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 17 of the Pantry Challenge! Happy Birthday, Allie from Ontario!
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Oops! I meant to post this early and then got distracted and am posting late. Sorry!
Saturday was our monthly game night for the kids and their friends. I spent most of the day gutting, vacuuming, and dejunking each of the kitchen cupboards.
I also baked a couple loaves of bread with the new flours that my 21yo son bought me as a surprise. So nice!
What We Ate
Breakfast – I had a sandwich made on the bread. So good.
Lunch – It was very fend-for-yourself since I was gutting every drawer and cupboard. I had a very late lunch of thawed shrimp from the freezer, leftover salad from pizza night, and some bread.
Dinner – I made a crockpot of 30-Minute No Bean Chili and a crockpot of cheese sauce. Bryan grilled hot dogs and I also opened a big bag of chips left from last month’s game night. Folks could have chili dogs or nachos or hot dogs or any combination there of.
How did Day 17 go for you? Only 2 weeks left!
Kathryn M
1/17/2026
B – cinnamon crumb cake, halo orange
L – pizza (pepperoni and assorted veggies
D – breakfast for dinner – pancakes, sausages, pineapple/banana smoothie
I am noticing I am snacking less lately! I have been trying to get more exercise too. Since I quit my job I am noticing my pants are getting tighter….
Heather from Sacramento
I had a lazy day on Saturday. I guess I just needed rest.
B- coffee, scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and bacon chipotle sea salt. My new fave!! This salt and the cheddar makes it the best eggs I have ever had.
D- I cooked a tri tip and ate it with my salad. I used up the last of the batch of lemon dressing. I think I have enough lemon juice frozen to eat it everyday if I wanted. I ate it with Swiss cheese and walnuts.
S- I ate more snacks today since I had a late breakfast. A little HM granola, apple and sliced cheddar cheese, soda crackers.
Heather M
A good homemade lemon dressing in salad is hard to beat. We love it too!
Karen J
Day 17
breakfast-french toast with the discounted brioche bread from the outlet, sausages from the freezer
lunch-snacked on whatever ?
dinner-jambalaya boxed mix with added andouille sausage, ham and shrimp from the freezer, plus cornbread
Stephanie M
Darter, January 17, 2026
B – I had cereal, fruit and nuts. Paul had mixed fruit, and a whole wheat English muffin with butter and jam.
L – paul had two hot dogs and French fries. I had the last of the turkey meatloaf in whole wheat.
D – leftover macaroni and meat sauce.
Heather M
Checking in from the gate at the San Diego airport to report our last two days here. Back to reality and challenging tomorrow!(or really, tonight when we get off the plane to below freezing temps).
Jan 16:
Brunch of the usual sourdough toast with PB and guava marmalade. No idea the others. We randomly snacked too
Dinner: we met up with super close friends who live in downtown Oceanside and walked from their place to Blade, a favorite restaurant of theirs. We all shared pastas, pizzas, salad, etc. Super fun night and good food too.
Jan 17:
Brunch: Toasts with PB and both guava and lingonberry.
Dinner; early dinner out at a fish house in Carlsbad with my brother and his wife. I had a blackened Ono sandwich, the others had halibut, swordfish, and sea bass. Great meal, great company of course!
Tasty
Jan 17
B – hubby had his usual. I had a banana, some cheese and h/made bread with apricot jam?
L – tuna salad
S – chicken breasts stuffed with ham and cheese, with green beans. Weh ad a pack of apple turnovers we bought a couple of moths ago that I thought we needed to use so I cooked a couple of them while the chicken was in the oven anyway. They were quite good. Only another 4 to go . . . .
Karen J
Jessica, is that your friend Jessika of the absolutely delicious chocolate chip recipe from your site that I’ve made at least a dozen times? If so, give her a big thank you from my family!
B-pancakes, one egg (rationing 🙂 and bacon
L-half a croissant with chicken salad-we like the easy version of canned chicken from Costco for convenience, plus we like the taste too
D- Plan A was ham slices from the freezer with scalloped potatoes and green beans. Then we found out we had the little grandkids so I switched to Plan B-pizza. I had pepperoni, grated mozzarella and two Boboli pizza crusts in the freezer. Easy way to make them happy. Also had sliced apples to go along with. Kid food dinner. We will have the ham for an upcoming breakfast.
Heather M
That costco canned chicken really does work for things. I also love it for chicken salads. And, it’s so convenient.
Kathryn M
17th.
My usual quick caffeine breakfast as I needed to get out the door for errands before the storm hit.
lunch – a sandwich and drink out at Charley”s cheesesteaks.
Dinner – sloppy joes and onion rings. I picked up hamburger buns, since I didn’t have anything in the way of bread. There are a couple servings left for me to take to work Sunday and Monday.
I bought a 3.5 lb ham on sale to add to my meat choices. My logic being that I had extra buns to make sandwiches and it was a good deal ($9 marked down from $17)..
DH is making chili for Saturday night because that is what he wants for work lunches.