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 22 of the Pantry Challenge!
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Sorry for the lack of pictures today! I’ve been eating breakfast while it’s still dark and dinner after the sun goes down. Lunch wasn’t homemade, so I don’t know what to say. Pretend?
What We Ate
Breakfast – I had my protein instant oatmeal and a cup of tea.
Lunch – Today was bible study day so Miss17 and I were out and about. Since Chick-Fil-A sent us free sandwich coupons and we had errands to run, we grabbed those for lunch.
Dinner – I’ve been craving a full breakfast, so I made Breakfast for Dinner with sausage, biscuits, eggs, and hash browns. Our orange tree is bursting so we added oranges to the mix as well.
How was your day 22?
Maureen
I hope everyone weathers the storm well. We are used to snow and ice here in Michigan and our prediction keeps improving…might only get 2-4″ of snow on Sunday. Temps will remain quite low, but we’re equipped for that. DD got a “cold day” off school scheduled for Friday (so semester exams for 2 classes are pushed to Monday) – the districts were worried about students walking to school and waiting for busses with temps 15+ degrees below freezing.
Thursday’s food was quite boring. I had eggs and toast for breakfast, planning to finish off the cooked bacon, but only used half of it. Then skipped lunch since I wasn’t hungry. I roasted off a bunch of veggies for the fridge, but had to toss the slimy green beans. Then, we had alfredo with LO pork and some of the roasted veg for dinner.
Tasty
Jan 22
B – the usual for both of us
L- I was out for the day Hubby ????
S- Chili and a few leftover cheese biscuits from the freezer
Karen J
Well, life can change in a minute. We were to have a taco birthday dinner for our youngest granddaughter who turned 9 yesterday. However, yesterday afternoon there was a major fire at my daughter’s house (electrical they believe). Thankfully all the family is safe, however one cat died . All the other pets were rescued, some needing oxygen. As the house is uninhabitable, we now have five extra people, two more cats, a dog and a bunny added to our two bedroom house. The firefighters, her neighbors and Red Cross have all been wonderful.
Now I am feeding seven, so absolutely will need a major grocery shop. We also canceled our vacation due to start tomorrow. We are just so thankful that everyone is okay. Houses and things can be replaced, people can’t.
Tasty
So glad the family are all safe Karen.
Heather from Sacramento
I am so sorry to hear that but glad your family made it out ok.
Maureen
Oh, goodness! I’m so glad that everyone is fine and you are nearby. Our neighbor had a fire last year from a lightning strike. So scary!
Allie from Ontario
Oh wow…I’m so relieved your family got out safely and so sorry for all that they lost. So important to have family to rally around them. Thinking about all of you.
Heather M
Oh my goodness Karen, what an incredibly scary and life-altering event. I am so sorry for your daughter and her family. Glad they have you to lean in right now. Can’t imagine how they are feeling. Sending all of you strength and peace to weather this difficult situation.
Kathy in Denmark
That is so scary, Karen!
I’m very sorry that this happened, but also very glad that your daughter and her family are ok.
Hugs to you all from across the pond.
Stephanie M
Thursday, January 22, 2026
B – I had cereal, fruit and nuts. Paul had a whole wheat English muffin and mixed fruit.
L – Paul had leftover grilled chicken thigh, a cup of chili from the freezer and leftover rice pilaf. I had a roast beef sandwich in whole wheat.
D – we had leftover turkey from
Thanksgiving. That I pulled from
The freezer and leftover roasted veggies from the night before and salad.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/22/26
Jessica, your breakfast for dinner sounds good. I have several packages of bacon still so plan to have B4D again before the end of the month. DH likes that meal!
B: I had coffee and peanut butter toast
Not sure about DH as I slept in
L: soup from the freezer. I’m not good about labeling freezer items. I thought I was having ham bone soup and it turned out to be hamburger soup. I told DH he was having chili when it was actually bean with bacon soup. I need to work on that, though all the options were tasty! DH was excited to have another hot dog to go along with his soup.
D: leftovers. DH had the LO burrito with Greek yogurt, avocado and salsa toppings. I had the LO ravioli I’d stuck back in the freezer. We both had baked onions and cauliflower with LO hollandaise sauce. I’m having to get creative for sure with the paucity of veggies these days.
S: we split the last mini cheesecake bite. When halved, it really was just one bite. But the box is out of the freezer now.
