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?
Kathy in Denmark
Catching up, so reporting from 4 days. I haven’t kept complete track of breakfasts and lunches, but during the week they are usually more or less the same. So I am only reporting dinners, unless we had something a little more interesting for other meals 🙂
Day 15:
D: HM burgers and HM fries in the oven. The burgers were made with black beans and an assortment of veggies. They turned out great and I still have some in the freezer for an easy meal. The fries were just baking potatoes, peeled, cut into wedges and parboiled for 5 minutes before roasting them in the oven. All very good!
Day 16:
Rye bread with toppings. When we have rye bread for dinner, I try to always have something warm to top them with. This night it was fried eggs and some fish fillets/veggie nuggets. Makes it feel more like a dinner.
Day 17:
D: Flatbreads with choice of falafel or veg. kebab. Also HM hummus, some couscous and a LOT of salad greens and veggies.
S: Movie night. Christmas treats and peanuts. Almost no more Christmas treats left!
The falafel and couscous were from boxes. I try to have this sort of thing on hand, so I can make a nice meal without a lot of effort. It’s not as good as HM, but a good substitution 🙂
The hummus was HM and I froze some of it. I also froze the last of the chickpeas and their water. I’ll use it in a soup at some point.
Day 18:
B: choice of oats and milk and toasted rolls.
S: Hummus, HM pitta chips, carrots and cucumber
D: Pork schnitzel for DD1 and myself, fish fillet for DD2, veggie schnitzel for DH. Roasted potatoes, boiled corn, sauce Béarnaise (from a box) and a large mixed salad.
Dessert: small bowl of fresh strawberries topped with some syrup from home canned strawberries and a little whipped cream.
We are plugging along, even though the freezer doesn’t seem to have any more white space than when we began. At least we are rotating things.
I have also worked on decanting some bulk flour and beans into jars, so it’s easier to see what I have. I have a better overview of my pantry now and I have also pulled some things into the kitchen, so I remember to use them up.
Heather M
I really understand the freezer not having much white space yet. I am not even putting anything new into mine, but it was just so full, it’s finally not stuffed. Seems to me that you’re doing a great job. And love that you’ve moved some ingredients into jars. I bet it looks great as well as makes it easier for you to see everything.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/18/25
B: yogurt and peaches, DH?
L: soup with pimento cheese and celery sticks
D: I’d planned to fix a dish with chicken thighs. But when I went to make it, I realized I had defrosted breasts instead of thighs. Revamping would take time, so I went with plan B. I had fixed a breakfast casserole (using those 3eggs I had frozen, which did great) for Sunday morning. It was already cooked so we had breakfast for dinner instead. Chicken tomorrow night. I roasted a butternut squash and made ambrosia to go with it.
I started looking around in my freezer for a small bag of pineapple I thought I’d frozen for the ambrosia, to no avail. Then I found it in the corner of the fridge. Ugh. Straight into compost it went. But I had some pineapple juice in the freezer so I used some of that to give it the pineapple flavor. Then, after the discussion on cherries the other day, while I was at the grocery store picking up needed items, some cherries jumped into my cart!! I got them for 2.99#. Definitely an impulse buy for the month but they made the ambrosia so tasty with the apples, oranges, coconut, pineapple juice, sour cream, walnuts and Pom arils. We will enjoy them, eating them strategically!
I needed to shop as we were out of creamer. I needed spinach for a recipe and also bought avocados, onions and potatoes, all of which we were out of and were on sale at good prices. I’d been substituting onion flakes for whole onions, but if I’m making fajitas, I need real onions! I spent ~$19which puts me over $100. That’s more than I typically spend during the PC but if I subtract out the February items, it’s about $60 which is more in line with my more typical PC total, tho the month isn’t over. Dang those prices!
I also fixed some Chex mix for my hubby to snack on for football games, using LO ingredients from Christmas. While visiting my mother we went to Trader Joe’s to pick up biscotti for stocking stuffers for our kids. (if you haven’t had the mini almond ones—they are addictive!) My husband picked up a can of gourmet mixed nuts. They had rosemary in them, to the tune of $8. Then, he didn’t like them! So they got repurposed in the Chex mix and the seasonings made them more palatable to him.
