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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Unlike years past, I didn’t start the month with a surplus of meats in the freezer. With 7 adults eating every night, we’re a 2-pound family for most meals, more for burgers, etc.
Today I popped into Ralphs with the hopes that there would be some good clearance finds. Clearance is pretty much the main way we’re eating anything besides chicken breast or ground turkey, the only things that go on a decent sale.
I found some ground beef marked down as well as some lunch meat and breakfast sausage, but the biggest score was eggs for $4.39/dozen. They’re medium, not large, but I’ll take what I can get when ALDI is selling eggs for twice that.
Since the egg shortage is expected to last until May, my plan is to buy what I can under $5/dozen and try to do without where we can. Good thing I know how to bake without eggs.
What We Ate
Breakfast – I had an egg sandwich. Not sure what the others had.
Lunch – My good friend Jessika was in town so she came over for a bit. I made us big salads with garbanzo beans since she eats vegan.
Dinner – It’s pizza night, so we had our standard Grilled Pizza for dinner.
How did Day 17 go for you? Only 2 weeks left!
Tasty
Day 17
B: our usual
L: an omelet using up some ham and cheese from the fridge. Definitely a win because it used odds and ends, and tasted good.
S: I caved and bought some burgers when I was out this morning. They looked really good (stuffed with bacon and cheese) and they were good. I’m not going to beat myself up over it.
Maureen
I’m glad you enjoyed those burgers. They sound fantastic! I find it much easier for me to stay on track with a pantry challenge when we indulge in those types of things. Sometimes I’m able to make them from what I have and other times I just buy it.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/17/25
B: had yogurt with add ins plus coffee. DH had the same plus English muffin
L: dh finished up the tortilla soup. I started on the minestrone I’d taken from the freezer. I also had pimento cheese on celery. (Remember that from childhood?) DH had pimento cheese with crackers.
D: I’d planned to cook chicken but remembered there were leftovers of spaghetti squash with meatballs. So we had that instead and finished it up. I also took out a container of sliced peaches I’d frozen from the summer. They were a bit darker and softer than when fresh, but still a reminder of summer during these cold days.
S: slice of Aldis white cheddar with cranberry cheese.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Oops, plus I made more of the Greek salad to go with dinner. Boy is it good. Since I’m out of lettuce it’s been a good salad substitute, without lettuce.
Heather M
oooo yes! Pimiento cheese on celery! Now I want something like that.
Allie from Ontario
What we ate on Jan 17
Brunch: We both ate yogurt & toast with peanut butter and then T had his leftover sliver of pizza before he left for hockey….which leads me to this…
It was my birthday yesterday & much to my surprise T arrived home with a cupcake??! It turns out the wife of one of the “older guys” who makes holiday treats to take to the arena (when I say “older guys” understand that T, who will be 62 in March, is considered to be one of the upstart youngsters!) turned up with a tray of cupcakes. When asked re: the occasion, she replied “birthdays!” Whose? She replied that since she can’t keep track of all the player birthdays, she has now randomly designated Jan 17 as the day she will bake to celebrate them all..and that’s how I got a birthday cupcake 🙂
Dinner – this year, my birthday dinner choice was homemade macaroni & cheese with cubes of ham and a crispy breadcrumb/butter topping. So cheesy rich that we don’t have it often…what a treat! And then we split my cupcake 🙂
We are over halfway through the challenge – great job everyone!
Tasty
Belated happy birthday Allie.
Stephanie M
Happy birthday Allie!!!!??
Jessica Fisher
Happy Birthday!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Happy belated birthday and yay for favorite foods and cupcakes!
Karen J
Mac and cheese with a cupcake treat is a great way to celebrate a birthday!
Kathy in Denmark
Belated happy birthday!
Heather M
Happy Birthday, Allie!! Love the cupcake story. I hope you enjoyed your day and are having a fantastic weekend!
Stephanie M
Friday, January 17, 2025
B – Paul had scrambled eggs, a yogurt and one of the banana muffins I made. I had bran cereal with blueberries and banana and a side of peanuts.
L – Paul had two sloppy joes and two hash brown patties. (I made a pot of sloppy joes a couple of months ago and froze them in small bags enough for two serving so I defrosted one; I also ran out of French fries the other night so I made him two hash brown patties instead). I had a salad with the last of the whole wheat pasta and the last of the shrimp.
