Pre-holiday pantry challenge

[tinkarooni]

How about using them to decorate a gingerbread house? Or baking the chocolate covered peanuts in cookies (instead of using chocolate chips)?

Helen

Love this idea! I will plan to make a gingerbread house with the kids. We can make a peanut brittle patio....or the kids can glue it on for roofing. Truffles could be shrubs.....Now we don't have to eat it and I don't have to just throw it away, we'll add in some halloween candy and the kids can make a mansion. Thanks.

 

[kristinw3girls]

Sent my DH to the store for milk, veggies and fruit. He came home with $200 worth of (mostly) junk. It is frustraiting to see he has no horse in this race! It will set me back a bit, but I'm determined to carry on. The junk food will mostly be wasted by the kids. You know my children can't resist opening a new package of whatever, because they won't look on the shelf and see the 2 other open packages of the same item. I freaked out a little. This isn't so much about saving $ (although it is nice) but not wasting food and being ignorant to others plights. I'm sure the local food pantry would love to have half of what they waste in a week.\\Spoke to DH again about the challenge, and he is sorry now, but I'm not sure if he "gets it" or just wants me to be quiet?

I'm going to.....just keep swimming, just keep swimming.....

 

[smiller]

Lunch was spaghetti and meatballs - I stopped eating it about halfway through since it wasn't very good at all. I'm not sure if the sauce was off, the meatballs were off, or the pasta was off. My money's on the sauce - I usually heavily doctor up a jar, and this was just straight from the jar, so just tastes different to me. At least the sauce is all used up, now!

Now I'm off to figuring out how to de-bone chicken and make some stir fry and rice. If I have the energy I may whip up a breakfast casserole to eat this week, too.

 

[neatokimmo]

We to Walmart and bought a tub of organic lettuce, a cucumber, bananas, clementines, french bread, a couple of boxes of stove top, 4 cans of soup and a rotisserie chicken.

So I didn't need the chicken, it just smelled REALLY good and at $3.88 is quite a deal. I spent $40ish but I had several non food items in there.

So tonight we had the chicken and salad. Tomorrow we'll be back to spaghetti (bleh).

 

[smiller]

Deboning the chicken was a disaster - but the resulting stir fry was delicious! More than made up for the culinary challenge.

So, two half-fryers used up, as well as all the bok choy and most of the white rice.

 

[keenercam]

LOVE, LOVE the gingerbread house idea. How creative! And using peanut brittle for the roof or patio is so clever and fun! You should definitely post pictures here when it is done, tinkarooni!

I am really enjoying this challenge. I had to buy some canned chicken broth, corn and some onions to make my chicken apple corn chowder on Sunday, but I was able to use up a large 4+ pound package of frozen chicken breast (that should not have been frozen as one package) PLUS all the apples that came in various gift fruit baskets last week.

Last night, was "pizza" on tortillas that used up most of some leftover marinara and the rest of some shredded mozzarella. DH and DS16 used ground beef from the freezer, a can of sloppy joe mix and rolls & cheese to make manwiches.

I am going to defrost a lot of spaghetti sauce to make lasagna this weekend to serve while we have a houseful of people for the holiday next week. I already have the meat, sauce, lasagna noodles & eggs. Only have to buy mozzarella and ricotta.

I love what PP did with taking an inventory. I should do that and create a list of meals. We like the flexibililty of not necessarily calendaring the meals ahead of time, but if I set up index cards with meals, listing all the ingredients and how to prepare it, DS could start whatever he feels like having for dinner even before DH or I get home.

 

[acename]

We had chicken tacos last night that used up a couple of chicken breasts, taco seasoning (which I won't be buying anymore, I've found making my own tastes better and is better for us) and a taco shell kit from the pantry. we did run get some lettuce and salsa but that will get me some more meals too.

Tonight is left over night. I figure I cooked three nights in a row so we can eat up leftovers for a day.

 

[charming23]

Tonight we are having peppersteak stirfry with beef from the freezer and peppers left from our veggie tray on sunday and rice in those steam fresh packs.

I am heading to the grocery store for a few things today. I have some coupons that expire soon for things we need to restock up on and my mom has decided that she wants to do a pork roast for christmas eve (after watching Giada make one yesterday). So our local grocey has them on sale so I will pick one up to freeze for then.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Tonight we are having peppersteak stirfry with beef from the freezer and peppers left from our veggie tray on sunday and rice in those steam fresh packs.

I am heading to the grocery store for a few things today. I have some coupons that expire soon for things we need to restock up on and my mom has decided that she wants to do a pork roast for christmas eve (after watching Giada make one yesterday). So our local grocey has them on sale so I will pick one up to freeze for then.

I saw that! It looked so amazing! I decided I was making that for Christmas dinner after I saw that show.

 

[charming23]

I saw that! It looked so amazing! I decided I was making that for Christmas dinner after I saw that show.

I know It looks so good and is different from our normal Christmas eve meal.

I did get our roast. I had the butcher cut the long loin into a large roast and the rest 1in chops and for 12.94 we have a ton of pork, which is good since we were down to one bag of chops from the last time they were on sale. I also picked up some canned goods for the church food drive and cat items.

