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.
Want to save this post?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox. Plus, I’ll send you budget recipes and money-saving tips every week!
Today I did a little bit of meal prep for myself: portioned berries and made some Meal Prep Salads, nothing major, but things that I know will pay off later this week.
What We Ate
Breakfast and Lunch – it was a fend for yourself kind of day. So I’m not sure what the others had besides the scones and apple pie I baked last night. I had yogurt, berries, and muesli for brekkie, a large salad for lunch.
Dinner – My original plan didn’t work out, but I had stuff to make homemade salsa and Bean Tostadas.
How did Day 8 go for you?
JulieT from MN
B-I cleaned out the yogurt container, mixed in some honey, added blueberries from the freezer and a sprinkling of homemade granola. Hubby had toast with jam and OJ
L-Hubby had hash browns, bacon, and a fried egg. I brought home half my Rueben from the night before. So I put that in the air fryer with some sweet potato fries from the freezer. Super yummy!
D-Hubby had popcorn. I pulled tomatoes from the freezer before church and made a batch of tomato basil soup. Canned 11 pints and then there was a generous serving left. I added a dash of heavy cream ( finished the carton bought for Christmas fudge) and some cooked tortellini from frozen from the freezer. Sprinkled on Parmesan cheese. I call this comfort food!
Emily
I am definitely starting to feel the crunch. Because of the crazy price of food I don’t have the stock pile that I usually have. At least I can defrost the freezer next weekend since it is so empty.
B- avocado, cream cheese and egg on toast. Last 3 bites of my kids grits and the last piece of bacon.
L- the last 2 gf fish nuggets from a mostly empty box, Mandarin, pop chips and kids and I splurged and made some ice cream sundays.
Snack- peanut butter on a rice cake
D- chicken wings/ rice and stir fry from every vegetable left in the fridge. Dessert was this Cheesecake Factory pudding cup I got on clearance a couple month ago, it was not good and I had spent the original $6 on it boy would I have been upset.
Danielle L Zecher
Brunch: Leftover breakfast burritos. crisped up in the air fryer.
Snack: I made blueberry scones (trying to work through the massive amount of berries in the freezer).
Dinner: GCE Roast Vegetable Soup, which used up zucchini, celery, and a potato that were at the use it or lose it point, and beer bread. I also made an apple cake with browned butter frosting, which used up some apples that were also at the use it or lose it point, and finished off one of the three opened bags of powdered sugar. Sometimes the panty challenge means you eat cake. 🙂
Jessica
PC seems to always mean more dessert than normal! Lol
Heather M
Oh, all the baking sounds so good! Blueberry scones AND apple cake with brown butter frosting?? YUM!!
Jennifer
I’m starting to see empty spots – especially among my soup stash – I think the 20 year old must eat it a lot even though I don’t see it. He eats a lot! I did go to the grocery store and spent $40 on produce, yogurt, bread, lunch meat and a clearance tray of chocolate covered nuts for people to snack on.
B – leftover apple muffins and fruit
S – coffee out with ds who got a muffin
L – I had found a home canned jar of tomato soup from 2018 but when I opened it it looked bad. Dug around and found one from 2020 – ate that for lunch with crackers and grated cheese. Dh was out of town for a work meeting and ate lunch there, dd ate at work. Ds ate what I would consider several lunches throughout the afternoon – chili, bagel, smoothie, grapefruit, and more.
D – garlic lime chicken using the lime I bought for cocktails over the holidays that never got used. I love this recipe but almost never have a lime on hand. It was delicious. Served over rice (made with homemade chicken broth) with fresh veggies on the side.
Tasty
Sunday January 8th
B – fruit, yogurt granola and na muffin each
L- a snacky type of lunch using up some chips, cheese and crackers with a banana for hubby and an apple for me
S – roast chicken, mashed potatoes and parsnips, brussels sprouts for hubby and rutabaga for me. Apple pie with a small scoop of ice cream. Everything except the potatoes was from the freezer WIN!!!
I did go shopping in the morning – we had no fresh veggies other than potatoes, 2 onions and 1 pepper. So I did replenish fruit and veggies and milk. I did spend quite a bit but my aim is not so much not to spend but to use what is here already and if I see good buys, I keep the freezer well stocked. It works for me.
Stephanie M.
Sunday, January 8, 2023
B – I had toast, yogurt and a banana
L – Paul had leftover grilled chicken and macaroni and broccoli. I had a hard boiled egg and tomato sandwich.
