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 19 of the Pantry Challenge!
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Isn’t he cute? I bought this mug yesterday at Target for 5 bucks. I am a sucker for cute mugs, but I figure if it keeps me making my coffee at home instead of getting Starbucks, I still come out ahead.
Today was a very fend-for-yourself kind of day with everyone having the day off of outside work or school. I worked, but that is beside the point.
What We Ate
Breakfast – I reheated pizza from Friday and had it with a couple fried eggs. FishChick19 made pancakes.
Lunch – Bryan and two of the kids were gone. Those of us at home ate leftovers.
Dinner – I’m struggling with finding ample proteins that feed the whole family. There was one single slice of pork loin left last night from a 4-pound roast. Oy!
This morning I thawed a 2-pound bag of shrimp and a pound of sausage to make Jambalaya. Easy and good.
How did Day 19 go for you?
Karen J
Day 19
Breakfast-oatmeal with chopped apple and pecans
Late Lunch-out (with senior discount 🙂 with hub after working all morning getting our daughter’s house ready for the electricians to come by. I did choose vegetables instead of French fries, so felt a bit virtuous.
Late late dinner-finished off the mac and cheese and pulled pork
Snack-cookies, of course -I was going to say no, but H said I really wanted a few
Allie from Ontario
T spent the day at his father’s place in town. His dad (now in a care home) has asked us to sell it for him & so work there is ongoing. I ran lots of errands (including buying milk for both of us, a couple of bananas for T + some fresh produce). I also made a loaf of oatmeal bread that is very tasty! AND of course T waited for service people, coming “between 9 am & 4:30 pm” WHO NEVER CAME even though he called around 2 to be sure…”yes sir, we have the work order and they will be there….” OR NOT….grrr. He did get lots of little jobs/clean up done but still…
What we ate on Jan 19
Brunch: I sent T to his dad’s with all the leftover scalloped potatoes which he appreciated! I had my smoothie & ryvita/PB and have now used up 2 packets of blueberries, 1 ziplock of sketchy raspberries AND a pint jar of sliced strawberries. I believe there is enough blueberries in packet #3 (!) for at least one more smoothie.
Dinner: T had “hidden” a really nice ribeye steak ($$!) in our cottage friend’s fridge. We have a key for emergencies & he brought it home with him yesterday (having warned me that he intended to have fish & I was planning soup from the freezer). So it was birthday dinner #2! We shared the steak with some blue cheese-roasted serrano butter from the freezer, a mix of sweet peppers/red onions sauteed/topped with balsamic vinaigrette & feta + little potatoes roasted with fresh herbs & garlic. What a lovely surprise 🙂
Safe travels to everyone one the move and welcome back to those have arrived home.
Karen J
Allie, Your birthday dinner #2 sounds delicious. What a thoughtful treat!
And boo to service workers that don’t show up.
Jessica Fisher
What a way for you both to redeem a frustrating service people day!
Heather M
Oh what a fun treat that birthday dinner #2 must have been! Sounded delicious. Also, I imagine getting T’s dad’s house ready to sell is a lot of work. I don’t look forward to those days in my future. At least he made the best of what must have felt like a waste when the workers never showed up. And you did, too, baking delicious bread!
Maureen
I finished off the leftover potato soup for lunch and added the little bit of leftover mashed potatoes to be done with those, too. DD had some leftovers, but not sure about hubby. I made a cheesy chicken and rice casserole for dinner with two containers of leftover rice. It made two additional small pans of casserole, so I might freeze those for lunches in a week or two. I baked a small batch of muffins from a mix. Those will be gone quickly. I also mixed up a bunch of peanut butter cookie dough to finish up an older jar of PB. Some is now in the freezer, some in the fridge, and some went home with my son after he stopped by. I peeked in the freezer and made note of handful of meals for the coming week. I didn’t even have to dig to the second layer.
Stephanie M
Monday, January 19, 2026
B – I had cereal, fruit and nuts. Paul had a whole wheat English muffin and mixed fruit.
