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 16 of the Pantry Challenge!
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A few of us are feeling under the weather today, and the outside weather pretty much matches. The house is chilly, so much that I even turned on the furnace for a few minutes.
Clearly, I’m not 100%. Ha!
What We Ate
Breakfast – We still have a couple dozen eggs from the 5 dozen my friend bought for me in Clovis. I stretch them with egg whites which are still readily available around here. Today I pulled a loaf of bread from the freezer and sliced up some chicken sausages to go with.
Lunch – The girls made lunch for us: potstickers and ramen. I had chicken on mine; the others had fried spam.
Dinner – I had a bag of potatoes that were sprouting and a different kind of sausage in the freezer so I made Sheet Pan Sausage and Potatoes and sautéed some green beans.
How did Day 16 go for you?
Tasty
Monday January 16th
B- fruit yogurt etc
L – beans on toast
S- baked ham and cauliflower cheese
The fridge is definitely emptying out slowly as is the pantry and we’re even making a little progress on the freezers.
Emily
I did some major shopping today because I was out of so much, spent about $250 between Costco and the regular grocery store, I was hoping to wait until next month to visit Costco but children and their growth spurts are not so patient.
B- leftover rice porridge
L- 3 pieces of leftover sushi, a cheese stick, 1/4 of an apple
D- pepper, avocado and onion omlette and a gf Dutch baby.
Dessert- I defrosted some mini key lime pies I bought for Christmas a few days ago and they needed to get eaten.
ZC from MA
B: overnight oats with soy milk, cherries and strawberries
L: napa cabbage salad with tahini dressing, rice
D: cauliflower stir fry, rice
S: a banana
Stephanie M.
Sunday, January 15, 2023
B – I had a yogurt parfait.
L – There was a lot of white rice leftover from yesterday so we both had fried eggs over rice with the last of the scallions and some soy sauce.
D – leftover grilled chicken, last of the rice and salad.
Sarah
I had spent the night at my parents for my brothers birthday party so BF came to pick me up and we stopped for a diet soda and a snack on the way home. (I was hungover! I rarely drink soda but it’s a necessity in that case). Also found a small bag of my favorite spicy potato chips that I haven’t seen in the city in forever.
B: coffee w/cream and some leftover GF cookies
L: black bean soup my mom made + gf crackers
D: white bean soup w/ crackers.
Monday was
B: coffee w/ cream + yogurt bowl with fruit and magic spoon cereal (trying to finish all of the half open boxes!)
L: bean soup + crackers
D: Homemade Greek platters w/ grilled chicken thighs, tomato/feta salad, and French fries w/ oregano and tzatziki for dipping. Soooo good. I was planning on a full salad but my lettuce had an early demise.
S: frozen grapes + a Clio bar
lisa s
B: coffee and cereal
L: snacky lunch
D: chicken enchiladas and strawberries (this cleaned out one of the 3 jars of enchilada sauce I tried/bought when it was on sale. this was the first one I used. I just found a new favorite enchilada sauce. yay!)
Lily R.
Yesterday I was out all day catching up with my niece so I am posting for two days today.
B: Fatira served with scrambled eggs and honey.
L: Ploughman’s lunch that used up a lot of odds and ends!
D: The last of the Puerto Rican feast from the night before.
Snacks were dates and roasted hazelnuts.
B: I had some more fatira and hubby had croissants. Cafe con leche for both.
L: I treated my niece to afternoon tea at this cute little tea house. We had so much fun dressing up and using the fancy tea cups and saucers. The menu included an assortment of tea sandwiches, hand pies, scones, pastries, and a large assortment of teas (of course!), coffees and hand crafted beverages. It was so much food that we packed a lot of it to enjoy at home.
D: Boeuf bourguignon
Dessert/snack was a Frangipane tart that I baked and took to my sister’s along with dinner when I dropped my niece off.
Heather M
What fun with your niece! Also, I have a feeling we’d be great friends, just based on food likes alone. It would be so fun to share some of these meals together. 🙂
Lily R.
Agreed!
Nicholas
What are wonder whips?
Breakfast: Pecan pie muffins and hot chocolate (hubby) and hot tea (me). They were predicting power outages because of all the snow and ice, so we wanted hot stuff while we could have it. I also decided to try another loaf of bread in the bread machine so we could have PB&J if we lost power. I made a recipe I’ve made before with quinoa flour. It came out a little misshapen, but tastes fine.
I have so much flour and so many different kinds of flour right now. I really need to make an effort to get them used up.
Lunch, dinner, and snacks were reheated baked ziti, turkey pot pie, muffins, and toast. We didn’t lose power, so we were able to enjoy hot food. 🙂
Jessica Fisher
Wonder Whips are protein powder mixed with Greek yogurt. I don’t care for protein powder, so they aren’t my thing, but some of my kids like them.
Jennifer
Yesterday was the calm before the storm as today we woke up to 15 inches of snow overnight.
