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 6 of the Pantry Challenge.
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First off: Happy Birthday to Heather! She is one of the OG Pantry Challengers as are many of you. It’s been so fun to read your comments and encouragements to one another. That is such a gift to me. Thank you!
I wish I were able to reply to every single comment during the PC, but I am just short of time. Know that I’m reading and love that new folks have joined us and lots of regulars have returned. Yay!
What We Ate
Breakfast – I started the morning baking two loaves of Sourdough Rye Bread without the rye. I actually submitted an order to Vitacost yesterday for more. They had a great sale I couldn’t pass up. Then I made myself a bowl of Instant Oatmeal.
Lunch – FishChick17 finished off the Broccoli Cheese Soup. We both made salads. I topped mine with leftover Grilled Pork Tenderloin from last night. That salad in the picture had more than 40 grams of protein!
Dinner – Tuesdays are for tacos. I cooked up three pounds of Taco Meat and set out a bunch of Taco Fillings. Everyone made what he wanted.
How did Day 6 go for you?
Erin in Ontario
Yesterday it was super cold out, so another cozy day inside…..not that our ducks and chickens cared; the ducks were swimming in their water bowl because we emptied their pool in anticipation of the freeze).
Breakfast was oatmeal for all.
Lunch I have zero idea. I may possibly have been reading with my eyes shut while the others ate!
Snacks were smoothies from the freezer, plus the usual eating of anything not nailed down (by the teenager) throughout the afternoon. I freeze leftovers in individual meal containers, so there’s always something ready to nuke if someone is hungry.
Suppers varied (lots of allergies and intolerances in our house)
Husband and teenager: Frittata (eggs from our feathered freeloaders) with mushrooms, spinach, arugula, cheese, leftover kielbasa, and shallots.
Fruit salad
Daughter and I: Thai peanut sauce with red cabbage, carrots, peppers, and green onions over rice.
We were both hungry again later in the evening so had a salad of chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, balsamic, basil, and red onion.
Maureen
Reading with your eyes shut, love it!!
Heather M
Jan 6:
My very snowy birthday! Slept in, washed my hair, worked remotely (I work part time for a small company on the west coast), took fun calls. DId not cook. Just heated things up and made a salad.
B: I had the last of the christmas bread I love from friends. Guys skipped.
L: I had street corn dip and chips (on one’s birthday, this is allowed); L had the leftover pasta/veg/sausage with added breakfast chicken sausage since the portion had little sausage leftover; C had a toasted turkey and cheese on sourdough
D: made a big salad for all of us; guys split the one frozen pizza; I had a beautiful tuna melt with sliced tomato and 2 kinds of cheese on a piece of sourdough.
Snacks: L snacked on tortilla chips and nuts; C on those pea snacks; I didn’t.
Dessert: mint chocolate chip ice cream with pirouette cookie in place of birthday cake!
Karen J
What a great relaxing birthday! I’m hoping for at least a bit of snow this winter, but living near Seattle it doesn’t look likely. Just our normal dreariness and rain. Boo!
Heather M
Thanks! I hope you get at least one snowfall. You never know 🙂 We have several good friends in the Seattle area. It’s pretty great!
Danielle L Zecher
Happy belated birthday!
Heather M
Thank you!!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
An additional belated birthday wish for you, Heather. The snowy pictures looked so pretty coming out of the capital, making for another memorable day. Glad it was a relaxing one!
Maureen
Happy Birthday! I hope you enjoyed your day. I love a good winter day snuggled inside. And most in our house like non-cake birthday cakes, too.
Allie from Ontario
1st off, happy belated birthday to Heather! I’m also a snowy January birthday girl 🙂
What we ate on Jan 6
Brunch: I had the rest of the creamy pork tenderloin noodle stuff and T finished off the saucy chicken, mashed potato & broccoli from 2 nights ago. While we really do love leftovers (and hate wasting them!), this is derailing my plan of getting through single serving stuff in the freezer.
