Pre-holiday pantry challenge

[smiller]

Still plugging away at several items - nothing new to report that's all finished up!

I bought some bread on Sunday and need to buy milk very soon.

I told DSis about the challenge (after looking in her cupboards ) and she thought it sounded like fun. Maybe I can help her cook a few pantry/freezer meals!

Side note: can you freeze cut-up sweet potatoes? I started cutting them into fries and didn't realize how much it made... so a bunch is in the freezer for another day (before the holidays, of course!).

 

[momx2]

Okay, I am starting this today, effective November 1st. I did just go to the grocery this weekend and stock up. I am addicted to my grocery sale flyers. Maybe I should check them out this a.m. before committing! My freezer is full in the garage and so is my pantry. My goal is to only spend $50per week for the rest of the month, including Thanksgiving. Since I just spent about $230 this weekend I should be able to make it. I told my DH just last night no more grocery for a while and said "Good!" We'll see if I can make it.

I've only spent 19.00 since this statement above and I really only needed splenda, but Kroger had a great deal with $5 back on 10 items and I had coupons for the items also. So for the $19 I got the following:

Poster board (school project)
4 bars Lever soap
2 boxes of Kotex pads
Splenda
and 4 more items I can't think of now

I'm going Wednesday for milk and few other things. I hope to keep it around $25.

Tonight was Tyson chicken patties and cascadia farm shoe string fries. I'm sick and didn't feel like cooking.

 

[neatokimmo]

Last night we had corn chowder, I used a new (gasp!) can of soup for the base but the corn was from the freezer.

Tonight we are eating mystery meat. What I thought was a steak, ended up being chuck wrapped very oddly. So I made home made big macs. I'd like to say we are eating a fruit or veggie but the kiddo is chowing down on dill pickles. I doubt there is any more room!

We'll have beef two more nights from this package. That is the drawback of having 1.25 people in the house.

 

[tinkarooni]

Today we had pork chop casserole, used freezer chops, can of cream mush soup and onions from the cold cellar. Had roasted sweet and white potatoes(we still have tons of both, DH estimates 150 lbs of white, 80 lbs of sweet ) and the yummiest cinnamon apples I made in the slow cooker. Also picked some green romaine lettuce from the garden for a side salad.

Did stop at Walmart today, needed some laundry detergent, also picked up a pound of butter, can of french fried onions for Thanksgiving (I had an expiring coupon) and two small items for my kids for Christmas.

The biggest thing for me is getting the energy together to cook from scratch, even during the week. Having my written menu is really helping though. Today I made whole what buns for the kids lunches this week and some zuke chocolate chip cookies for lunches. (zuke from garden stash in the freezer)

I think that I'm going to plan to pick up a pizza on Friday. I noticed our pizza shop has them on sale, large for $6.99 and it will be nice to take a night off and have a little treat.

Tomorrow for breakfast we will eat the leftover apples over some homemade frozen pancakes and a side of bacon DH cooked over the weekend. Will have to pull out the menu to see what I have to thaw for dinner tomorrow.

 

[Swimnoid]

Today we had pork chop casserole, used freezer chops, can of cream mush soup and onions from the cold cellar. Had roasted sweet and white potatoes(we still have tons of both, DH estimates 150 lbs of white, 80 lbs of sweet ) and the yummiest cinnamon apples I made in the slow cooker. Also picked some green romaine lettuce from the garden for a side salad.

Recipe???

I was supposed to do a beef stew today but forgot to take the meat out to thaw so that will be tomorrow also using up the ends of several frozen veggie packages.

Tonight was hotdogs which DH usually does for lunch. They were YUMMY though!

 

[lattemomof3]

lattemomof3, if we had access to Runza, we'd never make this challenge! You so just made me hungry!

Runza is yummy! That and McD's are all we have in our town, so we frequent it often!

 

[lattemomof3]

I am so making this very soon... I have some blue potatoes - they might look cool with the eggs! How do you make your smoothies? I have several bananas I may freeze right now.

Tonight's dinner was spready cheese & crackers and a giant spinach salad - nothing used up yet but I'm working on it!

Tomorrow evening I'm heading to a European/German delicatessen grand opening so I'm sure I'll buy a few items - but hoping to keep it to food I can share at work and not store around the house.

