Pre-holiday pantry challenge

[smiller]

Dinner tonight is more potatoes, sour cream, and lumpfish roe. I hope it's still okay - I mean, it smells fishy when it's fresh, so how do you know if it's turned?

I've got a breakfast casserole in the fridge that will go in the oven tomorrow. Yum!

Lunch/dinner tomorrow will be sweet potato fries & roasted kale, and egg, potato, onion, swiss cheese scramble. Whichever one ends up for lunch, the other one will be for dinner.

I also have high aspirations of cooking the following to freeze: (Wait - aren't I supposed to be EATING the food in my freezer? But I have fresh celery, parsley, carrots, potatoes, onions, etc. that need to be used up.)
Turkey Soup
Beef Stew
Sloppy Joes
Assorted Squash and other root veggies for quick sides

If I still have energy, I'll whip up an Apple Crisp.

 

[Swmr359]

My problem is not so much with groceries but LOTION! I know, weird, right? But people will give me lotion or I will inherit it somehow or maybe it multiplies overnight but I have tons of it and I dont even use lotion!!

Any ideas what I can do with it?.

If the lotion hasn't been used you should be able to donate it to a women's shelter or a food pantry

 

[lisam427]

Dinner tonight is more potatoes, sour cream, and lumpfish roe. I hope it's still okay - I mean, it smells fishy when it's fresh, so how do you know if it's turned?

I've got a breakfast casserole in the fridge that will go in the oven tomorrow. Yum!

Lunch/dinner tomorrow will be sweet potato fries & roasted kale, and egg, potato, onion, swiss cheese scramble. Whichever one ends up for lunch, the other one will be for dinner.

I also have high aspirations of cooking the following to freeze: (Wait - aren't I supposed to be EATING the food in my freezer? But I have fresh celery, parsley, carrots, potatoes, onions, etc. that need to be used up.)
Turkey Soup
Beef Stew
Sloppy Joes
Assorted Squash and other root veggies for quick sides

If I still have energy, I'll whip up an Apple Crisp.

celery, parsely, carrots, and onions diced up freeze nicely. thats actually a very good idea. i have tons of onions in my fridge. if they are allready diced up in the freezer when i go to make something, i could just grab what i need out of the freezer! better to have that stuff in the freezer for future use than have to throw it out and buy more.

i also have a huge bag of potatoes in my pantry too.

last night i didnt go to the grocery store. i rummaged around the freezer and pantry instead. i am running low on fruits and salad. but i have enough frozen vegis to compensate along with some apples and tangerines. i have to make make a run today to get fruit and vegis at aldis and a gallon of milk but thats about it. the less i spend the better.

i am tired of my bad habit of having overflowing cupboards and freezer and then going out and buying more. i am trying to make it until friday without doing major shopping again and just using up what i have.

last night i had pasta e cece. will be having leftovers for lunch today or egg salad/ pbj. dinner will probably be either soup or leftovers.

tommorrow i will be making meatloaf and potatoes in the crockpot and frozen broccoli.

tuesday will be 20 glove garlic chicken, frozen cauliflower, and baked potatoes.

wednesday will be breakfast for dinner.

thursday-roast and potatoes in the crockpot with whatever vegis in the fridge/freezer.

friday-tacos with yellow rice and whatever vegis are in the fridge/ freezer.

lunches will be egg salad, pbj, tuna and i have a bag of chicken fried rice in the freezer that i will make up .

breakfast will be eggs/toast, oatmeal/fruit/milk, breakfast cereal/fruit milk. if i can stick with this plan my freezer/fridge will be much emptier.

 

[momto1]

My aunt did send home leftovers on Thanksgiving. So, dh and dd had those for lunch on Friday. DM and I shopped and ate lunch out - long standing tradition. Friday night was a take and bake pizza.

Saturday - ds was with grandma, dh was working, and I shopped. Picked up McDonalds value food when I went in for some gc's. Last night was leftovers from Thanksgiving.

Today - not sure about lunch - maybe at home or maybe $1 hot dogs with ds. Supper is corned beef, carrots and cabbage.

Monday will be Pork Roast, Caulilfower, and Potoates
Tuesday will be a Frozen skillet meal, bread.
Wednesday and Thursday will be leftovers for dh and ds. I will out of town on a business trip. That means I can't shop and find good deals which is good.