B – I made my apple muffin recipe in a 9×13 pan for a coffee cake sort of breakfast. It was yummy. Paired with strawberries.
S – coffee after a hike with hubby
L – salad – mine had a boiled egg, hubby’s had a leftover spicy chicken patty from the sandwiches made last week.
S- chocolate – still working through my stash from Christmas from the kids
D – homemade rustic bread (it made 2 large loaves I froze one), the chicken patties I had thawed Saturday and didn’t eat, the other half of the butternut squash roasted, sliced cucumber
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jessica, I’ve never seen the Alouette cheesecake variety, only the herbed cheeses. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it. I’ve got a package of puff pastry in my freezer I’m trying to figure out what to do with. The Danish looks delicious.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/16/22
I’m having “dueling soups” like you Jessica. This morning I made Corn Chowder using milk, cream, chicken broth and corn, all from the freezer. Also made chicken noodle soup with freezer chicken, the rest of the broth from the freezer, fresh vegetables and LO noodles from earlier in the week.
B: Coffee for me DH: French toast (thanks Stephanie!), sausage (freezer), coffee
L: Soup (a bit of both kinds for me) with cheese and crackers DH: ham sandwich, corn chowder
D: “Pick your leftover night” of LO pizza, chicken Florentine, chili, soups, veggies, fruit etc.
Slow steady progress freeing up tiny bits of freezer space. As others have noted, it is slooow going when it is just one or two of you. If my son and fiancée come as they plan, I’ll look forward to having them help us eat all of this food!
Stephanie M.
Haha. Hope you enjoyed your French toast!!!!! ??
Maureen
Everyone was on their own for breakfast and lunch (although only 2 of us were up for breakfast), so a few more leftovers/fridge items disappeared. The girls grabbed a quick dinner out, as planned. Hubby pulled French onion soup out of the freezer (which is shocking, as he always grabs something out when he’s on his own). My son was gone all weekend, which slows the food consumption considerably. I’ve planned for the week, but think it’s time to rearrange the fridge a bit more to make it easier to see things. And I’m due for a little kitchen prep, too. I’m looking forward to a good food/challenge week.
tasty
Sunday January 16th
Sunday was literally the calm before the storm – a beautiful sunny day, chilly but OK for January. The snow started about 11pm.
B – the usual for breakfast for both of us
L – chicken fingers with home canned plum sauce (plums from our own tree)
S – pasta with meatballs and sausage. Meatballs and sausage from the freezer – the sausage had been there for a while and needed to be used. Used a jar of home canned pasta sauce and just let the whole lot simmer for a coupe of hours – added a little bit of wine as the sauce thickened and just a little bit of cream cheese. The pasta barely made a dent in the pack that was already open on the pantry but it was a really good supper. The little bit that is left will go in a pot of beef vegetable soup later in the week.
Jen in Ohio
I’ve gotta catch up from the past few days. Friday was odd because DS was home from school and we were just waiting on the Covid PCR results to know if my stepkids could come over for the weekend. Finally got results back Saturday morning and thankfully negative, so their mom dropped them off around lunchtime.
14: B/L: probably was random leftovers
D: Arby’s. We usually do pizza on Friday nights, but DF really wanted to try the Arby’s new spicy sandwich, and apparently it’s only a limited time thing. He said it was good, not great.
15: L: DS has a small frozen pizza that had been in there a while, plus pear applesauce from the freezer, I think I had part of the pizza and leftover veggies?, DF leftover lasagna
D: date night, kids had mac & cheese and fruit, we got takeout from a Japanese place
16: Sundays when the kids are all here, I do a big brunch rather than lunch. B: waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit bowl
D: spiral sliced ham (on clearance after Christmas), curried fruit (a baked peach/pineapple dish my grandma always made), mashed garlic-butter rutebaga (farm share – new to us), and salad
I made brownies too, to convince the kids to eat the rutebaga lol
1/2 way done thoughts: I haven’t cut down on grocery shopping as much as I hoped to. I realized that doing a pantry challenge where I’m the only one really into it, has it’s limits. DF is generally pretty happy with whatever I cook, and I know he’s thrilled to not be responsible for the mental work of meal planning and grocery shopping. But he also wants to have foods his kids like and will eat, as do I.
On the plus side though, our freezers and pantry have white space now!
Maureen
I have done a much better job this year at limiting my shopping, so I am seeing faster results. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but it’s encouraging. And I completely agree about the limits when I’m the only one really focused on the challenge. I can get my kids on board a bit, especially with some rewards. They’ve complained less about leftovers this year, when I remind them of a planned meal out in a few days. It’s still taxing to be the ONE doing all the planning and trying to make sure things get used up. I keep reminding myself that if I learn some lessons about what not to buy, then there will be less to trudge through next time, too.
Stephanie M.
January 16
B – Paul cooked us poached eggs on English muffins and turkey sausage.
