Pantry Clean Out!

[ariel1025]

After two days in a row of caving in to a restaurant for lunch, I'm happy to say that yesterday was a success with eating down our pantry.

Breakfast: Cereal (kids), toast with cookie butter (me), Hubs doesn't eat breakfast
Lunch: Used the leftover refried beans and chopped tomato, combined it with an avoacado that had finally ripened enough to eat and some salsa to make burritos (myself, daughter and husband); son took packed lunch to school (peanut butter on tortilla, baby carrots, banana, pirate booty)
Dinner: Baked chicken, roasted spaghetti squash and salad with homemade croutons. It was my first time making spaghetti squash. I had to cook it longer than the Pinterest recipe suggested but it was very good. Also my first time making homemade croutons. So, so easy and delicious!

Within our meals yesterday we finished eating the refried beans and chopped tomato from Tuesday night's dinner, as well as finishing off a bottle of chicken seasoning that had been in the pantry for years and utilized the bread ends that we usually just throw away (3 sets). It felt so good to use up so many different things instead of throwing them away. Definitely gave me new motivation going into the weekend

Have you guys used up anything that's been sitting around for a while?

 

[4Mickeys]

Do you crock pot cook much?

No - I think I got one a bit too big and found that when I was using it in the past I probably didn't have enough food in it! lol - I have used it a few times to do a piece of pork shoulder for yummy pulled pork. But I do think I will start to use it some more and even with other recipes fill it up more with cheaper meat cuts and then freeze for a ready to go meal on my boys busy Hockey training nights this coming winter. I think I tend to maybe leave it for a bit long - the pot roast was good but I think I had it on too long - but I will learn from my mistakes I'm also not convinced I got the best value piece of beef from the local butcher so I will make sure to look around at different butchers and ask more about the different cuts of meat.

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

http://www.disboards.com/threads/index-for-crock-pot-crazy-crock-pot-just-got-a-crock-pot.1915122/

I found this link recently the posts are older but some good ideas for everyone.
I LOVE this post like therapy but cheaper!

 

[4Mickeys]

Ok just went to the crockpot thread OMG so many choices lol - thanks that should keep me experimenting for a while lol. I know what you mean about cheap therapy I'm loving it too.

 

[pocomom]

I'm trying to eat down stuff AND try some things out. I'm not going to be as strict with the budget because we eat lots of fresh veggies and I'm more concerned with just not wasting .. grocery savings are a perk.
We have an absurd amount of beans, various grains - lots of "weird" things I want to eat more of or try that I never get around to having.
So this week I made an amazing 15 bean soup in the slow cooker. Beans, onion, mushrooms, carrots celery nearly a bottle of wine (just a small glass out of it) veggie broth, rosemary basil thyme bay leaf splash of soy sauce. Amazing. We ate it for 2 nights and I'll freeze this rest tonight for some quick lunches.
I also made a carrot risotto and roasted butternut squash that was supposed to be for ravioli but was so delish we just ate it like candy.
Tomorrow I think we will do some enchiladas as I have an excess of sauce and I'll have some extras to freeze for the kids to grab .

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

let me share one other thing for those who will be freezing quick dinners/small servings of soup etc.

I personally LOVE these containers they're cheap but they're sturdy enough to be reused several time. I've used my set for about a year now still have about 6 from the original set going strong the others I let get funky in the fridge and just tossed them.

<http://www.amazon.com/Reditainer-Ex...452264667&sr=8-3&keywords=freezer+containers>

maybe this link will work but its for Reditainer Extreme Freeze Deli Food Containers with Lids, 16-Ounce, 36-Pack and they sell a variety of sizes

 

[secretpantssam]

Woops I missed a few days. I've been busy but have been sticking to the budget mostly. I made a trip to a small market on tuesday because I was out of eggs. The eggs are a bit more expensive because they are free range, but they are so much better than regular eggs and their produce is super cheap and really great. So I got 2 cartons of eggs, bacon, kale, ginger, lemons, milk, a butternut squash, and an impulse buy of 2 pumpkin donuts all for $19. So not bad for all I got. I am almost out of coffee so i may need to make a grocery trip for that and some more fresh produce but I'm going to try to limit what I get.