We now have everything we need for Thanksgiving so the rest of the month looks good.

 

[stahshee]

dinner.. chicken nuggest, noodles and sting beans..
and for desert p.b.j .. I have got to get rid of all this bread

 

[smiller]

Dinner: sliced cucumber with chili, lime, salt. Tortilla chips with salsa, sour cream, avocado.

I suppose I'm in the mood for Mexican street food/snack food tonight!

I'm thinking I'll bake a carrot cake tonight to use up the rest of the carrots and cream cheese I have in the fridge. My coworkers (especially DDad!) will be happy.

 

[mjbaby]

I'm so proud of myself tonight! I arrived home a little late and just wasn't feeling the dinner thing. The dishwasher was not unloaded from yesterday (since my husband is at home most of the day the culprit was easy to ID in my opinion!) and for some reason there were 10 glasses half filled with water on the kitchen counter. NOT inspiring.

He offered to take me out somewhere but I was too tired to even think where I'd want to go. So, since rice was already in the rice cooker (with dumplings steaming in the basket) I decided to stick with the plan and make a stir-fry. It was so cool - I used up the last bit of a cabbage, a bag of frozen from the garden snow peas from the spring, the last two carrots, half an onion that's been sitting in the fridge, a can of bamboo shoots from the pantry and half a green bell pepper that I'd have to get to really soon anyway. I also opened up a can of mandarin oranges for more color to the meal. It wasn't the greatest dinner ever but it was responsible and cheap and I was so glad that I didn't give in to temptation!

Tomorrow: my SIL is coming over with my nephew. I think I'll make baked ziti (pasta, sauce, onions, garlic and cheese are already in the pantry/fridge) with peas and onions (freezer) and maybe a fruit salad (also from the freezer).

It feels good to do this! I'm going to try to keep going until at least the end of this month with very minimal purchases. I will need some eggs and veggies soon, and always with milk and o.j. but hopefully we can keep things to a minimum as we head into December.

 

[neatokimmo]

Spaghetti

again



I've moved most of my pantry to the other house. I can't get over how much Italian type food I have stock piled. Like 15 spaghetti sauces (yippee skippy) and I still have a couple of cases of diced tomatoes. Tomato soup, tomato paste & ravioli and overflowing too. I am so tired of things with tomatoes in it.

 

[momx2]

I went and spent $45 at Kroger. I just couldn't resist getting 2 (limit) of the .67 cent turkeys. So, I did and I also picked up 7 jars Heinz gravy on sale for $1. I needed some for school donations. I also got 2 bags of chips, I know...bad! I needed OJ, tonic water (love it instead of soft drinks), 15lbs of potatoes, onions and a can of kidney beans for homemade chili mac. Not too bad since I couldn't resist the turkeys.

 

[smiller]

I added (my last three!) three finely shredded carrots to the Betty Crocker carrot cake mix - they taste delicious, but the cupcakes I baked completely fell. They were puffy and taller than the pan when I took them out of the oven, but now they're half as tall! And they aren't dense, either, which is totally confusing me.

I added (the last!) cream cheese to the BC cream cheese frosting - it's better but still way too sweet.

So now I have these tiny, flat cupcakes to take to work. At least they taste good!

neatokimmo - I hear you on the tomato products. It seems like such a good idea to stock up and then you come to the point where you just can't handle another plate of spaghetti!

 

[DawnM]

I broke down and paid $52 for $118 worth of groceries. I needed a few grocery items and they had some really good coupons going that ended yesterday, so I used them.

So: $52 for groceries

I did come home and make 2 loaves of banana bread with the frozen bananas from the back of my freezer that I found though, so that didn't cost anything extra!

 

[annsteere]

I made it.

I leave town tomorrow and won't be back until my target date of the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Except for loading up on boneless chicken breasts last night at $1 per pound (the start of my next stockpile), I stayed out of the grocery store from my OP till now.

THANKS for your comaradrie and encouragment.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Who is planning to restockpile?

I'm planning to keep eating down the shelves but putting in new stuff behind the old. But I won't be super focused on either eating what we have in the house or on adding new bargains during the next 6 weeks.

 

[keenercam]

I was so happy that I resisted picking up takeout at the end of a very long day yesterday.

Made DS 2 leftover salisbury steaks and used up a can of gravy, corn & mashed potatoes.

For myself, mixed some leftover cut up grilled chicken from the freezer with leftover brown rice and some salsa, topped with fat free cheese.

Looks like my fridge will be empty enough to easily clean this weekend before my in-laws show up for Thanksgiving. Hoping to make room in the freezer for a couple of turkeys and a ham or two while pricing is good.

 

[mjbaby]

Who is planning to restockpile?

Oh, my...not me, yet. It's such a hard thing to let go of the stockpile. But when I'm finding things waaaaay in the back with well-past expiration dates, well, it gets easier!

Tonight will be that ziti, peas and onions and fruit salad and I might buy some rolls from the company cafeteria to accompany. Tomorrow is a planned night out, necessary for the family schedule. After that, who knows. I'll get have to get the thinking hat on for sure - and maybe break down and buy some perishables!