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 9 of the Pantry Challenge!
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I miss sitting by my Christmas tree drinking tea in the morning, but I may have found a worthy substitute: candlelight breakfast!
Today was a shooting day, or at least my attempt at a shooting day. I shot one recipe in all of 2025, so it will take me awhile to get my chops back.
To be honest, the infiltration of AI into food blogging has been very discouraging. I’ve used stock photos a handful of times on Life as Mom, but never here. I can’t imagine letting AI make a food photo for you. Jerks.
Thanks for being here and cooking up our recipes!
What We Ate
Breakfast – I made a Yogurt Berry Parfait with fresh blueberries and the Vanilla Almond Granola I made yesterday. I also had a snack of pumpkin spice toast later in the day.
(Mix Pumpkin Pie Spice Substitute with granulated sugar, then sprinkle on buttered sourdough. So good!)
Lunch – Some shooting days make lunch easy because we can eat what I make. I knew that wouldn’t work, so I cooked salmon in a skillet and had that with veggies.
Dinner – Fridays are pizza nights, so we had a variety of Sourdough Pizzas.
How did Day 9 go for you?
Roberta in So Cal
Friday, 1/9/26
B: For 3. Hubs had his usual. I had PB toast and coffee. Son had cereal and coffee.
L: For 4. Hubs–turkey & cheese sandwich, yogurt w/ jam, crudités w/ ranch, apple, orange slices, 2 TJs dk choc. mints. Son and GF–turkey & cheese sands, salad/crudités, slices of walnut povitica (a Christmas gift from a neighbor). I had a cheese sandwich (the kids finished up the turkey ;)), carrot sticks, tangerines (from a neighbor’s tree), povitica.
D: For 4: BBQ chicken sandwiches (shredded chicken and BBQ sauce in the crockpot), crudités, apple & orange slices, cherries, and more Christmas chocolates for dessert.
Karen J
January 9th
Jessica, I agree with you on AI infiltration. It is everywhere. I am showing my age, I know. Back in my day…..
Breakfast-bacon, egg, toast I am working on nearly two pounds of pre cooked bacon from the freezer that I forgot to put out at Christmas brunch. Not that it is going to be a problem to eat more bacon this month :).
Early dinner-leftover lasagna for me, leftover chili dog for H before we went to our granddaughter’s opening night of her high school play. As there’s the two of us, it seems like I cook dinner for two nights, then we have leftovers.
Maureen
I stuck with the plan and had leftovers for lunch. But, DD ended up babysitting in the evening and hubby wanted to go out to dinner, so we did. So we’ll be eating leftovers for lunch all weekend.
Heather M
Yay for a night out with your husband!!
Erin in Ontario
Busy day yesterday, luckily a mostly fun one though. Got over to oldest son and his wife’s place and spent a couple of hours snuggling the new baby – oh, my heart!
I bought a couple of “snackle” boxes a few weeks back, so we’ve been dropping one off every day or so filled with healthy things they can eat one handed. It’s been a big hit, and my husband and I have had a lot of fun seeking out small packs of things like almond butter, guacamole, olives, etc to fill in some of the cubes in the box!
Breakfast was banana peanut butter breakfast cookies to use up some older bananas.
Lunch was homemade Indian (my default when I want food but don’t want to think too hard about it)….aloo ghobi, veg biyani and mushroom palak. I really need a better blender to get the cashews smoother, though – anybody have suggestions for a cost effective but powerful one?
Supper was a fend-for-yourself meal. My daughter ate lunch she had forgotten in the fridge when leaving for work. Son found Taquitos in the freezer and warmed them up. Husband….I honestly don’t remember. I am embarrassed to say that I had Veggie Straws while watching Season 2 of The Pitt.
Karen J
Those new baby snuggles are the best. Nothing compares!
Jessica Fisher
One cheat I read about in a food magazine was to use cashew butter instead. Not sure how it pencils out, but I use almond butter in my curry and it works really well.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Oh those snuggles are wonderful! Enjoy!
Heather M
Oh veggie straws and the new episode/season of The Pitt sounds perfect lol. We watched the first night with our son and then again Saturday night here with mom who hadn’t watched it yet, though we were falling asleep after a late night/early morning due to the travel. Oh the baby snuggles!! What fun to have a grand baby! And that snackle box sounds so great!!!
Angela
I got all the way to the bottom before I realized I was reading comments from the last two years lol!
B – eggs & English muffin for hubs, breakfast biscuit for me (I have a few more in this giant batch), no idea what ds#3 had.
L – the last of my big batch of chicken salad & some protein chips. I also ate a Larabar & had a coke – emotional eating because I got some difficult news about my dad needing surgery.
