planning on a soup tonight and will be creating it as I go, and hope to have at most a cup leftover. Am trying hard to not have too many leftovers lately or have a plan to transform them, or like the arroz con pollo dish, plan for it to cover two meals if we have a busy day coming up. Anyways, yes, it is s trick to cook for two sometimes. But I’m getting better at it. 🙂
Allie from Ontario
Because we have had a lot of leftovers waiting in the fridge for lunches etc recently, last night’s, tonight’s and likely tomorrow night’s dinner choices are intentionally “non-leftover producers”. I am really trying to NOT keep adding to the freezers right now (as opposed to what I do for rest of the year 🙂
Jessica Fisher
Sounds like a great plan!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I guess he WAS hungry after skipping breakfast and lunch!
Heather M
He sure was! We had a normal amount of the arroz to split (I’d made it for 4, so for 2 meals), but we had a little leftover spinach rice(like a smallish side serving) and a tiny bit of the goat cheese pasta w/prosciutto. Luckily. It filled him up.
Tasty
January 14
B: hubby made himself porridge, I had fruit, yogurt and the dregs of granola. I did make another batch of granola later in the morning.
L: hubby wasn’t hungry and just ate an apple. I had some of the leftover quiche.
S:bubble and squeak with bacon and eggs.
Kimberly
Not a great challenge day, thought I had a couple breakfast burritos in the freezer but apparently I ate them all and didn’t realize it til walking out the door…so veggie scramble from work cafeteria.
Lunch was the last of the LO chicken rigatoni and half an apple.
Dinner out with friends and not many leftovers.
Back at it tomorrow!