D – since Paul has been gone so much lately for work and is going to California one more time to finish up a project in a couple of weeks, we wanted a little date night so we went out for dinner to a restaurant only a few minutes away that we found here shortly after we moved here. It’s called latitude and the food is really good. We both had stuffed flounder. Paul also had creole shrimp for an appetizer. I skipped because they give you a lot here. We both don’t drink and we didn’t have dessert so the bill was only $69.00 which I found very reasonable and we really needed a night out. After we came home he had a Klondike bar and I had a yasso bar and we caught up on one of our shows. It was a very nice evening.
Allie from Ontario
It sounds like a lovely (and well deserved) evening out 🙂
Stephanie M
Thank you Allie!!! It really was. So thankful for the simple things!! ????
Heather M
Yay for a well-deserved date night!
Kathryn M
Made another naan bread pizza. Used up the rest of the pizza sauce in the fridge. I found some salami to add to the pepperoni. I had onion from my garden, canned mushrooms and some pickled peppers. The mozzarella is not gone totally yet.
I didn’t eat all the pizza for lunch so I took the rest to work for dinner. I cleaned out the candy stash in my work bag while on break so starting with fresh treats in there now.
Jennifer
6 months ago I felt like I should eat more salmon for health reasons so bought 6 pack at Costco. Last night I finally ate some lol. I don’t love fish but can tolerate salmon. We had a “cold” day so no school!
B – oatmeal and sausage
L – we had leftover pork from the BBQ place along with fruit and yogurt
D – salmon, rolls from the freezer and fresh veggies
Krista
If you are a cabbage lover like me, here’s something that I do. Steam cabbage wedges until as soft as you like, then transfer to skillet and fry in bacon grease, until a bit crispy. YUM!!
Karen J
I am so on that. Thanks for the idea!
Krista
Welcome 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I had cabbage tonight using some bacon drippings too! 🙂
Tasty
January17
We both had a yogurt to take meds. But decided to go with brunch and supper today as hubby needed to be gone by 12, ready for curling in the afternoon.
Brunch: bacon, scrambled eggs, toast and jam
Supper: sweet and sour pork from the freezer with rice
Karen J
Breakfast- out with the hub. We should probably have rethought going out as the roads were really icy. And the sidewalks, steps and everthing in between. Schools were delayed or closed
Lunch-last of the chili with cornbread
Dinner-pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans-very much comfort food
I’ve done a lot of grandkid watching this week with one sick and school delays/closures. I’ve been out of milk for over a week, however they’ve been happy with hot cocoa made with powdered milk. And I have my coffee/tea creamer so all is good.
Allie from Ontario
Jan 17
Brunch – We each had a bowl of the beef noodle soup I made yesterday with a piece of toast.
Every Christmas I make my mom’s snack mix in 2 x 1/2 batches (which uses 3 boxes of cereal) and for some reason this year I only made it once…so yesterday I got out the big Tupperware container with the remaining cereal & pretzels and made the other 1/2. This cleared a space in the pantry and although 3 Ziplocks of snack mix are going into the cold room, it’s not really a hardship to work through them 🙂
Dinner – I had done all the prep for a stir fry the night before (but didn’t make it) so dinner came together quickly with a jar of homemade stir fry sauce & 6 oz of chicken tenders (both from the freezer) and a big mix of fridge veg. We ate it over fresh cauliflower rice which is a great way to help 2 people get through a big head of cauliflower. It also makes me pretty happy to turn a small amount of chicken into 2 substantial dinner bowls.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Well done! When I was making corn chowder, I used up some cauliflower rice from the freezer. You’re so right about using up a head for 2. That’s why mine was in the freezer!
Allie from Ontario
A head of cabbage is another big “cooking for 2” challenge!
Tasty
That’s why when I buy a cabbage,we usually have cabbage rolls and bubble and squeak., as well as one meal of cabbage as a veg in its own right!
Danielle Zecher
1/17/24:
Breakfast: I had a muffin and hot tea. I think Nick had drive-thru on the way to work.
Lunch: I had leftover Korean BBQ taco meat and veggies over rice. Nick had leftover pasta and meatballs.
Dinner: We both had bagels with cream cheese.
Snacks: I had lots of hot tea throughout the day (still working through my teabag stash), and I made rice pudding in order to have the oven on for a long time. Our furnace still isn’t fixed; the replacement part that came in was defective, so they’ve ordered another one. We’re hoping to have working heat by late tomorrow afternoon. We also had to drop my car off at the shop and we got Starbucks drinks on the way back from that.