D – hubs had lunch out with ds#3, so he got me a salad and also stopped to bring home pizza for dinner… so not a pantry challenge win, but I needed the break. And he is awesome. 😉
Maureen
We definitely need a break sometimes. I’ll be thinking about you and your dad.
Heather M
So glad your husband picked up food for you and pizza for the rest- after news like that it’s often more important than sticking to plan. Aging parents can be very hard at times i understand how you’re feeling. I hope your dad’s surgery is a success and not too hard on him
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
1/9/26
B: toast and tea as I prepared to travel back home
L:did have to pick up fast food en route
D: back home, we had LOs that DH hadn’t finished off which made for easy eating. I’d planned to have Breakfast for Dinner but that can now wait.
I did pick up nuts at DH’s request and our favorite yogurt was 1/2 off so I picked up 3 quarts of it. That makes 48.52 for the month, which is higher than I’d hoped, but I’ll try to continue to limit purchases. Although, chicken thighs are .99# here, so I will pick up a few of those but not go overboard.
Tasty
Jan 9
B – hubby had pineapple, yogurt and granola, I opted for a muffin with my pineapple and yogurt.
L – ham and cheese sandwiches
S – home made sausage patties, scrambled eggs with boiled and fried potatoes
Allie from Ontario
Well…..it felt like we had a full winter’s worth of weather by Dec 31 (very cold temps, wind warnings, heavy snow, freezing rain – sometimes all in one day. And then yesterday it went to +7 C and poured rain all day…what a mess. AND then overnight it dropped below zero Thank goodness we keep sand buckets at every doorway as our world now looks like a sheet of ice. Today’s plans for errands, work on the house in town + a run to the down might be on hold for a bit :0
What we ate on Jan 9
Brunch: T had an English muffin with h/m jam + a banana and I am still on my smoothie + PB on Ryvita kick…both pretty early. We also little bowls of the black bean/corn soup I made the day before closer to noon.
Dinner: Very simple – the last of the homemade smash burgers/buns from the freezer + a little salad.
Congrats to Stephanie M…a new fridge always seems like such a fresh new start!
Allie from Ontario
I meant “run to the DUMP”! We have no home garbage/recycling pick up here so when you go the dump on the weekends you will always see someone you know! Yes…it’s a weird part of our social sphere 🙂
Tasty
We’ve had very similar weather Allie. With all the rain over the last day or 2, we have lots of bare grass here this morning. We are still above freezing – it’s early for a January thaw!
Stephanie M
Thank you Allie. It absolutely does. Before I load up the new fridge, I’m getting rid of whatever doesn’t get used and just takes up room in there.
Erin in Ontario
We’re dealing with the same ridiculous weather here in northern Ontario, Allie. Dogs slipping, chickens being blown across the yard, generally rotten weather. At last now it’s the weekend, so we can stay home until everything gets sanded!
Heather M
What a mess- ice is the worst! The DC area willmgetnidenstormsnsomenyears, since we live kind of near the line where some years it snows a lot and others not at all.!it’s beautiful to look at and treacherous and impossible to be out. In to catch up on days 10-11 to see any updates!
Heather M
Jan 9: In which I did a zillion things to get ready for a week away, including running my husband to the dr because of a recurring eye issue. Luckily we could get him in at 4:30 on a Friday last minute! Luckily no issues traveling
Breakfast: I had some leftover stollen from the neighbors
Lunch: C took leftover Mexican rice with sausage and veg mess, kiwi and mandarin, and a Kind bar; L took and then came home with (due to the eye) and ate a salad with salami, cucumber, carrot, tomato, lettuce, kalamatas, an apple, and cashews; I finished off the tuna smashed white bean salad on sourdough toast
Dinner: wanted to try out my new fancy waffle maker mom gave me for my birthday (our old one was from when we got married almost 31 years ago, was a cheap very basic one and wasn’t cooking them well at all anymore and mom remembered me talking about that months ago!). Made savory ham, cheese, broccoli waffles using ham and leftover steamed broccoli from the freezer, the rest of some cotswolds double Gloucester cheese (with onion- it’s a favorite) and the last bit of a small block of cheddar. Found an old packet of turkey gravy to use as the syrup. And used the rest of a bag of some frozen peas. Delicious AND A great challenge dinner!!
Sitting at the gate to head to San Diego to visit my mom. Will check in of course! Happy weekend everyone!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, I must say, I’ve never thought to make a savory waffle. What a good idea! That would fit in much better with my husband’s eating plan. I’m going to do this. Thanks! Safe travels and enjoy your visit with your mom.
Tasty
Have a lovely trip, Heather.
Stephanie M
Have a safe trip Heather!!
Karen J
We often put bacon or pecans in waffles, but I’ve never, like Lynn, thought of adding vegetables and cheese. Hmm, I’m intrigued.
