Pre-holiday pantry challenge

[charming23]

Today was a bust. We ate lunch out after my mom's drs appointment and then hit the grocery for things for our get together on sunday like pop, plates, stuff for the veggie tray, and chips and dip

Then I came home and raked for 3 hrs so I was too tired to cook and ordered pizza from my favorite place that had a coupon in yesterdays ads.

 

[annsteere]

Almost fell off the wagon today. Local grocery store has some really good coupons for baking basics: butter, flour, sugar, nuts.

But, I thought of all of you and kept repeating "There will ALWAYS be another great bargain."

Also, next week the big buy is boneless, skinless, chicken breast at $1 per pound. I'm going to restock my freezer with those. And, I really didn't want to goof this up two weeks in a row.

But by not going to the store for basics today, I saved gas, time, the $10 that you had to buy to qualify for the couponed basics and I forced myself to keep working through the older stuff on my shelves.

If I look at the grocery ads, I find things that are at a stockup price. Guess I gotta keep throwing those straight into the recycle pile until the Monday before Thanksgiving.

 

[tinkmom2]

Today we had a chuck steak which I made on my counter grill and some roasted new potatoes I found in my pantry. I par boiled the potatoes, drained them and roasted them after I rubbed them with olive oil. It was delicious! On a down note I am out of diet soda. Either I am going to have to go cold turkey or spend $1.00 on a 2 liter lol!

 

[momto1]

No stopping at the store for me today. I have to check the milk supply and will need to go in a day or two but that should be about all I need for now.

Today - lunch for me was leftover Lasagna Soup and a salad.

Tonight - If there is still some pork,we will have BBQ pork sandwiches and tater tots. If not, we will have BBQ cups and a veggie.

Lori

 

[smiller]

[/B]

Gee, we're having hot dogs at my house to clean out the freezer and it's getting pretty fancy at your house..... Wonder what else you're going to pull out of the back of that freezer?

Tonight won't be as fancy - chicken & black bean nachos. I suppose that's an appetizer in and of itself, though!

So much for finishing up the sour cream; I just bought some more from Aldi. I never knew it was a staple in my house!

Had to get milk, eggs, and produce today, too. Trying to stay on track!

 

[acename]

Tonight we're having a leftover/sandwich night again. We have lots of leftovers and lots of bread so it's still using things up right.

Oh yeah, and we finished yet another box of cereal today. I never thought we'd get through some of this stuff.

I think tomorrow we'll have pork roast (if I can get my Dh to cut up the dinosaur looking pork loin I have in my fridge) or chicken tacos. Either way, a crock pot meal. The crock pot is a pregnant lady's best friend.

 

[DawnM]

I have a Whisper Mill. I think they have been bought out from someone else now but still a great mill. I get my wheat from a friend who is in a food co-op. I didn't join the co-op but do put in my wheat order through her.

I was doing it all the time for a while but then got lazy and haven't done it for a while.

I also made about 6 loaves at a time with a mixer, and can still do it that way, but I found a Zojirushi bread machine at a thrift store for $7 and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. I would prefer to get the new kind that makes a larger loaf and has the laying down size, but I will pass on spending the extra $200+ for now.

Now that I do one loaf every day to two days I try to grind enough for the week and put it in a very large tupperware. I am not religious about grinding daily as it is too much of a hassle.

I use coconut oil instead of butter, honey or agave instead of sugar, and 100% whole fresh gound wheat. I also often add other grains to it as the Whisper Mill can grind rice, barley, quinoa, etc.....the only thing it says not to use is flax or nuts as they are oily and the machine will get clogged and ruin, but you can add them in later if you want.

Dawn

Don't want to get off topic but just a quick aside: Where do you get your wheat from? Do you grind it fresh for each loaf? This is something I am really interested in and couldn't find anyone who did it.....most people I know think I'm crazy just for making all our bread myself. Thanks

 

[DawnM]

Tonight I was out of spaghetti sauce fixins so I made whole wheat pasta and grilled up chicken sausage for flavor and added fresh raw cream and melted cheese in it. All stuff I needed to use up.

Dawn

 

[neatokimmo]

We had taco salad. I was able to use up a crunchy shell kit, the rest of the ground beef and a nice chunk of the lettuce in the fridge.

 

[yeahdisney]

OK I have been lurking this thread. But I've been in for this month. We are harvesting here in IL so I've beening feeding the helpers extra items from our freezer and each day I'm never sure how many I will need to feed -2 to 6 people. I had a couple of things in that freezer it was time to use them.
Today I fed them either the left over BBQ pork and twice baked potatoes that I had made and froze early when pototoes where $1/bag. Or the left over meatloaf with mashed potatoes that again I had froze prior and corn that I froze the first time from our field garden. And desert was blueberry crisp (the kids picked blueberries this summer).
I've been buying like you guys-dairy, fruit, and bread.

