Pantry Clean Out!

secretpantssam · Aug 27, 2015

Last night my husband suggested going out to eat and I refused! I feel like we've been doing so well with this I just want to keep going.
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast- Some fruit
lunch- salad with some leftovers
dinner- stir fry with rice

Today
Breakfast- fruit
lunch- leftovers
dinner- this is the night I go straight to a meeting from work so I may stop but I may go cheap

Friday
Breakfast- fruit
lunch- not sure yet, but probably a salad
dinner- Pinapple and Bacon Sausage I found in the freezer cooked on the grill with some purple potatoes

Saturday
Breakfast- eggs and hashbrowns
Lunch- leftovers if we have them
Dinner- My nephew's birthday party. My sister in Law always makes great food!

I'm not sure about Sunday or next week but I still have enough food to keep going for awhile. Though I am feeling the pitch of a few things I'm craving- Like Ariel mentioned. I may cave and just a buy a few little things at the store to supplement. But I am so proud of myself for figuring out how to do this with just the stuff in the pantry, freezer, and what I can get at the farm stand!

dlavender · Aug 27, 2015

ariel1025 said:
Ack, sorry for disappearing again. It's my son's first year of school, and we've been playing around on finding a routine that really works for us. I think we've found it, so hopefully I'm back on regularly again

Welcome back! The beginning of fall is always crazy busy!

westcoastfldisneygirl said:
Tonight was indeed the frozen pizza that was supposed to be last night's dinner. I like to keep a frozen pizza on hand at all times.

We always keep at least 2 on hand. They really are one of the best "go to" meals out there when life gets crazy.

westcoastfldisneygirl said:
Tomorrow I am making pasta with a roasted tomato Alfredo sauce. The sauce is somewhat of a cheat. I roast some tomatoes and then heat up a jar of alfredo sauce on the stove and let it simmer with the tomatoes. The best part is it tastes better as lunch the next day!

That sounds great. We still have a few boxes of pasta that we need to rotate in

secretpantssam said:
I'm not sure about Sunday or next week but I still have enough food to keep going for awhile. Though I am feeling the pitch of a few things I'm craving

This is us right now, we are in a great routine, but want to start sprinkling in some tasteys! Great job on having the willpower to say no to food out. DW and I have to keep each other in check. Sometimes I get weak, sometimes she does, but so far we are doing good in counterbalancing each other in these moments.

tinkermom_of_two · Aug 27, 2015

With crockpot meatloaf, I have made a foil "pan" in the middle of the crockpot, and surrounded it with wrapped baking potatoes for a one pot non-casserole crockpot meal.

pigletto · Aug 27, 2015

Okie dokie. I posted I was in on this thread but it was way back on a huge shopping day. So I've been using up the things we bought plus went and got produce and bread and milk last weekend so I had everything on hand and tons of choice. This week I will need to be more creative. We still have a lot but maybe not our favourite things or my go-to things. This is when I usually go out and do a big shop even though I have too many things to use up. However, I'm not shopping again until Labour Day weekend unless it's for produce, cheese, or milk, and that's that.
Tonight was baked chicken and oven fries and fruit.

Tomorrow,
Breakfast will be oatmeal
Lunch -Hotdogs and fruit
Dinner-I have steaks thawing and will marinate them tomorrow, oven baked sweet potato fries, corn on the cob and broccoli.

On the weekend I will do some freezer cooking for dh to take for lunches and to have easy dinners for the week. I am thinking a chilli for sure, and probably a Lentil soup.

dlavender · Aug 28, 2015

tinkermom_of_two said:
With crockpot meatloaf, I have made a foil "pan" in the middle of the crockpot, and surrounded it with wrapped baking potatoes for a one pot non-casserole crockpot meal.

Great idea! Definitely going to use this.

jiminykrikkit · Aug 28, 2015

ariel1025 said:
My Hubs loves meatloaf, so I'm gonna have to test out the crockpot version. We are, however, waiting for a sale on ground meat as well. We ran out of it very early on and miss it like crazy around here!...I really need to start making it a habit to save veggie scraps to make broth. That and random bread pieces to make homemade croutons. Small savings, but a savings is a savings. Plus, it keeps things from going to waste

When I was growing up, I feel like most of our dinners relied on ground beef, as if it were an economical choice. But now it seems like it's so expensive! Even the higher fat content kind is about $4/lb and I never see it go on sale. Ok, so it's not ribeye prices, but chicken and pork are so much cheaper. Ground turkey at my store is the same price as the beef too. Oh well.

