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 18 of the Pantry Challenge!
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Once a month we host an open game night for the kids’ friends. They issue the invite to all their friends and we wait to see who’s available. The crowd has ranged from 15 to 35 extra people for a Saturday night dinner.
It’s fun and crazy and I’m always a lot tired before the end of the night.
I coupled this game night weekend with signing up to take snacks to church, so it was a lot of prep to add to my already a lot of rest day prep, including Sunday Night Dinner.
What We Ate
Breakfast – My friend Jessika brought me a jar of my favorite jam yesterday! Sooo good. I ate toast with jam and a banana. The kids had leftover pizza and fried eggs since we all feel rich in eggs.
Lunch – We had grilled cheese sandwiches, some plain, some as tuna melts, some with chicken deli meat I got on clearance.
Dinner – I prepped a variety of pasta casseroles, like Chicken Florentine Casserole and a baked rigatoni. I didn’t have all the exact ingredients, so I just made swaps as necessary. I also made rolls and a large salad. For dessert, we put out the leftover Christmas cookies and fudge as well as a pan of brownies.
How did Day 18 go for you?
Heather M
Two days to report.
Jan. 17:
B: we all skipped
L: L took a salad w/turkey, almonds, clementines; C took the leftover greek yogurt chicken over rice w/sauteed veg, the last piece of cornbread, a Kind bar; I had tuna with the leftover mashed potatoes from 16th dinner
D: Found tw small bags of 10 minute farro in the cupboard and one was so old it was rancid. Tossed it and then made a delicious farro “risotto” with half the other bag, but should have made the whole thing it was so yummy. I used onions, celery, white wine, stock, seasonings, a little parm and peas at the end. I’d happily have eaten all the leftovers but only made enough for the 3 of us. We also had chicken sausages.
Jan 18:
Brunch: I made a frittata/casserole thing with eggs, egg whites, sauteed bell pepper from the freezer, onions, chopped up turkey breakfast sausage, sharp cheddar and pepperjack. Yummy! served it with pear slices.
Dinner: I put chicken drumsticks from the freezer (from almost a year ago! This is why the challenge) into the slow cooker with a simple Filipino marinade (I used to make this, and it wasn’t as good as I’d remembered. Maybe I doctored it? idk, probably won’t be making this again. It was fine, but didn’t wow me). Made more half and half rice (still have riced cauli in the freezer!) and steamed basic mixed veg.
Snacks: popcorn at the movies (hence the slow cooker…. we got home at 8, and were eating dinner before 8:30 thankfully, and no takeout!); ice cream (still lots)
Karen J
This month is going by quickly!
Day 18
B-scrambled eggs with cheese, ham slice and toast
L-apple slices/peanut butter
D-a potluck at our friends’ place for Murder Mystery night. Nine of us dressed in our assigned character’s costumes and had a rather complicated script where each character gave out information (and withheld other) At the end of three scenes we had to guess who was the murderer and it ended up being my husband”s character. Two people guessed him correctly (and I was not one of them) We are all in our 70s, with one youngster being only 67, and have such fun times. I had made a new recipe, always a bit risky, cranberry bars using cranberry sauce. It called for two cups and my can from the pantry was short of that so I added the rest of a jar of raspberry jam. It turned out really good and I didn’t have to buy anything. We didn’t get home until midnight-super late for us!
Heather M
Oh what fun! Love a good evening with friends, and this sounds like a lot of fun! And, love your resourcefulness in making the cranberry bars! They sound delicious!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
That sounds like a fun evening! And good for you to supplement the cranberry sauce with what you had. I’ve seen cran-raspberry juice so I bet that was a good combo. And out til midnight!! Goodness 🙂
Maureen
Teo days to report…Leftovers for lunch. We were busy until dinner time and I had planned on having leftovers, but DH ended up heading out before we got home, so the girls convinced me to grab takeout. Since we’ve been keeping up with the leftovers, I figured we could do that.
The next day my highschooler and I headed up to her first choice college for an admitted students’ day and choir scholarship audition, so we were gone most of the day. We grabbed breakfast from home for the drive and the program fed us in the cafeteria for lunch. The college kid was home for the night when we got back, so we whipped up spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad (sauce and bread from the freezer). We popped in to the grocery store on our way home and grabbed a couple of things, but stuck to the short list.
Allie from Ontario
Heartfelt thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes 🙂
Tasty….feel better soon!
And Jessica, that jam sent me googling and T (who is a jam lover) would devour it.
Yesterday I made peanut butter cookies that called for salted peanuts…I use a snack pack of honey roasted peanuts instead and that worked well.
What we ate on Jan 18
Brunch: T left early to help his dad then had a sausage & bun from the freezer when he returned. I had toast & yogurt.
Dinner: I took out a large (& wrinkly!) yellow pepper & made 2 stuffed 1/2’s. I made the stuffing by cooking small amts of mgrd beef + both mild & hot Italian sausage meat with onion, garlic, diced hot peppers & frozen grape tomatoes. When cooled I stirred in fresh bread crumbs (from the freezer), fresh basil, diced fontina & a big spoonful of ricotta. I topped them with a bread crumb & parmesan mix and baked til the filling was hot/the peppers were soft. A green salad with lots of fridge stuff & a lemon vinaigrette completed the plate. It used small amounts of a lot of stuff and was a pretty good pantry/fridge/freezer meal.
Heather M
A hearty belated birthday to you, Allie! I just tried commenting on Jan 17’s post/comment, but it said my comment needed moderating? It may show up. Regardless, I hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend, and I love the story about the cupcake. 🙂 Also love your stuffed pepppers… they are something I love to make too, with whatever is hanging around. These you made sound divine!