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!
Want to save this post?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox. Plus, I’ll send you budget recipes and money-saving tips every week!
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?
Kimberly
Worked the last few days, which means I have no idea what everyone eats and usually involves them having takeout for at least one dinner. But a snow day yesterday led to the hubby getting creative in the kitchen so chili with corn, beans, and a couple other things from the pantry.
I brought sandwiches and various bits of whatever produce was left for work. Nothing exciting but used what we had so that is good!
ZC from MA
B: a banana and coffee
L: bought at work
D: soba noodles with chili oil, napa cabbage and a can of sardines for the protein. I finished the last bit of the gigantic napa cabbage that I have. I’ve been eating it almost everyday and it lasted me almost 3 weeks.
S: strawberries
Heather A Martinez
Amazing how long cabbage can last!! I bet you’re ready for a new veg 🙂
Emily
B- finished the last of the rice porridge with an egg on top and the last slice of Dutch baby.
L- leftover miso soup from sushi the other night and a grilled cheese.
Snack- I finished off my kids lunch leftovers, some cucumbers, a couple bits of Mac and cheese and fruit snacks.
D- ribs, baked beans, cornbread from the freezer and potato skins using the skins leftover from when I made gnocchi the other night. I don’t think I will ever get through that bag of dried beans in my pantry.
Dessert- a mini cake from trader joes from the stash I hide in my freezer from our trip to the states last year. I’m hoping to go back this summer so I can re stock up.
Stephanie M.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
B – I had a yogurt parfait.
L – Paul had leftover grilled chicken, rice and carrots from the other night. I had a turkey burger on a whole wheat bun.
D – we had turkey BLT’s and regular fries for Paul, sweet potato fries for me.
Tasty
Wednesday January 18th
B – our usual
L – hubby finished the rice pudding from the weekend, I had bread, cheese and an apple
S – cabbage rolls, mini potatoes and peas
Almost no leftovers in the fridge (some we ate, some got frozen hence the freezers are full, but not quite overflowing). I do have some spaces in the upright freezer which is good – we must be making progress. With just 2 of us, it takes a while and the older we get, the less we need. Now that we have a nice variety of oranges in the stores, I have been playing with making hot pepper jellies and today I plan on making some blood orange marmalade and a clementine loaf, Just waiting for the Seville oranges so our canning group can get lots of marmalade made -we sell it locally to raise $$$ for our local hospital. Keeps me out of mischief !
Janet
We just started our pantry challenge this week after the virus swept through the family the past three weeks. Luckily, everyone is feeling better and back to a normal schedule. When it became clear we were going to be sick for awhile, I threw everything I could into the freezer and it is full! On the other hand, we have not been to the store in weeks so the fridge is a little sad looking. I will be making a run to the store for some fresh produce and dairy. The produce in the fridge is mostly past its prime. Certainly the case with the pears we cooked for dinner.
Breakfast: During the week everyone is on their own
Lunch: Roast beef salad sandwiches, black bean and corn salad
Dinner: Breakfast sandwiches (toasted English muffin, cheese, egg, and bacon or deli ham), poached pears in a cinnamon butter syrup.
Heather M
Glad you all are feeling better! What a rough month for all of you. I, for one, will be continuing into February with my challenge, so you won’t be alone if you do, too. Best of luck working through all the random things in the freezer. 🙂
Lily R.
B: Baigan choka with roti. This is a West Indian dish that our house guests requested (hubbys brother and sister in law).
L: I sliced up a loaf of bread I made last night and hubby made grilled cheese with Gruyere and harvest soup. We only really make grilled cheese with Gruyere. What cheese does everyone use? This is such a personal choice lol.
D: We had Nigerian/Ethopian food.
Snacks were more of the Indian sweets from yesterday. A pretty simple and delicious day!
Heather M
I just looked up baigan choka and it looks like a great way to prepare eggplant! I like all sorts of grilled cheese. Gruyere is a winner for sure. Earlier this month we had either turkey or roast beef with pepperjack cheese all melted and toasty and that was delicious.
Lily R.
