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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I am not yet at 100%. As I’ve explained to others, I seem to find myself in a constant state of meh.
This week the girls start back to classes so our daily schedules at home will be mostly back to normal. Hopefully, my sense of wellbeing will follow!
What We Ate
Breakfast – The last of the frozen Chocolate Chip Scones from Christmas.
Lunch – Leftovers and green salads for some, Air Fryer Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for others.
Dinner – Dinners most of this week are recipe development projects. Tonight was a chicken casserole. The recipe will be coming your way in February or March!
How did Day 7 go for you?
Nancy
B. Oatmeal
L. The last of the LO grilled pizza.and a couple homemade bars from the freezer. I bake too much and keep finding containers of cookies and bars in there.
D. I had LO pasta Alfredo and my husband has LO Mexican food.
Linda B
I’ve fallen off the wagon reporting what we’ve been eating, but not with sticking with our pantry challenge. I did break down the other day and bought boneless skinless chicken thighs marked down to half off and made those for dinner.
Brunch—bagels and cream cheese, sunny side up eggs, breakfast sausage, OJ, coffee.
Dinner—Spanish rice with pork chops. We have leftovers for later in the week.
What I’m learning is that the biggest barrier to me using the food in our freezer is that I don’t plan ahead to thaw things. Because I know we have all the ingredients for a lot of meals, I haven’t been planning ahead like I should to make sure things are thawed to cook. I’ve got to work on that. But right now we are loaded with leftovers from the last couple of days, so we’ll be eating those for a while.
Only spent $8.81 on groceries so far this month because we needed milk and lettuce, and I bought that half price chicken.
Jessica Fisher
Do you have a thawing station? I find that to be really helpful to have a specific spot in the fridge for thawing things. Since they take several days, you could plan to just have something thawing all the time, on a tray in the fridge. If the tray is empty, you know to go grab something.
Tasty
Sunday 7th
B: Hubby finished off the open pack of bacon in a sanadwich. I had fruit yogurt and a muffin
L: Vegetable beef soup courtesy of the freezer
S: I slow cooked a chicken so we had that with baked potatoes and creamed peas.
Finished off the shortbread with our coffee.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Hey Tasty! Glad to see you here.
Tasty
Thanks Lynn. I was really pleased.to see so many familiar names – so many of us have been doing this yearly challenge for so long. It’s like meeting up with old friends!
So far, I have not set foot in a grocery store this year. Usually, I head to the store when the stores reopen after the holidays and I can usually get some really good deals on meat and so the cycle continues! This year we are really going to give this challenge a good try.
Jessica Fisher
Sounds like a great goal, Tasty! Always glad to see your name. 🙂
Heather M
Hello Tasty!!! So glad to see you back this year 🙂
Tasty
Thanks Heather. It’s good to be back!
Diinaus
Day 7
Woke up with a siezed back so it was a matter of survival. Roast tray of vegetables that was slated for todays lunchs//dinner accidentally got left on the bench over night. Not all wasted despite my frustration. The animals ate well saving their regular food for another day.
B: real coffee and milk before having to make a 2.5hr drive to work.
L: kids made nachos with baked beans cjeese and corn chips, I brought Salad at work
S: bits of fruit at home, nuts from a servo for me.
D: hubby purchased ground beef and the kids had pasta ready for me when I got home well after a long day. All those cooking lessons I gave have paid off:) tomorrow is a new day. Lots of errands and meal preparation to get done. Hopefully after a chiro visit this will be accomplished easier
Karen J
I went for a nice walk with my friend fighting leukemia. Good for both of us. She has a rough road ahead.
Breakfast-leftover grits, scrambled eggs with peppers and onion
Lunch-toast and hummus
Dinner-turkey meatloaf, baked potatoes and green beans
There is a bit more room in the freezer, but still lots to go. This week I am going to try to use the “big” things.
Diinaus
Thanks for the reminder. I have roo mince in the bottom of the freezer thst i must make meatloaf with today.. sorry to hear about your friend. That’s tough but glad you can support her.
Kathryn M
Day 7 2024. Chicken salad sandwich for lunch. I ate some pickled onions and bread and butter pickles from the fridge. I made so many pickles this last summer and I need to get busy eating them.
Snacks – bbq chips, a last brownie I needed to finish.
Dinner was at work – some leftover pizza breadsticks and mozzerella sticks with dipping sauce.