I made croutons from the bread ends recently and they were great! Sometimes my store does buy dressing and get croutons free (or vice versa). I used to do that when I saw it whether I needed the items or not. Now, I just make both the croutons and dressing.

westcoastfldisneygirl said:
Tonight was indeed the frozen pizza that was supposed to be last night's dinner. I like to keep a frozen pizza on hand at all times.

Tomorrow I am making pasta with a roasted tomato Alfredo sauce. The sauce is somewhat of a cheat. I roast some tomatoes and then heat up a jar of alfredo sauce on the stove and let it simmer with the tomatoes. The best part is it tastes better as lunch the next day!

That pasta sounds SO GOOD. We usually have a bag of pizza rolls in the freezer. My store offers a free bag when you buy corn dogs every now and then. We go through corn dogs like water, so...haha

secretpantssam said:
Last night my husband suggested going out to eat and I refused! I feel like we've been doing so well with this I just want to keep going.

Awesome!!

jiminykrikkit · Aug 28, 2015

Still going strong here. DH is going to be offshore until at least Monday. He was supposed to come home tonight, but they are having some issues out there. Anyways, that's fine because that means he can bill a lot more hours! And I can be more adventurous with meatless pantry dinners while he's gone. The past few nights we've done leftover curry and rice or refried bean and cheese nachos. I think I'll switch it up tonight and use the last box of pasta and last cans of tomatoes.

Tomorrow there's a door to door food drive in my neighborhood. I'm taking the opportunity to unload the random stuff that doesn't seem to get used. Cheating? Maybe. Good cause? Yes!

My pantry is pretty much cleaned out now. I'm thinking about doing that thing where you have a bin for each day and put the ingredients needed for each dinner in each bin. I think it will help me stick to my meal plans and use everything I buy. And even if we skip eating at home one night, it'll still be obvious that I have a whole dinner's worth of ingredients to put towards the next week's meal plan. I already have a bunch of bins that will work because I just did a serious purge of the playroom and ended up with so many empty bins. I'll post a pic if/when I do it.

Happy Friday, friends!

westcoastfldisneygirl · Aug 28, 2015

Staying strong here as well! :yay:

Tonight I have my workout class. I go to Orange Theory 3x a week. I normally don'tgo on Fridays but since we are headed for vacation I have a class I need to use, or I lose it.

We will have the last of the pasta with the roasted tomato alfredo sauce

Mad4Dizne · Aug 28, 2015

You have all inspired me to inventory my pantries! We usually only keep a 2-3 week supply of meats on hand, as my freezer storage is somewhat limited. I love the idea of keeping a more organized food inventory at home. We have also started cutting down the take out/take away meals and reserving restaurant meals for vacations.

yeahdisney · Aug 28, 2015

We are in. Kids are back at school. We normally eat all meals from/at home. I picked a meat for each night during the week and we change the sides up. Using stuff from pantry and freezer. It is working well, I am starting the thawing progress night before. Today at work there was a catered meal, no one wanted the leftovers. I brought them home and we had extra teenagers for supper it worked well.

jiminykrikkit · Sep 1, 2015

Hi friends! I haven't been to the grocery store in about 10 days. I really should go tomorrow now that DH is back in town and we'll be needing a lot more food. I just need to load up on fresh produce and not much else. Maybe some snacks for DS. I have all the meat and grains we need thanks to good sales a couple of weeks back. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

jen73 · Sep 1, 2015

I am trying to follow along as well, but with two teenage football players who eat NONstop from 4pm til bedtime, I feel like my grocery shopping is still occurring but trying to just buy fruit, milk, eggs.

But went through the pantry today to do some baking, haven't done too much lately cuz it's just too hot and the house stays warm. But I did manage to make a cherry pie (leftover pie shells from Easter), made two pumpkin breads, and made 2 batches of choc chip cookies...I think I had 5 sort of filled bags of choc chips....lol

I have several cans of beans (assorted kinds) so am thinking I will either make chili tomorrow or a veggie bean soup (along with canned tomatoes) in the crockpot. I will throw in a half box of pasta to that too.