Dinner: It was dinner salad night and so I took inspiration from Jessica’s recipe for Cajun Grilled Chicken Salad with Creamy Scallion Dressing (from the same book she mentions above…and that potato corn chowder has already been bookmarked for an upcoming dinner). I roasted a chicken breast in a Cajun blackening spice, made the dressing with a few add-ins as we like ours pretty assertive and put a salad together with greens, lots of crisper add-ins, hard boiled egg, homemade croutons, feta & of course the chicken. This is a repeat idea for sure!
Heather M
Thanks, Allie! Also, we love a good salad for dinner and yours here sounds deicious!
Maureen
Everyone was back to work/school so I took a few minutes to purge the fridge. I tossed a few things, but not much. I had eggs for breakfast and snacked on some leftovers for lunch. The girls used up the rest of the pizza dough after school. College son leaves tomorrow, so I finally made a turkey breast that I had thawed for dinner. The bone went into the crockpot with some wilting vegetables for stock. I’m thinking turkey noodle soup later this week. I popped into the store for fruit and heavy cream and left with just those items. I love hearing about everyone’s meals…things I don’t make and the pantry challenge hodgepodge ones, too!
Heather M
I love to hear about everyone’s meals, too! Enjoy life getting back to normal (and missing your son again…)
Stephanie m
Monday, January 6,2025
B – we both had overnight oatmeal. I also had one ounce peanuts.
L – we both had turkey meat loaf sandwiches. Paul also had potato chips and a few Christmas cookies.
D – leftover Italian sausage soup.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Hi Stephanie! So glad to hear from you. Hope all is well!
Stephanie m
Hi Lynn. Everything is going well. I hope the same for you and yours. ??
Tasty
Day 6
Pretty much a day of no eating for me – not good! As far as I know, hubby had a normal breakfast of fruit, yogurt and granola, probably with a muffin. His lunch I have no idea and he had some lasagne from the freezer for supper.
Heather M
Ooof, Tasty, I hope you’re feeling ok.
Tasty
Thanks Heather – I’m back to normal (?) today.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/6/25
B: cottage cheese, nuts, jam, coffee. DH had eggs and toast
L: chicken rice soup, tuna salad. DH had the same plus crackers
D: roasted chicken, LO cabbage, salad again with cukes, tomatoes, onion, peppers, celery. DH also had roasted potatoes.
S: tortilla chips
I returned to get the sale boneless chicken breasts along with apples, some deli meat til I can fix the chicken and/or turkey and ham, cukes and carrots. Came to ~$20 so I’m at about $50 for the month. Hoping that will be it for a while!
Stephanie m
Hi Lynn. It’s nice to “see” you!
Kim from Colorado
Last day before kids back to school. Hubby and younger son got back in town late last night and I had to pick them up so I slept in a bit.
B- surprise, cereal, haha
L- one son at friends, the other one and I ate half a BLT each with last of cooked bacon, split a small box of cream cheese wontons we found in the freezer (just got an air fryer this holiday and are enjoying trying out new things in it), fruit, chocolate candies
D- Chicken Parmesan over angel hair pasta. Used the last of a store bought marinara container combined with homemade marinara. And now I am down to only a couple boxes of pasta, that hasn’t happened in years! Clearance Christmas peanut m&m’s for dessert
Allie from Ontario
Hi Kim…we love our airfryer! Our new oven has an airfryer setting BUT we still use our small counter top version far more often.
Tasty
Very belated happy birthday wishes Heather. Your meal sounds fabulous!
B: Fruit, yogurt and muffin
L: Tomato soup (homemade)
S: Ready made from the freezer – General Tao and rice
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/6
B: dh had a bagel, I had a toasted English muffin from the freezer
L: dh had turkey sandwich (turkey from freezer and the 20# turkey I fixed over Christmas) There will be more turkey dishes to come! I had more random leftovers
D: spinach quiche, Jessica’s Pear salad which is one of my favs, tho I subbed out apple for the pears. DH added 1/2 baked sweet potato to his meal.
Jennifer
Hopefully you had a fun day out!