Give it a try when you have a chance, it’s delicious! And I am also a fan of pepperjack!
Julie T
My favorite is Bacon Gouda cheese. Especially if thin slices of apple are also added. Yum!!
Lily R.
Interesting spin, Julie!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/19/22
Jessica, those oats look amazing! Yum.
B: coffee DH: grits and sausage
L: both finished up the last of the chowder. I had avocado toast with mine, he had biscuits
D: finished LO chicken and noodles, had baked apples and cauliflower with cheese sauce
Kathryn M
B: cereal
Lunch was a repeat of last nights dinner (chicken wings, pasta salad) I had the last of the cranberry muffins instead of biscuits though.
Dinner: queso dip and chips. I wasn’t very hungry because I had lunch late. I finished off the last of the nacho cheese with a couple of spoons of salsa thrown in. one more item out of the fridge.
Evening treat was a cup of hot cocoa.
I did have to go to the store for milk. I picked up the tortilla chips, bananas, and some baking cocoa. Total was $6.40 so my spent for the month is $8.29, I might need cheese before the end of the month, so maybe another $10 or so on the agenda. My usual monthly grocery spend is around $300 (2 adult plus occasional visits from adult son), so huge difference this month..
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Wow, you have really trimmed your budget this month! Congrats.
Kathy in Denmark
Day 18
B: The usual for the girls, toast and coffee for DH and me (DH was working from home)
L: Packed lunch for the girls, rye bread and sandwiches on HM bread for DH and me
D: “Hakkebøf”, which is beef burgers topped with fried onions, boiled potatoes and gravy. Vegetarian burger for DH.
The vegetarian burger and the gravy for me came from the freezer. I had frozen some gravy at Christmas, so it was easy to just reheat it. I made some knorr sauce béarnaise for DH and the girls, since the gravy had meatstock in it and my kids don’t really like gravy – crazy, I know!
Jen in Ohio
B: frozen waffles and fruit for DS, my stepkids had today off school too and slept in
L: DS ate at school (Tuesdays are pizza days), snacky plate/leftover smoothie for one kid at home and pb sandwich/fruit/goldfish crackers for the other one, DF ate leftovers I assume, I had odds and ends of stuff between errands
D: dinner at my parent’s place, shrimp and rice dish, broccoli, salad and rolls.
Between school and covid scares, we hadn’t been over to my parents in a bit, so that was nice.
I did a very small grocery run to Aldi today – picked up some fruit and salad. I know we can get by without those things, but I’m happier when we have them. I also grabbed a jar of marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and some ramen, since we were low on those and they had better prices than Kroger. They were out of a lot of things though.
I’m still working on trying to find a middle ground on grocery shopping. Pre-pandemic, I think I shopped more often? Lol it’s hard to remember now But for the past almost-2 years I’ve been doing a weekly grocery pickup order, with an occasional Costco run. So it feels a little weird to just go in to the store and get a handful of things, rather than re-stocking everything.
Heather M
i really relate to the shopping changes. I stopped in to Trader Joe’s yesterday and it was very strange only buying a few things, having it all fit in the one cooler bag, including the bag of olive oil popcorn I bought for my husband to snack, and only spend $20. Also that was good, since it was just food we definitely will eat and it will keep us eating down all the extra.
Molly
I can relate to the grocery shopping changes. Over the holidays, I only go every two weeks to avoid the craziness, and I’m trying to keep that routine going. I just need to plan menus for those two weeks (with judicious leftover nights), and so far it’s going ok. We’re slowly working through a lot of the “pandemic pantry” purchases, but there are only 2 of us, so it’s slow going (and a good portion of my diet is restricted, so it’s mostly my husband getting to eat the randomness).
Maureen
Tuesday was mostly leftovers, although my daughter made shrimp and pasta for herself and dad for dinner. Multiple nights a week my girls eat 2 small dinners each…1 after school/before evening activities and 1 after activities/before bed. Typically, at least 1 of those meals is leftovers or quick fix (quesadillas, sandwich, etc). So, I’m working to keep the fridge arranged well, so that they can easily see the items available that I’m trying to get rid of. We’ve done well all month staying on top of leftovers.