I plan on having hubby grill whatever I can find at the bottom of the freezer, I know there are chicken fajitas, a steak or two and maybe a pork chop or two

Reading these made me motivated! Thanks y'all

akoenig · Sep 3, 2015

This post inspired me to make three batches of pierogis... hope the DH doesn't mind eating like we're suffering through a cold Polish winter for a few weeks

westcoastfldisneygirl · Sep 5, 2015

Hi all! DH and I are back from our cruise. Had a great time but happy to be home and back in the swing of things!

There were issues with customs today (for the boat...not us personally!) and we cleared about 3 hours after we were supposed to :mad:

We did self embark and got off 3 hours later then scheduled. SO.....we got home late, I took dinner (baked ziti) out and it's not going to defrost in time :sad:

So DH went to get us Publix subs. Half tonight, the other half will be lunch for me tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be the baked ziti that I had planned for tonight. Monday we have some contractors doing work on our house addition (yes on Labor Day, that was the day they could and wanted to work!) so we will have pizza. I feed my contractors :flower:

I really need to go to the grocery store. Thanks to the poster above for the crockpot meatload idea!

ariel1025 · Sep 8, 2015

Be back later for comments and more details, but needed to get something written down to hold me accountable

Breakfast this morning was Chick-fil-a
Lunch was leftover Chinese take-out
Dinner will be the remaining leftover Chinese food

Can you see a trend to why I need the accountability?

westcoastfldisneygirl · Sep 8, 2015

Now that I'm back to the grind, I have a meal plan set! Yay!

Tonight is left over pizza, baked ziti, Etc. eat it up!

Tomorrow is slow cooker spinach and tortellini soup (had everything on hand except the tortellini and publix has them on BOGO this week!)

Thursday I have my workout class. H will have leftover soup and I will have anything left or have a can of soup (always have on hand)

Friday we are doing white enchiladas. Chips and salsa (mild for me hot for DH)

Saturday we are doing game night at a friends house! We are doing just appetizers and desserts. I'm bringing chocolate sugar cookie bars, lemon squares, and fiesta dip (different then a 7 layer). We will also bring some drinks.

Sunday we are grilling steaks and having tator tots and salad

westcoastfldisneygirl · Sep 12, 2015

Any Pantry Clean out plans for next week? No shopping for me next week, WHOOT!

Mine are:

Monday: Slow cooker cheesy/tomato chicken pasta...It's chicken, cream cheese, tomato soup, seasonings in slow cooker and mix in cooked pasta at the end...I cook the pasta 1 minute under instructions as it cooks more when mixed in.
Tuesday: Black bean and cheese quesadillas, broccoli
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: I have my workout class, so it'll a grilled cheese/soup kind of night
Friday: Tortellini (Publix had them BOGO this past week) baked with alfredo sauce and tomato sauce (will freeze half), salad
Saturday: Wedding reception :yay:

ariel1025 · Sep 12, 2015

Here are my options for the next several nights. Hubs is being sent out of town for work, so keeping it simple

* Leftover Teriyaki chicken and rice
* Tamales with Spanish rice (tamales are already made and in the freezer)
* Frozen pizza with chips (not nutritious but a favorite of the kiddos)
* Shredded beef nachos/tacos/burritos with Spanish rice (shredded beef is already made and in the freezer)

My main goal is not to go out to eat at all while he's gone which is usually my go-to plan

pjlla · Sep 13, 2015

Jumping into this thread! I have been really focused on using up my pantry lately..... partially to save money (just paid a tuition bill and I have a splurge trip coming up in October), and partially just to be sure I am not sitting on a bunch of overages in the food storage area. I am really very good at keeping up with things in the freezer, cupboard, etc, but every once in a while it is nice to get the shelves bare and start again.