Allie from Ontario
There is a jar of pickled beans hanging around in fridge. T, who loves them, will never think of having a few beside dinner. I have intended to put them on his plate 4 different times in the past 3 weeks AND forgotten each time. I struggle to find who is at fault here 🙂
Kathy in Denmark
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes. I am writing this on Monday, and DD1 is almost ready to go back to school and DD2 no longer has a fever and is a lot more like her usual self, so fingers crossed this is the end of the crud!
Day 7:
Brunch: soft boiled egg, toast, LO croissants, coffee and juice
S: Hot cocoa with whipped cream and LO Christmas treats
D: HM bread with different toppings
The hot cocoa was made from scratch with full fat milk and some dark chocolate added at the end. I also had real cream, so whipped some of that. Trying to get extra calories in DD2, and this is a good way to do it 😉
I baked some bread, so thought we might as well have some for dinner. No one seemed to mind 🙂
Heather M
Glad your girls are perking up! And, that hot cocoa sounds amazing.
Diinaus
Glad to hear kids are on the mend. Hot chocolate I swear has medicinal properties. All the fat soluble vitamins and othe good antioxidants things in chocolate that are restorative to health. . In addition to this when my kids need a boost elderberry syrup always goes down a treat along with honey and lemon drinks. 🙂
Allie from Ontario
Jan 7
Brunch: I had tomato soup (freezer) +the end of a sleeve of crackers with cheddar & my tomatillo-jalapeno jam. T had the last cottage roll sandwich & a bowl of the split pea soup I made on Saturday. 2 single servings of soup are heading to the freezer (he promises not for long) & 2 are going to his father, who will be thrilled 🙂
Dinner: I made ground pork sliders (meat & buns from the freezer) with a green salad. I finished off an almost empty jar of Dijon by making the dressing in it which worked well.
I also made cookies yesterday using up the last of the Skor bits but I’m not sure finishing up homemade cookies this week will count as a much of a “challenge win” :).
Heather M
Everything about this day…. Awesome! And T’s dad is lucky. Between the jam, soups, cookies, and dinner, deelish!
Diinaus
Cookies esp home made are definable as a challenge win. Esp if it picks up moral. Mum used to make the best cookies and bar recipes for lunc boxes when she was cleaning out the pantry when moving or it was a tight pay period.( we never knew as kids only learning later on) . Only problem was that she did not ever make the same version twice.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/7
B: dh had scrambled eggs, I toasted an English muffin with coffee
L: lo quiche for both of us
D: turkey and cheese quesadillas with lettuce, sour cream and salsa toppings, pinto beans cooked from dried, orange slices and grapes.
In preparation for dinner, I started looking for the Romaine lettuce I bought since we used up the last of the spinach. It was no where to be found! I guess I MEANT to buy it 2 weeks ago. So I purchased it for 2.99 and bought 12 lbs of russet potatoes for .39#. That’s the cheapest I’ve seen them in quite some time, so stocked up. We’re headed to DC soon and mashed potatoes are a favorite of my DD and SIL, so I’ll be fixing them. I’ve spent 7.64 this month.
Heather M
Have fun up here!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
I plan too! Always fun to visit the area 🙂
Karen J
That’s a good potato price. Our Kroeger (Fred Meyer)this week has russets for $0.99 a pound (yikes) or a ten pound bag for $4.99-much more reasonable, but not as good as yours.
Your quesadillas sound yummy. For some reason I rarely think to make them at home. They are one of our go to camping meals though.
Diinaus
That’s a super deal on spuds!! Currently our best price here is $2/kg or about $/pound.mind you it is summer in the tropics and not spud growing season. Have discovered Ube(?) Tubers that are purple yam like vegetables but are slimy when pealed. When cooked taste just like normal potato. Hopefully that might be a good solution to out climate inabilities to grow standard spuds.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Diinaus, That’s interesting. I’ve not heard of those tubers. I’ll have to investigate them. The best price I’ve found was for sweet potatoes. They were .25/# the week of American Thanksgiving. Where in the tropics do you live?
Heather M
Posting for Jan 6/7:
Quiet 6th/birthday, after setback with vertigo recovery. Until dinner. We only had light snacks during the day because L took me to a high end Spanish restaurant I’ve always wanted to go to: Del Mar (named after my hometown in CA lol). And it was one of the best meals of my life. Balfego Bluefin tuna carpaccio(beyond amazing; blue crab stuffed piquillo peppers with sea urchin sauce (perfection); Spanish tortilla with black truffle, lemon crema, Belper Knolle cheese (the lightest, most fluffy delicious tortilla ever); then we really blew it out with a grilled whole Aquanaria Branzino and it was impossibly amazing.And there was a trio of delicious desserts as well. Wish I could show pics. Anyways, after that meal (and its price), I’m even more determined to keep costs this month really low.
