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!
It’s been a fairly quiet day, and a quiet Pantry Challenge, to be honest. Since the kids are so independent in the kitchen, it makes more sense to just tell them what we have and let them go at it.
This morning the kitchen fridge was looking a little bare, always a good sign. I thawed some things for the next few days as well as transferred stuff from garage freezers to the freezer drawer in the kitchen. Slowly, I see space!
What We Ate
Only four of us were home for breakfast and lunch.
Breakfast – The kids had toast, yogurt, eggs, protein shakes, and whatever else they made before I woke up. I finished off the leftover egg bake I made on Monday as well as the leftover soup from the other day.
Lunch – I had a protein shake while the kids had leftover taco stuff from last night. Later I made a mini veggie tray for myself.
Dinner – I had thawed a pound of turkey sausage and four random pork chops I’d bought on clearance awhile back. Cooked those up along with a huge pot of steamed veg and some brown and serve dinner rolls from Christmas Clearance.
Lately I’ve been doing this massive pot of veg with a few inches of sliced carrots on the bottom, followed by cauliflower florets and then broccoli. I cover the carrots with water so I guess they technically boil, the florets steam. I drain it and add a ton of butter and oil and seasonings. So yummy!
How did Day 18 go for you?
Kathy in Denmark
I feel like life has gotten more in the way of this PC than earlier years, but we’re plugging along.
Breakfasts and lunches are variations of the same theme, so I am only listing our dinners since I last posted.
Day 14: Hakkebøf (burger patties) with caramelized onions, potatoes, carrots and gravy.
Day 15: Tarteletter
Day 16: Saffron potatoe pie with salad and bread
Day 17: Hot dogs
Day 18: Spaghetti with HM marinara and parmesan. Mozzarella sticks on the side.
I have made a strange mix of random meals and completely put together meals LOL
I have pulled some things out of the freezer (ground beef, HM marinara, veggie hot dogs, spinach and mozzarella sticks) and put some things back in the freezer (sale chicken and filling for the tarteletter)
In short, I’m all over the place! But – we are using up things from the fridge and I have a better idea of what we have in the freezer, so I guess I have a better chance of making a plan for next week.
I have read all the entrys from all of you and am very impressed with the meals you are making!
Danielle Zecher
Breakfast: Bagels with cream cheese. Nick had a homemade iced coffee and I had sweet tea.
Lunch: I had a leftover burrito. Nick got lunch out during work.
Dinner: Spaghetti & Meatballs (homemade from the freezer w/ homemade sauce) and some baguette pieces left over from when we had Panera delivered last week when I was sick.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jan 18
B: I had oatmeal with nuts and raisins, DH had toast
L: We went on a day trip and ate lunch out.
D: Had LO chili for dinner
I’ve got about 6-8″ of white space in my small chest freezer and the refrigerator freezer has some freed up space as well, so I’m seeing some results. I can tell that my pantry shelves are a bit emptier after using some canned vegetables in the soups I’ve made. I just need to keep it up.
Heather M
Day 18:
B: we both skipped
L: L took a salad I made for him with spring mix, tomatoes, cucumbers, some of the leftover shredded beef from taco night day 16, and the leftover garlic roasted potatoes from day 17, a small thing of mixed nuts, and the last mandarins; I actually went out to lunch with a friend! I had a very fancy not your standard very delicious blt w/ potato salad and only ate half of each.
D: pork chops with mushroom shallot mustard sauce, sauteed zucchini, rice (to soak up all the delicious sauce!). Pork from the freezer, zucchini and mushrooms from the grocery run, everything else we had.
Jennifer
I’m behind I guess so I will do the past 2 days.
17th
B – leftover pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, fruit
L – dh and I took leftover pizza from our lunch date on Monday, I think that is what ds ate as well. We also added fruit and yogurt
D – I used up lots of random things. 1/2 lb ground sausage, 2 remains of pasta boxes, an open jar of pizza sauce, a jar of diced tomatoes, the end of a mozzarella cheese block. Mixed it all together and heated. It wasn’t pretty but it was good.
18th
B- dh had oatmeal and yogurt, I had a bagel and sausage, ds ate out
L – I did not pack enough, I’m sick and nothing sounded good. I had grapefruit, yogurt, cheez-its, and a fruit leather dh took leftovers
D – homemade potato soup using a huge homemade broth container from freezer, the last of my potatoes, a large carrot, a head of garlic and 1/4 ground italian sausage, served with leftover biscuits from the freezer
Heather M
Both of your dinners sound delicious. Pasta dishes like that are never pretty and always so yummy. That soup also sounds so good. I’m working on some sort of potato soup to make as well, since we have too many baby potatoes that are not going to last much longer.