B – leftover muffins and fruit
L – dh had leftover chicken that somehow made it 3 days in the fridge, (normally my ds 25 eats everything in site) and I had yogurt, fruit, candy – I really just munched on stuff
D – chicken sausages, salad, bread from the freezer
Kathy in Denmark
Day 6:
Brunch: Croissants and smoothies for the girls. DH also had some coffee and toast and so did I, but I didn’t have any smoothie
S: Christmas candy for some and also tea for some
D: Various leftovers, ie. soup for some and hot dogs for some.
The croissants were the bake from frozen kind, and they are really good. The kids wanted smoothies, so I made one with banana, frozen mango and frozen peaches. Also added some yoghurt and milk.
DD2 is still not eating much, so I was grateful she ate a croissant and had a smoothie early in the day, since she only had 2 hot dog rolls for dinner. I am calling our doctor Monday morning…
Danielle Zecher
I hope everyone feels better soon.
Stephanie m
Hi Danielle!
Karen J
Breakfast-out for a late breakfast with hub while running errands
Lunch-tea and cookies
Dinner-baked mash up of frozen meatballs, shell pasta, marinara and a lot of garlic
Our nearby hardware store has 20% off every first Saturday with free popcorn, so that was my snack (along with cookies)
There has been no need to buy any groceries this month. I am seeing how long I can hold out. I still have some romaine lettuce and a cabbage for salads.
Nancy
B. I took a brioche roll out of the freezer, split it in half and toasted it. I topped each half with homemade strawberry jam and a fried egg. My husband and I each ate a half.
L. Leftover grilled pizza in the air fryer. Mine had homemade Alfredo sauce, sausage and thick cut bacon on it. Also a delicious honey crisp apple.
D. I pulled a taco casserole out of the depths of the freezer that had been for quite a while. It was good, thankfully. We ate it with sour cream and homemade salsa. We also had chips and a couple squares of chocolate. We still have quite a bit of chocolate in the pantry that we were given as gifts. Trying to enjoy it sparingly!
Allie from Ontario
As I just joined in online, all I’ll say about the 1st to the 5th is that I did manage to use up/empty (or perhaps I should say “effectively employ”) enough items to keep me motivated re: the effectiveness of this challenge. Also as we are both retired, our daytime meals are more “brunch like” than distinct breakfasts/lunches so I’ll report them as brunch. There are 2 of us so I’ll refer to my husband as T.
Brunch – I had a freezer soup (carrot, lentil & harrisa) and some toast. T had purchased & cooked a cottage roll (one of his favourites…not so much mine 🙂 so he had a sandwich. There was some broth leftover in the instapot and he suggested using some it plus some of the meat in split pea soup. PERFECT – that also emptied the mason jar of yellow split peas in the pantry.
Dinner was a chicken & green chili hash (using a chicken breast, cubanelle, jalapeno & roasted poblano peppers from the freezer) served over mashed potatoes.
Kathryn M
Looks like I am posting right above my 2023 post. Since I had the pizza ingrediants in the fridge, I made some pizza bread sticks – recipe off the Jiffy pizza crust package – and used the opened sauce as dipping sauce. I also warmed up some frozen mozzerella sticks. Purposely made too much so that I have leftovers for a couple of lunches.
Dinner: Chili made with hamburger I had in the freezer. Canned beans and seasoning were here already too. I need to use the chili seasoning container up this winter anyway as it was one I bought at a gift fair a couple of Christmases ago. Cole weather moving in tomorrow made Chili sound like a good idea. Spouse can take the leftovers for work lunches too.
I updated days 1 – 5 just a bit ago. Wasn’t really thinking about that earlier this week.
Kathryn M
B-strawberry banana smoothie
L- ate out on someone else’s dime, so no out of pocket.
D- assorted leftovers. Cleaning a few items out of fridge because I am going out of town for a few day.
Danielle L Zecher
Breakfast: Nick went to a drive-thru on the way to work.
Lunch: I had leftover spaghetti & meatballs and focaccia. Nick skipped.
Dinner: Nick had leftover spaghetti & meatballs and focaccia. I had leftover sweet potato casserole.