I LOVE San Diego. I could easily spend all day in Balboa Park. Also, I like that the airport is not way out of town. Have a nice visit with your mom!
Stephanie M
Friday, January 9, 2026
B – Paul had a bagel. I had cereal with fruit and nuts
L – Paul had breaded chicken tenders from a bag in the freezer. Just a few more left and he’ll finish those tomorrow. I had a ham sandwich on whole wheat.
Snack – I had some pineapple and nuts.
D – burgers and fries
Today was a busy day. We ordered new carpeting for the upstairs den and two guest rooms. We moved here to Virginia from New Jersey almost two years ago and the carpeting upstairs was just waiting to be replaced. We also ordered a new fridge. The fridge that came with the house has been a bone of contention with me from the get go. It’s way too small inside because of the ice maker in front of it. That’s why I don’t care for refrigerators with ice makers on the front of them. There is also no lunch meat drawer in there so I tried putting a Tupperware container in there for that but it takes up too much room. So there is no organization. So we finally decided to get rid of it. It’s coming on Saturday.
Heather M
Yay for new carpeting and especially the new fridge!!!
Stephanie M
Thank you Heather!!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Those sound like nice improvements. We’ve got a few we need to do as well this year.
Stephanie M
Thank you Lynn!
Sometimes you just need to do what you need to do. I’m so looking forward to both but the new fridge is what I’m really excited about. I’m happy About the new carpeting too but I won’t see it much since it’s upstairs and I don’t have a need to go up there very often.
Karen J
Stephanie-Congrats on your house upgrades! I’m so with you on front ice makers.
Our refrigerator also came with our house. We’ve lived here twenty years and it’s still-weirdly- going strong. We talk about replacing it as we have replaced the other appliances over the years, but decided to just wait until it dies. My handy husband built an enclosure around it with antique doors which fits well into our 70 year old house.
Stephanie M
Thank you Karen! I’m very excited about it! Isn’t it funny how excited we get over refrigerators? I remember getting excited about going out with my high school girlfriends on Friday nights. lol!!!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
We have struggled with appliances and have replaced our refrigerator once, we think. Neither DH or I are sure when, but we have had this one worked on, and I always worry when we go out of town that it will stop working. But listening to Jessica, an alarm arrived yesterday that should make me feel a bit better about it. We need to get it set up. I’m not sure why I didn’t order one for our small deep freeze at the same time, but I’ll be ordering it soon as well. Then, I can rest more easily. Thanks for the recommendation Jessica!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Jessica, those crumpets look delish. One of these years during the challenge, I’m gonna post that I have begun making a portion of our breads! It remains a goal of mine!
Heather M
Lol same Lynn, same…
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Well, Stephanie I’m not sure what happened to my longer reply to your terrifying report of Paul’s plane trip. But I am so thankful for all of you that he landed safely. As I said in that comment, that would probably end this nervous flier’s (me!) adventures. I know you’ll be glad for him to finally get back home to VA.
B: egg casserole, coffee. DH had same.
L: made African peanut soup which we really like. It was perfect on this cold day. It uses as a base, chicken and rice soup for which I always use my hm version. Also ate the hm cornbread and DH had a sandwich and chips along with the soup.
D: for dinner I fixed one of my favorite recipes from Jessica, her jambalaya. It is delicious and we usually eat it over spaghetti squash per the recipe. But since we had lo cauliflower rice and half and half rice, we ate it over that instead to use it up. Added apples and cucumber slices to round out the meal.
I’ve been doing lots of cooking these days. One, to use up the eggs, but also I enjoy cooking when it’s cold. It helps warm up the house.
About the last 3eggs…I read about freezing them for use later, so that’s what I did! They are now in the freezer.
Kathryn M
Brunch- pancakes and blueberry syrup, hot cocoa
Dinner- spaghetti with added cheese.
S – spicy trail mix, danish butter cookies.
Not too exciting because it was a long work day for me.
Tasty
Day 9
B: the usual fruit etc. I had some toast and h/m lemon curd, hubby had a muffin.
L: treated ourselves to lunch out, as we had to go out anyway. Went to a little local place that only serves crepes and they are so good. Hubby had tuna and I had ham and cheese – quite yummy.
S: cheese on toast
This was not a great day for the pantry challenge but that’s life.
Danielle L Zecher
I only slept for a couple of hours Wednesday night. Ever since Helene, I can’t seem to sleep when it’s windy. I can’t wait for that to change!
I had to be in the office, so I went to Starbucks on the way for a caffeine fix. I think Nick also went to a drive-thru.
Lunch: We both had leftover pizza.
Dinner: I didn’t get from work until almost 8:00, and Nick was setting up the new generator and assembling its shed ahead of the snow today (they’ve all but guaranteed power outages since our grid is so fragile post-Helene), so we opted to make dinner easy and got food from Cracker Barrell.
