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 5 of the Pantry Challenge, a full work day for some of us, winter break for others.
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It was a pretty chill day. Took FishChick15 and a friend ice skating, read more of my current engrossing book, and let other people cook for me.
FishChick17 gets the prize for cooking all day for us!
What We Ate
Here’s how our meals went down today.
Breakfast – FishChick17 made scrambled eggs. I was racing out the door so I tucked some into a hasty Breakfast Burrito so I could eat it on the go. She also baked a Cinnamon Coffee Cake Recipe and picked oranges from the tree out back. Her harvest weighed over 20 pounds and resulted in 38 Cara Cara oranges.
Lunch – Frozen chicken nuggets, Easy Roast Potatoes, and this Quick and Easy Caesar Salad Recipe
Dinner – Fridays are pizza night. Bryan made The Easiest Grilled Pizza You Can Make with Sourdough Pizza Crust.
How did your Day 5 go for you?
Tasty
Friday 5th
B: once a week we go out as our treat to ourselves
I had bacon, egg and home fries. Hubby had blueberry pancakes.
L: not hungry
S: A melange of goodies from the freezer – all leftovers!
Kathryn M
Friday was a pizza night for us too. I used up some naan bread from the freezer as the crust. Had to run out to buy sauce though ($1.25), but I had pepperoni, cheese and veggies on hand.
Danielle Zecher
January 5th and 6th
Friday ended up being a horrible day. It started off fine; a work from home day for me, so I had a peanut butter bagel. Nick got drive thru on the way to work.
Our cat, Frankie, collapsed around 1:00 in the afternoon. I called Nick and our vet and we ended up rushing to the emergency vet. Frankie died in my arms on the way there. He was old, and had been sick; we were trying to manage a few major health conditions, but thought we had at least a few more months.
By the time we got home and cleaned up, I didn’t want to eat. Nick ordered Doordash food and I got a milkshake.
Saturday:
Breakfast: fast food on the way to SC for haircuts.
Lunch: We tried a new Greek restaurant that ended up being horribly bland. We won’t be going back.
Dinner: Leftover pasta from earlier in the week.
Jessica Fisher
I’m so sorry to hear about your cat! Sending hugs…
Kathy in Denmark
I am so sorry to hear about your cat! Loosing a pet is so hard.
Hugs from across the pond.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Oh I’m so sorry about your cat. It’s hard to lose pets, regardless of age.
Heather M
Oh gosh, Danielle, I am so sorry about your cat. Sending you my sympathies and a big hug.
Janet
Breakfast: it was fend for yourself. We have college students home from school. They don’t usually eat before lunch.
Lunch: Beef stew, toast, apple slices
Dinner: We were gifted a 20 lb turkey for New Year’s. We defrosted it and had “Thanksgiving” for dinner. All the fixings came from food we already had on hand including mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, crescent rolls, green beans, and assorted berries.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
We had Thanksgiving for part of our Christmas too. I needed extra mouths to help my husband and I eat all that turkey! Our children hadn’t had traditional foods at Thanksgiving, so it was well received. What’s not to love with turkey and all the sides? Yum.
Kathy in Denmark
Having an orange tree in the back yard is a real treat!
Kids and I are still under the weather, but I am feeling a bit better than they are. As you can tell from the meals, the kids still don’t have much of an appetite, but at least they are eating something.
Day 5:
B: Toast and coffee for me, Coffee for DH, Hot cocoa for the kids.
L: Bread, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and a few other bibs and bobs from the fridge
D: Hot dogs, because it was all I was up to fixing!
Heather M
Gosh I wish you and your girls could kick this illness already! Sound a lot like a virus that has been going around the US and lingers (most of my family got it in November, except me somehow), and it’s not Covid or the flu or rsv. Cheers to a new week and getting better 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jessica, I’m jealous of your orange tree! What a great yield. We had a great peach tree that ran its course. Now we’ve got 2 blueberry bushes only. I keep wanting to add some kind of fruit tree to our yard.
Jennifer
Hmm, thinking back to Friday… I did go grocery shopping with a short list. I found a clearance bag of salad that was $0.75 after my coupon. I had several store coupons of high value that expired yesterday that I wanted to use. I got some really good deals and completely stayed in my budget for the week.