Tuesday
breakfast- Grapefuit
Lunch- some leftovers in the fridge
Dinner- I was feeling really run down so I made loaded baked potatoes and sauteed kale with 2 fried eggs on top. A little weird but it worked.

Wednesday
Breakfast- Grapefruit
Lunch- I had some cheese and meat left over from a cheese plate for a family gathering so I had some brie and cheddar with Prosciutto and crackers and grapes for lunch. Felt very fancy but also budget!
Dinner- we went to dinner with friends but didn't go too over board. Got a Cubano sandwich and a side salad for $12.

Thursday
Breakfast- Pumpkin donut
Lunch- Leftover cubano sandwich
Dinner- I had a meeting to attend right after work and dreaded that I may have to buy a fast food meal. But I was visited by the budegt fairy and an event I sent up for at the end of the day had food so I was able to get a salad and sandwich from there. It was a better meal than a cheap fast food option and it was free!

Friday
Breakfast- my coworker brought in cranberry bread and it was delicious!
Lunch- Chicken fingers I made myself that I froze about a month back and a small salad and a yogurt.
Dinner- I'm defrosting porkchops from Omaha steaks that I plan to make with some baked potatoes

This weekend I plan to use the rest of the kale and the butternut squash for a salad and maybe make some spaghetti with meatballs I made about a month back and froze. I also still need to take inventory but I think I can go a while without any major grocery store trips. And I plan to keep resisting the urge to go easy and order out. Hopefully we can stay strong!

 

[dlavender]

Did great this week!

Last night we had crock pot Chili, which I somehow only ate 1 bowl of (gotta win that prize!). It was so amazing.

Today

Breakfast - Cereal

Lunch - Lean Cuisine for me, Left over Chili for Family

Snack - DW made an amazing black eye pea dip that has avacados, tomatoes, and corn. Honestly I thought it was going to be terrible, but it's amazing!

Dinner - Rest of Chili

Have to go grocery shopping tomorrow, get some milk and meat. Hoping to stick well below $100.

 

[ariel1025]

No - I think I got one a bit too big and found that when I was using it in the past I probably didn't have enough food in it! lol - I have used it a few times to do a piece of pork shoulder for yummy pulled pork. But I do think I will start to use it some more and even with other recipes fill it up more with cheaper meat cuts and then freeze for a ready to go meal on my boys busy Hockey training nights this coming winter. I think I tend to maybe leave it for a bit long - the pot roast was good but I think I had it on too long - but I will learn from my mistakes I'm also not convinced I got the best value piece of beef from the local butcher so I will make sure to look around at different butchers and ask more about the different cuts of meat.

This happened to me as well. I avoided the crock pot for a long time, because most everything that came out wasn't very good. It took me a long time to figure out it was because of the size of my crock pot. I now have 3 of them (2 qt, 4 qt and 6 ct). I use the 2 qt for chili con queso, bean dips etc, 4 qt for most of my meats and 6 ct for double batches of soups/stews or when I want to double up my meat portions for later use. Now that I've figured out some sizing issues I can make almost any quality of meat into a great tasting one I got my 2 and 4 qt on black friday specials at Kohl's but I see pretty good prices on Amazon a lot as well.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/index-for-crock-pot-crazy-crock-pot-just-got-a-crock-pot.1915122/

I found this link recently the posts are older but some good ideas for everyone.
I LOVE this post like therapy but cheaper!

Thanks for the link!

I'm trying to eat down stuff AND try some things out. I'm not going to be as strict with the budget because we eat lots of fresh veggies and I'm more concerned with just not wasting .. grocery savings are a perk.
We have an absurd amount of beans, various grains - lots of "weird" things I want to eat more of or try that I never get around to having.
So this week I made an amazing 15 bean soup in the slow cooker. Beans, onion, mushrooms, carrots celery nearly a bottle of wine (just a small glass out of it) veggie broth, rosemary basil thyme bay leaf splash of soy sauce. Amazing. We ate it for 2 nights and I'll freeze this rest tonight for some quick lunches.
I also made a carrot risotto and roasted butternut squash that was supposed to be for ravioli but was so delish we just ate it like candy.
Tomorrow I think we will do some enchiladas as I have an excess of sauce and I'll have some extras to freeze for the kids to grab .