Heather M
Yay for getting through things and staying on top of leftovers! That’s great!
Heather M
I’ve kept quite busy the past 2 days. Monday We finally took Christmas down. We were really enjoying the lights at night and all the decor still, after the kids left, so we kept it up. But, the tree was toast (almost literally, though it survived better than any tree we’ve ever had). Started in the early afternoon and it was 8pm before we were done(requires 2 trips to our storage unit, climbing behind the washing machine under the stairs a few times, etc- joys of having a small house with no attic or basement, and just a one car garage which only fits a car), so all my plans for dinner went out the window. Strangely enough, our next-door neighbor got someone else’s dinner delivered to her and she split it with us. It was from a pizzeria that is apparently an Indian pizza place. It was two small naan pizzas, one classic white pizza, the other some tofu spiced white pizza, definitely indian flavors. Cue the shoulder shrug emoji. Tuesday I ran errands a good chunk of the day but was able to marinate the chicken I’d already defrosted. I grabbed a few more things while out and kept to my list, spending about $20, 1/4 of that on the wedge of parmesan alone(necessary, and odd to be out of it).
Monday 1/17:
B: pear quick bread and bacon
L: he snacked on christmas treats, I think; I had cheese and crackers
D: that naan pizza, which wasn’t enough for dinner since we got about half of it; the leftover pasta w/ crispy prosciutto which was enough for one person, so splitting both the pizza and the pasta was just perfect.
Tuesday 1/18:
B: we both skipped
L: no idea what he ate, but I suspect he just snacked since he had a busy day; I was out and starving so grabbed an Auntie Anne’s pretzel (it had been ages and it tasted so good, lol)
D: Greek salad with marinated pan-grilled chicken (this marinade is the bomb and we love it so much)
Kathy in Denmark
Our tree and large Christmas decorations are down, but the little knick knacks are still out. I guess I should probably pack them up 😉
Parmesan cheese is so expensive, but so worth it! We don’t like to be out of it either.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
My knick knacks and decor items are gathered and awaiting the long, 2 flights of steps to their place in the attic. Just keep putting that off. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one!
Danielle L Zecher
It makes me feel better to know that we’re not the only ones who wait to take down the Christmas tree! Ours is still up, but we’ll probably take it down this weekend.
That Indian pizza place sounds so good!
Julie T
B-cornflakes and coffee for me. Cheerios and orange juice for hubby
L-we ate out at Boulder Tap. SW Chicken salad (lunch size) for me and a burger (on the lunch menu-4oz) for hubby. No leftovers.
D-Pancakes (plain for hubby, blueberries from the freezer sprinkled on mine) with real maple syrup and side pork.
I pulled kidney beans, hamburger, and onion/green pepper mix and put in the refrigerator. Tomorrow Chile will go in the Crock pot.
Julie T
Forgot to tell you we had the pancakes because I had some milk still within date but it was turning sour so I used it in pancakes! No waste.
Kathy in Denmark
Good save on the milk! I usually make crêpes when we have milk about to turn, but pancakes sound good too.
Molly
I make muffins when that happens!
Tasty
Tuesday January 18th
Our snow day here was Monday but still some snow moving needed on Tuesday morning. It really was a lovely day with sunshine and blue skies.
B – hubby had his usual fruit, yogurt and granola while I had a piece of l/o quiche.
L- tomato soup (home canned in the fall) with a slice of toast and some cheese
S – French toast ( made with l/o panettone, banana, apple and blueberries) and bacon. Also a small blue cheese and egg salad.
We just keep plugging along. The bananas are starting to get a little overripe so it was good to get them used. The french toast also used up the last of the carton of 1/2 n 1/2 as well as some excess eggs. I have enough food to keep us content until at least the end of March – just keep topping up the perishables. One basket at the top of the freezer, used for odds and ends that need to be used,is just about empty – that would be a big win.
Heather M
Panettone french toast—whoa! sounds just amazing!!!