Heather M
Oh geez it’s just neverending right now for you. Definitely called for Starbucks. Here’s hoping you’re in good shape before the weekend <3
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Oh no Danielle! Your ears should be burning as I had commented to my husband re: your lack of heat that was due to be fixed. We were reminiscing about the time we had no heat either. We were in the process of having the inside of the house painted and it was too cold for the paint to adhere properly. Here’s hoping that your heat will be restored sooner than later.
And now the car! When it rains it pours. I agree with Heather-a warm Starbucks reward for all your angst sounds perfect!
Tasty
Anything to warm up Danielle. Hope you get heat back soon – that really sucks when the weather is so cold!
Erin in Ontario
Fingers tightly crossed for your furnace! What a giant pain for you.
Heather M
Jan 16-17: DC area had a snow day Tuesday, schools, federal Govt, etc shut down, cuz we don’t deal well with 3-5 inches of snow after 2 years of zero. L worked from home and we didn’t leave the house. Wednesday was a normal day for us, with delays for others. I finally bought a bit of food: eggs, lettuces, arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, blackberries, lemons, onions, a few boxes of jello cuz I have a colonoscopy Feb 1. $34.48, but $16.25 was free target $$.
Jan 16:
B: L had a kind bar; I had a piece of toast with blackberry jam
L: L had a salami and lettuce sandwich, an apple, and tortilla chips; I had a tuna sandwich and some lentil rice snack ring things from Trader Joe’s(I’m a little obsessed with these)
D: baked chicken black bean cheese tacos—- first time I’ve done this and I am so doing it again. So delicious! Served with the last lettuce and tomatoes
Jan 17:
B: I had a handful of granola after blood draw before errands; L skipped
L: L took another salami lettuce sandwich(so much charcuterie still), an orange, and the last veggie sticks; I had cheese and crackers after successfully NOT grabbing a slice of pizza at the grocery store while shopping hungry
D: half cauli rice half jasmine rice and veggie teriyaki bowls with salmon- salmon, cauli rice, and two now gone open bags of frozen veggies from the freezer, plus the rice, some chopped onion, a handful of sugar snap peas halved, plus teriyaki sauce and soy sauce from the fridge. No leftovers and delicious!
Heather M
Also, I tried to buy celery but it was in terrible shape at both stores :/
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/17
B: I had oatmeal with walnuts and Pom arils. (Definitely an oatmeal morning) DH had cereal. We had coffee.
L: made corn chowder to have today at lunch and later in the week when we visit our son and family. We both had open faced sandwiches with the soup.
D: a repeat from last night with LO chicken burgers. I only had one bun, so DH had that. I had an English muffin from the freezer for mine. We had lo roasted potatoes, some green beans from the freezer and mandarins.
S: chocolate, tea and nuts
Yes, 2 weeks to go! Meals might start to get interesting:) I’m low on produce. Trying to make it til we travel this weekend and we can shop at an Aldi.
HeathervM
You’re doing so great, Lynn!! 2 weeks…. I’ll probably go well into February. 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I’m pretty sure I will be continuing too. Still a LOT of food in the freezer, but I’m pleased with my progress. You’re doing great-you don’t even have leftovers much of the time. Well done! I’m taking my planned leftovers to share! With a baby, I figure my DS and DDIL will be glad for any and all prepared food:)
Allie from Ontario
Pretty sure I’m also good for well into February with a top up of fresh veg somewhere along the way. Other than buying ground beef on sale , milk continues to be the only thing we are replacing.
Karen J
This is when I think pantry challenge gets fun. I am also very low on fresh produce-a half dozen potatoes, a big cabbage, some baby carrots and four apples. Oddly, I also have eight jalapeños that were supposed to be made into jalapeño poppers for NYE-and they will be used this Saturday when we need an appetizer for a party. I still haven’t been to the store. While I could at any time, I’m holding out to see just how long I can go. I have lots of frozen and canned fruits/veg and plenty of pantry items.
Tasty
I still have lots left in the freezers. I am organising a soup and bread lunch for our seniors building tomorrow – have absolutely no idea how many will show but we only have 24 apartments in the building and several snow birds have gone south.