D – hamburger, veggie tortellini soup.
ZC from MA
B: yogurt, granola and strawberries, coffee
L: Trader Joe’s butter chicken and rice
D tomato vegetable soup with tofu and shrimp, toast
S: red bean mochi cake, a banana
Rachel Averett
Breakfast-leftovers for me and toast and cereal for others
Lunch- chili and chili dogs
Dinner-Pasta Carbonara, Smoothies and Apples
Kathryn M
B: cereal
L: The last of the spaghetti is finally gone!
D: Steak street Tacos in the crockpot. Leftovers will mostly be DH’s work lunches this week.
Danielle L Zecher
We had PB&Js in the morning, then went to SC for haircuts. There’s a Tropical Grille (which we LOVE) there, so we had planned on getting food to bring back. We had part of it for lunch and part of it for dinner.
Cindy
B: Vege & fruit smoothie + whole wheat English muffin
L: skipped – running errands
D: blackened chicken fettuccine and side salad – everything from the fridge, freezer and pantry but …. I’m not seeing a lot of white space yet since it’s just the two of us and we share one chicken breast for dinner as well as most other cuts of meat.
Maureen
We stuck with mostly leftovers for lunch again. And ended up making homemade pizza for dinner, even though we ordered pizza a few nights ago. I gave my girls a number of choices and that was the one they were willing to help with, so that’s what we did. I pulled a few Christmas cookies from the freezer, too. I’m apparently still dragging my feet on kitchen cleanout, inventory, and planning.
Jen in Ohio
It was just the two of us yesterday. Our off-weekend for his kids (he has 50/50 custody with his ex-wife), and my son spent the last winter break weekend with my parents.
Having no kids around is really rare for us, particularly with the pandemic, so it’s nice to have the quiet! I spent some time on the couch with the cats, planning meals and working on our grocery order. Meal planning is quite enjoyable for me when I can do it leisurely lol.
B: I think we both skipped?
L: l/o homemade pizza & stromboli, fruit
D: date night to a new-to-us BBQ place (mostly paid for with a gift card I had)
Heather M
January 8 and I spent 8 hours in the kitchen! Well, most of it was cleaning out some cupboards, a portion of the countertop, a big drawer, etc. I now have bags of trash, recycling, and donations, and a clean, reorganized, in way better shape kitchen. It feels so good! It was motivated by my Christmas present, which needed a home on the counter, and the ripple effect was strong, lol. I received, to my surprise, a fancy combo smart oven air fryer, which has all sorts of settings and is perfect with just two of us most of the time now. We’ve never had even a toaster oven and our microwave died at the beginning of the pandemic and we’ve not replaced it. I’ve gotten used to reheating things on the stove or in the oven. But this will be much more convenient and will also give me new options for cooking. After setting it up and doing what was required prior to using (including running it empty for a pizza cycle), I made dinner using it. Otherwise, we barely ate all day, just grabbed snacks as our stomachs growled. I did take one short break with a wedge of Laughing Cow and some crackers. Now to clean up/out some other things… I think that will be my plan this coming week.
Dinner: hot melted roast beef and pepperjack sandwiches, with mustard, pickle, grilled onions(leftover from my son’s Lebanese takeout), sliced pepperoncini; big fabulous side salad(so happy to have salad fixings again!)
Maureen
Wow, that was a lot of work! I have a similar goal, but was going to work on it small increments this month.
Heather M
Good luck! It does feel so good, and is motivating to deal with a few other problem areas in the house. 🙂
SarahLiz
A little late to the party but happy to be back! Life has been A LOT lately. Everything is healthy and doing okay now – we moved to a new apt that has the worst kitchen layout ever.
How do people live with the pull out drawer freezer? I hate it so much. It barely fits anything.
Making my inventory list today. I don’t have a ton of stuff in hand since we don’t have a lot of space/weirdly shaped space but my baking supplies/dry goods definitely need a review.
There was definitely a lot of “I should make that!” And I bought ingredients but never got it together enough to make it so i have a weird collection of non-perishables.
Saturday:
B: GF freezer waffle w/ butter and syrup; coffee w/half and half
L: austin and I went to my parents for lunch – chicken soup.
D: dinner w/ my parents – ham, twice baked potatoes, spinach. Smoked Wings as an app that the men made.
S: dark chocolate from a Christmas gift basket.
Mom sent us back with a million leftovers. I put the ham bone in the freezer.
