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 4 of the Pantry Challenge.
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I am out of town today visiting my mom and then staying overnight with a friend, so I have no idea what my family ate or did.
I packed easy to pack snacks and used gift cards for meals out.
How did Day 4 go for you?
Heather M
Jan 4! Going strong early here! I say that because we all decided to see a long 4:10pm movie (Nickel Boys- very good!) and we weren’t on the road home until after 7pm. And we did not pick something up. Got straight to cooking and by 8 we had dinner ready! Otherwise it was a lazy day, more laundry(finally will be caught up tonight- I type this with the last load in the washer), etc. We all needed it.
Brunch: I had some christmas bread from friends(they make the same kind every year and i love it and i carefully ration it), then felt snacky so made some air popped popcorn(so I wouldn’t be tempted later at the movies) and had a piece of cheese.
Made the guys scrambled eggs/egg whites(working on those!) and chicken breakfast sausages.
D: pasta with sauteed peppers(freezer), red onion, the wrinkled older grape tomatoes I’d tossed in the fridge before we left town, seasonings and balsamic vinegar; sauteed the rest of the open package of costco’s pepper and parm chicken sausages, sliced them and added them to the mix; then quartered most of the rest of the mozzarella balls and tossed them in too. There is some leftover and some leftover plain pasta. But only 1 serving of each.
Hope you had a nice visit with your mom, Jessica!
Heather M
I forgot: L snacked on cashews and C on crackers (one open box is gone!) while I made dinner and I had a little ice cream after dinner which finished one of the containers (there may be 4 left still… mostly pint sized, only 1 other is even open. yikes!).
Tasty
Thursday 4th
B: Hotel buffet breakfast
L: Coffee and ?? at Starbucks
S: Haddock & Fries
Kathryn M
Work day for me so had cheese, crackers, beef bites and other snacky things for lunches and breaks.
Dinner leftover mess: I pulled out a bunch of odd and end stuff, chopped it up, and threw it on top of some cooked rice. Added teriyaki as the flavoring. It was an odd bit of a meal but I got rid of three containers of stuff out of the fridge.
Nancy
B. Breakfast pizza from the freezer
L. leftover Italian gravy and noodles
D. turkey soup and French bread
Heather M
January 4, still struggling with the vertigo but it’s slowly improving. Drove for the first time since, and it’s ok. Husband was back to work, and son flew off back to graduate school in the afternoon. Otherwise I mostly rested.
B: we all skipped
L: I think L just ate a few Christmas candies during a busy day back; son had turkey and cheddar on toasted sourdough and he finished off the jalapeño artichoke dip with pita crackers; I had two rolls and a bit of cheese from NYE (we have quite a bit of fun cheese left over)
D: I finished my leftover Lebanese food; made a quick fried rice with the leftover rice and some of the raw veggies from NYE and topped it with a salmon burger from the freezer for L; and it seems my son had the best dinner, not that I know what he ate, but my sister-in-law (widow of my brother) is a flight attendant and is based for work at the airport where my son was laying over- she met him at his gate when he landed and they got dinner together while he waited for her second flight and she was “on reserve” to potentially fly last minute. The entire family from Hawaii to CA to DC and more were thrilled with this fun surprise 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
What a nice way for your son to spend a lay over! I remember when you lost your brother so suddenly…
Karen J
1/4
Breakfast- egg/bacon/cheese mcmuffin
This past year I bought one of those Hamilton Beach small electric breakfast sandwich makers at the thrift store. We love it and use it twice a week or so. it makes one at a time and that works for the two of us.
Lunch-last of bean soup
Dinner-little grandkids were here and I felt like a short order cook (which is okay once and awhile)
ham and cheese sandwich/ fruit cup for one
grilled tuna and cheese/fruit cup for the other (and me)
leftover chile cheese enchilada casserole for the hub
ice cream sundaes for all 🙂
Jennifer
B – oatmeal for dh and I, I had sausage with it, dh had yogurt
L – dh took leftovers with fruit and granola bar, ds and I had smoothies, he also had a fried egg sandwich
D – chicken casserole with a stuffing topping, roasted broccoli and peppers
Snacks – I went out for coffee with a friend and in the afternoon made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that we snacked on. I froze some and left the rest for our breakfast tomorrow
Heather M
Yum pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!
