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!
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Can you believe the month is already ⅔ over? Crazy how fast it has gone!
Tonight we currently have about 20 teens and young adults in the house for our monthly Open Game Night. This is our 4th one since we started in October.
They’ve all been different, but they’ve all been a hit. It’s so fun to see your kids interact with their friends together and separately.
Previous game nights were scheduled 7-10 (so we could avoid the dinner hour), but that proved to be too late for us parents, so this month I swapped it to 5:30 – 8:30, with us providing dinner.
The kids did a great job getting the house and food ready for company.
What We Ate
Breakfast – Bryan and I went to the gym this morning. When we got home I made another try at the Starbucks Egg Wrap Copycat. I don’t know what the kids had.
Lunch – There wasn’t as much leftover pizza as usual. I ended up eating a few too many Sourdough Donuts (2nd and 3rd tests).
Dinner – We made an array of foods to share with company: Quinoa Chili, cocktail sausages, cheese and crackers, deviled eggs, and a veggie tray. One kid brought a fruit salad and another brought a stack of pizzas. So much food! I know what’s for lunch tomorrow.
How did Day 20 go for you?
Kathryn M
Lunch taquitos from frozen. I finished up the cheese sauce finally -first for dipping taquitos – then I scooped up the rest with some tortilla chips.
Dinner – Frozen ravioli and jarred marinara sauce.
Snack – a small bag of potato chips.
Karen J
Breakfast-leftover breakfast burritos
Lunch-granola bar
Dinner-dinner party with seven of our best friends. I was to bring an appetizer and made jalapeno poppers with cream cheese and bacon-all that I had at home so incurred no additional cost. There was so much food. No one went home hungry!
Heather M
I bet that was such a fun dinner party 🙂
Heather M
Jan. 20: in which L and I had separate plans all morning and half the afternoon and I didn’t cook.
Jessica, your open game night sounds amazing and such a Great idea!! Bet it’s so great!!
B: L skipped as he left earlier than me; I had a wedge of the frozen leftover spinach gruyere frittata before leaving.
L: L skipped(he was at the auto show with a big group); my friend I was with for a thing we did treated me to a late lunch- I had a tuna melt, open face- one piece of really good bread, with a small side of chips
D: i ate so late and L was starving when we both got home after 3:30, thst i immediately got him some leftovers together – he finished off the last 2 baked tacos and some of the pizza pasta salad from the night before. Neither of us needed more real food and just snacked in the evening. I had popcorn and some Christmas candy; I can’t remember what L had.
Allie from Ontario
Jan 20
Brunch – I had the last bowl of beef noodle soup with some crackers, old cheddar and tomatillo-jalapeno jam. T had a bowl of his leftover pork chop bake and finished off the jar of pickled beans.
Dinner – I took a container of our favourite chili (big chunks of stewing beef, black beans, corn and lots of peppers) out of the freezer and we ate it with extra pickled peppers (another empty fridge jar!), chopped onions & grated cheese. We split the 2nd last Costco ciabatta bun (made into garlic toast) and we also split the last of the chocolate mousse from my birthday.
Kathy in Denmark
Reporting from two days again 🙂
Day 19:
B: The usual for all
L: DH eats at work, packed lunch for DD1. DD2 is served a healthy lunch at school. Yoghurt for me, because I lost track of time and needed something fast.
D: Pulled pork burgers with chips (fries) from the freezer. DH had a vegetarian burger patty.
S: Ice cream and different sweets from the cupboards for movie night. We still have Christmas goodies, amazingly!
Pulled pork was made earlier and frozen. Both DD1 and I really enjoy it, so I make a batch every once in a while and freeze in smaller portions. The burger rolls were from the pantry and the vegetarian burger patty was also from another night 🙂
Day 20:
Brunch: Bread, coffee, juice, jams and cheese for all
S: Tortilla chips and salsa.
D: Vegetarian lasagne with bread and a salad made with finely sliced cabbage and feta.