There's a huge savings in the grocery bill simply by not wasting food

Your bean soup sounds amazing!

Woops I missed a few days. I've been busy but have been sticking to the budget mostly. I made a trip to a small market on tuesday because I was out of eggs. The eggs are a bit more expensive because they are free range, but they are so much better than regular eggs and their produce is super cheap and really great. So I got 2 cartons of eggs, bacon, kale, ginger, lemons, milk, a butternut squash, and an impulse buy of 2 pumpkin donuts all for $19. So not bad for all I got. I am almost out of coffee so i may need to make a grocery trip for that and some more fresh produce but I'm going to try to limit what I get.

Tuesday
breakfast- Grapefuit
Lunch- some leftovers in the fridge
Dinner- I was feeling really run down so I made loaded baked potatoes and sauteed kale with 2 fried eggs on top. A little weird but it worked.

Wednesday
Breakfast- Grapefruit
Lunch- I had some cheese and meat left over from a cheese plate for a family gathering so I had some brie and cheddar with Prosciutto and crackers and grapes for lunch. Felt very fancy but also budget!
Dinner- we went to dinner with friends but didn't go too over board. Got a Cubano sandwich and a side salad for $12.

Thursday
Breakfast- Pumpkin donut
Lunch- Leftover cubano sandwich
Dinner- I had a meeting to attend right after work and dreaded that I may have to buy a fast food meal. But I was visited by the budegt fairy and an event I sent up for at the end of the day had food so I was able to get a salad and sandwich from there. It was a better meal than a cheap fast food option and it was free!

Friday
Breakfast- my coworker brought in cranberry bread and it was delicious!
Lunch- Chicken fingers I made myself that I froze about a month back and a small salad and a yogurt.
Dinner- I'm defrosting porkchops from Omaha steaks that I plan to make with some baked potatoes

This weekend I plan to use the rest of the kale and the butternut squash for a salad and maybe make some spaghetti with meatballs I made about a month back and froze. I also still need to take inventory but I think I can go a while without any major grocery store trips. And I plan to keep resisting the urge to go easy and order out. Hopefully we can stay strong!

There are definitely certain foods that are worth paying more for in return for better quality

Looks like you are doing absolutely fantastic with sticking to eating foods from home. Great work!

Oh, and getting free (and good!) food from a work function is one of the best things ever

Did great this week!

Last night we had crock pot Chili, which I somehow only ate 1 bowl of (gotta win that prize!). It was so amazing.

Today

Breakfast - Cereal

Lunch - Lean Cuisine for me, Left over Chili for Family

Snack - DW made an amazing black eye pea dip that has avacados, tomatoes, and corn. Honestly I thought it was going to be terrible, but it's amazing!

Dinner - Rest of Chili

Have to go grocery shopping tomorrow, get some milk and meat. Hoping to stick well below $100.

Way to go on sticking to it!

Your wife's black eyed pea dip sounds great! I'm pretty sure I have a can of black eyed peas hanging around in the pantry, I might be throwing that together this weekend

 

[m&m_mom]

Hi all! I'm loving this thread. I think I'm going to jump in here with you guys. Over the holidays I got away from menu planning and sticking to a budget. Now, my pantry is overflowing with stuff that needs to be used up. I took inventory of my pantry, fridge, and freezer. I did not inventory the kids' snack cabinet or my baking pantry. I kind of know off the top of my head what is in those already.

We are a family of four. My kids are 4 & 2. My four year old will eat just about everything but my two year old is in her "I don't want it" phase. Lol!

