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 31 of the Pantry Challenge!
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Wow! Last day? How did we get here?
Yesterday I gave the fridge a good clean and it felt good to see so much white space. I also tidied the kitchen closet storage. Ready for a new month!
Thank you so much for your participation this year and your graciousness as I work through energy and health issues.
If you’d like to continue the conversation, feel free to do so in the comments section of this last post!
What We Ate
Breakfast – I made instant oatmeal before Bryan and I went out for a vacation day.
Lunch – The kids had leftover soup. Bryan and I grabbed tacos when we were out.
Dinner – Pizza night!
And that’s a wrap, folks!
How did the Pantry Challenge go for you?
Stephanie M
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
B – Paul had two small banana walnut muffins from the freezer that I baked a few weeks ago. Time to get through that bag. Several more to go. He also had a yogurt with banana and almonds. I had bran cereal with strawberries, blueberries and peanuts.
L – Paul had the last of the meatloaf and some mashed potatoes that I made for masons lunches this week. I had a ham sandwich on whole wheat.
D – we had grilled swordfish with lemon and black pepper, rice pilaf, and broccoli with garlic and olive oil and roasted red peppers. I have a few kinds of seafood in my freezer left.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
2/26/25
B: yogurt, coffee for both
L: Stephanie’s soup. DH had a pimento cheese sandwich also.
D: last of the spinach in a salad, brown/cauliflower rice with lo chicken curry
Karen J
Breakfast-breakfast sandwiches for both of us
Lunch-Out with girlfriends. We all drove thirty to fifty miles from three locations to meet at a restaurant at a central location. So fun to get together and talk non stop for a few hours.
Dinner-shrimp and cheesy grits (well, actually polenta as I have a lot) I make the shrimp with bacon, garlic, green onion, parsley, and lemon juice all of which I had.
I picked up a free dozen eggs with a Fred Meyer coupon that was mailed to me as I wasn’t going to let that one expire. They had some marked down mushrooms and I was out so those are sautéed up and in the freezer. Also at Grocery Outlet they had Pillsbury crescent rolls for $.33. So I bought three at that great price. They were at their Best Buy date but that’s no worry. At the bread outlet I picked up a loaf of bread and English muffins for $1 each. It was quite the day for deals.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
That sounds like a fun day from start to finish! Yay for “girl time “ , great meals and great deals! 🙂
Stephanie M
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
B – Paul had yogurt with banana and almonds and a mini croissant from the freezer. Bought those a few weeks ago from the bakery section in Publix and froze them. I had bran cereal with strawberries and blueberries and peanuts.
L – Paul had a meat loaf sandwich. I had a salad with whole wheat bread.
D – leftover meat sauce from the freezer. All bags of that gone.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
2/25/25
B: yogurt for both with fruit and nuts
L: DH and I both had Stephanie’s delish lentil soup. I made pimento cheese for sandwiches to go with it, using up 1 1/2 packages of cheese and another jar of pimentos I canned. I’m slowly increasing the availability of empty canning jars as I use up the contents of the ones “I put up” last summer.
D: a friend brought us some fresh pork sausage. I had planned to eat last night’s leftovers, but decided to have breakfast for dinner instead. We’d spent several hours at the beach today, so B4D was a quick and easy meal, and hit the spot. We had eggs ($), toast, sausage and orange slices.
Heather M
Hi All! Busy decent enough weekend, which we really needed. Not all good, but lots of great to counteract some of the other (I can’t really get into the not good). Friday L had to work late again (every friday now… and he works a lot on weekends, and late into the night, and in the wee hours. He only got 2.5 hours of sleep thurs night, to give you an idea of how it’s going). C and I went to see the oscar nominated animated shorts and two of them were so delightful. When they are available to stream I highly recommend them. One is called Yuck!, from France, and one is called Magic Candies, from Japan. Just delightful!! It was a leftovers kind of night. Saturday afternoon/evening we were at our best friends’, meeting their new grandson and hanging with everyone. It was wonderful and much needed. Of course, they fed us. C was off doing his own thing. Sunday evening L and I went to a concert with two 80s groups. It was so much fun. If you know us, you know how much we love live music and it was a much needed balm for our souls. We ate leftovers again. Finally cooked yesterday, Monday. Leftovers fairly cleared out, which is great. I keep pushing a stop at the store because we still have enough salad stuff for L’s lunches for a day or two more. So that’s a win too.