Friday was cooking from the garden day..... I used up 3 large eggplants and a bunch of squash, tomatoes, peppers, and onions making a few different dishes and froze some of them for later in the winter. Today is SOUP DAY! I like making soups and I love eating soups and the weather finally feels like SOUP weather today. I pulled out a batch of beef stock I made last Christmas from the Christmas Eve prime rib..... so that will be the base for a beef barley vegetable soup. And I have two chicken carcasses that I froze over the summer when it was too hot to make soup stock. I will get those going today and make a stock and (if I have enough supplies) make a nice batch of vegetable black bean soup. This will use up a good amount of my fresh produce (carrots, celery, onions, peppers, garlic) and some freezer supplies (corn I froze earlier this summer, home cooked beans, beef and chicken) and maybe even some pantry supplies (barley, beans, canned tomatoes). Should be enough soup for dinner tonight, leftovers for my men for dinner on Tuesday (my work night), and plenty to put aside for lunches later in the week and to freeze in single servings for work lunches this fall!

Things that have been lingering in my pantry I don't know what to do with....... lots and LOTS of salad dressing and baking supplies. Since I follow WW and DH follows a low carb diet, we don't eat many baked goods (plus I hate baking).... so that stuff tends to linger. And somehow..... I have TONS of salad dressings in the pantry! I use them to marinate meats and sometimes as a sauce in stir-fries and the like.... but we can only use so much salad dressing! I have a feeling a few of them have probably expired and that will take care of those..... but any ideas for the rest??

I may get ambitious and make a few baked goodies and pop them in the freezer for DS's lunches. He would really appreciate the occasional treat!

Off to check on the soup progress and to start slicing and dicing!...............P

ariel1025 · Sep 13, 2015

pjlla said:
Jumping into this thread! I have been really focused on using up my pantry lately..... partially to save money (just paid a tuition bill and I have a splurge trip coming up in October), and partially just to be sure I am not sitting on a bunch of overages in the food storage area. I am really very good at keeping up with things in the freezer, cupboard, etc, but every once in a while it is nice to get the shelves bare and start again.

Friday was cooking from the garden day..... I used up 3 large eggplants and a bunch of squash, tomatoes, peppers, and onions making a few different dishes and froze some of them for later in the winter. Today is SOUP DAY! I like making soups and I love eating soups and the weather finally feels like SOUP weather today. I pulled out a batch of beef stock I made last Christmas from the Christmas Eve prime rib..... so that will be the base for a beef barley vegetable soup. And I have two chicken carcasses that I froze over the summer when it was too hot to make soup stock. I will get those going today and make a stock and (if I have enough supplies) make a nice batch of vegetable black bean soup. This will use up a good amount of my fresh produce (carrots, celery, onions, peppers, garlic) and some freezer supplies (corn I froze earlier this summer, home cooked beans, beef and chicken) and maybe even some pantry supplies (barley, beans, canned tomatoes). Should be enough soup for dinner tonight, leftovers for my men for dinner on Tuesday (my work night), and plenty to put aside for lunches later in the week and to freeze in single servings for work lunches this fall!

Things that have been lingering in my pantry I don't know what to do with....... lots and LOTS of salad dressing and baking supplies. Since I follow WW and DH follows a low carb diet, we don't eat many baked goods (plus I hate baking).... so that stuff tends to linger. And somehow..... I have TONS of salad dressings in the pantry! I use them to marinate meats and sometimes as a sauce in stir-fries and the like.... but we can only use so much salad dressing! I have a feeling a few of them have probably expired and that will take care of those..... but any ideas for the rest??

I may get ambitious and make a few baked goodies and pop them in the freezer for DS's lunches. He would really appreciate the occasional treat!

Off to check on the soup progress and to start slicing and dicing!...............P

Love seeing new people jumping aboard!

I am totally with you on the soup front. I am more excited than a normal person should be about the list of soups I have pending for future meal plans. Just remind me of this when I'm complaining about the ice and frigid cold temps :laughing:

So I'm gonna sound like a complete kitchen/cooking goofball, but I have a question about freezing foods. We planted our first garden this year and I am now drowning in yellow squash and green bell peppers. Are these both suitable for freezing? And do you just dice and store in freezer ziploc bags? It's okay if you laugh, I really am clueless :rotfl2:

I would also love to know how to make beef and chicken stock, I'm sure it has to taste a million times better than the store bought can kind I currently use!

Wish I had some tips for the dressing, I'm obviously a cooking newbie, so I use dressing for salads and marinating...boooooring :rotfl:

Hopefully somebody else can help you out. I know @jiminykrikkit has had lots of great recommendations on utilizing foods in the past!

Pantry Clean Out!

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