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 7 of the Pantry Challenge! I don’t know about you, but that first week went by pretty quickly! How are we already one week down?
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Sorry for the delay in posting. I got caught up in a book and forgot to post.
What We Ate
Breakfast – I had some instant oatmeal packets from the stocking stuffers.
Lunch – Leftover chowder and sourdough bread.
Dinner – I made two pounds of Easy Homemade Taco Meat and opened the last box of taco shells. Along with pintos and an array of toppings, everyone made what he wanted.
How did Day 7 go for you?
Kathy in Denmark
Day 7:
B: DH had oats and milk, DD1 had oatmeal porridge with banana and nuts. DD2 had rye porridge. Both kids had milk.
I had a fruit salad (orange, kiwi and small banana) with a little Greek yoghurt. Later on I had a soft boiled egg, sourdough bread and and some coffee.
L: DH gets lunch at work, DD1 had a packed lunch, DD2 gets school lunch 4 days a week. Her class is part of a scientific project where they get healthy lunch and extra PE and general movement. The food is really good and she tries new things 🙂
I had a bowl of leftover soup and a piece of sourdough bread.
D: I heated up LO soup, added another tin of tomatoes, some more cooked chickpeas and some spices. Served with more sourdough bread.
S: peanuts.
DD2 informed me that “she was not eating soup again tomorrow”. Noted 😉
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/7/25
B: cottage cheese, nuts, jam and coffee
L: LO vegetable beef soup from freezer, slice of deli turkey. DH had same in a sandwich.
All was well today until I had a food crisis! You know how Jessica’s suggests always going thru your fridge every several days to avoid food waste? I try to do this as I think it’s a really good idea and strategy. But, my life has been a bit chaotic for the last 10-12 weeks.
My almost 94 yr old mother fell ill and I stayed with her for a number of weeks with quick, turn around, one night visits back home. At Christmas I did the majority of cooking and baking for 2 out of town Christmases and was gone about a week.
So I finally am digging around in my fridge and found 2 partial dozen eggs which were VERY out of date!! As many times as I’ve been in the fridge, I don’t know how I missed checking them. I am not a big stickler for expiration dates, but eggs? Not sure about that. The thought of having let 16 eggs go to waste at the price they are now just made me sick. Then I decided to do the “egg test” and lo and behold, NONE of them were bad! I was so surprised. But then I began the great egg bake-figuring out how to use these eggs asap. So we had quiche for dinner and I hard boiled 7 to use in other ways, buying me some time. Today, the 8th, I fixed a breakfast casserole and some cornbread. I’m now down to only 4 remaining eggs which I plan to use up somehow tomorrow morning! So the crisis was averted, but you can be sure I’ll be more diligent about checking my fridge in keeping with Jessica’s advice!
D: crust less quiche using those eggs, bacon from freezer, peppers and onions, LO potatoes, baked apples
Heather M
Love this story, Lynn! I kind of felt the same when I was cleaning out my fridge after we got back from NY. December was chaos and i did not do like usual (i also keep an eye on things to avoid waste). I only froze the peppers and two bananas that were getting old, and left the rest to chance when we left town for NY. Needless to say, i had food to toss, which made me sad. But it could have been worse, as more produce survived than I expected. Ah well. Back to good habits again.
Kathy in Denmark
Nice save on the eggs! Eggs are usually good several weeks past their sell by date. I frequently buy eggs on mark down because of the sell by date, and I never have a problem. We also get eggs from a neighbour. They are incredibly fresh and delicious, not to mention cheaper than the ones in the store! I am glad you did the egg test, so you felt comfortable eating those eggs.
I think it is totally understandable that you didn’t notice everything in your fridge with the December you have had.
Hope January is treating you better 🙂
Kim from Colorado
Late start on the first day back to school due to snow and ice wreaked havoc on my day and dinner plans. Then the grocery was out of my backup plan chicken. Bought deli roast beef and third idea for the win
B- bagels with cream cheese
L- hubby brought lo chicken parm, PB&J plus school lunch for the boys,
D- French dip with an au jus packet from the pantry, banana peppers added to mine. Salad and/or smoothie on the side.
Found some Rolos I had stashed from the Halloween candy so warmed them in the oven on pretzels then topped with a pecan for HM turtles, yum!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
What a yummy pantry challenge snack-turtles! So clever.
Heather M
OK yum for that desssert! Good job with the pivoting, too! A win!
Maureen
I had leftovers for lunch. We had some bacon bits leftover in the fridge, so I made potato soup and homemade bread for dinner to use some of those. I’m not feeling very inspired, so I’m focusing on not wasting and not shopping. Hopefully, I’ll get more ambitious and creative soon. I have been prepping a little fruit and veggies each day and setting them out for snacking. That’s going well. And I baked some apple cinnamon mini muffins with two less-than-crunchy apples. I might have to freeze some of those for later, though. We have a mostly quiet weekend coming up, so maybe we can clear out some bits from the freezer soon.
Heather M
Sounds to me like you’re doing great! Even making muffins! 🙂
Karen J
Jessica, I totally understand getting caught up in a book! I like the eclectic list of books you plan to read in 2025.
I went to the bread outlet and bought a wonderful loaf of marbled rye and a loaf of honey wheat 2/$3. Can’t beat the prices at our outlet.
B-rye toast and coffee
L-wrap with chicken, shredded cheddar, red onion, lettuce and bbq sauce
D-tilapia, green salad and baked potato
I had some milk about ready to turn so made Jessica’s Homemade Chocolate Pudding. So, so good! I had some squirt whipped cream left from Christmas. It was the perfect after dinner snack.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
We used to have access to a bread outlet. I was so sorry when it closed.
The pudding sounds delish. I like these PC desserts!
Heather M
How nice to have that outlet! And wow, that pudding…. YUM!!