Monday, Feb 24:
B/L: L took a salad with salami, an apple, and almonds; C ate at work; I had baguette(gift from the new mama! she loves to bake) and cheese
D: I’d stopped into Harris Teeter friday to grab a gift card and checked out the meats section for any clearance. I found a value pack of chicken thighs at 0.90c a pound! Scooped it right up. I seasoned them up with a bunch of seasonings and placed them on top of pan of chopped and well seasoned veg needing using, incl parsnips, carrots, a wrinkled red bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, and an about to die zucchini. Added some white wine and chicken broth to the pan, and stuck it in the oven. We ate it with naan, to scoop up the delicious juices. I have some leftovers and am thinking it’ll make a great base for a soup, and I have a can on the “shelf” I’ll add to it, among other things. Later this week.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, I’ve thought of L (and you) a lot of late. It sounds like a lot of long, stressed filled work hours, including Friday nights and weekends. 🙁 I’m so glad y’all got to have some enjoyable, lighter moments.
That was a great find on the chicken thighs (they’re my favorite chicken part). And how you prepared them sounded so good! Yum. Extra bonus that it’s the base for another meal.
Stephanie M
Monday, February 24, 2025
Lynn, I’m delighted to hear that you liked the lentil soup. I hope your husband did too. It makes a good amount and it freezes well. Paul and I love it and I find it to be such a good hearty soup during the cold winter months. Thanks for letting me know!!
B – bran cereal with strawberries, blueberries and peanuts.
L – the last meat loaf sandwich I’m eating for a while!! lol. Enough already. lol. I made another two – one for now and one in the freezer but Paul can eat the one that’s in the fridge.
D – macaroni and meat sauce from the freezer. There was enough in there for tonight and tomorrow so another bag out of the freezer.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Stephanie, we just had the soup for lunch and my husband gave it a thumbs up too! 🙂 He was a bit skeptical at first when he saw the ingredients, but agreed that it has a great flavor. He commented on how hearty it is. Many thanks again! It does make a lot. At first I wasn’t sure it was going to fit in the stock pot I had selected, but it did-barely. I remember you said it froze well also. I plan to put some containers in the freezer for later, since I still have white space!
Karen J
It was a pretty good day for using things up.
Breakfast was leftover crepes that reheated nicely.
Lunch-apple and peanut butter
Dinner-I had a jar of mole on the “Need to be used” shelf and the last of chicken tenderloins in the freezer so made chicken with mole sauce. In the morning I had put a bag of pinto beans in the crockpot in the morning with two wrinkly jalapeños and some chopped onion. I also made up a Zatarin box of Spanish rice. So it was a Mexican fiesta. There were enough pintos left for two freezer bags.
Heather M
Love that the “shelf” is working out for you, too! Mole is so good! Dinner sounded delicious.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Your Mexican fiesta sounds great! A cut above!!
Stephanie M
Sunday, February 23, 2925
B – yogurt parfait
L – salad with grilled chicken and whole wheat bread.
D – lazy day today with Paul still gone so I just made some scrambled eggs and toast. Now that he’s coming home tomorrow I can start pushing things on him again to get rid of stuff. lol.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Stephanie, your soup is DELICIOUS! I fixed it this afternoon. It’s so colorful with many healthy veggies in it! My DH likes thick soups so I think he will like it too. Thank you, thank you for typing out the recipe. I know that took awhile. I may have told you that the only other time I’d fixed a lentil soup was probably 30 years ago. I don’t remember the recipe, or where I got it, but I wound up throwing it out as neither of us liked it. I don’t remember how long ago I bought this bag of lentils. I’m pretty sure it was at least during COVID, so it’s been in my pantry a LOONG time. So glad to have it out of there, and with a tasty soup. Thanks again!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
2/23/25
B: avocado toast for me, DH finished up the milk with cereal
L: LO chili, crackers
D: LO quiche, apples and carrots
Went to the store to pick up a few items-yogurt, cauliflower, some more sale tomatoes and spinach so I can make Stephanie’s lentil soup tomorrow. Spent about $14.