Heather M
Your ambrosia sounds absolutely delicious! and cherries at that price in january, you really can’t resist that. Glad you “indulged”. And, yeah, onions are a kind of a necessity for lots of dishes. I had to buy some early this week. Can’t really do without. 🙂
Tasty
Day 18 – not a great day for the challenge or anything else come to that. For the 3rd time this season, I woke up sick – cold. achy, sneezy and I really did nothing other than watch the curling on tv and sleep
B: hubby had his usual I had toast and jam.
L: hubby made ham sandwiches for us
S: heated some of the tomato soup left from Thursday.
We also had to cancel a dinner with friends on Sunday. I had everything bought and yesterday was going to be prep day so that I wasn’t in the kitchen while they were here. So now we have a full size ham that is cooked and 2 oldies to eat it!!! Ah, well, it could be a lot worse.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Tasty, feel better soon.
Kathy in Denmark
So sorry you got ill again, Tasty 🙁
Feel better soon!
Stephanie M
Hope you feel better soon!!
Karen J
Tasty, sorry you are sick and had to cancel your friend dinner. Hope you are feeling better today.
Heather M
Oh goodness, Tasty. I hope you kick this quickly and feel better! I foresee ham in smaller containers in the freezer, and lots of ham sandwiches in the future….
Kathryn M
Breakfast – caffeine fix and handful of tortilla chips (yes a little weird, but I was too lazy to fix anything else.)
Lunch – ham and cheese sliders on Hawaiian rolls, dill pickle spears and pickled onions
Dinner – DH made his chili so I stayed out of the kitchen until dishwashing time. I had my bowl of chili with some green onions, cheese, and a few crackers.
Snack – peanuts.
Mellow day – just trying to stay in out of the snow/cold! Gotta work next two days though…..
Stephanie M
Saturday, January 18, 2025
B – Paul had yogurt with nuts and a muffin. I had bran cereal with bananas, blueberries and a side of peanuts.
L – I had leftover general tso chicken in the freezer from our last Chinese take out night so after defrosting that I cooked some rice and Paul had that for lunch. I had a roast chicken sandwich with tomato and arugula.
D – we had grilled pork chops, sautéed broccoli slaw topped with the last of the slivered almonds from the freezer that I toasted and the last of the spring mix salad that I’ve been eating all week for lunch. What a rare thing that we got through the whole thing before it wilted.
Today I ran to Publix and Kroger’s to pick up a few things. I needed almonds, peanuts, bananas, bread, some deli chicken, compari tomatoes. These are all staples in my house. The extras I bought were pineapple, a bag of broccoli slaw and arugula. I ended up spending $70.00. But none of these things will go to waste. And I am happy that so many little things are finally out of my freezer. Everyday I’m using up the last of something.
Heather M
It’s so satisfying using up the last of something! Glad you’re doing that. And, yes, the must haves are nonnegotiable and have to be purchased. 🙂
Kathy in Denmark
I haven’t reported for 3 days, because it’s been busy here!
Since breakfast and lunch is normally pretty much the same, I am just listing dinners.
Day 16:
“Medister” (pork sausage in casing which you fry in a pan and cut up before serving). Veggie nuggets for DH and fish fillet for DD2. Boiled potatoes and carrots. White cabbage in a white sauce.
Day 17: Swimming lessons for both girls, so we always have something quick to prepare.
Linguine with HM tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.
Day 18:
Rye bread with Danish meatballs, fish fillet, veggie patty and an assortment of cut up veggies. We had a lot of rye on hand, since DH had brought some home from work and I had baked some as well. This helped us to get through quite a lot in one sitting 🙂
I feel like I am making progress in using up things from the freezer and pantry. Right now is it not very organized, but I hope to remedy that when it is less packed. I am still shopping, but I’m trying to be more mindful of how much I buy while still taking advantage of sales. The supermarket closest to me is about to close down for a remodel, so they are starting to mark down some things. This means I have bought some pantry staples at great prices, but I am proud to say that I haven’t bought any sweets or junk food. It’s things like olives, good quality tinned tomatoes and flour. I’ll continue to keep my eye out for good mark downs.
