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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I am sad to say I haven’t made much progress on my kitchen decluttering, so I busted out this new purchase, Kitchen Organization by Denise Schofield. It’s very old school; she references her kids’ paper routes.
That said, I’m hoping it will be the kick in the pants I need to get moving on this project.
What We Ate
Breakfast – I made a batch of Vanilla Almond Granola and had it with yogurt and blueberries.
Lunch – We made a variety of Egg Sandwiches with Vegetables for lunch.
Dinner – I was gone most of the day so I made chicken nuggets, tots, and a big green salad.
How did Day 8 go for you?
Angela
B- breakfast biscuit made with almond flour, breakfast sausage, cheese, broccoli & mushroom; hot tea with honey & lemon
L- chicken salad with celery, carrots and pecans
D – spaghetti courtesy of my hubby! (I cooked the ground beef ahead of time, and hubs took care of the noodles and added the marinara from the pantry)
Kelly Cook
I have to share that I don’t really like to “eat down my pantry’ living in a rural area that doesn’t appreciate clean eating as much as I do. Having said that though, there are things I buy that just don’t get used quickly enough that I’m trying to pay attention to and use up.
A bigger challenge, and more needed right now, is prepping things with what I’ve got on hand. I used sourdough starter to make granola bras, I’ve never done that before! had all the ingredients and used up the last of a bag of sprouted cocoa quinoa cereal that I didn’t care for. I also made some coconut oil bark with big coconut flakes and raw almonds. I should have it on hand all the time, as I’ve noticed a direct connection with coconut oil consumption and the health of my gums. It’s actually been years since I made any though, so I feel really good about that!
Maureen
That sounds like the perfect plan for your challenge! I also find it helpful to touch up my pantry organization. It helps me with rotating stock and evaluating any shifts in our usage of items. I love the quick reset.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/8/26
There have been some delicious looking salads (Jessica) and some delicious sounding ones as well as great soups in this challenge! I’ve gotten ideas.
B: had tea and toast at my mom’s
L: I took her to some doctor appointments. Often she wants to go out to lunch, but she wanted to have some of the ham bone soup I’d taken, so that’s what we ate. 🙂
D: more of the LO comfort casserole that I finished up, apple slices
S: cinnamon toast
I had gotten emails telling me that some grocery rewards were about to expire, so I used them to pay .97 for another ham bone. Now I even have room for it in the freezer.
Kathy in Denmark
Day 8:
B: Oats and milk for DH, rye porridge for DD2, chia pudding with fruit and nuts for DD1 and myself
L: Packed lunch for the kids, DH ate at work. I made a large salad using fresh baby spinach (marked way down), cold brown rice, whatever veggies I could find in the fridge and some leftover roast pork from Christmas which I had frozen. It was delicious!
S: DD1 had some yoghurt and DD2 made some noodles in the afternoon
D: Tomato soup and HM bread with garlic butter.
I baked both the rye bread and the sourdough bread this day, and both turned out great. I heated the meat for my salad while the oven was on for the bread.
I noticed some HM garlic butter in the fridge and thought it would be good with the bread and a soup. DD2 requested tomato soup, so that’s what I made. The soup had onion, garlic, carrots and a little celery, apart from the tomatoes. I also added some broth and quite a lot of cooked green lentils. I flavoured it with some pesto from the freezer and some parmesan rind. I leave the rind in there as I blitz up the soup – it’s very soft after simmering and gives it a lovely taste.
This was a very lovely meal and enjoyed by everyone. I had to pull a little more garlic butter from the freezer to have enough, so now I have to find out what to do with that, LOL. Never mind – it will get eaten 🙂
Maureen
Your tomato soup sounds delicious!
Heather from Sacramento
B- coffee
L- I had an early lunch. Drove down to meet my coworkers for lunch. It’s been so long since I have been WFH because of the heater issue at work. We usually go to lunch every week to a Mexican restaurant. I had a taco salad with carne asada.
D- I cooked some chicken and made a salad with the spring greens, blue cheese, walnuts and lemon dressing. Used up the last of the blue cheese. I also had Greek yogurt and peaches.
Snacks- last of the apple cinnamon bread for toast with butter and cookies. I thought I had ate the last of the gingersnaps from the freezer but of course I found some more.
I’m going to have to try that granola recipe. It has a lot of ingredients that I need to use up.
Karen J
1/8
breakfast-oatmeal cooked with Trader Joe dried mandarins (which is my very favorite dried fruit) topped with almonds
lunch-out at Panera with a gift card
dinner-chili dogs topped with cheese and onion. The chili and jalapeño sausage were from the freezer. Two more items gone.
Thursday is my volunteer day at my younger grandkids school. This year I’m in a 3/4 and a 5th grade class. I worked with small groups of 4th graders doing double digit multiplication using the area model. Luckily my granddaughter’s teacher had emailed me an example the night before. I’ve been retired from teaching for nine years so was happy to reacquaint myself and practice! I take myself out to Panera for lunch on my volunteer day as my reward for “working” 😉
Maureen
I just saw those dried mandarins at TJ a couple of weeks ago and wondered about them. Next time I’ll have to try them.