I am going to need to do some shopping. I haven’t gotten out the bread machine yet-ahem. But even if I did, I can’t duplicate Dave’s Killer bread, which is DH’s favorite of late. It’s 2.99 this weekend so I’ll be picking some loaves of that up along with some vegetables.
DS is considering them coming here as they are predicting power outages for his area. He doesn’t want them to be in a cold house for days on end. We won’t have power loss but have a whole house generator anyway. Should he come, I may need to up my purchases. I still have food I can prepare, just not a lot of variety. We shall see.
Heather from Sacramento
Getting better at labeling my freezer items is on my list too. I really need to do it if I’m going to be better about stocking my freezer with pre cooked food.
Allie from Ontario
I had morning coffee with a group of my retired colleagues from the local high school…always a fun & chatty get together. The town plow had left huge pile at the end of the driveway (well over 2 ft) and I barely got out in my 4 wheel drive truck. At least T had the end cleared out by the time I got home (the other vehicle would never have got out!) And as it basically snows almost every day here these days, I shoveled all the decks, walkways etc in the afternoon. T had to be at in town for several appts/tasks so he was planning to do the rest of the plowing today after hockey but with the wind chill hitting -36 C this afternoon, I’m hoping to talk him out of it!
I want to wish best of luck to all of you in the path of the incoming storm…big article in my news feed this am and it does sound really bad 🙁 As we say in my part of the world…”stay safe, stay warm and if possible, stay home!” I do realize that last one isn’t always possible and I sincerely hope everyone comes out of this one okay.
What we at on Jan 22
Brunch: I have no idea what T had while I was gone but around noon, I had tomato soup from the freezer + toast.
Dinner: I made some white cheddar drop biscuits to eat with sausage gravy. Not the best biscuits I’ve ever made but they were super quick, used self-rising flour (which I am supposing to be using up) and it only made 3 which was my plan. The “green chile sausage gravy” spooned over the biscuits used the meat from some breakfast sausages + a big handful of chopped roasted chiles (jalapenos, Anaheims & poblanos) all from the freezer. Neither of use grew up eating this kind of dish but we both love this version. There is one biscuit and a scoop of gravy left for us to haggle over today 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Allie, I had to use my centigrade conversion for your temps. That’s a brutal wind chill! Brr. Hope you can talk T out of that plowing. Regarding your daily clearing of snow..nothing like having built in cardio! I had to chuckle with Stephanie’s comparison of snow prep in New Jersey vs in Virginia. She was right on the money! I like your saying. It looks like we will only have rain which is a relief. My son is worried about losing power since it looks like ice for them.
Stephanie M
Thank you for the well wishes Allie. We are ready and prepared and now we wait. I’m sure we’ll all be talking about it next week.
Heather M
Allie, the sausage gravy in your biscuits sounds just delicious! Your 3 chili mix must be so good! I’m from southern CA though I live by DC and Al the chilis and Mexican flavors are my favorite-this sounds so good! Also, that biter cold going on up there and in the northern part of the US is just wild. And I’m complaining that tomorrow morning wind chills will likely be just below 0 Fahrenheit. Before the storm hits. Thanks for the well wishes. We will be home until Tuesday for sure, and just hoping the airports are functional by Tuesday afternoon for our son to fly off to the Sundance film festival.
Kathy in Denmark
Day 22:
B: Rye porridge for DD2, oats and milk for DH, chia pudding with fruit and nuts for DD1 and me
L: Packed lunch for the kids, DH eats at work, Rye bread with topping for me.
S: Hot cocoa with whipped cream and rolls with butter
D: Vegetable soup with bread.
S: Greek yoghurt with a little blackcurrant jam and chopped nuts
DD2 had Kendo again and her friend tagged along again 🙂 So dinner was early. I forgot to mention that I made the soup in my weekend meal prep, so all I had to do was heat the soup and the bread and serve.
I hope I can manage to get some more prep done this weekend, since it is a huge help during the week!
