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 20 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!
Can you believe the month is already ⅔ over? Crazy how fast it has gone!
I’m trying to invest more time in my writing business so today was a full day at my desk.
What We Ate
Breakfast – I made my January fave: Yogurt Berry Parfait
Lunch – There was leftover bread to eat from the weekend so we made sandwiches.
Dinner – I made two pounds of Taco Meat and we had a burrito/taco buffet.
How did Day 20 go for you?
Karen J
Day 20
breakfast- oatmeal with chopped apples and pecans
lunch-random bits of leftovers to use them up
dinner-cheesy corn chowder This is a riff on my mom’s recipe. I love that it’s in her handwriting as she’s been gone for fifteen years now. I don’t use her Cheez Whiz or bouillon cubes, but substituted queso Velveeta.and freezer chicken broth instead. It used up a whole bag of frozen mixed veg from the freezer, canned creamed corn, potatoes, six slices of my freezer cooked bacon, and half of my next to last onion. Best thing was that I had everything. The grandkids were over and gobbled it down. I also made crescent rolls to go with. And we have leftovers for lunches.
Heather M
Your mom’s and your riff on corn chowder sounds delicious!
Heather from Sacramento
B- coffee
L- lunch meeting at the restaurant. I had a BLT sandwich with a side salad
D- tri tip and finished off the ravioli.
S- cheese and crackers. 1 sip of hot apple cider. Finished the container who hop. Had one sip and the dog got into it when I stepped away real quick. Down the drain it went.
It was movie night. I saw Hamnet. I would say it was pretty good for not being in the genre of movies I typically like. The acting was good.
I also forgot to mention that I went to Costco on Sunday and spent $70 on baking supplies and fruits and vegetables and eggs. I never replenished after the holiday baking and I hate going to Costco when I have to because I’m out of something.
Heather M
I sobbed in Hamnet…. And yep, the acting was great.
Tàsty
Jan 20
B – fruit. Yogurt and granola for both of us
L – hubby ? I was hungry when I got home so had toast and cheese
S – Salisbury steak ( beef and onions from the freezer, mushrooms purchased specially.on sale),l/o mashed potatoes from the fridge and peas from the freezer.
Definitely a win and it suited a cold, windy and snowy day very well.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Tasty , Salisbury steak was one of the meals I took to our son’s and it was a hit. One of those old fashioned, delicious comfort foods. It’s interesting that it’s called the same thing in Canada!
PS There is snow heading this way so everyone in the south is going bananas. We are making fun of ourselves 🙂
Tasty
It is much more difficult to deal with that type of bad weather when you’re not used to it Lynn. I’m sure snow tires aren’t a common thing in NC. My best advice if you do have an ice storm, is to stay home til it melts if thatis at all possible. May either won’t happen!!
Tasty
That should read – maybe it won’t happen!!
Karen J
I reminisce about the salisbury steak TV dinners that I had as a kid. They were a special treat and salisbury steak was my favorite kind. We didn’t have to sit at the table, but got to use the TV trays and watch TV. Very rare at my house growing up. I’m old 🙂
Now I use the recipe from Budget Bytes. It’s still a favorite meal. And it has to go with mashed potatoes.
Allie from Ontario
I channeled Jessica by emptying out/cleaning/culling 2 big kitchen drawers which resulted in a box of items to go to 1 of the stores that accepts donations & raises money for local health care services. I keep forgetting to report that I did actually make a batch of the snack mix that didn’t get made at Christmas! And the “now empty mason jar count” sits at 18 with sizes ranging right from the cute little 1/4 pints (125 mL) guys up to full quarts.
What we ate on Jan 20
Brunch: T left very early with a chunk of buttered oatmeal bread to help a friend with an out town errand and then had a burger & bun from the freezer when he got home around noon. Mid morning, I had a piece of that bread toasted with the VERY LAST smoothie for January. All of that frozen fruit is now gone 🙂
We often snack on cheese & crackers during the afternoons, so yesterday I put all the open bags of crackers in a bowl on the counter kitchen to ensure they get finished up SOON. As a bag gets down to mostly broken shards etc, I run them in the blender to make crumbs that I save in a jar to use for meatballs and for crispy chicken & pork cutlets etc.
Dinner: I made a pan of what we call “pizza chicken” using boneless skinless thighs, pancetta, basil pesto & balsamic roasted grape tomatoes all from the freezer + a can of diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet peppers, capers, Italian seasoning, mozzarella and pecorino romano from the pantry & fridge. We ate this with a ciabatta bun run under the broiler with 1 of the many freezer compound butters I’m working through. Delicious and a definite challenge success!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Allie, you’re making good progress in the food and organizational challenges! Good for you.
Glad you got the snack mix made. DH requested I make another batch as lots of “sports watching” (as my DIL says) is to be done in the upcoming days.
That recipe sounds delicious! And lots of items used up. I need to think of some other ways to use capers.
Allie from Ontario
I will NOT eat anchovies/anchovy paste so capers are my go to answer to that 🙂
Karen J
Allie, so smart to use cracker shards to make crumbs. I’ve often done that with bread but never crackers.
Heather M
Everything you’re doing is so great! I’m going to take a cue from you and save all those cracker shards for breadcrumbs! Such a great idea!
Stephanie M
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
B – I had cereal, fruit and nuts. Paul had a whole wheat English muffin, a cheese omelet and mixed fruit.
L – Paul had leftover Italian sausage soup. I had a black bean salad.
Snack – Paul had Christmas cookies. I had blackberries and cashews.
D – we seem to have quite a bit of seafood in the freezer and although I like to cook seafood once a week the last few weeks have gone towards meals with multiple days of leftovers so now it’s time. We had grilled swordfish, rice pilaf and cucumber salad.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I’m not sure what happened to my reply, so I’ll try again. Hoping this won’t be a duplicate.