I have been feeling low on energy, just like Jessica. I’m not sure why, but it’s getting old! I have started training again though, in the hopes it will lift my energy level. We’ll see how that goes 😉
Heather M
That’s great you’re taking advantage of good sales for very specific things! I understand the low energy. I was like that for a full year, and it was due to my body having stopped absorbing nutrients, becoming severely anemic and all. I was diagnosed in late February with Crohn’s disease (my symptoms weren’t the usual at all), and I have significant damage so am on serious IV meds every 8 weeks now. And that throws me for several days, too. Anyways, energy is hard to come by for so many of us these days. Hoping the training helps you!!
Kathy in Denmark
Oh Heather, I am so sorry about the Chrohn’s! No wonder you had no energy and still struggle after treatment.
I caught Covid in October, after avoiding it for the duration of the pandemic. I really struggled to get over it and I have a feeling it’s still messing with my immune system . I DO have an auto immune disease, not a really serious one thankfully, but that may also play a part. Training and eating well is always a good place to start, so that’s what I’m doing ?
Jennifer
Dh’s car was in the shop from Tuesday to Thursday night. I had to drive him to work and pick him up. Normally he rides if he can’t drive but the weather has not been conducive for that with all the gravel on the roads to prevent ice
B – dh had oatmeal and yogurt, I hit Starbucks for a mocha and breakfast sandwich on the way home as I had little time to get myself ready for work at that point
L – I took a snacky lunch – yogurt, grapefruit, peppers, beef stick and granola bar
D – I cooked up some tortillas (not homemade but store bought uncooked) and used the last of our BBQ pork for quesadillas. Served with fresh veggies
Karen J
Breakfast-McMuffins with ham and egg made at home
Lunch-turkey sandwich with a small package of deli turkey I found in the freezer.
Dinner-pancakes and sausage
Another day with wet snow and rain, but at least the weather is up to the 30s. I finally broke down and went to the bread outlet store and bought a loaf of bread and some English muffins off the clearance rack for a buck each, my first purchases this month. I made bread twice in the last two weeks, but it’s not a talent area for me. And that turkey sandwich did taste darn good.
Linda B
I’ve been doing really well with the pantry challenge, but having trouble leaving comments.
B—toast
L—out, since DH had a neurologist appt and is losing his mind from being stuck in the house due to snow and -30° wind chills.
D—LO lemon, chicken, orzo soup and bagel toasted with Havarti cheese
NOTE: Made GCE crockpot pulled pork overnight and shredded it. It’s delicious! Having on tacos tomorrow and packaging the rest for the freezer. Happy to get huge 10-pound pork shoulder out of the freezer (got on markdown to 99¢ a pound a few months ago). Now have meal-sized portions that will last us for months!
ALSO, used Jessica’s suggestion to straighten fridge every 3-4 days and found enough LOs to feed us for 2 days. My clue should have been that I was out of glass LO containers! I HAVE to remember to do this more regularly.
Heather M
Love that you have pork ready to go! And , I’ve been doing the same, keeping a strong eye on what’s floating around in the fridge. Knowing what’s there has kept me more than once now from grabbing a quick lunch out while running errands and waiting to eat until I get home. Today it happened again 🙂
Erin in Ontario
I need to start straightening my fridge more than once a week too! I have it organized so I can find and use everything, but walk out of the room for half an hour and house goblins have moved it all around. 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/18
B: had a creative breakfast this morning. I had leftover grits from when DH was eating bland food. I remembered I had a small handful of cooked shrimp in the freezer. I cut them in small pieces, added veggies and had a version of shrimp and grits, tho this was more like grits with shrimp since there weren’t many shrimp. But it was tasty with leftovers for the tomorrow morning before we head out of town.
L: had corn chowder with extras going to our son and family
D: small (1#) pork tenderloin. I put leftovers in the freezer for when we return from out of town.. I added veggies to lo rice to make a pilaf, to lower the carbs and stretch it to feed 2. Fixed the last of the cabbage and had orange slices as another side.
Heather M
Have a great trip/safe drive!!