Maureen
Boy, it’s been a while since I read and commented. Everyone’s meals sound so good. I did well not generating many leftovers this week while the girls were on break. I ate a few meals with various mix and match leftovers that didn’t really go together. I pulled a couple of things from the freezer to use as sides and we had a blender of smoothies for one meal (with a couple of snacks). I finished a box of cereal (we don’t have it often), used some crackers (still too many in the house) for a casserole topping, and finally made fried rice with leftovers to go with a bag of dumplings from the freezer. I plan to pull individual baked goods from the freezer periodically this week. The girls had friends over last night and we served homemade pizza. I shredded way too much mozzarella (not sure what I was thinking), so I’ll slowly work on that this week. I didn’t finish any condiment bottles from the fridge but used parts of many for a few sauces this past week. This week will be busy, so I’ll see how much we are able to get through with everyone eating meals at different times and the girls back in school for lunches.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Sounds like you are continuing to work through items. Leftovers are good, but not too many leftovers!! Good to hear from you!
Heather M
Seems to me you are doing really well at using things up! And re all those bottles in the fridge, it sure can take a while to get through the jars. And then you need it anyways, and open another, lol. If we ate bland, boring food, maybe this wouldn’t be such an issue 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
2/22/25
B: avocado toast and coffee. DH had cereal
L: I had the last of the potato soup and a salad. DH had chili, sandwich, chips and apple.
D: made a crustless quiche by using some of the LO chicken, the LO asparagus and 2 eggs. We had the last of the ambrosia and I made a Greek salad, using the last of the feta stuffed olives, plus tomatoes, pepper, cukes and onion. My husband isn’t a huge fan of leafy salads (no idea why-I love them!) so this salad has tasted good to both of us.
Karen J
I found a chuck roast sale buy one get one free. I cut each of them into half which made them a nice size for the two of us. I made a Mississippi pot roast in the crock pot which used up the rest of a jar of pepperoncinis. I had six needed to be used russet potatoes so we had garlic mashed potatoes with it. Of course, there are some leftovers but not a massive amount.
I made two loaves of bread yesterday with the bread flour that I bought during the pandemic. It was 3+ years past the best by date but turned out okay. My husband ate half of one loaf while it was still hot, so I’d say it passed the test. I use my bread maker on the dough cycle then bake in the oven. I was a bit worried as the yeast was quite past dated too but I store my yeast in the freezer and it had no trouble rising.
For breakfast we had Jessica’s crepe recipe-which is so good. I cut the recipe in half as it makes a lot, plus the half recipe uses only two eggs. We had it with a jar of lingonberries from the “use it” shelf and powdered sugar.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
That was a great find on a bogo chuck roast. I haven’t seen that cut of beef on sale here in a long time. Your meal sounded delish!
Heather M
So good to know the flour worked out ok. I also need to start using up my old bag of bread flour. Your dinner and the crepes sounded so good! Love that we are all in on our need to use shelves. Never going back to life before it. 🙂
Stephanie M
To Lynn
Here is the recipe for the lentil soup. I hope you get it.
1 onion chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 bag baby carrots cut in half
Chopped celery (however much you want)
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp dried oregano
2-3 bay leaves
28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 cups dry lentil rinsed
8 cups chicken broth
2-3 TBS red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
2 lbs sausage ( I use turkey sausage but you can use whatever kind you like)
1 small container fresh baby spinach
Put sausage on a cookie sheet and broil in oven on both sides till browned. Remove from oven, slice into rounds and set aside.
In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots and celery and cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, bay leaves, and oregano. Cook for two minutes.
Stir in lentils and add chicken broth, crushed tomatoes and sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat leaving lid slightly open for about an hour. When soup is done, add spinach and cook for a few minutes till it wilts. Season with salt and pepper and vinegar.
Karen J
Stephanie, I’ve never added red wine vinegar to lentil soup and am looking forward to trying that. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Stephanie M
I know adding vinegar sounds strange but a little vinegar in lentil soup is almost standard in all lentil soup recipes I’ve seen. It just adds a nice flavor. Let me know how you like it.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Oh thank you Stephanie! Except for the spinach, I think I have what I need. I knew I would need that chicken broth I just made. 🙂 As soon as the chili is gone, I’ll be making this recipe. Can’t wait to try it. It sounds good!