Kathy in Denmark
Day 4:
I am feeling a cold coming on, so am taking things slowly and taking a homeopathic remedy, which usually helps! (It has this time as well, at least so far!)
There was a snow storm in most parts of Denmark on the third and fourth, so DH worked from home today as well. No need to drive to work when he can work remotely.
The kids don’t have fevers any more, but they do have bad coughs 🙁 This crud is really something!
Late breakfast: Yoghurt and HM granola for DH. Toast and tea/milk for the girls and me
Lunch: I had the last of the roast from NYE on some rye bread. The rest of the family didn’t want to eat, but had hot cocoa with whipped cream (from a can)
D: Pasta with HM tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.
S: Last of the champagne from NYE and some HM candy for DH and me after the kids were in bed.
The sauce was made with home grown tomatoes and frozen in summer. The parmesan cheese was brought home from our holiday in Italy this summer. I kept it in a cooler and changed the ice packs out during our trip home. I find the hotels always say yes if you ask them to freeze ice packs over night. Worked like a charm and we will have parmesan cheese for a long time, since we brought home around 5 lbs!
Jessica Fisher
Hope you feel better soon!
Heather M
What a delight to have Parmesan from Italy for months! So wonderful! Also, I hope you can keep this cold at bay.
Danielle Zecher
1/4/24:
Breakfast: I had cereal. Nick did drive-thru on the way to work.
Lunch: I had leftover cheesy orzo pasta. I think Nick got lunch out at work.
Dinner: Grits, eggs (more fresh eggs from our neighbors), and bagels.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/4
B: breakfast casserole
L: more taco soup for me, DH had LO chicken burger on bun from last night
D: baked pork tenderloin, Asian spinach salad, baked sweet potatoes
Maureen
I cleaned out the fridge and holiday goodies a bit…some went to the freezer, a few things got tossed, but we ate up quite a few things as lunches/snacks. I found an open package of bacon (DH isn’t in the kitchen much, but must have opened it at some point) and we have a lot of potatoes, so last night we had potato soup with homemade bread for a dinner. Tonight’s dinner was chicken parmesan, pasta, garlic bread, salad. That’s not exactly a pantry challenge meal, but I did have all of the ingredients…one of the kids had a friend over and I like to throw in some better/normal meals each week when I’m trying to clean things out so that the family doesn’t revolt.
We have 1 egg left, but I’m not going to the store until Sunday. I also need to dig through the freezer to see what I need to use up and plan some meals around those for this coming week. The kids will be back in school starting Monday and we’ll have evening commitments again, so there will be some nights when everyone is eating at different times and I’m hoping some of my freezer finds will work for those nights.
I’m keeping baked potatoes and ham/scalloped potatoes on my list of future meals for this month – thanks for the ideas!
Karen J
Your potato soup with homemade bread sounds so yummy! You’ve motivated me to dust the bread maker off so thank you. My January meal plan has soup for every Monday so we can eat leftovers for lunches.
Sarah
Catching up:
Jan 5
B: cereal & coffee
L: leftover fried rice + a fried egg
D: half bag of penne from the pantry added to leftover roasted yellow squash/leeks and oil/butter/garlic/lemon/Parmesan sauce
Jan 4
It was a rough day at our house. Austin wasn’t feeling well but he’s better now.
B: cereal and coffee
L: protein shake
D: dinner out at our favorite Korean restaurant around the corner: beef japchae and kimchi fried rice w/ chicken.
Jan 3
B: coffee & cereal
L: leftover split pea soup w/ homemade croutons
D: creamy chicken & rice from our freezer stash
Brenda Fuentes
First day back at work/school:
B: fruit, yogurt & donuts my 19-year-old home brought home from work the night before
L: school/packed lunches
D: Mexican Soup – recipe used leftover Thanksgiving turkey & broth from freezer and 2 cans each hominy and fire-roasted tomatoes from the pantry (Kroger clearance finds!)
So happy to be making visible progress.
