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 2 of the Pantry Challenge, our first day back to real life after the holiday break.
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Bryan and the college kids were all back to work today. The high schooler is still on vacation. I got my hair done, did errands, and took a nice afternoon nap.
What We Ate
Here’s how we ate on Day 2 of the Pantry Challenge:
Breakfast – I had a repeat of yesterday, except I swapped a pear for the cuties. I have no idea what anyone else had.
Lunch – Bryan had a freezer burrito. The college kids packed lunches. Those at home had leftovers.
Dinner – Thursday is our regular date night, so Bryan and I headed out while three kids fended for themselves while two others went to a friend’s house.
How did the day go for you?
Kim from Colorado
B-cereal
L-BLTs with chips and berries
D-made a quiche for the first time ever, the consistency was a bit off but it was delicious. Used the last of the holiday ham, half a can of mushrooms, and the heavy cream left from holiday baking
Kathy in Denmark
Your quiche sounds delicious!
I love quiche – it´s the perfect dish to turn leftovers into something wonderful 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I love quiche too, and using cream ups the delicious factor! I don’t always have it but love it in a quiche.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/3/25
B : repeat of Greek yogurt with hm jam and coffee
L: vegetable beef soup which is getting low. DH had soup, sandwich and chips
D: beef roast from the freezer, LO collards, cauliflower with cheese sauce, rice, apple
I made a run to the store after my DH requested some chicken dishes this month. We have a ham and a turkey and sausage in the freezer, but actually no chicken. We ALWAYS have chicken as that’s a favorite. Boneless chicken breasts were on sale (1.99# v 1.79 from days gone by) but they were out. Like Jessica’s markdowns the other day, I found thighs marked down to .99#, so got those instead. We will have some tomorrow night and I will debone some for other recipes this month. I also bought a whole chicken, also on sale. I definitely don’t usually start the challenge off by buying, but want to have variety. Plus, as Jessica says, we make our own rules! Also bought cabbage for slaw. I’ll need lettuce soon, but hope this 29.56 will do me for a while. Our wind chill this morning felt like 9 degrees thanks to our strong winds so chicken soup is on the To Do list.
Tasty
This time the soup has very little other than tomatoes. I used about 12lbs of tomatoes to a scant pound of carrots and the same of onions and just one pint of chicken stock. This simmered for probably an hour until everything was well cooked. Then I ran it thru the blender, mixed up a roux and cooked it, then added the tomato back in the pot with some S & P, basil and oregano. This all came to a boil at which I took it off the heat and added a cup of half and half. Done!
Tasty
This time the soup has very little other than tomatoes. I used about 12lbs of tomatoes to a scant pound of carrots and the same of onions and just one pint of chicken stock. This simmered for probably an hour until everything was well cooked. Then I ran it thru the blender, mixed up a roux and cooked it, then added the tomato back in the pot with some S & P, basil and oregano. This all came to a boil at which I took it off the heat and added a cup of half and half. Done!
Tàsty
Sorry for the double post!
Heather M
Sounds amazing! Thanks, Tasty!
Kathy in Denmark
Day 2:
DH worked from home, but all his colleagues were like “Why didn’t you just call in sick?”, whenever he had a virtual meeting. He finally took the hint and finished early, so he could relax 😉
I slept in; I really need the extra rest and I am taking advantage of the fact that the kids don’t go back to school until the 6th.
B: Yoghurt and HM granola for DH and DD1. Coffee for DH. Rye porridge and milk for DD2. HM roll and a hard boiled egg for me. Also coffee.
S: Fruit, cookies, Christmas sweets. Also hot cocoa with whipped cream for the kids and one of their friends.
D: Pasta salad with different veggies from the fridge. LO beef tenderloin for DD1 and me. Veggie patty for DH and fish fillet for DD2. HM baguette.
I know it seems like a lot of work regarding the different types of protein for dinner, but it all went in the oven at the same time and both the veggie patty and the fish fillet were storebought and went straight from the freezer to the oven.
DD2 isn’t a big fan of meat, unlike DD1 and myself, so I sometimes just give her a fish fillet for protein. I sometimes wonder if she will be one of those people who can’t stand the look of fish fillets, since she’s had so much of it as a child. Time will tell.
She has gotten a lot better at tasting different foods and eats more and more things, so I am hopeful 🙂
We have an abundance of Christmas treats leftover, even though I cut down on the amounts we made. We choose to just enjoy them while they last, after all we won’t have them again until next Christmas.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Kathy, I see you made quite a few of your breads-rolls, baguettes. I still hope to do more of that. I even got my mother’s bread maker but haven’t used it yet. In the past I made Jessica’s hamburger rolls, but haven’t made that a part of my routine. Maybe this year will be the year!