Lori

 

[Priorityonecb]

Are we going to continue this thread through Christmas? I would love to get in on this for December!

 

[smiller]

Are we going to continue this thread through Christmas? I would love to get in on this for December!

I sure hope so! I'm planning on doing this until my pantry and freezer are nearly empty. It's really helping me see what I eat, what I don't eat, what I stock up too much on, and what I'm always running to the store to buy.

Update so far for my cooking extravaganza today:

Breakfast casserole baked and one serving eaten - delicious!
Turkey carcass simmering in stock, other ingredients chopped and ready to go
Second squash roasting in oven
Beef defrosting

I might need a second shot of caffeine to keep me going today!

 

[disneyfan55]

I sure hope so! I'm planning on doing this until my pantry and freezer are nearly empty. It's really helping me see what I eat, what I don't eat, what I stock up too much on, and what I'm always running to the store to buy.

Update so far for my cooking extravaganza today:

Breakfast casserole baked and one serving eaten - delicious!
Turkey carcass simmering in stock, other ingredients chopped and ready to go
Second squash roasting in oven
Beef defrosting

I might need a second shot of caffeine to keep me going today!

I guess it will just happen if enough of us keep writing! The thread does have good ideas.

 

[charming23]

I do hope this tread continues through December as well. It is nice to get different ideas about how to use up what is already in the house. It has also made me look at how we spend money on groceries and in what areas we can cut back on.

Today I slept in so I just had a leftover roast beef sandwich and some carrot sticks. I am meeting a friend for coffee this afternoon and then coming home to a porck stirfry that my mom is making, yummy.

This week looks like the only groceries I need are milk, bread, fruit, veggies, and a package of bacon for a soup I am making.

 

[DawnM]

YES!

I was able to spend only $300 OOP this month for groceries, although I did use a $140 gift card for food as well, so I didn't get it that low.

I would like to keep it around $300 for next month too and will continue to use coupons through The Grocery Game for deals, but will try to also empty my shelves and fridge/freezer along the way.

The BEST thing this thread did for me is to help me get organized! I now have cupboards that are labeled, everything in Tupperware labeled, and all outdated cans/jars thrown out! Some were labeled 2005 as the expiration and were in the very back......YUP! I needed this!

 

[tinkarooni]

We are going to keep going....a few of us are sticking with it and everyone who wants to join us is welcome. OP reached her goal . However some of us obviously had no idea how much stuff we really had so on we go!

I'm a little behind because of the holiday and than I was Christmas shopping. I am all done shopping! Right down to the last tube of chapstick for stocking stuffers. Now I am getting back to business with this challenge.

My menus have been as follows: Turkey, Turkey and Turkey. I am starting to feel like neatokimmo with her spaghetti!

We went out to eat Italian last night with family and today was leftovers of that. Even our turkey dinner used up, canned cranberries, some winter squash, two tubes of crescent rolls and a frozen pie crust!

I'll be back tomorrow with my weekly menu, so long as the internet doesn't crash with all that Cyber Monday Shopping!

 

[smiller]

I'm a little behind because of the holiday and than I was Christmas shopping. I am all done shopping! Right down to the last tube of chapstick for stocking stuffers. Now I am getting back to business with this challenge.

Wow!!! You are my hero!!!

 

[delmar411]

I still need to get down into the house freezer and see what all is in there. DH brought home more lasagna and I got 2 extra turkeys that went out to the deep freezer.

I do have a ton of cooked turkey that needs to be frozen today since I can't eat it all today and the kids won't touch it. Most of T-giving dinner went uneaten so DH and I have been eating leftovers since Thursday. I'm ready for anything else! LOL

Tonight's dinner is rice and green beans and hopefully I can get the boys to eat some turkey too. I really need some gravy but keep forgetting to buy any at the store.

 

[stahshee]

Im not shopping for a month (unless milk or fresh fruit).. so keep me on....today my dad took us out for dinner

 

[NHWX]

Today I happily cooked!

Turkey breast (from freezer, no turkey leftovers from my parents' house) with a sauce made from leftover cranberry sauce, juice squeezed from a leftover lemon, strawberry jam (didn't have the orange marmalade the recipe called for) and a drop of orange oil.