To start the week, I threw away a few items from the fridge & freezer that had expired. Then I made a ham and potato soup to use up leftovers. Used up some ground beef from the freezer and had cheeseburgers one night and then made the leftovers into cheeseburger pasta (homemade hamburger helper). Tonight we'll be having shrimp tacos (shrimp from freezer & tortillas from pantry). I also made a batch of pumpkin protein bars to use up a can of pumpkin from the pantry.

I'll try to keep a more detailed list of what I'm making/we're eating to keep track.

 

[Zoesmama03]

$93 for a week this time. Not my best but not too bad either. Included tp. $100 if you count our RO water from the water store. $10 was my brother's soda he sent cash for. And a few snack foods. Rest is dinners mostly a few lunch options for weekends and I do a lot of leftovers for my lunches. He budgets his own work lunches. I'm the only one that eats breakfast. I have to eat something with my meds. I may make oatmeal and get back into that. I do rolled oats with flax and chia and sweeten it with honey and a little brown sugar and cinnamon.

I made a list of sale meats(our 93% lean was 6.98 for two pounds...YES we splurge on this if possible over the less lean and very greasy stuff) (Oh and whole chicken 99cents/lb and 2.99/lb on roasts) and then decided the menu plan based on that. This was 7 full different dinner meals we don't often use leftovers as dinner again in the week so I need to learn to freeze some things so we can try them again later because biggest thing is nobody wants the same thing. But this week I had planned two meals at least off the whole chicken I bought. First will just be roasted with baked potato, baked beans and cucumber salad. Then I'll crock pot the carcass and make broth to make homemade chicken noodle soup later next week. I'm attempting freshly made noodles. Never done it but I do want to learn more scratch cooking on those type things. I like scratch cooking in general anyway. I do my enchiladas all scratch(the sauce) but I can't get the thickness of tortillas down so I usually buy store bought ones. I should practice and try again soon though.

I didn't have a lot already on hand so this budget isn't all that bad. One of these years we will get a deep freezer and try getting meats for the month(or bi weekly until we fill it up) from a local farm and then just get produce, dairy(what little we consume). I'd love to make my own breads but more so pasta is what use more. I keep wondering what the equipment for indoor gardening would be. Probably cheaper to put up a fence around back and try some raised bed garden outside maybe less traffic through yard would help keep kids out of it and allow something to grow out there.

 

[Zoesmama03]

Oh and I can relate to those of you with pickier eaters. My daughter is quite picky in some ways and others I have it easy. She will eat any vegetable except brussel sprouts and celery unless it has peanut butter. It's meats she gets picky about. She won't eat mashed potatoes. WEIRD because most kids love them. She's picky on breads too.

 

[m&m_mom]

In the warmer months we grow veggies, herbs, and berries. I'm looking into getting some dwarf apple or citrus trees. We started with growing everything in containers. I didn't want to dig up a portion of our yard and then lose interest/have it not work out. We still do containers but we expanded and added a few beds last spring.

If you want to try growing in containers, I've had great success with tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, spinach, strawberries, bell peppers, zucchini/summer squash, green beans, peas, and cucumbers.

 

[megs193]

This thread inspired me to clean out my freezer and pantry. I have so much stuff in both yet I keep buying more every week. My DH is away for 1.5 weeks so I made a meal plan based on what we already have and I only need a few things from the grocery store so I am guessing I will spend about $20 at the grocery store vs. the $150 I normally spend. I just bought some Disney gift cards for our May trip so it will be nice to offset the cost of those!

 

[Debbie]

This thread inspired me to clean out my freezer and pantry.

Yes, I just got up from the freezer with a list of meats and veggies. How did I forget that there were perogies down there? When DH asked today, what do you need from No Frills, he didn't even flinch when I said nothing. Fruits and veggies will be all I need for most of the month. Even our milk and my yogurt is covered.

 

[Zoesmama03]

In the warmer months we grow veggies, herbs, and berries. I'm looking into getting some dwarf apple or citrus trees. We started with growing everything in containers. I didn't want to dig up a portion of our yard and then lose interest/have it not work out. We still do containers but we expanded and added a few beds last spring.

If you want to try growing in containers, I've had great success with tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, spinach, strawberries, bell peppers, zucchini/summer squash, green beans, peas, and cucumbers.

