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 21 of the Pantry Challenge!
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It’s been a rainy weekend. I slept poorly and felt ill most of the night. Woke up not feeling amazing.
Made an extra effort to get more fruits and veggies in my meals.
What We Ate
Breakfast – I slept in so I have no idea what the kids had. I just drank tea.
Lunch – Since I slept in, I ended up having two lunches: a big fruit salad and a big green salad with the last of the turkey lunch meat and some garbanzo beans. Bryan had a burrito from the freezer. Kids had leftovers from game night.
Dinner – I made Turkey Meatballs, Roast Carrots and Broccoli, Spaghetti Squash, and big pot of rice in the instant pot.
How did Day 21 go for you?
Heather M
Day 21:
Brunch: German pancake with fresh blueberry sauce; breakfast turkey sausage. The pancake is a recipe from our own Stephanie M. in these comments! I halved it since only 2 of us. AND. I’ve been seeing recently where if you store fresh berries in filled jars in the fridge, they last longer. Um, YES they do. I filled a jar with blueberries sometime before Christmas and found it this week. Not one berry had started molding or turned. Hence, the awesome blueberry sauce(a little water, tiny bit of sugar, squeeze of lemon). All ingredients from ages ago in the cupboards, fridge, or freezer (even eggs- I bought too many just before christmas, and we still have over a dozen. I’ll have to spring for the higher prices soon enough, but these are the last of the under $3/dozen).
D: a new recipe straight from half baked harvest- white chicken chili burrito bowls. I used ground chicken I found in the freezer and needed using in place of breast. Also in the chili, the other half can of white beans, the poblano pepper, and other things we already had. I halved her recipe and there are still leftovers. I made cilantro lime rice, too, and have enough for the leftovers and likely for another meal early in the week. Toppings included avocado, green onion and the last of the head of lettuce from a few weeks ago.
I rarely report snacks. Today I had air popped popcorn, a big pear, and some chocolate covered macadamia nuts. L had pretzels, almonds, and some of the macadamias too. We have so many snacky things floating around- so many different nuts, crackers, and other things. Trying to not buy any snacks at all until we make a dent in the “snack cupboard”. But I’ll likely cave for the superbowl because we have no chips and I envision major nacho action when that rolls around. 🙂
Danielle Zecher
Do you wash the berries first, like in a vinegar solution, or do you just put them in the jars?
Heather M
Hi Danielle! I did not wash the berries with a vinegar solution first! I just stuck them in straight from the container they came in. I would assume that might help too, but I’d be sure sure sure that the berries were completely dry afterwards before putting them in a jar 🙂
Kimberly
That pancake sounds delicious!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jan 21
B: LO quiche
L: steak sandwich with peppers and onions, DH had same plus some red beans and rice
D: LO chicken, LO rice, LO green beans, mixed fruit (pineapple, pom arils, oranges, apple) Easy dinner tonight with all the leftovers.
S: panettone
I made broth from a turkey carcass in the freezer. I then made corn chowder with the broth, using up more of the cream from the freezer plus frozen corn and other pantry staples. It’s going to be cold here for a few days so this will taste good for lunch and/or dinner. I made another batch of broth from more bones for future recipes. Getting all those bones out of the freezer provided some additional space. Yay!
Heather M
Look at all the prep you’re doing! Awesome!!!
Stephanie M.
Saturday, January 21, 2023
B – I had yogurt parfait. (My yogurt parfait is oikos triple zero vanilla yogurt, 3/4 cup of mixed strawberries and blueberries, 1 ounce of unsalted nuts, 1/4 cup of granola, and cinnamon).
L – we visited our daughter and her husband today and had lunch at their house. Roast beef sandwiches.
D – leftover macaroni and meatballs. We will be having this again tomorrow so we can spend our day on other things instead of cooking and the rest I’ll freeze.
ZC from MA
B: yogurt and a slice of toast, cherries and coffee
L: sautéed green beans, rice, a can of sardines
D: Trader Joe’s Thai shrimp gyoza — in celebration of Lunar New Year! Homemade dumplings are a tradition in my hometown but it’s a lot of work for 1 person, so I opted for store-bought. Just a little something to get into the holiday spirit!
S: an apple, 2 slices of cheese, red bean soup
Tasty
Saturday January 21st
B – hubby had his usual grapefruit/pineapple mix with yogurt and granola, I finished the bag of raspberries I seem to have been working on for ages with yogurt and a muffin,
L – tuna sandwiches, using homemade bread – so good.
S – beefy nachos and a side salad
Slowly working thru what is already here in the fridge and freezers.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Tasty, thanks for the info on the “square”. That’s my kind of food!
Emily
B- leftover waffles with strawberries and whip cream
L- I had some cauliflower crust in the freezer so I made a pizza for myself and I made regular crust pizza for my kids and we had a pizza and a movie lunch.
D- I got out the last of the frozen cooked beans, a packet of burritos seasoning that reached its best before date way to long ago, some leftover rice from sushi last week, and chopped up lettuce, tomato, avocado and cheese and made a burrito in a bowl for me and a tortilla wrapped burrito for my husband. I’m always glad when I get rid of a couple old things.