L – we born had turkey sandwiches in whole wheat.
D – leftover Italian sausage soup. Just enough left for Pauls lunch tomorrow.
Heather M
Finally home today for the rest of the month. Cue the cheers! But a holiday so not normal either. Got more of Christmas taken down. Son and I saw a movie(so so so so good) over lunchtime and discovered the theater had half price popcorn! Score! The we stopped at Harris-Teeter just for some salad stuff. I would have preferred Trader Joe’s as prices would have maybe been better but it wasn’t in the right direction. I was not going out of my way. Spent about $19 on a bag of butter lettuce, an organic head or romaine(best deal weirdly), 2 bell peppers, mushrooms, 4 good sized tomatoes, big bunch of celery, an English cucumber, and 2 onions. Hoping this gets us through the week. We’ll need more salad stuff before Monday morning but I’ll figure it out. Now to dive in and find what we can eat with all the food we have. Today we finished off random bits of leftovers that had been thrown in the freezer. Feels good to have lots of little containers gone.
Brunch: son and I had popcorn and pretzel bites at the movies (it was at 11 and was 2 1/2 hours long so….); no idea what L had
Dinner: clC had the leftover plain pasta tossed with some jarred pasta sauce, and heated up a handheld chicken pot pie pastry thing from Trader Joe’s; L finished off the generous serving left of a pasta chicken veggie thing; I finished off the much smaller servings of a ground turkey white bean bell pepper thing over quinoa, the tiny bit of half and half fake Mexican rice, and toasted a piece of sourdough to spread the last of the burrata on. All but the toast/burrata and jarred pasta sauce was from the freezer.
Also snacked on some Christmas cookies(so many treats here still) and L had some ice cream(from Christmas). And Tuesday I will actually cook!
Jessica Fisher
Welcome home!
Heather M
Thanks, Jessica! And to your comment last week, yes, we do need to meet up sometime when I’m out in San Diego. I would just love it. 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/19/26
B: yogurt and coffee for both. DH added toast.
L: I finished off the leftover chicken divan. DH had another hot dog and bun from the freezer with chips.
D: pasta sauce with meat (freezer) over spaghetti squash (NOT a requested meal by my husband! 🙂 , slaw, fruit salad using some frozen cherries I found in the freezer added to apples, oranges and pineapple.
I soaked and cooked pinto beans for future meals, using chicken broth from freezer. Also cooked some cauliflower and brown rice (as Heather says, half and half) for meals later.
Heather M
Yay half and half rice! It’s such a great way to reduce carb intake and add veg. So glad you do it now, too! Also, well done with food prep!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, I don’t stop with rice. I put cauliflower in mashed potatoes and I even add it (in small chunks) in potato salad. No one is the wiser. Shhh!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Oh and I forgot to add that small pieces are well disguised in Mac and cheese too!
Kathryn M
1/19/2026
B- Cinnamon crumb cake (last piece)
L – large spinach salad w/ bacon crumbles. I got a few bits of veg out of the fridge with that salad..
D -Scrambled eggs with diced sausage pieces, bell pepper, onion. Pineapple/banana smoothie. One piece of pineapple (for each of us) that wouldn’t fit in the blender. Split a Halo orange with spouse.
Snacks – crackers, a little trail mix that needed to go away.
That is it for me this year as I am leaving for the airport early tomorrow morning. I will finish the milk tomorrow with some cereal for breakfast. I packed a spinach salad to take with me. Also a few pepperoni slices and crackers. That is all I will eat for the day other than maybe a vending machine Coke and snack at the hotel. I know I won’t want to go out to find a meal tomorrow night.
See you all next year!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Well done! Same time next year! 🙂
Heather M
Great seeing you here and hope your trip is wonderful. And that 2026 treats you well. See you next January 🙂
Jessica Fisher
Thank you for joining us, Kathryn. Bon voyage!
Heather from Sacramento
I went to lunch with a friend. I had the holiday off so it was nice to get out of the house.
B- coffee
L- buffalo chicken salad and French onion soup
D- tri tip with ravioli