Roberta in So Cal
Thurs. 1/8/26
B: For 3. Hubs had his usual. I had PB toast and coffee. Son had cereal and coffee.
L: For 4. Hubs–PB/apple butter sandwich, yogurt w/ jam, crudités w/ ranch, apple, orange slices, 2 TJs dk choc mints. Son and GF–turkey and cheese sands (and Son also finished up the last little bit of the nachos he brought home from his outing w/ friends), green salad. I had a turkey/cheese sandwich, crudités, and orange slices.
D: For 3. LO lentil/ham soup, cheese toast, salad, Sees chocolates for dessert.
Heather M
Day 8: In which I ran a bunch of errands, saw Song Sung Blue with my son in the evening, an we got the tree down and out for pickup. I stopped at Costco for several household items and also bought food totaling $49.15 to help out son out while we are gone, but will also be used by us later (and that we were out of, staples if you will): deli turkey, chicken sausages, large sourdough loaf, tortillas, kiwi. Total spending so far: $53.54. He had me pick up frozen meals and a few snacks from Trader Joe’s but that was his budget so…. L and I head out of town Saturday morning.
Brunch/Lunch: C took leftover quinoa/ground turkey thing, kiwi and mandarin, a Kind bar; L took a salad with ground turkey, carrot, tomato, cucumber, a satsuma and mandarin, and cashews; I had leftover birthday dinner burrata on toast and a few Christmas cookies
Dinner: had three chipotle ancho cheese chicken sausages in the fridge still, and used the rest of the mini bells and half onion, plus half the rest of the grape tomatoes (rest for L’s Friday lunch),and some frozen corn. Sauteed it all with chicken taco seasoning. Made some phony Mexican rice and also added the small bag of cooked rice I found in the freezer to it. This was tasty, but not as utterly delicious as Mon-Tues-Wed dinners were. On a normal week, tonight’s would have been amazing, but apparently I topped myself with random items (plus bday dinner) and won’t ever be able to fully recreate those meals. At least we ate well this week lol.
Allie from Ontario
Earlier this week, I found a small packet of frozen ribs that T cooked to pick away at. Starting in the slow cooker with a rub, onions, garlic, h/m BBQ sauce + broth he finished on the BBQ with more sauce before pulling all the meat off. And the point of this explanation?? What is left in the slow cooker is great for soup. I thin if needed, cool & defat before straining to make the base of what we call “after rib soup”. Always rib meat, corn, black beans & then a fridge/freezer raid for endless potential add-ins. This soup is always as expected but never quite the same (if that makes sense), a house favourite & a great pantry challenge strategy 🙂
What we ate on Jan 8
Brunch: Smoothie + ryvita/PB for me (1 of 3 packages of blueberries now gone) and T made an English muffin sandwich with extra deli ham from the night before + an egg, tomato & cheese.
Dinner: We had the soup described above with toasted Costco cheese buns. Happily there is probably 2-3 lunch portions still in the pot.
Stephanie M
Thursday, January 8, 2026
B – I had my usual cereal with fruit and nuts. Paul had a bagel and mixed fruit.
L – Paul had crackers, cheese, pepperoni, apple with peanut butter and some chocolate covered almonds. I had 1/2 a bagel with chive cream cheese and the last of the smoked salmon. I also had an apple, olives and grape tomatoes.
Snack – I had a yogurt. Paul had Christmas cookies.
D – BLT’s and French fries using up the last of the turkey bacon from the freezer.
Maureen
DD came home sick from school mid-morning, which adjusted my schedule, so I ended up grabbing a sandwich out while I ran errands. I decided to just do that and plan leftovers for lunch and dinner on Friday, since they are piling up a bit. It was a conscious decision and a delicious sandwich, so I’m content. I only got a little produce and dairy (and hubby’s gatorade) while out. Also, I had organized my pantry right before Christmas and pulled a number of items that were expiring or are items that aren’t for our normal meals. I plan to work on eating those up in addition to emptying the freezers, so Friday is also the day to inventory those so I can work them into the meal plan more often or have them out for snacking.
Maureen
I forgot about dinner…I found some pork chops in the freezer. We like them grilled, which isn’t happening with snow on the ground, so I made stirfry. It was a lot of meat, so I actually kept a little bit marinated and can cook it up for lunch soon.
Tasty
Jan 8
B – hubby had his usual. I know I ate but don’t remember what???
L – hubby ate but I don’t know what as I was out. I stopped and had a. Chicken quesadilla and then picked up a latte for the drive home.
S – hubby had some leftovers from the freezer, stir fried chicken from the other day. I wasn’t hungry so had an apple and a yogurt.
Definitely strange day of eating but it worked. I did buy more fruit and yogurts as they are as essential as coffee for us. I also bought things to make a breakfast casserole for our condo brunch tomorrow. I had intended buying so e good sausages from the butcher’s but I saw a really good buy on ground pork at the grocery store. So I got almost 3lbs of lean ground pork for less than $5.50 and will make my own sausage meat with it today. There were 2 packs there and I should have picked them both up – I didn’t!!!
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 🙂