I have 3 different soups made, using lots of veggies and the last of the ground beef from the freezers and I have also made a variety of bread and buns which are temporarily stored in the freezers. So I’m hoping that by tomorrow afternoon we will have a lot of space!!! We may not have much left in the way of fresh produce we do have lots of frozen fruits and veggies that I am attempting to use up. We will keep buying salads and milk but can’t think of much else we really NEED!!! Have certainly done better so far this year than I usually do.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Good for you! It does get fun-and creative-at this point! I’m running low on fresh produce as I’m down to a few mandarins, a few navel oranges, a pomegranate and some frozen blueberries. I have a bit of lettuce, celery and peppers, so salads are still possible for a couple of more days. I do have potatoes too, so maybe I have more than I thought! I have plenty of canned veggies too I’ve used some in the soups I’ve made.
We’re heading out of town (weather permitting) and will be taking some items with us, which will further empty the freezer and fridge. But, I won’t be using anything while I’m gone. I’ll be reading everyone’s posts and will resume when we return.
Carry on! Can’t wait to see how it goes for you and everyone else!
Kathryn M
Started back to work. The 15th thru the 17th was just leftovers – no cooking at all.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jessica, I totally understand why you had a fitful night of sleep. As Heather recounted her past history of outages, ours is similar. Thirty years ago, we were in the path of Hurricane Hugo (while living 200 miles inland). We were without power for 8 days then, so lost everything that I had in the refrigerator, freezer and larger chest freezer that couldn’t be cooked immediately. My husband did wade through water in our basement (sump pump went out along with the power) to save a bit of proteins in there. We had insurance that covered the food loss then, which was helpful.
Fast forward to now and the past 20+ years living on the coast, and we’ve had brief and then 2-3 days of power outages. One of the longer ones was in a situation similar to yours where a car wreck knocked out a substation and left our entire chain of islands in the dark. Our island also lost power for 12 hours when someone was trolling in their boat in the nearby sound and snapped the underwater power cable to the island! Crazy. And salt accumulates on the overhead power lines and causes power outages. In all of these longer instances, like Heather, we were rescued by neighbors that had freezer space for our food and had generators. After the underwater cable loss, we decided that since we were going to be here for a while and in an area vulnerable to hurricanes, car wrecks, salt AND boats, that we needed a generator too. So about 8 or so years ago we bit the bullet and got an automatic whole house generator that comes on with any interruption in power. I used to worry when we even went out of town that something would happen, and we’d lose our food. And I never had the amount of food that you did, with our family of 4. The generator has provided us with some peace of mind. So glad that your food was safe. I can only imagine your worry sitting/laying there in the dark with all of your food.
ZC from MA
B: a banana, coffee, red bean and barley soup;
L: I mostly skipped. Got a slice of fruit pie from the cafeteria;
D: I was at work late so I ate at a food court nearby.
S: an orange
Heather M
Also, Jessica, I get why you had such a fitful sleep with the power out. We have regular power outages due to extreme weather and maybe that’s one reason I’m on the fence about how I feel not having a big second freezer. 10 years ago we had the power out for 2 full days when it was 100 out and would have lost everything except for the friend who didn’t lose power during that event (it was a derecho that caused major havoc here) had room for us to salvage our frozen proteins. Still lost the entire fridge and random things that weren’t as pricy from the freezer. We usually only lose power for a few hours at a time. But between that and a hurricane that came through close to 20 years ago where friends had no power for up to over a week(we were the lucky ones that time, only 23 hours and it wasn’t so hot, so the freezer was safe), I often wonder if that’s why I’m not so upset about not having the space for the second freezer. I’m really glad you didn’t lose your freezers and that the fridge was still cold- the cooler overnight house surely helped too.
