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 8 of the Pantry Challenge! We are on our way into week 2.
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The winds have been whipping here this week. Wow! Here’s hoping wind and fire season is kind to us.
I made Bryan 16 burritos for the freezer. He takes a bag to work and always has lunch ready to go.
What We Ate
Breakfast – We had scrambled eggs, toast, and fruit.
Lunch – I found enough Hot Ham and Swiss Sliders in the freezer for the three of us as well as a bag of soup vegetables. I made a simple veggie soup with Homemade Italian Seasoning Mix while the sandwiches cooked.
Dinner – Bryan grilled chicken legs. I made Mashed Potato Casserole and thawed a tub of gravy from the freezer. Green beans and a salad of cucumbers rounded things out.
How did Day 8 go for you?
Danielle L Zecher
Wednesday 1/8/24:
I honestly cannot remember what I had for breakfast. I think Nick grabbed something on the way to work.
Lunch: I had the rest of a bag of pot stickers from the freezer. Nick was in a class for work, so had lunch with co-workers.
Dinner: We ordered pizza from Papa John’s.
Danielle L Zecher
2025 not 2024!
Heather M
Jan 8:
Was running errands and decided to grab some more produce etc, knowing I wouldn’t have a chance to shop until next week again. Stopped at Trader Joe’s which was right on the way home and grabbed sourdough, produce, sliced turkey and cheddar, and eggs, spending $31.91. If I can keep my weekly to under $40 that will be a huge win. Last year not so much, but with a 23yo young man now part of the food picture here, we’ve increased food making and spending for sure. And for anyone who lives near oneI(sorry canada and denmark), Trader Joe’s is keeping eggs (white, large, cage free) at $2.99/dozen for now.
B: L and I skipped; C had some chicken breakfast sausage (he worked from home)
L: sent L with a big salad w/eftover shredded chicken and sauce from the tortilla casserole as the dressing(he raved when he got home), almonds, and cantaloupe; C had a toasted turkey and cheddar; I had open face tuna on multigrain(a few slices still left from ages ago) and some chips
D: made an easy teriyaki with frozen veg(broccoli, green beans, peppers), onion and leftover shredded chicken served over half cauliflower rice and half jasmine rice (cook up both and mix together, cuts down on too many carbs w/little nutrition and adds more veg, and it tastes good! I’ll be calling it half and half rice in the future)
And now I need to lie down. More on that tomorrow. 🙂
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, that’s how we do rice too- half and half, though I’m good with just cauliflower rice. DH not so much. It (half and half) will be making an appearance tonight.
Your tortilla casserole sounded great!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/8/25
B: LO quiche hurriedly made with the eggs!
L: LO chicken and rice soup from freezer, slice of deli turkey. DH had same with turkey sandwich
D: curried chicken using LO chicken cooked the other day over cauliflower rice for me, mix of cauliflower rice and white rice for hubby, cooked carrots and small mandarins that needed to be eaten. It was a monochromatic dinner (orangey) which I didn’t plan and don’t like but using up what I have and what was easiest!
S: a few crackers
I had a bit of a glitch so hope this doesn’t show up twice.
Karen J
Lynn, you’ve made good use of your eggs and I’m so glad you were able to “rescue” them! I have a coupon for a dozen free eggs from Fred Meyer (our Kroeger, I believe) that I’m saving it for mid month when I will be out. Eggs are not cheap in our area-$5.99 a dozen this week at our Fred Meyer. I will have to check out Trader Joe’s after reading that Heather M said they are holding the egg price down in her area. It’s not my normal store as it’s a further drive, but I love going there.
Karen J
Day 8
B-We finished off the cranberry bread with bacon from the freezer and coffee
L- snacked I guess as I can’t remember…. It did include cookies.
D-after a recipe search I found a use for my languishing harissa jar. (thanks for the ideas Heather!) We had Harissa-Lime Chicken and Couscous. I actually had all the ingredients except for pine nuts. It was a yummy spicy dinner with leftovers that I can freeze (and use up some of that starting to get emptier space-sigh)
I walked with my retired teacher group and it was nice to get all my steps in by 10:00. We saw two eagles and a hawk along the trail. No herons this time.