Heather M
Meal prep for those busy after school activities days really makes such a difference! I reached a point where I would make dinner in the early afternoon often. Glad you’re figuring out what works for you. 🙂
Heather M
Jan 22, in which I decided that my rules included stocking up on all the fresh items we are almost out of, plus other things we are low on, since we have a massive storm headed our way and after it departs, no end in sight to below freezing temperatures. The are predicting it to stay below freezing from Friday night through at least next weekend and then maybe we’ll have a week with highs just in the mid 30s? Not typical in DC for winter. And I get cold easily (and overheat easily). So I won’t want to be out shopping much, only doing bare minimum. We were also very low in fruit, veggies, no frozen fruit, very little frozen veg either, and we eat a lot of veg. So I needed to stock up. Spent about $130, and it was almost all produce-fresh, frozen, 1 jar roasted red peppers, including all the kinds of onions, garlic, a bag of potatoes, lots of salad stuff, various tomatoes, avocadoes, zucchini, piles of fruit (blood oranges, 2 kinds of apples, raspberries, bananas), lemons and limes, the works. Frozen broccoli, peas, green beans, riced cauli. Grabbed a baguette and rolls, feta, hummus, milk, 2 dozen eggs, a fun cheese, tortilla and pita chips, pickles, and more. We will be in very good shape for a while. I’ll likely have to get a few salad things for the week after next, maybe some dairy, but otherwise will be good. I tried hard to keep to the spirit of the Challenge and only buy things we needed, not stock up on extra pantry items or freezer items unless we were on our last bag or it was gone(hence just those veg- skipped frozen fruit since it’s too full still). I’m kinda looking forward to being mostly inside beginning later saturday for a while. I intend to actually cook and bake a bit, too. Providing the power stays on, lol. We think it will. I wish everyone luck who is in the path of this storm, especially where it is supposed to be an ice event. That is the worst of all. We are expecting 6-12 inches plus sleet after the snowfall. Better than freezing rain, but still not awesome. And we will see what actually happens.
Brunch: C took leftover half and half rice with pinto beans and chicken sausage, Kind bar, and kiwi; L took a salad with grilled chicken, mandarins, almonds; I pulled out a leftover savory ham, cheese, broccoli waffle I’d frozen and it was even better? maybe the flavors really developed? Glad there are a few more! Also had 1 of the 2 leftover cran orange scones from christmas, which somehow have survived.
Snacked on what I could salvage of a wrinkly old apple with a little cheddar
Dinner: pulled out the frozen Kung Pao chicken and veg from Trader Joe’s( I try to keep a few convenience foods for when there aren’t sufficient leftovers) to heat up for the guys to eat with leftover half and half rice and added a little frozen broccoli to it; I went to book club where we enjoyed charcuterie/cheese plate with baguette and crackers as well as cookies and brownies, and great fun and discussion was had!
Allie from Ontario
Very happy to hear that you were able to stock up on essentials ahead of the storm. Stay safe and warm!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, that was a good idea to get enough of those items you were low on to take you into the next week with the brutal cold predicted. It looks like we’re one of two main areas in NC that will get only rain. But as you said, the frigid temps will last into next week.
I’m pretty much out of veggies, except for onions I bought last trip (hence me fixing onions as a side for 2 meals). We have little variety in fruit also. So I’m going to need to pick up some produce and a few more items today as well, but hoping to make it a small-ish run. Some sale items look pretty good for the weekend. I too hope to do some baking during this cold spell.
Tasty
Good idea to stay home if at all possible, Heather. We will be getting some of the same storm here on Sunday and I have no plans to step foot outside the door that day. It seems like most of us will be affected at least to some extent by this huge storm. Stay safe everyone.
Kathryn M
Jan 22, 2025
B – 1 egg omelet with ham, cheese, green onion
L- last of the refried beans used as a bean dip with tortilla chips
D – last of the sloppy joe and onion rings
Snack – peanuts
Karen J
Day 22 (hard to believe!)
B-Egg, toast, and a mandarin
L-? can’t remember
D-tacos and birthday cake. It was our youngest grandkid’s 8th birthday. She requested tacos and Dr Pepper for her birthday dinner. It was at our house, but my daughter brought all the food and cooked it here. As we had almost all the family there, we opened our first Christmas gift Universal Yum package from Spain and tasted some yummy (and not so yummy) snacks. Fried egg flavored potato chips were not a favorite. I had everyone look up and share an interesting fact and find Spain on the map before tasting. Can you tell I am a retired teacher? 🙂 Not too many eye rolls, maybe a few from my husband and the teen grandkid.
Heather M
Spain is one of my favorite places! Have been twice, but most of our snacking was limited to really tasty things. Those chips don’t sound awesome. What fun you’re doing the Universal Yum thing. 🙂