I did go to Harris Teeter for some produce. They had some good sales and I had a $5.00 off $30.00 coupon. I bought six bell peppers (red, yellow, and orange), a bag of blood oranges, two bags of lettuce mix/salad, two seedless cucumbers, almost two pounds of cherries, a gallon of milk, one bunch of cilantro, and four packages of tortillas for $35.00. We were very low on fresh produce, almost out of milk, and use tortillas all of the time, so it fit with the pantry challenge.
Heather M
Hi All! I didn’t post yesterday (Day 6) because it was my birthday! On to Day 5-6:
Day 5:
Quiet day for me, getting more things done at home, which aren’t done yet!
B: L skipped; I had 1 piece of the gifted stollen
L: L took leftover quinoa tuna salad and a mandarin; I had a tuna sandwich and more of the pesky chips that need to go (and not into me lol)
D: Had grand plans to cook, but was distracted by the many tasks I was getting done. L came home for 5 minutes before heading to a volunteer thing and ate the tiny bits of leftovers cold (2 bites of pepper/onion pasta; rest of the quinoa) to “tide me over” and left. 30 mins later he texted someone unexpectedly brought a pile of homemade pupusas so he was thrilled! I grabbed some crackers and cheese and finished with a piece of the gifted flan. And, he brought me home some pupusas, which I’ll eat on Saturday. Win!
Day 6, my birthday:
We had a lazy morning (L took it off!), then headed into DC (without traffic we live about 10 mins drive, longer on metro). Lucked out with easy parking on the Mall in front of the Natural History museum (thank you weekday in january, so less tourists, both local and otherwise… weekends/holidays and once spring breaks/school trips start this is a very difficult thing to do pretty much until now, after the holidays-it’s a sweet spot for us locals) and walked down to the National Gallery of Art, our destination. We spent several hours soaking in all the art, including a few special exhibits, then headed home. Shortly after, we walked over to a fancy sushi restaurant we’ve been wanting to try, and enjoyed an incredible sushi dinner. Also, our last hurrah in terms of spending eating out, and we enjoyed every bit. The best sushi we’ve ever had, and that is no exaggeration. The fish with silky like butter, the sauces, combinations, flavors, just amazing. Kudos to a creative and well-regarded chef! Really wonderful day.
B: L skipped; I had the last small piece of gifted christmas raisin bread and a piece of the gifted stollen
L: we both skipped
D: early and amazing sushi dinner- we were stuffed silly, and didn’t even want dessert later
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Hi Heather. Happy belated birthday! Sounds like you had a great day. My DH and I were up your way in November. DD still living in Arlington. We got to eat at Josephina’s and boy was it delicious (and beautifully decorated for the season!) We were stuffed and still had so much food to bring home. Now I’m curious about where the great sushi restaurant is located. Sounds like a place DD and SIL would love!
Heather M
Thanks, Lynn! I don’t know the restaurant you went to, but it sounds like it was a wonderful outing! We went to Yume Sushi in Arlington.
Stephanie M.
Happy birthday Heather! It sounds like you had a wonderful day!!
Heather M
Thanks, Stephanie!
Tasty
Belated happy birthday wishes Heather. Sounds like a lovely day for you both. Nice that hubby could take the day off too.
Heather M
Thanks, Tasty! It really was!
Danielle L Zecher
Happy belated birthday!
Maureen
Happy Belated Birthday!! I’m so glad that you had such a wonderful day.
Kathy in Denmark
Happy belated birthday, Heather! It sounds like you had an amazing day. I don’t even like sushi, but your description kind of makes me want to give it another try 😉
ZC
Day 6
Another day of freezer meals — I’m fortunate to have a Trader Joe’s near by and their freezer meals are my go-to when I need some variety or when I am tempted to eat out. It’s more expensive than homemade but still way cheaper than a restaurant.
B: yogurt, granola and berries
L: Trader Joe’s fiery chicken curry
D: Trader Joe’s chicken cilantro wontons
S: adzuki bean soup
I also tried out a red bean mochi cake recipe to use up the box of glutinous rice flour I bought on a whim. It took a bit of prep but turned out well! One more “random” item put to good use.