Stephanie M
Enjoy Lynn. Let me know how you like it.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
2/24/25
B: plain Greek yogurt with add ins and coffee for us both
L: salad for me, last of the chili for DH along with a sandwich
D: chicken curry using LO chicken, broth and veggies and Jessica’s Pear-blue cheese salad. I always sub apples for the pears since we tend to always have them. I used some of the fresh spinach I bought along with the blue cheese it calls for. Very good. Had half cauliflower/brown rice also as another side.
Made Stephanie’s lentil soup and it didn’t disappoint! Looking forward to having it for lunch tomorrow!
Stephanie M
Saturday, February 22, 2025
B – yogurt parfait.
L – turkey meatloaf sandwich in whole wheat.
D – last of the lentil soup from the bag out of the freezer. One more bag left.
To Lynn
I’m glad your husband likes meatloaf sandwiches. I love them. I try to make sandwiches using meat from what I make rather than so much deli meat. I still buy deli meat sometimes but I prefer to make sandwiches using things I make myself. Sometimes I buy a real small pork loin roast and cook that and use it just for sandwiches. That’s great sliced with some tomato and lettuce or sometimes I cut it up in tiny cubes and mix it with celery and mayo like tuna fish. That’s really good.
So you wanted my recipe for lentil soup. I don’t have the ability to take a picture of it and post it so I’m just going to type it out for you.
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
Diced carrots (however many you want) – I use the baby carrots and just cut them in half – I use about 1/2 a bag
Chopped celery (however much you want)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
2 or 3 bay leaves
28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 cups dry lentils (rinsed in a colander)
8 cups chicken broth
2 or 3 TBS red wine vinegar or to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
2 lbs sausage. I use turkey sausage. But you can use pork sausage or whatever you like
1 small container fresh baby spinach
Put sausage on a cookie sheet and broil in the oven both sides till brown. Slice into rounds. Set aside.
In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery. Cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, bay leaves, and oregano. Cook for two minutes.
Stir in lentils and add chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, and cooked sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about an hour with lid slightly open. When soup is done, add spinach and cook for a few minutes until it wilts. Season with salt and pepper and vinegar.
I hope you and your husband enjoy this.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I do resort to buying lunch meat too, but I prefer things I’ve prepared also like chicken salad, pimento cheese, tuna etc. SO much healthier.
I’ve done slices of pork loin, but never thought to make it like tuna or chicken salad. Learn something new every day! Thanks for the idea.
Can’t wait to try the soup! Thanks for the recipe!
Stephanie M
You’re very welcome. Pork salad is every bit as good as chicken salad which I love too. Try it sometime. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Stephanie M
Friday, February 21, 2025
B – bran cereal with strawberries and blueberries and peanuts.
L – I had a turkey meatloaf that I made a couple of weeks ago in the freezer so I defrosted that and had a meatloaf sandwich on whole wheat. Another thing out of the freezer!!
D – I had two bags of lentil soup left in the freezer from when I made it a couple of weeks ago. Each bag has two servings in them. But since Paul is in California this weekend, I took one of the bags out to defrost and had 1/2 of it with a salad. Tomorrow night I’ll have the other half. I can’t tell you how good and welcoming that soup was during such cold weather. And another thing out of the freezer!!!!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Stephanie, I had never had a meatloaf sandwich until you mentioned it many years ago! Now my husband will often have one with our leftover meatloaf. 🙂
Also, can you post your lentil recipe? I’ve got a bag I would love to use up. Thanks.
We continue to have very cold weather and still have snow in the yard. Our wind chills have been in single digits because of our usual blustery weather. There’s a reason the Wright Brothers picked here to fly-with our constant wind!
Karen J
We went out for breakfast this morning and the rest of the day was eating leftovers and foraging in the refrigerator. The shepherds pie was finished off. My husband was out with his guy friends for dinner so I had leftover kielbasa and roasted cauliflower, then some leftover strawberries for dessert. I’d picked up strawberries for the grandkids to make milkshakes. Not the best season for them, but with whipped cream I managed to eat them 🙂
I bought chicken thighs at our Fred Meyer for $1.29 a pound-a great price around here.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
2/21/25
B: dh ate some of the cereal, I had peanut butter toast again
L: more potato soup and sandwiches
D: roasted chicken in the crock pot, roasted asparagus that needed to be cooked, Mac & cheese using leftover pasta and Jessica’s 3 ingredient recipe that was very good and easy, and ambrosia. I found some pineapple in the freezer that I added to apples, orange supremes, nuts, coconut and sour cream.