Laurie in TX
I’m trying to revive my sourdough skills. Unfortunately, I didn’t dry some of my starter before moving so I’m starting from scratch. Hoping my new starter will take and be successful.
B – I had a toasted English muffin with jam, some almonds and a glass of milk. Hubs had toast and cereal
L – Neither of us was really hungry for lunch. In the late afternoon we munched on a few chips
D – I was really hungry for some good Mediterranean food. Moving to a new city in a new state it can be a challenge to find food that meets the standard you’re accustomed to. We have often passed this little Greek Gyros Pizza and Subs place in a strip mall nearby. Hubs went last night and picked up some amazing Greek food. It is owned and run by a Greek mama and son combo. The pita bread for the gyro was so fresh, the spices on the meat spot on and they didn’t scrimp on the tzatziki sauce. The Greek salad was very good but here you get fries with everything. I wish it had been a good pilaf. I think I’ll make a batch of Armenian pilaf for the freezer so I can reheat it to have with the next time we have Gyros.
Heather M
How wonderful to find the Greek place! It really is hit or miss when one is new to a city. So glad this one worked out, pilaf or not 🙂
Tasty
Saturday January 8th
B – grapefruit, pineapple, yogurt and granola for hubby, I had a banana, yogurt, a little piece of cheese and a muffin.
L – bubble and squeak with a fried egg for both of us.
S – haddock and fries with peas in a white sauce.
While I’m definitely making progress, it doesn’t show too much. There is a bit more incentive this year tho as we have decided it is getting close to the time to move. At the moment we live about a 15 minute drive from town on 4 acres and it’s a lot of work. We can cope with it at the moment but there will come the day when it is beyond us and neither of us wants to let that happen. Much better to move while we are capable. That said, I am well aware that 2 freezers such as I have now are not in our future so we really need to use up what we have. I will also have to learn to shop differently!!
Kimberly
Definitely had to look up the bubble & squeak, lol
Jennifer
Most of the day was a wash, but I got home in time to make a nice dinner for my college son’s last night at home.
B – girls had hotel breakfast, no idea on the boys
L – Girls had leftover pizza saved for after the meet from eating our Friday night. Well – it was frozen solid due to the outdoor temps so we ate at Swensons and had grilled cheese and chocolate milkshakes before heading home. Boys – no idea.
D – I pulled a pack of homemade meatballs from the freezer as soon as I got home to make swedish meatballs. This used up an entire thing of sour cream (for some reason I had 2), a box of pasta and the meatballs. We have enough leftover for a few lunches if I make more pasta. I served it with a sliced pepper and 1/2 a cucumber.
And the leftover pizza from Friday night was devoured by my boys the second we walked in the door.
Stephanie M.
Saturday, January 8, 2022
B – Paul had a sausage and cheese omelet and an English muffin. I had overnight oatmeal and peanuts.
L – Paul had a grilled cheese sandwich. I had a tuna fish sandwich.
D – grilled pork chops, wild rice, and salad.
I got a little busy in my kitchen today. While I am making my way through the freezer and starting to see a difference, I also needed to make a few things for lunch to put in there for Paul since the weather is so iffy right now and it’s not always ok to go out for sandwich fixings. I’m most concerned about using up the meat/fish that’s in the freezer which I don’t have an unreasonable amount of. The other things that are in there are some veggies, French toast for breakfast night, two pizzas, and just a few other things so it’s not going to stuff my freezer by adding a few cooked items. So today I made 8 empanadas and the filling for bean and beef burritos. I’ll fill the wraps tomorrow. Also tomorrow I’m going to make a pot of weight watchers veggie soup and whole wheat pancakes. These things will go quickly and won’t linger in my freezer for very long at all.
Marci
B- egg/veggie omelet & nan, coffee
L- chicken sandwich, fruit
D- salmon, salad and rice
D- ice cream
Lara
B – Hardboiled egg, slice of toast (me) DH scrambled some eggs with some mini-peppers that need to be used up, and the last of a 6-pack of bagels
L – Me – half a turkey/provolone sandwich and a handful of chips DH – Veggies, crackers & hummus
D – I made a double batch of turkey chili using up the last 2 ground turkey packs in the freezer, the last half of an onion, and the rest of the mini peppers. Tossed in a couple of cans of pinto beans and lots of spices. Now we have leftovers for some football nachos on Sunday and lunch probably M-T. Yum. 🙂