Danielle L Zecher
That sounds like such a good idea with the corn tortillas! I’ve been trying to avoid the grocery store, but now I’m really wanting tacos, so may have to go get tortillas and lettuce.
Snow days are definitely good for the Pantry Challenge. We couldn’t get out again yesterday, so there was no temptation to go to the grocery store or get takeout.
Breakfast: I had a cinnamon raisin bagel. Hubby had toast.
Lunch: Potato soup; one of the dry mixes in a pouch. I was working from home and had meetings all day, so needed something fast. Hubby was off, but working on shoveling the driveway, so wanted something warm but not heavy.
Dinner: Vegetable and paneer curry with Basmati rice. I used some chopped bell pepper from the freezer for the curry, but not much freezer progress other than that.
Heather M
Isn’t it so helpful not to be able to go out(or pretending like it’s not possible)? It really makes a difference in getting creative and using things up.
Danielle L Zecher
It does help. And I’m an absolute chicken about driving in the snow, so it tends to keep me home longer than the average person here. Yesterday taking our dog to the vet (hubby drove) was the first time I’d even gone outside since Saturday afternoon.
Jennifer
It was a snow day here after we got 17 inches Sunday/Monday. So we slept in and I made homemade chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. Yum!
B – muffins
L – hubby had leftover beans and rice, I had tomato soup I canned last summer with leftover bread – both meals topped with cheese. Daughter made some kind of eggs, don’t know about my son as he just eats all the time.
S – coffee and homemade brownie in a mug
D – I pulled a small ham hunk from the freezer from Christmas and made a new potato au graten dish where you slice the potatoes very thin and set them upright in a casserole dish. I added chopped ham and parmesan cheese and called it a main dish, even though all the recipes said it was a side. We also had leftover beer bread and I sliced up a pepper
Heather M
I had to laugh about your son. Growing boys just eat eat eat. Also, the potato dish sounds yummy! Definitely a main, especially with the ham. And, homemade chocolate chip muffins are always a winner. 🙂
Stephanie M.
January 18
B – Paul had toast and yogurt parfait. I had overnight oatmeal and peanuts.
L – Paul had the last three slices of pizza from Christmas Eve so all of it gone from the freezer now. I had the leftover sauce and meatballs from yesterday when we had ravioli. I just made some elbows because ravioli was all gone.
D – zucchini and mushroom quiche, pretzel rolls, and cucumbers and carrots with ranch dressing.
I just realized I haven’t actually cooked a meal including tomorrow in 8 days because of different situations like leftover soup one night, French toast already cooked and just defrosted another night, a take out date night with leftovers the next day, sauce with meatballs from the freezer, zucchini quiche from the freezer and the last of the burgers tomorrow night from the freezer!! Wow, what easy days I’ve been having lol. And I just finished writing out my meal plan for the next two weeks in my meal plan book and I will be using up many of the things still left in my freezer bringing my stock of uncooked meat/fish down even lower and closer to having used almost everything I have. So I’m feeling pretty good about how my challenge is going even though it takes longer because there’s only two of us.
Janie from WA state
Thanks for the idea on heating corn tortillas! Definitely want up try that!
B-baked oatmeal for me, variety of cereal for others, fresh pineapple
L- curry lentil soup from freezer for me that had been leftovers from a dinner I stashed in there and some trail mix with random nuts from Christmas. Hubby had lunch meeting and boys ate at school,
D- venison sloppy joes with no vegetable side as it was a really rushed night getting off work late and then getting to evening activities. I had the meat already cooked and it was easy to re heat and put on buns.
S- smoothies: frozen banana, peanut butter powder, almond milk, Cocoa powder, ice or frozen pineapple, juice, coconut milk and ice,
Kimberly
B- cereal
L- sandwiches with chips and fruit, boys at school (while lunch is still free, they are enjoying never having to pack it)
D- beef and broccoli over calrose rice (ramen noodles for the hubby, he prefers it)
Still using up the abundance of broccoli from a CSA box, almost there! And smoothies using fruit from freezer
Need to do a little fridge reorganization tomorrow!