Stovetop - last of the container

Green beans - last of the Thanksgiving green beans

Granola made from oatmeal (stockpile), wheat bran (now all gone!) maple syrup, oil, brown sugar, the last of the dried figs, sliced almonds, sesame seeds, candied ginger and some Craisins. So that was pretty efficient. Plus my kids will be happy to see something other than the same boring! cereal that remains.

I also made some not-so-great but diabetic friendly chocolate biscotti for my Dad, using yet more of the Craisins. There'd been a coupon at Costco for Craisins and I couldn't resist. I also bought chocolate chips on the same trip. Stockpiling can be a problem here!

I'm game to continue. Luckily, this past week's grocery ad was the measliest ad I've seen in a long time.

Tomorrow, turkey stock in the crockpot and maybe hot dogs from the freezer.
Smiller - got a third crockpot on the CVS sale yesterday.

NHWX

 

[SnowWhite607]

I would love to do this in Dec also just to see how much I can save on groceries by eating what I already have.

Tonight I found one lone chicken breast in the freezer but...aha....what is that? A bag of veggies! So I did some stir fry with chicken and rice and amazingly, one large breast fed my family of three!

 

[kristinw3girls]

I too will continue the challenge. I just wasn't aware of how much I tend to hoard the food "savings" I came across over the past year. This really made me aware of the fact I wasn't saving anything if I don't use what I buy at a discount. Son't even get me started on the waste. The expired food, unused vegtables and fruit, forgotten untill past being safe to eat. I did hve some troubles sticking with this while buying for Thanksgiving, but I am firmly back on track. Thanks to all for the inspiration!

 

[crazelion]

I know this thread has up me a lot using up what's in the freezer.

 

[Swimnoid]

I was going through the pantry looking for old stuff to throw out (there really wasnt any) and on the top shelf where I couldnt see it I found a bag of m&m baking bits!

I've made a big hole in the pantry stuff but I have a lot of brownie and muffin mixes that I don't think I'll be using up real soon. I still have a good amount of freezer things to go through. I wonder how much I can finish before 12/13 when we leave for WDW?

 

[tavettava]

We got back from WDW on Thanksgiving and went to my sis's to eat dinner. I made enchilada's on 11/18 (the day we left) and she froze them. I took turkey home and the carcass to make a broth.

Friday dh made the kids breakfast and lunch, so i have no clue what it was. I got treated to lunch by my mom's SO. For dinner dh, dd, and i had turkey (from sis's), mashed potatoes (pantry), gravy (pantry), and corn (pantry.) Ds stayed for an overnight with his boyscout troop.

Saturday breakfast and lunch ds and dh ate at the boy scout cabin. Dd and I had cereal for breakfast and soup for lunch. For dinner dh's parents took us to mexican place.

Sunday the kids had breakfast and lunch at the inlaws (they stayed the night there.) For dinner I made spaghetti and corn, all items from the pantry and freezer. We have enough for dinner tomorrow.

I did go and spend $92.71 at a Spartan store here that was having a great sale. I got a 23+ lb Jennie-o turkey for a little over $8 for Christmas .38lb (limit of 1), veggies 2/$1 (stocked up since we were out), bananas for .29 got 5 bunches (will freeze some), Butter for $1.88 bought 6, oranges 6lb for $2.99 so I got the limit of 3, I finally found the gluten free Betty Crockers and bought 1 of each ($4.29 x4 ) but dd needs it and it is cheaper than the other products I buy for her. I also bought milk, eggs, yogurt, OJ, bread, and sour cream.

I'm game to keep going until after the holiday's.

 

[charming23]

Yesterday after having coffee with a friend I stopped at a new Marc's that had just opened down the street and bought bread, bacon, shredded cheese, a pack of split chicken breasts that were .69lb, gingerbread cookie mix, bananas, salami, and a block of cheddar cheese. I spent 26.77 and have most of what I need for the week.

I sat down and made our menu for this week
Monday: Lemon Chicken over Rice
Tuesday: Cheeseburger Pie
Wednesday: Potato and Double Corn Chowder with sandwiches
Thursday: Chicken Apple Sausage with Warm Potato Salad
Friday: Ground Beef Tacos and Spanish Rice
Saturday: Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes
Sunday: Pork Souvlaki with Rice Pilaf

We will eat the leftovers for lunches to cut down on the cost of lunch items.