Jan 7: we both woke up full still and had various meetings to attend. L didn’t eat anything until late in the day, when he snacked on tortilla chips and the last chocolate coconut macadamias from Christmas. I snacked on a couple rolls and some Christmas sweets as well.
Dinner: L had two spicy jalapeño chicken sausages from the freezer and finished the leftover pasta from Friday; I didn’t want a ton, so finished the tiny bit of guacamole with some tortilla chips and had some raw veggies with pimiento dip from new years.
Kathy in Denmark
Happy birthday, Heather!
That restaurant sounds amazing – so happy you got to enjoy such a great meal with your Hubby.
Heather M
Thanks! It was quite a treat 🙂
Karen J
Oh my, that dinner sounds amazing and what a great place to celebrate your birthday!
I hope your vertigo gets better soon. I had it briefly after the flu years ago and still remember how awful it was!
Heather M
Thanks on all counts. Today feels like I’ve turned a corner. Fingers crossed!
Jessica Fisher
Happy Birthday! So glad you got to celebrate. 🙂
Heather M
Thank you!!
Diinaus
Happy Birthday Heather
Heather M
Thank you’
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, that birthday meal sounds amazing! I don’t even know what some of those dishes are! Glad you were able to go and enjoy, vertigo notwithstanding.
Heather M
Thanks so much, Lynn
Danielle Zecher
Happy belated birthday!
I hope the vertigo clears up soon! My husband and M-I-L have dealt with that, and it was horrible.
Danielle Zecher
I hope things level out for you with a return to your normal schedule. I’ve been looking forward to this week, too, for the return to normal.
Sunday wasn’t a good Pantry Challenge day. We skipped breakfast, went out for lunch, and ordered takeout for dinner.
Danielle Zecher
I also meant to say thank you to everyone for your kind comments about my cat.
Heather M
Not really all that surprised your day involved food out/takeout. You are taking care of yourself amidst grief and that’s a good thing???
Jessica Fisher
Thank you! I’m definitely taking things easy. Perimenopause is a trip!
Maureen
We had homemade pizza Saturday night on the grill since DH was willing (not a common occurrence in MI in January). Sunday we ran to the store for a few things…mostly eggs, a little produce, and dairy. We stuck to our list, but grabbed some sirloin for dinner to go with a bunch of leftovers from the fridge. And we grabbed lunch out while we were out, but it was a planned treat. I need to dig through the freezers a bit this week to round out my meal plan.
Kathryn M
Travelling. I left early and just snacked on junk food (airplane snack mix, cookies, etc) instead of having breakfast and lunch. No spending on food though.
Dinner – I threw some leftovers from home in my bag and microwaved them at the hotel for dinner.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jan 7
Those are good looking biscuits, Jessica. So tall and fluffy. Mine don’t seem to fluff up that high. I want to try your crockpot cheesecake recipe. Looks less nerve wracking than one made in the oven and both variations look delicious.
Interesting re: your price comparison. We don’t have an Aldi, though I seek them out whenever we are traveling. Walmart for me is a 45-mile round trip, so I don’t frequent them very often either. It might be a little more “doable” in the off season, but definitely not during tourist season.
The week has gone pretty well though not much progress seen in the freezers yet.
B: coffee, last piece of cornbread, blueberry muffin from freezer
L: Italian sausage and bun, fruit
D: We both had turkey divan from last night and a variation of Jessica’s pear/blue cheese salad (used apples). We really like this salad, Jessica!
We finished the minestrone soup and it’s kind of chilly here this week, so I made Ham Bone soup with the Thanksgiving ham bone for later in the week. Used lots of fresh and canned veggies. The only problem, like Tasty noted earlier in the week, is that now there is more soup to go BACK into the freezer. I plan to give a quart to a neighbor to decrease our leftovers.
Danielle L Zecher
Breakfast: Breakfast burritos (eggs, salsa, sauteed onion and bell pepper, black beans, and cheese).
Lunch: A planned lunch out. We had an appointment for hair cuts in SC, and love Tropical Grille, so planned to eat lunch there. It was so good!
Dinner: Since we had a late and fairly lunch, we weren’t very hungry. I had some chips and Nick had some chips and Christmas candy.