We make our smoothies w/ chunks of frozen banana, frozen strawberries, some milk or soy milk and vanilla yogurt. The kids love them - another one they like is frozen banana w/ milk, yogurt, a little Hershey's syrup, or some Nesquick (I'll put chocolate protein powder in mine) and some peanut butter. We call it a chocolate monkey.

We've had 2 out of 3 kids sick over the weekend so we've had a lot of soup! Everyone is better, so tonight was cheese tortellini w/ spaghetti meat sauce and salad.

 

[threeboysmom]

This thread sounds like fun! I'm moving in two weeks so this is perfect! I REALLY need to get using up a lot of my pantry/freezer items. The less I need to move, the better!!

My question is this.... I have a LOT of meat I've stockpiled in my deep freezer in the basement. In fact, I think I might have a turkey buried in there that I bought on sale LAST Thanksgiving, LOL! How long do you all keep meat frozen before it needs to get thrown out? Could I safely cook it this year for Thanksgiving or does meat go bad after a few months?

 

[threeboysmom]

We make our smoothies w/ chunks of frozen banana, frozen strawberries, some milk or soy milk and vanilla yogurt. The kids love them - another one they like is frozen banana w/ milk, yogurt, a little Hershey's syrup, or some Nesquick (I'll put chocolate protein powder in mine) and some peanut butter. We call it a chocolate monkey.

OOOH! Good idea! Smoothies! I have a carton of plain yogurt in my fridge right now that needs to get used up fast and a TON of various frozen fruits in my freezer - bananas, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, mixed fruit, etc. Yay! Smoothies for breakfast all week this week, LOL!

 

[tinkarooni]

Recipe???

Here ya go.....

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apples

6 large baking apples (I used Rome apples)
peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges

1 TB lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 TB flour
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
6 TB butter, melted

Place apples in a slow cooker. Drizzle lemon juice over top and stir.
Mix sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in bowl. Sprinkle over apples in cooker and stir gently to coat. Drizzle with butter.
Cook on low for 3 hours or on high for 2 hours.

Wonderful served warm over ice cream or put in bowl and sprinkle top with granola
I used as a side dish for pork chops, will reheat leftovers and put over pancakes for breakfast. YUMMY!

 

[neatokimmo]

This thread sounds like fun! I'm moving in two weeks so this is perfect! I REALLY need to get using up a lot of my pantry/freezer items. The less I need to move, the better!!

My question is this.... I have a LOT of meat I've stockpiled in my deep freezer in the basement. In fact, I think I might have a turkey buried in there that I bought on sale LAST Thanksgiving, LOL! How long do you all keep meat frozen before it needs to get thrown out? Could I safely cook it this year for Thanksgiving or does meat go bad after a few months?

I think it totally depends on what it looks like when you pull it out of the freezer. I would try cooking that turkey before tossing it

 

[smiller]

We make our smoothies w/ chunks of frozen banana, frozen strawberries, some milk or soy milk and vanilla yogurt. The kids love them - another one they like is frozen banana w/ milk, yogurt, a little Hershey's syrup, or some Nesquick (I'll put chocolate protein powder in mine) and some peanut butter. We call it a chocolate monkey.

Thanks! I love the chocolate/banana/peanut butter combo, too.

Can you make a sort of Hershey's syrup with cocoa powder and sugar somehow?

 

[Irin997]

Ugh, busy busy weekend, most of it spent out of town in Philly. Therefore, I was not home to make dinner (and instead had a Philly cheesesteak, YUM!).

Friday night I did not cook. I had a coupon to local pizza place for a free pizza as long as you buy drinks. Well our bill wound up being like $10 with tip and unfortunately the pizza was just ok.

Away from home Sat & Sun.

Last night I tried a dinner that I don't want to say bombed, but I definitely need to make some changes for next time. It was a cheesy chicken, rice, and mixed veggie casserole made with cream of chicken. The rice did not cook through all the way because I found out that basmati rice (that my boss gave me) seems to cook differently. Also, I hated the veggies being mixed in. Next time regular rice and veggies cooked separately.

Making tacos tonight and using up the tomatoes and lettuce we have. I also realized (AFTER pulling out meat and getting to work) that I should have pulled out the chili and made chili nachos instead. I might still do that and use the meat for something else. Or just cook it up and add it to the chili to make it extra meaty.

