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 24 of the Pantry Challenge!
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The fend-for-yourself lunch plan is reaching its end. The girls were both a little distressed that I didn’t have a plan. So, we’re going to brainstorm some options of some lunch items we can freeze for them to grab when they want.
What We Ate
Breakfast – leftover pancakes, Greek Eggs
Lunch – I pulled a couple tubs of Chicken Noodle Soup from the freezer for the girls. I made some frozen crab cakes and a big salad.
Dinner – Ravioli casserole with a big salad. Recipe coming soon!
How did Day 24 go for you?
DIINAUS
Things have been topsy tuvy with back to school+ then heading away for work only to return home the 24th due to the looming cyclone that hit north qld Australia . Not sure when last posted .Before going Brought easy school food like bread and Crackers and stocked up on pasta,noodels and cornchips& watermelon so hubby could put easy meals on the table. Purposely used up all soft veg before I went away in an egg bake and veg chilli.
L:Id grabed an apple, avocado and nut bars for the flights home.
D:Got home to find family had not finished the egg bake so pared that with some mince and made a savoury mince rice noodels mash up for dinner yesterday and served it over cornchips as “anything ” nacho bowls. Its one of my go to meals that no matter what i put in it no one complains
. No idea what everyone else did when I was away. Mash up Was tasty and used up odds and ends so that was a win that that was not wasted. The Veg chilli I found hiding in the bottom of the fridge Was too old to be repourposed so that was dinner for the chooks again… trying really hard to not let good food get wasted… note to self freeze things in meal portions before travelling for work…least the chooks still laying and manure should help garden efforts.
Today was b: grated carrot and scrambled eggs.dh coffee
L: snacks Christmas cake,carrots sticks, Crackers.
D: another noodel savoury mince smash-up with pumpkin, onion, carrots
S: kids had chocchip cookies and fresh popcorn
Karen J
Breakfast-mcmuffins made at home
Late Lunch-smoked turkey/cheese sandwich
Snack-apple cake
I hosted ten women for Book Club. It’s customary to serve a dessert, decaf and tea (not a wine book club like my last one!) A friend had given me apples so I didn’t have to buy anything for making an apple cake. I did have to pick up some decaf coffee as we don’t ever drink that. Before buying I asked two friends if I could borrow some, but decaf doesn’t live at their homes either. So I went and bought those single serve instant ones. While at the store I found out that Peet’s coffee-fully caffeinated- was on sale for $6.99 (regular 14.99) if you bought two so I added that. That’s about the best price I’ve seen around here. Including the coffee I am still under $25 for the month. We are out of lots of basics so will have to pony up for at least eggs.
Jessica Fisher
The price of coffee has been crazy!! I remember when a Peets sale was $3.99/bag. Oy! Glad you got some while you could.
Karen J
My husband has been a good sport during pantry challenge but said the store brand coffee that had been languishing in the pantry just wasn’t cutting it. Peets is a treat but I would never pay $14.99!
Jessica Fisher
Peets helps mine get to work on many a day. He was a good sport and tried the store brand but decided Peets was worth the extra. We get the big bags of beans from Costco so it pencils out pretty well.
Kathryn M
Worked graveyard the night before so I had “breakfast” a 3 pm. Scrambled egg, bacon, toast. I finished the last of some key lime jelly I brought back from Florida in Sept.
My other meal ” dinner” was a fast food stop on the way home from errands. I was craving a hamburger and this was the first eating out I had done this month, so Freddys for a burger and onion rings was it.
Allie from Ontario
Jan 24
Brunch – I had zucchini cheddar soup from the freezer and a piece of toast. T has (as expected) a ham sandwich 🙂
Dinner – T wanted fish (not really my thing) so he grabbed a piece of haddock from the freezer (we have a “fish guy” and buy it by the box) and so I thawed a single serving container of stuffed shells. I made a romaine & red onion salad for both of us and emptied a bottle of Kraft Italian dressing (that T had purchased when I was away for a while) by dressing it up with yogurt, parmesan, balsamic, herbs & honey. That was a fridge jar win!
We are having people here for a dinner party tomorrow night and my plan includes lots of things that are already here. I will have to shop for a few things today BUT we got hit by heavy freezing rain last night and every set of steps/decks/walkways outside of all our doors is glare ice right now. Thankfully we keep buckets of sand at every door (live and learn!) but we are not going anywhere today for a while.