Krista Matheson
B was out doing errands so grabbed a breakfast sammie
L DD packed lunch, DH skipped, I had yogurt with steeped fruit
D DH fried some mystery meat from the freezer, we still have no idea what it was, I think it may have been plant based meat from when out vegetarian daughter was visiting before xmas, but not sure lol, and I had avacado toast with boursin, basil, sprouts and red onion, all of which needed eating up.
S pb crackers, a cookie from a shop that makes fabulous large cookies that you heat in microwave, and everything inside melts, they are delicious!
Danielle L Zecher
Forgot to say I also ended up doing a fairly large Sam’s Club Instacart order. I was out of Nexium and Sam’s Club has the best price. I’d hoped to go in person, but work was a series of last-minute projects and deadlines getting moved up, so I ended up doing an Instacart order. It seemed kind of pointless to do an Instacart order just for Nexium, so I ended up getting some produce; Romaine lettuce on a good sale, cotton candy grapes (one of my favorites) pomegranate arils (another favorite), and oranges. I also got some salsa, flour tortillas, and Cokes (I take one in my lunch on in-office workdays, and they’re $1.75 each from the vending machine, so MUCH cheaper to bring one from home). Based on what I spent, I feel like I’m forgetting to list something, but I can’t think what.
Danielle L Zecher
Friday started off well but got really hectic by the end of the day. Before things got crazy, I started a loaf of strawberry banana bread in the bread machine. There was one very sad-looking banana hanging around, we have a big bag of strawberries in the freezer, and lots of bread flour to use up. So the strawberry banana bread seemed perfect.
Breakfast: I had grits and a scrambled egg. Hubby skipped.
Lunch: Hubby had leftover chicken and stuffing casserole. I skipped.
Dinner: Neither one of us finished with work until after 7:30 (we’re supposed to get off at 4:00). I didn’t feel like cooking, so hubby picked up food from a local burger place on the way home. A Carolina burger and a milkshake are the perfect end to an insane day.
Heather M
So both of us didn’t want to cook Friday! ? Also, i totally get the Costco order. I’m staying out until sometime in February, and luckily can, But dang, hearing about romaine at a lower price….. And yes, so much better to buy the coke this way. It saves so much over a vending machine or other place!
Danielle L Zecher
It sounds like Friday was just one of those days for a lot of people. The romaine was less than $4.00 for a six pack, and it’s actually very nice looking romaine instead of the sad wilted ones I’ve seen lately. I couldn’t pass that up.
Molly
I don’t always comment, but yesterday I finished off a bunch of things that had been hanging around: frozen broccoli, potato chips, and yogurt – all of them weren’t as good as the usual brands I buy, so I won’t get them again, but I used them up in Grandma Jean’s broccoli casserole to try and make those components as tasty as possible. Today I ate that with chicken for lunch, and it was tasty.
I also made a coconut-lemon franken-cake yesterday, mostly for fun, and I didn’t want to buy anything to make it, so I did LOTS of substitutions and it still turned out yummy!
I’m really enjoying reading along with what everybody is having for meals.
Jennifer
Well hubby and 21 yo headed to DC 6 hours away. They took leftover pizza for their lunch.
B – oatmeal for hubby and I, muffins for 21 yo and cereal for daughter at home
L – I had a lunch meat roll up, peppers, yogurt
D – I was the only one home as my daughter had a pasta dinner for gymnastics, son went out. I ate leftover pizza and more peppers. Hubby stopped at Subway on the way home from DC.
My oldest went to the grocery store and picked up milk and yogurt at no cost to me. That will help us get through the month for sure.
Kathy in Denmark
Thank you for all the comments on my post yesterday. Sometimes we need someone else to point out the obvious lol
Day 21:
B: The usual for all
L: DH eats at work, packed lunch for the girls, LO minestrone for me
D: Pizza on flatbreads
S: Hot cocoa after school. The very last of the Christmas cookies and HM Christmas candy for movie night
Pizza is always a winner in our house and I love how quickly it comes together with the flatbreads. We used up some odds and ends as well, so a good day 🙂
Jen in Ohio
Forgot to ask – anyone have suggestions to use up instant oatmeal packets? Lol, aside from oatmeal that is.
We have a bunch, I think brown sugar/cinnamon type flavors. I tried a muffin recipe with them a while back, but it came out pretty dry. Muffins would be good though, the kids usually eat those quickly.
Jessica Fisher
How about waffles: https://goodcheapeats.com/oatmeal-waffles/
Jen in Ohio
Ooh that’s a good idea, thanks!
Kathy in Denmark
I use cooked oatmeal in bread dough all the time, but it’s usually plain… I would still use oatmeal with some sort of flavour if it isn’t too sweet though. Maybe you could make the instant oatmeal or add extra liquid to your muffin batter. That should make it less dry.
Jen in Ohio
I was thinking some kind of sweet bread, like banana bread might be good. That’s a good idea to try making up the oatmeal first, so it’s less dry. Thanks!