Heather M
Day 17:
Finally got to fill the fridge with some fresh groceries. I went to Aldi first, to see what looked good, prices, etc. I spent $24.92(incl a 3.49 box of 2 french bread pizzas cuz I was hungry and decided one would be my late lunch and I deserved the treat after last week, lol) on milk, cucumbers, celery, pineapple, 2 kinds of tomatoes, mangos, avocados, mushrooms, and plain greek yogurt (I have a plan for this sometime soon, and it involves the frozen fruit I won’t ever use for smoothies). Then I went to Trader Joe’s where I only spent $22.33 and got everything else I had on my list, incl things that didn’t look good at Aldi (that $1.31 bag of spinach not worth it as every single one was already turning, etc): buttermilk, sourdough bread, spinach, arugula, a bag of spring mix, head of green cabbage, green onions, zucchini (the price of this ended up being pretty much the same as at aldi which does it by the pound and TJs sells 18oz for $2.29 and it looked way better), red and yellow bell peppers, bananas, and one more avocado that was closer to ripe and also a decent price, though not the price of Aldi- we’ll see the quality of theirs once they ripen; I’m a little skeptical given their 0.69/each price. Also, TJs eggs are $3.99/dozen, fully 0.70 cheaper than Aldi. But I didn’t need any this trip. I was surprised at just how much I bought at TJs for such a low total. Overall total for the day: $47.25. Monthly total so far: $63.91
B: L skipped; I had one piece toast w/ cinnamon bun spread
L: L took the leftover thai peanut chicken soup and some mandarins(almost gone, though we have some satsumas); I had one piece of the frozen french bread pizza
D: bbq chicken on open-faced sourdough toast w/pickle slices; roasted garlic baby potatoes; salad w/the last of some HM lemon vinaigrette. Chicken was the rest of the shredded from the freezer. Potatoes- I had bought that huge bag at costco of mixed baby potatoes sometime around Thanksgiving and they’ve just sat. They desperately need using up and its quite a bit for 2 of us. Hopefully I won’t have to toss much/any of them. I roasted a little extra to put in L’s salad lunch for Wed, and also roasted some more plain for a dinner I’m planning later this week. Glorious salad (I’m just going back to how I usually eat now, we’ll see how my body does-so far so good)- some of the spring mix, cucumber, tomato. mmmmmmmm.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jan 17
B: coffee only for me, toast for DH
L: me-½ chicken sandwich DH: Ham (freezer) and cheese sandwich, soup from freezer
D: Chili (ground chicken from freezer, black beans from dried in the instant pot, onions, peppers and a few jalapenos from the garden that were in the freezer), Cornbread (using 1 precious egg), raw carrots with Ranch dressing and orange slices
Today I did some of the planned shopping. I bought Springer, no antibiotic chicken thighs for .55# with a promotion. (total 2.68) Also needed green peppers so got 4 as they were on sale, Cara Cara oranges for .99/# and russet potatoes for .50#-all of which are good prices here. My husband had requested pork chops, but I have none in the freezer. Whole boneless pork loins were on sale for 1.59/# (typically 2.79-2.99#). This is not as good a price as it used to be, but pretty good for now. I was hoping there would be a smaller loin, as a whole one is a LOT of meat. I bought the smallest one in the meat counter, but it was still large. I will cut it into roasts and boneless pork chops. Boneless pork chops run ~4.49 # typically. I’m planning to take some meals to my DS and DDIL when our granddaughter arrives next month, so I can take a pork roast. I’m also going to give a roast to a friend, and I’ll cook one to take to my mother. I’ll fix my hubby his requested pork chop meal at some point. That particular purchase wrecked my plan to spend $50 or less this month, as I have another purchase to make on Thur, but I feel like I needed to take advantage of the sale. Total spent today was 31.55. Combined with the earlier purchases of $11.42 brings my monthly total to $42.97 with 2 weeks to go. But, as Jessica says, no rules here so I can modify my plan as I need to. I do hope I can limit purchases after Thur however.
Heather, I’ll have to watch for the spread at TJ’s when I visit my mother next fall! Sounds so good.
Danielle L Zecher
I got hit HARD by some respiratory something or other (two negative COVID tests, so not sure what it was) and fell off the Pantry Challenge wagon for about a week. I have several projects at work with a 1/31 deadline, so most of my energy was spent working (from home so as not to infect others) a few hours a day. We did a lot of Doordash since Nick had COVID over Christmas and his energy levels aren’t quite back up to normal. Last night was my first night cooking again. I had planned on taco salad, but the lettuce, which still had two days before its expiration date, was very much NOT okay when I opened it. So, I made a pot of rice to go with the taco meat and we had burritos instead.
I ended up throwing away the lettuce, a cucumber, milk, and some almond milk, which is annoying anyway, but especially so during a Pantry Challenge and with food being so expensive.
All of it did reinforce that I need to get a better handle on what we have and organize it better. I know there are souper cubes of chili and soup somewhere in the freezer. I just didn’t have the energy to dig through the chest freezer looking for them. And I might have been more inclined to try cooking something if the fridge had been better organized. Live and learn. We did use up a lot of tea bags and juice last week, though, so that’s something.
Heather M
I hope you’re feeling better! There have been so many illnesses around this year, it could have been anything. Good luck with all the work that probably now feels compressed. I understand the hating of tossing food. It’s also worth giving yourself a little grace, as you could not have anticipated getting sick when you bought the few things you did toss. It’s ok, even though it feels painful. Good luck with everything the rest of this month!