Christine
Breakfast was a mix of cereal or bagels for kids. I had yogurt, fruit and homemade muesli. My husband and I both took left over stroganoff pasta to work for lunch. Dinner was premade frozen fried rice and wontons. It wasn’t a ton, so I added eggs and veggies to mine.
My only meat left is a package of chicken thighs. Going to whip up a chicken chili with what I have and hope it works. I have really been stretching what is left, but it is getting bare! Hope everyone is doing well with their challenge.
Kathryn M
Breakfast – banana smoothie
Lunch – I made pizza bites with dipping sauce from the leftover pepperoni bread sticks and the focaccia pizza. Just cut them to bite size and used some warmed pizza sauce for dipping.
Dinner – made some ham and swiss sliders. used up the last of a package of Kings Hawaiian rolls. Served with side salad a BBQ chips.
Snack – cake. ( I sliced and froze half because it is such a big cake. I can grab a slice later to take on work days.)
Heather M
Day 4:
B: L skipped; I had more christmas raisin bread and stollen (gifts)
L: L took leftover pepper/onion pasta, the last chicken sausage, and the rest of the romaine salad(he goes in some days, and works from home others, but more in than home these days; but also only working wed-thurs this week!); I had inadvertantly made pita chips(leftover pita from christmas eve that dried out) with leftover artichoke jalapeno dip
D: adapted my own quinoa tuna salad recipe (which is better, but this was good too): from the original, quinoa, canned fancy italian tuna in olive oil, red onion, and various seasonings/red wine vinegar; skipped the celery(we have none, but it’s soooo good in this) and garbanzos and added instead green beans, roasted red pepper, and olives. All items except red onion from cupboards and freezer.
Dessert: we were gifted a homemade Brazilian flan (from an actual brazilian) and finally got to enjoying it. SO GOOD! It was garnished with dried figs, which was a great elevation of an already delicious flan
Kimberly
Happy new year! As always, I love reading everyone posts for ideas or reminders to get me out of the usual meal rut. With less good sales this past season, I have very little freezer stock in the meat department so will definitely have to shop more than years past. But I do have a decent amount of frozen fruits/veggies and broths so there will be a lot of smoothies and yogurt parfaits this month, along with soups. We spent the first 4 days of January eating lots of leftovers to clear the fridge before an out of town trip so I will start posting again next week. A few successes: LO meatloaf, potatoes, & Brussel sprouts into meatloaf soup- doesn’t change the flavor much but something about changing the presentation helps make it more appetizing; LO bacon, chicken schwarma, and ribs into toppings for HM pizza; and the always reliable “fill a quesadilla and add cheese.”
Heather M
Love both of those remakes of leftovers!! Great ideas! have a good trip 🙂
ZC
Day 4 is pretty similar to day 3
B: overnight oats with almond milk, nut butter and berries, coffee
L: an apple, chocolate almond butter mug cake
D: beef stew with tomatoes and potatoes, noodles and napa cabbage
S: a cup of almond milk, some more berries
I threw out some expired yeast packets (no longer active), and half a bag of jobs tears/barley that had gone bitter (not sure if they are spoiled but I don’t want to risk it). At least more room in the pantry.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jan 4
B: I skipped, DH breakfast cookies
L: ½ pimento cheese sandwich, LO minestrone soup, DH same
D: Lemon pepper chicken thighs, rescued acorn squash that was starting to go soft, Asian salad, LO Waldorf salad
S: more chocolate pecan pie-1 slice left!
Susan
Last year was a rough year with a lot of life changes – some permanent and some temporary. Most of us can say that at one point or another in our lifetime and most of us can say we never expected or planned for some of these life changes. I will probably not post daily but I am participating in the community by reading all the posts and all the comments daily. And I am participating in the pantry challenge for several reasons – to put more money towards a house purchase and the move, to use up what we have since there are only two of us now, but also to not have to move all that food storage again! If you ever want to get a full (perhaps slightly embarrassing) grasp on your pantry stock – pack it all up for a move! Needless to say my challenge will continue as long as necessary to clean out those freezers and pantry closet and boxes full of pantry overflow. Keep up the good work everyone!
Heather M
Best wishes cleaning out your stores prior to the move, and best wishes getting ready for it in all the ways. Big things happening in your world, for sure. 🙂