Maureen
I had leftovers from the freezer for lunches on Thursday and Friday. And we’ve finished up a couple of open bags of chips from the pantry. I pulled a variety of cooked meat from the freezer for dinner Thursday night. We finished off the chicken and ground beef on tacos, nachos, and quesadillas (everyone did their own thing). We didn’t eat the shredded pork, so I’ll turn that into pork sliders for dinner Saturday night…paired with hotdogs for the girls and a smattering of open bags of fries, onion rings, tater tots from the freezer. Friday night was Kung Pao chicken, rice, and veggies…we had everything on hand. And the cupcakes are almost gone, so I think my youngest will likely bake something this weekend. With my son home this week, he’s been plowing through some snacks from the pantry, so once he finishes up all of the “good” stuff I’m not going to restock it until we eat up some of the older options.
Heather M
Sounds like you’re getting through all those open packages in the pantry! Yay!!! Love how you’ve used up so many things the past few days— options for Mexican, etc.
Jen in Ohio
Day 21:
B: leftover Panda Express for me, apple for DF
L: my parents were over, helping with the basement, so I pulled out a bunch of things. Mini crabcakes from the freezer, shrimp, l/o ham, l/o cajun pasta, salad, fresh fruit and l/o baked curry fruit, Boursin cheese & crackers
D: DS is back from school camp and exhausted but happy, pizza night, we just did takeout
We’ve now got lots in the fridge, but I think that’s probably good for easy meals over the weekend. DF is doing basement demo, and I’ve got to work on props for my son’s school play. (I signed up to be on prop team, not really knowing what it entailed lol!)
Julie T
B-Cornflakes with bananas. Coffee for me, OJ for hubby
L-I had L/O chili Mac and pickled asparagus which I brought to work. I am retired but casual so they call me once in a while to help out. Hubby was home he had a skin on wiener and potato chips
S-Long day at work! We went out for pizza and a beer. There will be L/O for hubby’s lunch tomorrow.
Well everything is prepped for the pheasant stir fry and it will have to be cooked and eaten tonight. I cut up one side of the breast for the stir fry and the other was pounded out and put in a ziplock bag with marinade for eggrolls. We will have the eggrolls Sunday with soup. One thing I do is when I see coleslaw bags in the clearance area I buy them and throw them in the freezer. Then I take them out, thaw, and then squeeze out the liquid. You can add to soup, casserole, or use in a stir fry or in eggrolls.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Julie, did someone in your family hunt the pheasant? That’s one kind of fowl I’ve not eaten. I did see a pheasant walking down my road one day, to my astonishment! I never thought to freeze bagged cole slaw. That’s a good idea!
Julie T
Yep. Hubby takes 2-3 trips to South Dakota each year to hunt pheasants. It is a white meat similar to chicken, so I just replace chicken with pheasant in recipes. We just had some pheasant brats made at the local meat shop as well. He enjoys it and we have meat.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/21/22
B: coffee DH?
L: Used last of the beef from the freezer plus LO peppers and onions to make DH another cheesesteak sandwich (and a ½ of one for me). We ate some chili from the freezer. (I thought I was defrosting minestrone soup. Need to work on better labeling of food items!)
D: lemon pepper chicken, LO cauliflower mixed with rice, Asian salad
Making chicken broth in the crock pot. I think we’ve finished all of the soups from the freezer. Want to make some minestrone, but I am missing a few of the ingredients so will need to pick them up if I can’t come up with substitutions.
tasty
Friday January 21st
B – Hubby had his usual, I had yogurt and a slice of toast and marmalade
L – Creamy chicken vegetable soup from the freezer
S – Pulled pork on a bun with salad. Pork & buns came from the freezer.
Took one small container of l/o ham to make pea & ham soup – now I have 3 bigger containers of soup to go back into the freezer- no wonder it takes a while to make progress!!!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Tasty, yes, this is exactly right!
Stephanie M.
January 21
B – paul had toast and yogurt parfait. I had yogurt parfait.
L – paul had the last of the General Tso from the freezer leftover from last months Chinese take out and he had the leftover rice that I made yesterday. I had a hard boiled egg sandwich and a banana.
D – grilled chicken, rice, and broccoli.
Heather M
January 21 didn’t quite go as planned, but I’m not complaining. We hadn’t had takeout or the like (except the lone auntie anne’s pretzel) since my birthday jan 6. I had a long phone call late in the day which left me annoyed and needing to talk, and at the same time my husband who patiently talked/listened was pining for BBQ. So we ordered takeout from a yummy place up the street. No clean-up, the only takeout we’ll have all month (except Jan 6 and prior) and probably into February, so I’ll take it and I did and enjoyed it.
B: pear bread
L: he had a side salad, a small piece of sourdough garlic toast, and a chicken sausage from the freezer; I had egg salad on sourdough toast, carrots, cucumber, and celery with the last of that pesky spinach dip.
D: BBQ takeout!
Kathy in Denmark
Sometimes takeout is the best option. I’m glad you could have an at home datenight with your hubby after a stressfull day.
Danielle L Zecher
I hope today is better.
Lily R.
I’m sorry you had a bad day and hope the BBQ/talking with hubby made things a bit better!