I did a container before and I'm fine growing that way but I got a nice start on cucumbers when my daughter was 4-5 and wanted to grow some stuff like they did at her school. When I moved container outside it didn't last a week before kids had smashed them.

 

[4Mickeys]

When I moved container outside it didn't last a week before kids had smashed them.

That's awful - I don't blame you for being hesitant to try again - as not only would you end up without the food but also down the cost of setting up the garden

Another successful dinner in our house tonight. We were planning on hotdogs but I didn't get to the shop to get the hotdogs or the rolls - we have a local shop that would have been open but I don't like their rolls. So I switched nights tomorrow we were having quiche so we did that tonight and used up some small one/off veg in the fridge. I had been googling for quiche ideas and then incorporated it.

Shortcrust pastry - found in the freezer and still in date! yeah its been there a while.
Potato, broccoli (used the last little bit), corn (used the one ear left in the fridge and cut the kernels off), bacon (from the freezer), onion and mozzarella cheese (still left from when we made parmegiana a few nights ago). I also had a small salad with mine lettuce, tomato and last of the avocado in the fridge. Kids just had bigger pieces of the quiche which really was probably a bit more like a frittata as we had so many ingredients in it.

When I say we made I have also been successful with having my DS15 do most of the dinner preparation for the past week with my instruction and guidance to work on his independence skills and get him ready for a part-time job lol. We just have to work on his speed now that he is starting to get the idea of a few things.

I used to menu plan for a week to two weeks but did it inefficiently - I would just decide what I wanted and ask kids what they wanted and shop for it. This meant that most of the time there was not a great deal of overlap of ingredients and I would end up with a garbage can full of wasted food - but no more and I'm feeling pretty good about it

 

[m&m_mom]

When I moved container outside it didn't last a week before kids had smashed them.

Wow, that's awful. I'm sorry that the school kids keep destroying your garden. Is there any way you could put the containers in a garage or patio area closer to the house so they won't be able to get to them?

Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast- Grits & coffee for me, cereal & juice for DH, strawberry waffles with sausage, cuties, & mlk for the kids
Lunch- PBJ sandwiches, chips, & apples for everyone (we all drink water throughout the day)
Dinner- Italian wedding soup & grlled cheese sandwiches for everyone. The kids got mlk to drink.
Dessert- we each had a small brownie as a reward for finally getting all of our Christmas decorations put away. Lol

Today's meals:
Breakfast- grapenuts & coffee for me, cereal & coffee for DH, strawberry waffles & milk for the kids
Lunch- probably pbj's again
Dinner- Hoppin John (black eyed peas, rice, & bacon), broccoli (I'm all out of greens to put in the Hoppin John), and biscuits.

 

[Zoesmama03]

That was on my front patio. The school bus lets off almost directly in front of my house and kids used to trample through, climb our tree and mess around before going home. This neighborhood has issues. We've had our outside light bulbs stolen TWICE. That's why I say fence. We'd really like to get out of this place and find an actual house(this is manufactured in a park).

 

[Zoesmama03]

Yesterday we had sausage stuff as we call it. Well my friends dad named it another 4 letter s word. lol Its just smoked sausage, potatoes(my friend used au gratin boxed but I like fresh better even though it takes more prep time) and broccoli. I fry my potatoes in coconut oil or butter first then add the sausage and steamed broccoli after those are browned up.


Tonight is our first meal from the whole chicken. Just roasting it. My brother will likely make a sandwich. I'll eat some breast meat as its cut off and maybe a wing with my baked potato and cucumber & onion salad(one item I had on hand). Debating on if I want to steam up some carrots too or not but will probably heat the baked beans(the can is big enough for two meals for us). I probably won't do carrots as it will be too close to tomorrows Cherry Pepsi pot roast. Leftover pot roast and ground beef will be seasoned again for tacos Tuesday. Wednesday probably homemade chicken noodle soup and Thursday will be either hamburgers or maid rite(as our hometown quad cities area call it, started that name in Iowa though) with baked potato wedges and baked beans.