I love making lasagne, because I can put in so many veggies and everyone still loves it! This one had onion, garlic, carrots, broccoli stalks, mushrooms and red pepper. I used up a lot of little veggie scraps from the fridge! Also passata and lentils to bulk up the protein. I simmered a piece of parmesan rind to add umami as well. The white sauce was made with vegetable stock, milk and cream, which also emptied a few cartons.
We are out of lettuce, which is why I made the cabbage salad. It had a mix of red and white cabbage, a little red onion and crumbled feta. I dressed it with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I left some of the cabbage as is in a bowl for the kids. The bread was from the freezer.
Allie from Ontario
I’m pretty sure I’ll be using that cabbage salad idea later this week 🙂
Kathy in Denmark
I hope you like it! I found another recipe which calls for “massaging” the cabbage with salt to make it release some water and then rinsing it off before dressing it. I think I might try this one next. I also sometimes just mix finely shredded cabbage with edamame beans and dress it with a vinaigrette with mustard and a little honey or syrup added. DD1 especially likes that one 😉
We still have plenty of cabbage left, even though I have used it for a few meals. It’s amazing how much food you get out of it!
Karen J
Me too-except I will have to sub something for feta. Hmmm.
Heather M
Oh wow this dinner sounds amazing!! And using up so many scraps is an added bonus 🙂
Jennifer
Hmm, Saturday, why is it so hard to remember?
B – dh and I tried a new coffee shop in a nearby town. We got drinks and breakfast sandwiches.
L – french bread pizzas, fruit
D – sausage and sweet potato pasta, peppers
I got inspired to make pizza pockets. I made our usual pizza crust dough in the bread machine and mixed up the filling using half the sausage I had browned for dinner. When I attempted to make them the dough would not roll out. It either bounced right back or tore. So frustrating! So I made dinner rolls for the freezer with the dough and I put the filling in the fridge. I need a different crust recipe and will try again today.
Kathy in Denmark
It’s frustrating when an idea doesn’t work the way you think it would…
Did you shape the dough into balls and let it rest before attempting to roll it out? Resting is key to relax the gluten in the dough, which makes it a lot easier to roll out and prevents it from bouncing back. Olive oil in the dough also makes it easier to work with, in my experience. Hope you either get your normal recipe to work or find a new one that does!
Jessica Fisher
That is disappointing. Has the weather been weird? It sounds like it needed more water or a longer rise time. You can try my Calzone recipe. You don’t have to shape it the way I did.
Tasty
January 20
B: hubby had yogurt, muffin and an apple, I had mixed berries, yogurt and granola
L: chicken fingers
S: pork and apple casserole, fingerling potatoes, with Brussels sprouts for hubby and rutabaga for me
Kathryn M
Day 20 I made a big pot of Chili con carne for dinner. I had everything here for that. I used a boxed corn muffin mix as I have too many of those and need to start using them up.
Lunch – I chopped up a couple of leftover brats and fried some potato, onion, and green pepper to make a one pot meal.
B- Cranberry orange muffins.
Danielle Zecher
Breakfast: I had an early meeting at work, so got a drive-thru biscuit on the way in. I think Nick went to a drive-thru, too, but I’m not positive.
Lunch: We had a potluck at work (chili w/ various fixings and two different kinds of meatballs, among other things). I brought three bean salad. I didn’t finish up with work until after 8:30 the night before and wanted something easy. I’m not sure I’ll bring three bean salad to something again. I’m used to only taking home an empty dish, but took home about half of what I brought this time. Nick worked through lunch.
Dinner: I made cookies (the premade ones in the refrigerated section; I bought a lot on sale around the holidays). Nick had leftover spaghetti and meatballs. I wasn’t very hungry, so just had a few cookies.