I did go to the store yesterday to buy a few things we needed and only paid $14.xx plus on Sunday when I got home I stopped to get some milk so that was $3.xx. Otherwise, rolling right along!

 

[tinkmom2]

Update! My grocery bill came out to about $40.00 this week but I did have extras in there like soda, deodorant, and cat food and litter. I had $8.00 in coupons and $12.72 in coins that I did redeemed at Coinstar. So all together I saved around $60.00 for the week.

 

[tavettava]

Friday the inlaws took us out to dinner so I didn't have to cook, but did have lots of leftovers from it.

Saturday I did go shopping I bought 4 turkey's from walmart. They were .40 cents a lb. I also picked up 2-18 ct eggs (.99ea), 3 bacon ($1ea), and onions 2/$1. For breakfast we had breakfast at the food pantry we help at, lunch was leftovers from the night before, dinner was soup and sandwich's.

Sunday we had breakfast for lunch, eggs and bacon. The inlaws brought us over a bunch of roma tomatos (I think there are 30), a huge container of chicken salad from Sam's club, and a big box of crossants. The kids won't eat the chicken salad and I'm not to crazy about it(dh loves it). So what can I do with all the crossants and tomato's? I am making pico de gallo with 5 of them, and with 3 I am making a chili con queso.

Monday the kids had cereal and milk for breakfast. Lunch- dd had a leftover taco, juice, apple, and a yogurt;ds gets free lunch; I had a bowl of soup;dh had some chicken salad. Dinner I made some baked chicken, french fries, and we had salad.

Tuesday breakfast was cereal and milk. Lunch dd took a pb&j sandwich, juice, carrots, and yogurt;ds gets free; I'm having a hard boiled egg and some salad;dh who knows. Dinner I am going to make sliders, twice baked potatoes and a veggie.

I can't believe I've actually stuck to this pantry challenge. Its fun to see what I can come up with. I know i went and bought some things but they were really good prices, I may go buy a turkey or 2 more to just have.

 

[charming23]

Yesterday we had our turkey tenderloin grilled outside but instead of fussing with sides we had them on some leftover pretzel buns with provolone cheese and chips and grapes.

Also went to Save-a-lot yesterday and spent $34.05 for staples like milk, bread, buns, grapes, grapefruit, spinach, brocolli, green peppers, aluminum pans, frozen ravioli, fries, soft pretzels, and a pork shoulder roast for our get together sunday. The roast is huge 10lbs and was only .99 a pound so we are making pulled pork.

Tonight I think I will do ravioli lasagna with salad.

 

[acename]

Last night was leftover and random stuff night. we ate the last of the pork chops and burgers from saturday. This morning we finished another box of cereal. Only about 7 to go

I have some smoked chicken that needs to be used up but I'm tired of just eating it plain. I'll probaby make bbq chicken sandwiches and some sort of side out of the frozen veggies I have.

 

[Piecey]

Tonight:
Meatball Subs, green beans and french fries.

The meatballs, green beans and fries are from the deep freezer.
Had to buy sub buns and provolone cheese slices.

Tomorrow lunch will be Applebees w/ DH for their free entree for Veterans.




***
Thanks for that slow cooker apple recipe. I will definitely try that for DH!

 

[momto1]

I stopped by the store last night and picked up some asapargus that was on sale, some ribs at 50% off and some wings at 50% off.

Lunch was leftovers.

Supper today will be fish, rice and asapragus all fixed in the rice maker. Super easy!

Lori

 

[Grendalynn]

Ok, so here is what our menu has looked like the past few nights...

Sunday - Beef Stew. al ingredients were in the freezer, fridge, or pantry

Monday - Cheese burgers and salad. Had bought the salad stuff this weekend, left overs from a family football gathering Sunday.

Tonight (tuesday) will be tacos - remaining GB from cheese burgers, produce was bought this weekend and the taco kit was given to us bu DMIL....

Tomorrow is Pork roast from freezer, frozen squash and potatoes (pantry)! Brownies for dessert from pantry - water is only thing needed as they are low fat ones!!

Not sure what Thursday will be - have some more pork left - may turn it into Pulled Pork sanwiches.... Should have better thought things out - then we would have back to back meats... oh well. With a house full of men, they wont mind!

Friday is too far away to figure it out... we will see what the rest of the week brings!