Your fish dinner sounds great, and a nice break from leftovers. For a while we had fresh mahi from a fishing tournament that our daughter caught and shared with us. It was delicious while it lasted. I did find a bag of local shrimp that I somehow missed, so I will probably use that before the month is over.
Maureen
Tuesday was busy, so I snacked on a couple of things that needed to go. Everyone was headed in a different direction in the evening that involved dinner, so no progress at home. I had a $5 coupon for groceries, so I popped in while running errands and just picked up some berries on sale. They looked pretty good for January and I avoided purchasing anything else.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Maureen, that’s good will power! I keep reminding myself of Jessica’s keychain that says something like “I have food at home” to help me resist buying more. That and staying out of the stores!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/20/26
B:avocado toast for both of us with coffee
L: soup for me, DH had a sandwich with his soup
D: DH had requested chicken and rice. He didn’t care what kind of chicken, so I did Chicken Piccata with the cauli/ rice, a citrus slaw and last night’s LO fruit
S: I’d forgotten we had some cheesecake bites in the freezer. We each had one and boy are they good! Just the right size.
The month is just clipping along. We are about out of coffee (the horror!). A kind we like was on sale this week so I picked up 2 bags of that and a bag of onions spending 16.21. That puts me at 69.21 for the month. It’s harder and harder to keep the total down, despite not buying much. I can see the increase in coffee prices for sure. 🙁 Jessica, I liked your comment encouraging people to “delurk”. I was certainly one of the lurkers for a couple of years or so. I’m glad I was brave and delurked!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Oh, meal # 10/20 so far!
Jessica Fisher
I’m so glad you delurked, too, Lynn!
Karen J
Way to go on your husband request meals, Lynn!
I remember a previous pantry challenge when we ran out of coffee. I (with my self imposed rules for PC) really did not want to buy any, but that is one item that is an absolute necessity of life for my husband and he’s a good sport during pantry challenge. I was happy to find it on sale. And I agree, coffee prices are way up.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
The DH is why I bought the coffee too. If up to me, I would switch to tea and do without, but he eagerly looks forward to coffee in the morning.
I considered not buying onions since I have onion powder and minced onions. But I wanted onions for a side, which I couldn’t do with the other options. They have gone up too-like everything else!
That’s nice you have your mom’s recipe in her handwriting. I have some of my grandmother’s handwritten recipes as well as my dear MIL’s. It always makes me smile when I see them.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jessica, your Ralph’s haul was amazing! The prices on the butter and whipping cream were unbelievable, along with the other items. Buying ahead is exactly what I did with the steaks I bought for celebrations in February that are in the freezer.
Heather M
Jan 20: a bitterly cold day; C was off work; L was decidedly not and didn’t get home until about 11:30pm. Life on a big news day.
B: we all skipped
L: L ate at work, where food was catered for all meals, given it was inauguration day and very busy for them; C ate a toasted turkey and cheese on sourdough and snacked on tortilla chips; I had tuna on toasted multigrain(it’s finally almost gone after being in there for probably 6 weeks) and air popped popcorn
D: L ate at work; C had leftover chili con carne mac; I opened a jar of Trader Joe’s pumpkin bique, topped it with some green onion, and ate it with crackers (2 more almost gone boxes out!) and a side salad
Tasty
I figured you wouldn’t see your hubby too much yesterday. Hope today is quieter for him.
Heather M
Thanks, Tasty. It’s unlikely to be quiet for a very long time. But he won’t be gone from home quite so late most nights. 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I thought about L yesterday too. That was a long day for sure. We appreciate what he does.
Heather M
Thanks,Lynn. I really appreciate it.
Karen J
Day 20
B-toast and coffee
L-out with girlfriends The restaurant we’d planned on was absolutely packed, due to the MLK holiday I’m guessing. So we went to a different place and still had a fifteen minute wait, which was no problem as we like to talk-a lot.
D-shrimp, bacon, mushrooms, peas (all from the freezer) with jarred Alfredo sauce topped with parmesan cheese and garlic bread also from the freezer. When I see discounted mushrooms I bring them home slice and sautée them in garlic, butter and olive oil then freeze for when I need them. I have two quart bags left. They are really convenient.
Heather M
The mushroom thing is really smart!!
Tasty
I’ve picked extra mushrooms up when they’re on sale and sliced them for the freezer, but never thought to take the time to cook them as well – great idea. I have also taken to buying bags of onions and carrots when they’re on sale and I know I will have time to peel and slice or chop them to have in the freezer so that when I need them they are ready. That is very handy, specially if I just need a little bit. Did the same with orange peppers in the fall – I love it.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I do this too. I’ve got just a few tablespoons left in my freezer for the next meal when I need them. I am usually prepping mine to keep them from going bad! Sautéing them makes it convenient.
Maureen
We’ve been extra busy for almost a week, so I’ve been posting every two days. I still read everything when I get on, but I can tell my motivation is lower with not ready daily. Hopefully, I can get back on track. Sunday was leftovers for lunch and homemade pizza for dinner (with extra dough for later in the week). Monday the girls were off for MLK so we had appointments and errands and grabbed lunch out as a treat. Dinner was pasta and salad – used up some cream and a cucumber that were going to spoil. And we’ve munched on some snacks and treats that have been open, although we haven’t finished very many off. So many open things drives me a little crazy. With the cold snap coming through North America, we got the call cancelling school Tuesday and Wednesday. This pushes midterm exams back for my girls (which likely means half days of school on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday) and one also had her evening activities cancelled for the next few days. So, more meals at home and I am working on a meal plan.