Kathy in Denmark
I enjoy baking and I especially enjoy getting quality bread a lot cheaper than at the store or bakery!
I actually made the rolls and the baguettes from the same dough on NYE. We had some of the baguettes with our starter (creamy asparagus soup), ate some of the rolls for breakfast the following days and I froze some of both.
One of our souvenirs from our holiday in France this summer were some baguette moulds, which were really cheap, but very helpful when baking baguettes!
I hope you jump into baking, and if you have a machine to do the kneading, all the better 🙂
Erin in Ontario
Heather M, that vertigo sounds absolutely miserable! Hoping you feel better today.
Yesterday, Husband was out with our oldest son and a couple of the grandkids (Boys’ Day Out) so they ate brunch in one of the towns they visited.
Daughter, youngest son and I stayed home.
B: Oatmeal with fruit
L: Breakfast was at about 11:30 so the oatmeal held us for a few hours, except for my youngest son, who is a teenager and is therefore legally required to eat every hour at a minimum. I saw him going past with peaches, apples, tortillas stuffed with who knows what, and several pbj.
D: I made a potato & kielbasa soup for the others. I made myself a spanakorizo (Greek spinach rice) with added lentils and mushrooms. Teenager had several bowls of soup with homemade bread, and then returned to make himself a “light snack” of the rest of the rice plus a can of tuna. He is very active, so he’s slender as a reed – I have no idea how he packs it away the way he does!
Evening snacks for the others seemed to be leftover Christmas chocolates, from what I saw.
Kathy in Denmark
LOL about your teenage son’s eating.
We have two girls, but they do eat a lot in some periods of time. This is usually a sign it won’t be long before we need to go get them new clothes 😉
I’m sure you relate 🙂
Erin in Ontario
Do I ever, Kathy! lol
When our oldest was this age, he grew more than a foot in 4 months. I once made what I expected to be a week’s worth of beef stew, pasta sauce, and some casseroles for the 5 of us……and they were all gone before we got back from the library a little over an hour later.
Heather M
Hi there! I think the vertigo may have been last year’s Day 2 comment. 🙂 I’m just slogging along with other health issues to manage these days- I think the vertigo from last year is directly related to the ongoing anemia problems I’ve been having for exactly 2 years and seems to be getting worse. Anyways, wow can teen boys eat! Ours is not eating like that anymore (he’s 23), and never ate like my brothers did. My brothers (3 of them, all in a row after me) were extremely active (surfed every day, often twice a day, played team sports as well, just nonstop) and I distinctly recall breakfasts of a serving bowl full of cereal with milk(like half a standard box), 4 pieces of toast, OJ. They were bottomless pits. Mom would buy 2 carts full a week, minimum. It was unreal the amount they could put away and also were super fit and trim. It did not last forever.
Danielle Zecher
I’m sorry you’re still dealing with anemia and other health problems. I hope you start feeling better soon.
Lynn frim NC Outer Banks
My son never ate like other teenage boys either. Now, even at 37, he’s pencil thin, teetering on “underweight” status. I think he got the skinny genes in our family. My daughter and I both say we need to weigh what he does on our shorter frames!
Heather, I’m so sorry to hear you are having the lingering health problems. I remember when you were having lots of tests.
Danielle L Zecher
I was back in the office for part of the day, but we’re still mostly on a holiday schedule, so our meals are still a little weird. We munched on more leftovers from NYE, and Nick baked a frozen pizza while I was at work.
Allie from Ontario
What we ate on Jan 2
Brunch – We both ate some leftover enchiladas
Dinner – I went into the freezer for ground pork + slider buns and made some Asian flavoured sliders (ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, scallions etc) and a tangy, vinaigrette style slaw. Dinners like these make me happy when I do pull out lots of jars etc for prep…if I buy them, I should use them!
While making the slaw, I went on the hunt for an unopened jar of a grated beet chutney that we like to stir in…I KNOW it is here somewhere (which gives a picture of the state of my pantry right now). You will all probably hear me when I DO find it 🙂
It’s great to see so many familiar names here + some new ones (to me at least-it’s only my 2nd year here 🙂 Also good luck to everyone in the path of the coming snow…it looks like we will get missed or at least sideswiped this time.
Heather M
Oh how I can relate to the hidden jar… I don’t have a pantry but one of the food cupboards is a narrow opening into a large multishelf cupboard shaped like a diamond. Things are forever getting lost in there! Your dinner sounds delicious!
Tàsty
We’re not that far from you Allie, as I seem to remember and have seen almost nothing in the way of winter weather yet. May it continue!