 

[tinkarooni]

I also made about 6 loaves at a time with a mixer, and can still do it that way, but I found a Zojirushi bread machine at a thrift store for $7 and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. I would prefer to get the new kind that makes a larger loaf and has the laying down size, but I will pass on spending the extra $200+ for now.

Dawn

I have the new Zojirushi and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.

I make all our own bread and may try grinding the wheat.....my husband is so tolerant of me. Thanks for the info!

 

[tinkarooni]

So today for dinner I pulled out a pork shoulder roast. I had no idea what to do with it so I jumped on www.ALLRECIPES.com and found a pulled pork recipe. It turned out pretty good. We had leftover roasted potatoes and home canned green beans with it. The leftover cinnamon apples were for desert.

I also made some pizza buns with sausage, I will freeze them and the kids can take them in their lunches. That's one more package of pork gone, and that much less lunchmeat I have to buy.

 

[NHWX]

I also made some pizza buns with sausage, I will freeze them and the kids can take them in their lunches.

What are pizza buns?

Tonight was pure pantry because 1) I'm still sick and 2) on Wednesdays I have to rush out early to bring one child to a volunteer commitment. So turkey meatballs from the freezer with spaghetti and sauce from the pantry. At some point in time we're going to get down to the items that no one is really sure that they want to eat in our house. Otoh, the food pantry is desperate for donations these days so if we don't want hamburger helper, then they'll probably be happy with it, right?

Tomorrow's goal: add veggies to dinner.

NHWX

 

[annsteere]

On a down note I am out of diet soda. Either I am going to have to go cold turkey or spend $1.00 on a 2 liter lol!

Tinkmom2, don't think of it as out of diet soda. Think of it as "I have succeeded at the pantry challenge of drinking all of the soda that was stockpiled around here."

 

[Irin997]

Last night I wasn't feeling so hot....not sure why, fine now. But I had soup and made DD chicken nuggets and tater tots. So one was from the pantry and one from the freezer.

Tonight we have basketball practice at 6 and don't get home until 5 so I'm not quite sure yet. Might do spaghetti with the sauce I found in the back of the freezer and eat up the leftover crescent rolls from dinner the other night. Toss in some green beans and I guess that makes a 15 minute dinner.

 

[DawnM]

Wonderful!

Does your make a 2 pound loaf? Mine only makes a 1.5 pound loaf and I don't really like the stand up as you really can only make a 1 pound loaf to allow for rising.

Wonder if the people who ditched my model at the thrift store got the new model????

Oh well, it still tastes good and I am not complaining.....well, not much!

My next feat is to learn to make sprouted breads and fermented breads.

Dawn

I have the new Zojirushi and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.

I make all our own bread and may try grinding the wheat.....my husband is so tolerant of me. Thanks for the info!

 

[tinkarooni]

What are pizza buns?

NHWX

www.Mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/2008/07/pizza-buns.html

Somebody gave me this website, not even sure who, if it was somebody from here THANKS!

This is a group of Mennonite girls writing a blog with some great easy scratch recipes. This one is for Pizza buns. It is essentially french bread dough with pizza ingredients rolled up into it. Than you slice them like cinnamon rolls, rise and bake. I did it last night while making dinner and it really was pretty easy and the gang loved them. I popped them into the freezer for quick grab snacks or lunch. You can use whatever you have, they use bacon bits??? but I used browned sausage. Ground beef, leftover crumbled meatballs, pepperoni could all be used...yumm all sounds good.

 

[tinkarooni]

Wonderful!

Does your make a 2 pound loaf? Mine only makes a 1.5 pound loaf and I don't really like the stand up as you really can only make a 1 pound loaf to allow for rising.

Wonder if the people who ditched my model at the thrift store got the new model????

Oh well, it still tastes good and I am not complaining.....well, not much!

My next feat is to learn to make sprouted breads and fermented breads.

Dawn

Yes, mine makes the two pound loaf, sideways, regular bread shape. That was important to me too, but it was sooo expensive. It was my Christmas gift last year from DH (he's such a good shopper )
I've had the stand up kind and the loaves never really came out right. I used to just make it by hand with my mixer rather than use the breadmaker. I got this one though and use it several times a week. I figure it's paid for itself in homemade bread as opposed to buying $4.00-$5.00 loaves of all natural bread.

 

[wdwfan16]

I have the new Zojirushi and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.

I make all our own bread and may try grinding the wheat.....my husband is so tolerant of me. Thanks for the info!

I would love homemade bread but in the past all bread are too dense. We also do not eat white bread. We like whole wheat, rye and multigrain. Does it bake them too? How do they turn out compared to a bakery bread?

 

[tinkmom2]

Tinkmom2, don't think of it as out of diet soda. Think of it as "I have succeeded at the pantry challenge of drinking all of the soda that was stockpiled around here."

Even though I am drinking diet caffeine free soda I admit I am addicted lol! I usually have at least one can a day. I am going to try to just drink water for the next few days til we leave.
Tonight for dinner I am making a huge batch of chicken noodle soup. My oldest isn't feeling well