After dinner, I put the leftover chicken bones and my vegetable scraps from the freezer in the crock pot for broth. The seasonings from the chicken make this broth very flavorful.
I noticed this week that my preferred brand of coffee has gone up .50 and eggs are now about $6. Yikes!
Karen J
Lynn, Jessica has such good recipes, doesn’t she? Tonight I made her crepe batter to have it ready for tomorrow morning breakfast-just a half recipe to save on eggs and not have a bunch of leftovers. We both reviewed in back in 2020 just a month apart from each other!
Eggs at our Grocery Outlet, which normally has fairly decent prices, were $8.99 a dozen. I was shocked!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
She does have great recipes! I have some favorites that I make again and again. How funny that we both tried and reviewed the crepes about the same time. I haven’t made those in a while. May have to make them again with some of the “precious “ eggs. I’m using a couple in a quiche tonight.
I was shocked too when I saw the price as it wasn’t at one of the more expensive stores and was just conventional eggs. I have noticed the difference in prices between cage free and conventional is narrowing. But $9/doz. Wow.
Heather M
Thursday, Feb 20:
Another brutally cold day here, but no snow at all this week. Allegedly we will warm up early next week. Looking forward to that.
B/L:L took a salad with salami, mandarins, and almonds; C took leftover chicken sausage orzo and a Kind bar; I had the othe french bread pizza
D: Another thing off the “shelf” (which i need to add to, by going though a bunch more cupboard shelves….)- stuffing! I love the pepperidge farm herb stuffing and I never get it on thanksgiving. I bought a bag last year at the end of the holiday and never used it. Definitely needed eating before going stale tasting. So I made it up with celery, onion, and mushrooms all chopped up, less butter than it calls for, etc. Excited for its leftovers. I made pan-grilled chicken that I’d pounded and cut into thinner and smaller pieces, then brushed with a mixture of olive oil, dijon mustard, half a lemon juiced, garlic and onion powders, seasoned salt, and pepper. SO GOOD. And I steamed up the fresh green beans i bought at aldi. We all LOVED the entire dinner. Yay!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
That sounds like a great dinner. We like stuffing/dressing too. I have a couple of boxes in my cupboard. I figure when I fix the turkey I’ll fix it too. Like you, I add other veggies to it. I’ve also got cranberries in the freezer so we may have Thanksgiving for Easter!
Karen J
Heather, Add me to the stuffing in the cupboard crowd too! Thanks for the reminder to use it up. Your dinner sounds so good! I usually add garlic, onions, celery and ground sausage to it at Thanksgiving. My family likes Stove Top better than homemade (easier for me!). In the fall I stuff acorn squash with it and bake.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Karen, that’s a great idea with the acorn squash, especially with sausage in it. I’m going to remember that as we’re acorn squash fans.
I have the cheap Aldi brand dressing but if I have any stale bread I’ll cube it , let it dry or toast it and add it to the box mix, using up those bits.
Heather M
OH, Karen, I am so going to do stuffing stuffed acorn squash this next fall! Sounds AMAZING!
Stephanie M
Thursday, February 20, 2025
B – bran cereal with strawberries and blueberries and peanuts.
L – the last of the tuna fish on whole wheat with lettuce and tomato.
D – two scrambled eggs, salad, almonds and two slices whole wheat toast.
Paul left for California this morning. He’ll be back on Monday night. This is the end of his project and hopefully the end of all of this traveling.
Heather M
On a weekend, too! I hope you have fun relaxing plans for yourself! Let’s hope he’s done with all this work travel for now.
Stephanie M
Hi Heather!!! Yes on a weekend. Sigh. But as for me other than some light cleaning around my house tomorrow I’m having a relaxing weekend, maybe finish the book I’m reading, doing a facial, watch some movies and going to our daughters for dinner on Sunday. Have a great weekend.