Heather M
Yay for finding a new recipe!! Glad you found something to make with the harissa. Love a good walk and seeing big brds? Even better!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Sounds like a great PC dinner, using up some of the more unusual ingredients in your pantry.
We tend to see herons and not eagles out this way, though did see bald eagles when they nested near woman’s yard that I know. So majestic.
Kathryn M
Jan 8th
B – pancakes with blueberry syrup. When I made those banana pancakes I realized that I had a whole tupperware tub of just add water mix that was on the shelf with my flour and sugar. The blueberry syrup has been in my fridge since last spring and needs to get used up.
L – chicken nuggets, onion rings, BBQ sauce for dipping. A cinnamon sweet applesauce cup for dessert that has been in the fridge a while.
D- DH wanted waffles and I didn’t, so I scrounged a microwave soup cup out of the pantry for myself. I feel like I need the veggies anyway.
I skipped the snack junk yesterday other than a couple of sodas. I have so far avoided the store this month – mainly because the snowy weather has discouraged me from leaving the house.
Maureen
Leftovers for lunch. For dinner I made turkey noodle soup with the leftover turkey and an older package of noodles from the pantry. Leftover homemade bread and cucumber salad to round out the meal. The girls weren’t excited about that, so they foraged for their own dinners. While in the freezer I realized that we have quite a few individual servings of desserts in there (and a few partial containers of ice cream). That’s not the norm, so I’ll have to remember they are in there.
Erin Dean
I’ve missed a couple of days, but I did read everyone’s comments. Some delicious sounding meals all around!
Yesterday was chaotic, but I do remember some of the food. I should start writing it down. I do cook a lot, as the pile of pots, pans and dishes in the dish rack can attest!
Breakfast was banana bread, to use up some aging bananas.
Lunch was homemade tabbouleh with added chickpeas and hummus.
Mid afternoon snack by the teenager (the one I saw, anyway) was a spinach, cucumber and chickpea salad with lemon juice. He also had a cashew and mango smoothie at some point.
Supper was….well, definitely some kind of food, but I can’t remember what! Husband and son were supposed to go to jiu jitsu for 6, but at the moment we’re down to one car until a repair is made.
Husband went to pick up our daughter from work at 4:30, but there was an emergency at her job and she didn’t get out until 5:30. Since martial arts is an hour away, and home is 30 mins in the opposite direction from her work, that was a no go and instead everyone got back home around 6 cold and hangry. I think bagels and cream cheese were the beginning of “supper” but I have no idea what else was involved.
Allie from Ontario
I am eating steel cut oats while I write this….everytime I make a batch, I remember how much I love them on winter mornings and then I go forever before I make them again…why??
What we ate on Jan 8
Brunch: We both ate the leftovers from the roasted tomato white bean stuff with some of the polenta. And then in the afternoon I finished the polenta with some cherry tomato-chipotle relish I canned last summer stirred in. Dessert was a giant antibiotic pill 🙂
Dinner: I made an Italian wedding soup using a bunch of things from the freezer (grd beef, Italian sausage, diced cubanelle peppers, chicken stock & roasted garlic) and also emptied the mason jar of ditali pasta. It also made a dent in various vegetables & jars from the fridge.
We have been “desserting” on the jam thumbpint cookies and are down to one. And there is still a 2 litre carton of chocolate milk in the fridge (haha).
Tasty
Chocolate ice cream or cookies sound a much nicer dessert than antibiotics Allie. Hope you’re over whatever ails you soon.
Karen J
I have a container of steel cut oats because I want to make them part of my breakfast-healthy and all that. But they just take so long to cook that I will end up with old fashioned oats instead. I saw one way of soaking them at night, so may try that.
I was finally out of Christmas cookies so made some peanut butter blossoms with Christmas Hershey kisses. Sigh to any weight loss this month.
Allie from Ontario
Hi Karen J
I’ve made them lots of ways: stove top, slow cooker, overnight soak 1st etc but by far my favourite way (and now really the only way) is in the Instapot under high pressure. It’s quick, reliable and the pot is super easy to clean. If you’ve ever boiled them over on the stove top argghhh….epic mess 🙁
Of course I do realize not everyone has an Instapot/pressure cooker 🙂