Karen J
Love your breakfast! I actually like polenta (grits, but yellow?) better as leftovers. I put it in a greased loaf pan overnight then fry the squares the next morning in butter. Served with maple syrup or eggs, whatever.
Have a fun trip!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Karen, I’ve never had grits served that way. I’ll have to try it. Though my grits and shrimp weren’t as good as the usual recipe, they still tasted good as breakfast!
And yes, the same as polenta. My SIL had trouble finding grits in the DC area until I told him to look for polenta! And there are white and yellow grits!
Allie from Ontario
Jan 18
Brunch – I had a bowl of the beef noodle soup and T had yogurt + a poached egg on toast.
Dinner – My birthday was the 17th but we had my dinner on the 18th. Rather than go out, we prefer to cook something special together. We had been saving a lovely thick ribeye in the freezer so we cooked it using a reverse searing method (which worked great!) and made some twice baked potatoes (with the last 2 russets) with horseradish, sharp cheddar and scallions. A little salad with the rest of some homemade dressing from the fridge filled up our plates and we finished with a simple chocolate mousse that used up some of that cream cheese. We were happy & stuffed and we didn’t have to buy anything to make our special meal! There are some leftovers but we will have no problem them up 🙂
Heather M
Happy birthday!! Your dinner sounds fantastic!!
Danielle Zecher
Happy belated birthday!
Tasty
Happy belated birthday Allie. That soubds like a wonderful meal.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Allie, happy belated birthday! Your meal sounds delicious and special.
Heather M
Jan 18: busy day that included finishing my book club book and ended with fantastic book club meeting.
B: we both skipped
L: L took another salami sandwich, this time on a whole grain pita, an apple, and some tortilla chips; I had a tuna sandwich, apple slices, and some of those lentil snack rings
D: I had saved some cooked chicken from the taco night for tonight’s dinner, knowing I would be rushing to finish reading. Pulled the last two we hamburger buns from the freezer, opened a jar of pickle slice(idk why I have these-I never buy them), and made bbq chicken sandwiches, we had a side salad with it, and I pulled the small bag of onion rings from
The freezer, also never buy them, but ???? and cooked them in the air fryer. delicious and fast!
Allie from Ontario
We love our air fryer!
Danielle Zecher
We have heat!!!! I am so happy that we have a working furnace again! The high tomorrow is 23 degrees, with a low of 10 degrees, so we’re in for a much more pleasant weekend with heat. 🙂 We were also able to pick up my car from the shop yesterday; the leak was a quick and easy fix that was covered under warranty from when the work was originally done.
With the furnace work, a problem Nick had to go into work early to deal with, and picking up my car, it was a weird food day. I snacked on a bagel, crackers, and ice cream during the day, and we ended up going out for dinner when we went to get my car. I don’t care, though. I’m just happy to have heat, and that there’s not water damage to my car again. I feel like we can start getting on track a little better with the Pantry Challenge now. And I’m sure I’ll be continuing into February.
Heather M
Oh hallelujah for everything, Danielle!! Definitely deserved dinner out after everything. So glad everything it back to how it should be, especially the heat. Well, and the car.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Oh that’s wonderful news that you have heat, and just before the arctic blast hits here in NC! Hope it will be smooth sailing with everything working properly now!
Karen J
Absolutely a going out occasion! A warm house and a quick, warranty covered car fix. Life is good!
Tasty
Great that everything is back to where it should be. danielle.
Tasty
January 18
B: we both had yogurt and I also had a Nutella bun
L: hubby ate, but I have no idea what. I spent the morning making Seville marmalade with a group of friends (we make preserves all year and sell them to raise money for our local hospital) and one of the ladies made us a New Years lunch because it was our first session of this year and she made Hoppin’ John – a very standard new year’s dish which we all enjoyed. Lots of other goodies with it.
S: shepherd’s pie and peas
Kathryn M
Lunch – Leftover chicken tortilla soup. I use the pita cracker crumbs from the bottom of the bag as a topping so I didn’t waste them.
Dinner – Bean and cheese burrito. Got rid of the last of the refried beans.
Snacks – got some freebies at work. 2 small bags of chips, a bag of mini cookies, and a juice pack. I ate both the chips but saved the cookies for another day.
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.