B – I had a piece of sausage and yogurt drink then met a friend for coffee and got a scone to round out my breakfast. The others had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
L – I had one of the muffins along with grapes and a wafer bar, dh had taken leftover ravioli
D – loaded baked potato soup with rolls from the freezer and baby carrots
Allie from Ontario
I somehow missed the start of this but had started my own log of what I have been cooking/using up since Jan 1. I mostly cook for 2 (but love to entertain) and I always concentrate on getting through all the fresh produce I buy (I hate food waste!) but my current focus for January is open fridge jars, single & double servings of soups/various leftovers in the freezer and dry goods in the pantry. ALSO, I grow a very large garden and my freezers & canning cupboard are full of the “fruits” of my labour (relishes & chutneys + lots of sweet & hot peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes preserved in multiple ways and tons of herbs/pestos. Step one = grow them. Step two = preserve them AND step 3 = USE THEM 🙂
Heather M
Hi Allie! Your garden sounds beyond awesome—-all that bounty to enjoy year round. Also, we have similar plans for the month, and also I only generally cook for 2 these days as well. Glad you’re here. 🙂
Allie from Ontario
Hi Heather! My retirement gift (30 years at the same high school in a very small town) was a greenhouse. My partner T then started building me raised beds (1st year = 3 beds at 4′ x 8′ and then another 4′ x 12′) and we also plant tons of large containers. I’m hooked! I started canning the summer of 2022 and took it much farther last summer. It makes me happy to use all those jars of our homw grown produce 🙂
Karen J
B-scrambled eggs with ham and cheese
L-can’t remember, must have skipped?
D-Alton Brown’s shrimp and grits recipe with a few subs-white onion insead of green and added sautéed mushrooms that needed to be used. I opened a two pound bag of shrimp from the freezer so more shrimp in the future this month. Like that’s a problem 🙂 green salad
Nancy
Breakfast was LO breakfast pizza that had a crescent roll crust, l pulled this from the freezer
For lunch I had leftover turkey soup made from our Thanksgiving turkey, a slice of leftover French bread from the freezer and the last Sees chocolate Santa.
Supper was homemade pizza on the Ooni because it’s quicker than heating the big pizza oven. I am having great success with my cold fermented, high heat pizza dough.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/5:
B:bagels and coffee for both
L: more taco soup for both
D: we wound up eating leftovers-curried chicken, cauliflower, pork tenderloin, baked sweet potatoes, fruit medley, last chicken burger, slaw. There were just small bits of all, so I was glad to get all of those containers out of the fridge.
Jessica, I didn’t get to respond to your live reel at the time re: Bryan taking his lunch to work and dollars saved. I retired about a year ago after working 45 years (my how that time flew by). I took my lunch through all those years except when lunch was provided (rare) or I ate out (even rarer). I used very conservative numbers for what lunch would cost, like 2.50 for the first 10 years and 3.50/lunch for the last 30+ years. (I think one would be hard pressed to eat for 3.50 these last few years) The amount came out to $38-40,000, even with these conservative figures, tho I believe the total was actually much higher!! I figure that’s the money that helped cash flow 2 weddings, some college tuition etc. Besides saving money, I also know my meals were healthier than many I would have eaten. So just wanted to add my .02 to your points and the huge savings that can result from that one action.
Karen J
Just saying, your leftover dinner sounds yummy with lots to choose from! And I love getting rid of those final bits.
We must be about the same age-I retired in 2017 after 38.5 of teaching, also making my lunch every day and trying hard to make frugal financial choices along the way. It paid off-we are enjoying our retirement!
Lynn at NC Outer Banks
Karen, yes, I think we are close in age. I worked in schools for much of my career as well. (So I factored in working only 10 months, at least where I worked). I agree-those frugal choices and short term sacrifices made over time are enabling us to fully enjoy retirement and our first grandchild-a grand daughter, as well! Life is good 🙂
Heather M
Another day of feeling off but j did get a massage and it was amazing, and also sad because I realized how crazy tight and tense my entire body is and probably has been. And then I went to the dr and have a treatment plan for the now officially confirmed vertigo if it doesn’t clear up within a week. Otherwise I rested, as I’m also not sleeping well.
Jan 5:
B: we both skipped
L: sent L with a turkey spinach sandwich using the last turkey, an apple, and some veggie stick snacks; I had a roll, a scrambled egg, and some leftover bacon from the pancake day
D: Tuscan tuna pasta (pasta, fancy Italian olive oil packed tuna, lemon juice/zest, chopped red onion, capers, salt/pepper) which we both adore and I super easy which I needed, and a side salad. Still have salad stuff that is surviving from shopping before the 1st. Haven’t shopped yet at all and will be keeping a running total of what I do spend.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, I’m sorry you have vertigo. My sister had a bout with it years ago and said it was the worst! Hope it will resolve soon.
Heather M
Thanks, Lynn. Doing my best.
Kathy in Denmark
Hope the vertigo clears up quickly, but good that you have a plan if it doesn’t!
Heather M
Thank you, Kathy. Yes, am glad to have a plan in place:)
ZC
Day 5
Today it’s freezer meals and minimal prep.
B: overnight oats with almond milk, nut butter and berries
L: Trader Joe’s butter chicken with rice
D: Trader Joe’s chicken cilantro wontons
S: a banana and an apple