Heather M
Oh wow ice is the worst for sure. I hope your dinner party goes beautifully 🙂
Danielle Zecher
01/24/24:
Breakfast: Egg and cheese bagels with hot tea (for me) and homemade iced coffee (for Nick).
Lunch: I had leftover casserole from Monday night. Nick ended up working through lunch.
Dinner: We both worked late and ended up going out for Mexican food.
Tasty
January 24
B: hubby had granola, I had granola with yogurt and mixed berries.
L: tuna sandwiches
S: l/o pork from the night before, potato cakes and fried eggs.
Definitely not wasting anything and white space in the freezers just keeps showing up.
Lots of meat to keep going into February altho the choice is a bit more limited, but not impossible.. I’m even working thru the frozen veggies I have as back up. My stock of homemade ready meals is also dwindling – I don’t seem to have done a lot of cooking from scratch this month which is unusual but we’ve been fairly well fed and no complaints!
Heather M
Jan 24: I which I had my physical today and my iron is dropping again (thanks diagnosed—Feb 2023-way late for my age- Crohn’s disease), so more labs to see how bad, and need to send them to my IBD docs so they can hopefully get me approved for more iron infusions, sigh. Otherwise:
B: L skipped; I had a piece of toast with blackberry jam
L: L took a repeat of Tuesday except his fruit was blackberries and the last kiwi; I had a tuna sandwich, apple slices, and some chips
D: made what we were going to have last night, sheet pan dinner- jalapeño chicken sausages, roasted seasoned up broccoli and cauliflower, and roasted garlic potatoes. Last two potatoes, last of the huge cauliflower I bought for NYE crudités. Sausage and broccoli from the freezer.
The broccoli I blanched froze in September when we had to go out of town last minute. I’ve referred to that several times this month. My wonderful dad had a massive brain hemorrhage one afternoon in September and we flew out the next morning(I’m originally from San Diego). He initially survived it, but went into a deep coma and was soon on a ventilator. My brother and sister who live in Hawaii also flew in the njght we had arrived. My kids came on the Friday night. We were all with him when he passed away that Saturday. It really shook us all, as he was at this point super healthy and was supposed to have had a shoulder replacement surgery that following week, approved on by all his docs. I ended up staying with mom a full month. And we were all back in November when we had a celebration of life for him the weekend before thanksgiving. That day was the first day all my parents grandkids had been together ever. Anyways, 2023 was far from what I expected, on a lot of levels. Hoping for a much better 2024. 🙂
Tasty
Heather, I’m so sorry to read about your Dad. We’re never prepared for our parents to leave us. Glad you were able to spend the time with your mom – I’m sure she appreciated it. Asfor your health, I hope youare able to keep your illness under control. Take care of yourself.
Danielle Zecher
I’m so sorry about your dad. I hope 2024 is a much kinder, happier year for you. And I hope you get your iron levels up soon.
Krista
Why is it so hard to remember what we had for breakfast…. I’ll have to think a minute lol
B scrambled egg with cheese, bacon and cottage cheese
L Yogurt with frozen fruit, Perogies with the last of the mushrooms, sour cream and spices
D chili tater tot casserole, pizza
S chips, cake (from a cake mix and can frosting i had in pantry)
I FINALLY finished my large 3 freezer organizing project, that feels so good. Only took 4 days 🙂
Heather M
Yay for finishing the freezer project!! And remembering breakfast. Lol 😉
Krista
Thanks!
Jennifer
I too think I will be continuing this into February – at least for the meats. I definitely plan to only buy what we need or what is on deep discount for the immediate future. We have had changes in who lives at home over the past year and things are definitely sitting that never sat before. And I kept buying stuff not realizing it wasn’t getting eaten. This semi-empty nesting is weird.
B – homemade chocolate chip bread made last night with dinner, blackberries
L – I look leftover quesadilla, cucumbers, grapefruit and a yogurt drink, dh took leftovers and fruit, but I don’t know what they were
D – I made a large taco ring and used up 2 things of crescent rolls bought at Costco in November, along with a pack of ground beef. We have a good bit of leftovers too, I added fresh pepper and cucumber with it