Maureen
I just caught up on almost a week of posts. It sounds like everyone is doing a great job with the challenge this year. I’ve been very careful with my shopping this past week. I did grab a few packages of chicken and tilapia that were reduced for the freezer. But, otherwise I went with limited lists and stuck to them. I’ve eaten a ton of leftovers and a few odd things from the freezer. DH was out of town for a few days, so the girls and I did a bit of our thing a few nights. I used up some extra milk to make crepes one night since strawberries were on sale and looked pretty good for winter…the girls were excited. And we used up some leftover ricotta from lasagna night in some muffins – an 2 days later my youngest asked to make lasagna again, so we opened another ricotta. Ha! I guess we’ll make another batch of muffins this weekend. I’m seeing space in the fridge and freezer from things that I wanted to get rid of, so big win. And I’m planning to do a little extra meal prep this weekend to help get rid of a few more odd items in addition to regular weekly prep. I hope to keep up with everyone posting more this week to help me stay motivated.
Jennifer
B – I had cinnamon toast and turkey sausage, dh had oatmeal, ds had a breakfast burrito from the freezer
L – I packed a roll-up with turkey salami and cheese, cheez-its and a yogurt drink – I had to eat while driving to an appt. dh took leftovers. Oldest came home and it appeared that my boys had chicken tenders. Oldest also raided the freezer and took 4 pork roasts from the hog he shot last winter and a bowl of bean soup
D – spicy chicken patty sandwiches, sweet potatoes diced and roasted, the last 1/2 of a cucumber
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jan 20
B: DH had cheese toast, I had yogurt
L: Chicken/Havarti/apple sandwiches on toasted sourdough bread, pita chips
D: Bacon/Swiss cheese quiche, green beans, orange slices, breakfast potatoes. The quiche was so good with the cream from the freezer in it!
S: panettone
Kathy in Denmark
Day 20
B: Oat porridge for DD1, rye porridge for DD2, oats and milk for DH. Coffee and toast with brie cheese for me.
L: DH eats at work, packed lunch for the girls, more toast with brie for me
D: Burgers and fries on HM buns
S: The girls had some cake for movie night. DH and I were still full from dinner
I had bought some cheese around Christmas, but we ended up not eating it. Some of it has been eaten, but I am the only one who eats brie, so it is taking a while. Almost gone, though!
I got a Too good to go bag from our local bakery. I haven’t bought one in a while because they are usually sold out. It wasn’t as good as it has been before, but that might just be bad luck. We did get a good amount of bread and the cake that the girls had for movie night.
Fun fact: I am writing this while watching Denmark play against USA in the men’s Handball World Championship 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Kathy, you got my curiosity up re: handball so I went digging around. I couldn’t get the feed to load, but congrats to you and Denmark. Since the US had never won a single championship game in 25 tries, we were probably thrilled to have made it to the second game with your team-the former Olympic champs! My dear daddy used to play handball when he was young, so your comment piqued my interest.
Kathy in Denmark
That’s so funny that your dad used to play handball. I am terrible at it, but I enjoy watching it 🙂
The Danish team actually didn’t play as well as they usually do, but there were some players who were spared for this match and that probably made a difference. I think the US team did a pretty good job; they certainly played their chance! Denmark has won the last two world championships, so I’m thinking it must be a little daunting to play against them…
Heather M
Day 20:
B: we both skipped
L:L was at a memorial service (too many deaths in his world the past 3-4 weeks), then came home and had a toasted turkey pepperjack on sourdough w/arugula; I had cheese and crackers (still working through tons of that… little by little some of the cheese gets moldy and i have to toss some, but I’m salvaging enough to not feel terrible about it. Most of it was leftover from thanksgiving and before, so.)
D: I made Jessica’s latest posted recipe: cream cheese pasta! I cut it in half and used spinach in place of kale. I also used more spinach, tomatoes, and green onion that she called for, cuz I always push the limit with veg in recipes. I topped it with crisped up parma ham, since we had a small unopened package left from the holidays. SO GOOD!!!
Jessica Fisher
So glad you enjoyed it! When you get a minute would you leave a review on the post?
Heather M
Done 🙂