I hope everyone in the path of the fires and winter storm is staying safe!
Heather M
So glad to hear Stephanie M’s husband is ok after quite the flying scare! And hoping they all can feel some calm after it.
Jan 9:
It was my every 8 week biologic infusion thursday which means I’m knocked a bit and mostly am on the couch lying down the rest of the day and night, and today is even a bit iffy, and I need to take it easy. So I prepped a favorite salad I created back in the early pandemic days for food for thursday, then I never ate it, lol. Here’s what I could piece together for the day, person by person instead of by meal:
C(son): toasted turkey and cheese on sourdough; then he was gone the rest of the day/evening(fed govt was given off at least locally for Carter’s funeral) seeing movies all over town and grabbed dinner somewhere.
L(husband): worked from home and ate some of the salad I prepped(quinoa, italian tinned oil packed tuna, garbanzos, celery, red onion, seasonings, red wine vinegar), tortilla chips, cantaloupe, peanuts(they’re gone- he has lots of almonds and pistachios still), not sure what else
Me: a few snacks at the infusions(they provide snacks); a late lunch(i’m gone for hours for the infusion) of tuna w/ sliced cucumber and the leftover half and half rice mixed with leftover sauce from over the holidays when we picked up our favorite peruvian chicken; tortilla chips with street corn dip; ice cream – comfort food all the way on these days.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks
Heather, I’m glad the fusion is behind you for 8weeks, and hoping you are feeling better. Perfect time for comfort food, especially such delicious sounding comfort food.
Karen J
Day 9
A fun and busy day. I volunteered in both my youngest grandkids’ classrooms (2nd and 4th), then went to the theater to see the musical Legally Blonde with girlfriends, topping the night off with dinner at a favorite waterfront restaurant.
B-scrambled eggs with spinach and rye toast
L-small portion of leftover harissa chicken (as to not ruin my appetite)
D-out with theater friends
Is anyone else enjoying reading the comments from 2024? I find it interesting that we have so many of us that are veteran pantry challengers and I like that we are getting to “know” each other. And welcome to the new friends! For me it’s a tradition-thanks again, Jessica, for hosting!
Heather M
It’s so fun! Love the friendships that we’ve all developed over the years here. Also love that you had a super fun evening out!
Kim from Colorado
B- various people had cereal, bagel, yogurt
It was another work day for me so lunch and dinner were a random mix. Last of the lo chicken parm, cinnamon roll brought in by a co-worker, mandarins, apple, blueberries, something else I think. Didn’t do very good on the veggies today, I need to get some prepped at home to make them easier to bring along.
Rest of family had ribs for dinner, not sure what their sides were, didn’t see any evidence as leftovers.
Hoping for a chance to finish my freezer inventory this weekend! We seem to be low on proteins
Maureen
Leftovers for lunch. I prepped chicken tacos and quesadillas for everyone for dinner because we had a split schedule and everyone could make those easily on their own when they were ready. Well, I was the only one that ate them (when I got home at 10pm). So, I guess they are back on the menu in the next day or two. And I’m not really sure what everyone ate instead.
Allie from Ontario
It was -20 C at 8 this morning and I’m so happy I made a week’s worth of steel cut oats!
What we ate on Jan 9
Brunch: I had my oats early (so good with slivered almonds + a little apple butter stirred in) and then around noon, finished my portion of last night’s Italian wedding soup. T was up and gone early to help his father in town & get a hair cut so he finished his share of the leftovers closer to noon and then had some crackers & laughing cow cheese in the afterrnoon.
Dinner: I marinated a small bavette steak early (lots of fridge jar “damage” to make the marinade) and I also made a very “pickly/assertive” celery salad with home canned pepperoncini peppers, roasted red peppers from the freezer, red wine vinegar, olive oil & some whole smashed garlic cloves. It is meant to sit in the fridge for the day and then before serving you remove the garlic and then I added grated carrots & sliced yellow peppers for some freshness & variety. It was really good beside our grilled/thinly sliced steak + some baby potatoes roasted with garlic, rosemary & thyme.
Maureen
That whole dinner sounds fantastic! And I had never heard of bavette steak, so off to google I went.
Allie from Ontario
Some websites say flank steak but these look different to me and are typically sold in much smaller pieces (ie this was purchached as an 8 oz steak). To me they have the look of a skirt steak more so than a flank.
Heather M
Ok YUM! Amazing dinner! Sounds like an ideal side next to steak and potatoes! And, yeah, I’m tired of our cold and we are only getting down to -6C at night, but had windchills yesterday lower. Can’t imagine your cold!
Tasty
Trust me Heather, you don’t want to become acquainted with -20C – it’s not nice!