After breakfast, we took a ride down the shore. Winter storm Izzy was on the way and the ocean was angry. But between the breaking waves and the ominous looking sky, it really was a beautiful picture. It was cold though so after admiring the beauty of it all we left. Every single Sunday in the summer we go down there early in the morning and bring our yogurt parfaits with us and have breakfast in front of the ocean. Sometimes we stay there all day if that’s what we planned. But that hour down there having breakfast is so peaceful and always sets up our day to be a great one.
L – Paul had a turkey sandwich. I had a roast beef sandwich.
D – a no cook day. We had enough leftovers from both of our dinners that we got last night at an Italian restaurant so I just made a salad to go with it.
Jennifer
I love that you go to the ocean every day in the summer. I love the beach and lived a couple of hours away growing up. Now I get there for a week every few years.
Sandi
I haven’t updated all weekend so we’ll see what I can recall. Breakfasts were whatevers, mostly cereal for him and variety of easy eats for me.
Friday: L – turkey sandwiches, D – steak tips, baked sweet potatoes, green beans
Saturday: L – PBJ, D – pork loin, roasted broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, mashed potatoes with boursin from freezer mixed in
Sunday: L – turkey sliders, S – was out all day, lunch didn’t have any sides and didn’t hold me for long so I broke down and picked up some fries at a DT, D – leftover chili, Dessert – candied pecans
Kathryn M
B cereal
L odd and end leftovers microwaved. I wanted to get the fridge cleaned out a bit. I straightened out the condiment shelves this afternoon and now I can find everything.
D a skillet pasta concoction. I had some Italian sausage in the freezer so I cooked it and put half aside for pizza later in the week. I dumped the last of the jarred sauce in. I added onions, spaghetti squash, and cooked rotini to the skilled. At the end, I melted a little Italian cheese over the top. It came out okay and I have a serving left for another day when I don’t want to cook.
I also got a few chicken wings out of the freezer that I will eat tomorrow. There are lots of sauce choices now that I know what is in the fridge for sure. I will fix whatever strikes my fancy at lunchtime.
Laurie in Tx
Whew, where have the last few days gone? Things kind of went off the rails here. We’ve been busy trying to get this house put together and semi organized. We had unexpected company both Saturday and Sunday. Meals have been mostly eating cereal, leftovers or quick sandwiches. Today we took taco ingredients and home baked chocolate cookies to the sweet cousins that housed us for 3 months while our new home was being completed. We had fun watching the 49er vs. Cowboys game together and making tacos together. Tacos in Tx are not like the tacos we have always know. We’re all former Californians living in Texas but the Niners are still our team! We were so happy they pulled off the win. Hopefully our meals will get back on track.
Jen in Ohio
Laurie, we watched the game here too, with mixed opinions lol. I grew up in Dallas and will always be a Cowboys fan. My fiance is a 49ers fan, despite growing up in Ohio. So he was happy yesterday!
Janie from WA state
This is only day 2 of the challenge for us since we spent the first two weeks of the month in Mexico. We came home to a very bare fridge and made by yesterday but today I had to run to the store to pick up dairy items and some produce.
B-Baked oatmeal that I had put together last night when I was doing other things in the kitchen. I used up some apple pie filling and cranberries that were in the freezer. I had never tried this recipe and I really liked it! We also had poached eggs and some had leftover cinnamon rolls or french toast. I made some homemade almond milk since I was out of dairy and the bread needed to be used up. Lots of variety for breakfast but we have leftovers to last several days.
L-Snacks, goat cheese and ginger plum chutney, rice crackers, veggie sticks, dates, almonds, pretzels, tuna salad.
D-Picked up fresh fruit and whipping cream to take dessert over to our neighbors while watching football, they provided chili and another family a salad. Always nice to share a meal together! I had also planned to make artisan bread but forgot about it rising on the counter until I got home several hours later. It’s in the oven now, hopefully that turns out. I prep and bake more over the weekends when I am not working.
Heather M
January 16, a very good Challenge day here. It started out the coldest day we’ve had in years in DC, at about 15 degrees and now it’s headed to the low 40s before it drops to 35 by early morning. It started snowing around 1pm, turned to sleet, then freezing rain, and now rain and wind. A very good day to stay in.
B: we both skipped
L: he finished off the quinoa tuna salad and had some peanuts; I had cheese and crackers and some air popped popcorn (i was in a snacky mood)
D: pulled a package of spinach gruyere chicken sausages I bought months ago on clearance for 99 cents ($4 off clearance, plus the brand was overall $1 off!), cut up the last 2 small potatoes (which have been in the house since september!), the lone bell pepper, and most of a red onion and made a sheet pan dinner. These sausages were a new to me brand and flavor and were really really yummy. Also, no leftovers, which is nice.
I also hardboiled a dozen eggs while dinner was in the oven. And I made a new to me pear spiced quick bread, using white whole wheat and honey. I had some pears that were past their prime and looked for a recipe using pear puree. They look gorgeous, and the batter was yummy. Just waiting for them to cool to have a piece for dessert. And I pulled proteins from the freezer to defrost so we are good to go for the next few days!