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 26 of the Pantry Challenge!
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Today was a little rainy, but warmer than it’s been.
As we pulled out of the driveway for church, the sensors on my van went off. The alternator went out, so that made for a fun afternoon.
What We Ate
Breakfast – We had fried eggs and toast/English muffins. I added avocado, sautéed mushrooms, and sautéed tomatoes to mine and it was so good! Yes, I had three eggs because they were medium and so much smaller than regular size eggs.
Lunch – We sliced up the sourdough bread I baked yesterday and made BLTs and chicken salad melts. I added pickled jalapeño to mine which made it super spicy, but also so good.
Dinner – The chicken legs I thawed yesterday weren’t anywhere close to thawed, so I pulled the Ground Beef Casserole from the freezer that I had made on the 12th. With a salad on the side, that was Sunday Dinner.
How did Day 26 go for you?
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/26/25
B: I ate a boiled egg and had coffee before heading out on my trip. DH had oatmeal.
L: I ate a chicken salad sandwich I’d brought for the trip, using what I’d made the day before. DH ate from what I’d left for him. ?
D: ate chili and cornbread I’d brought from home.
S: handful of nuts
Stephanie M
Sunday, January 26, 2025
B – Paul had toast with the bread we baked yesterday and a yogurt with almonds. I had toast and peanuts and a yogurt.
L – we were busy so we skipped
D – burgers and fries. Using up the last of the burgers.
Erin in Ontario
Yesterday morning started out okay, just a little snow. By the time husband and teenager got home from martial arts, the wind was starting to pick up and by suppertime we had (and still have) 80 km/hr (just under 50 mph for my US friends here) winds causing whiteout conditions intermittently. Amazingly, though, we haven’t lost power yet!
Breakfast was pancakes.
Lunch was falafel with hummus and veggies. The guys had also grabbed themselves chicken and fries from the grocery store deli section and eaten it on the way home. After a two hour intensive workout, they had no problem eating both and then making smoothies! At least the chicken filled them up enough that they showered before eating at home 🙂
Supper was leftover tortellini and salad from the other day, and quesadillas with leftover roasted veggies and cheese.
The teenager was, as always, back and forth with various snacks. I definitely saw canned peaches, popcorn and cheese but I’m sure there was more that I missed.
Maureen
I hope you never lost power. It was blowing here in Michigan, too. And hooray for showers! My girls have been known to aboutface out of the kitchen on the weekend when they see DH just got back from a run.
Maureen
Lunch was pizza with girl scouts. Not sure what DH had. And then we ended up grabbing takeout from a place we’d been wanting to try because DH wanted meat lasagna, which the girls don’t eat. So, takeout let everyone get something different. This week I really need to step it up and focus on the challenge.
Erin in Ontario
Maureen, sometimes takeout is what’s needed! Sounds like a good day. The challenge will still be there today.
Tasty
Day 26
Brunch: bacon, egg and fried potatoes. This used the last of the bacon, all the leftover potatoes and has the fridge looking quite bare in spots.
S: After a very unhealthy but enjoyable meal in the morning, I decided that supper had to be much healthier and get some veggies in us. I was originally going to go and buy some salad but it was damp out . Slight change of plan from chicken and salad to a hot casserole, chicken chasseur, which I loaded up with freezer veggies plus a pack of mushrooms that needed to be used. That with some French bread was supper. Hubby finished his Christmas ice cream. More white space!
Kathryn M
1/26/2025
Brunch – pancakes
Dinner – bowl of chili, potato chips
Snack – trail mix, hot cocoa
Work day, so that is about it.
Diinaus
DiinausJanuary 27, 2024 at 3:32 am
Seem to have lost a day.orposted to wrong year??
Any way
B: out for morning tea with friends after a late night
L: brought rotisserie chicken, lettuce and a loaf of gf bread to eat at the park with friends.
D: pumpkin, eggplant and chicken risotto using up stock made day b4 and some of the chicken from lunch. .more nice cream to finish.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I lost my post too! Not sure where it went.
Karen J
Lynn, i saw your post in the 2023s. 🙂
Jessica Fisher
Not the wrong year. I just reuse the same posts from year to year, per Google best practices.
Jennifer
I’ve still been plugging away but I have been terrible about posting. We did end up going over my $100 a week grocery limit when dh decided to make a costco run. I quickly put together a list and he spent $166. This was in addition to my $100 I had already spent for the week. But I’m on track for the rest of the month. So I will call that pretty good as my total for the month is less than half what I normally spend.
We were hit with 2 big expenses this past week. Transmission repair $1550 and tree removal $1700 (1 came partially down in a storm but was hung up on another tree hanging over our house, so it had to come down). I will be continuing my challenge in February as my freezers and pantry are still very full even though I have been using stuff that has been in there forever.
B – dh unearthed a frozen bag of pumpkin spice bagels and we all had that with yogurt or fruit
L – I took crackers (finished off a box) with summer sausage and cheese, peppers and grapes
D – I got home late to the tree guys cleaning up and lots of frustrated men with big stories to tell about how they got the tree down safely and didn’t even hit anything. According to the neighbors it took them all day. I was able to quickly thaw chorizo sausage and diced tomatoes (from my garden in 2022!) and made up a pasta dish. Served with peppers
S – free donut at work
Heather M
Wow two big and unexpected expenses the same week, I’m so sorry. I can relate to feeling like there is so much food still, despite using up so many things, and will be continuing into February with you. Hoping for you it really helps offset these costs.
Danielle Zecher
So sorry about your transmission and tree! I’ll also be continuing into February. Hopefully, we can all cheer each other on in February.
Karen J
Breakfast-tortilla egg/cheese wrap Only two packages of tortillas left in the freezer
Lunch-LO turkey pot pie
Dinner-hummus/carrots and cookies Husband was out with a friend so I didn’t make dinner
I had some Safeway rewards that I usually used for gas, but decided to go for free food instead. My dozen egg online coupon didn’t work so I went to the help counter. Turns out the free dozen was for jumbo, rather than large eggs. No jumbo were in stock so they gave me an 18 pk of large instead. Win!
I reorganized my two top of refrigerator freezers-the house fridge and the “beer ” fridge in the shop and am very happy with the white space. (the pantry is still pretty stuffed)
Heather M
Good win with the eggs!!
Allie from Ontario
I’m a bit behind…
Jan 25
Brunch – I made an English muffin pizza with the last of the sauce I recently made and T had a ham sandwich.
Dinner – I made a small of amount of beef stew (ie scaled to 1lb of boneless short ribs) and included lots of veg (fresh & freezer). I also decided to try something new so I also made a cauliflower puree with aged provolone (well stocked cheese drawer!) and a “cube” of roasted garlic from the freezer. We spooned the stew over top and it was a lovely dinner.
It was a pretty icy day but I did finally get out to the store to prep for Friday’s dinner party….
And then came Jan 26
We got hit again by heavy freezing rain (over night and most of the morning) and while discussing whether to just cancel dinner, we got word that a dear friend suffered a massive medical emergency and had been flown to palliative care in the city. Needless to say, dinner party cancelled immediately and then later in the day we were notified that he passed away at around 1:30. We pretty much ate nothing yesterday and after a rough night, we basically slept in until very close to noon today.
Karen J
I’m so sorry about your friend. Hugs.
Heather M
Oh Allie, I am so sorry for the lost of your dear friend. <3
Tasty
Allie, so sorry to read aboutyour friend
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Allie, So very sorry about the sudden loss of your friend.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Allie, so sorry about the sudden loss of your friend.
Jessica Fisher
I’m so sorry to hear about your friend.
Danielle Zecher
I’m so sorry about your friend.