Spring Pantry Challenge

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Finished my shopping, and was over budget as usual. Around $75.00 BUT I got pop and snacks for the SuperBowl, so I don't feel too bad..

Sunday Night: Goulash w/fresh Italian bread
Monday Night: Goulash w/fresh Italian bread (not crazy DD if going out to dinner with her DBF and DS is sick and sleeping, so I will not let it waste!)
Tuesday Night: Crockpot Chicken and Red potato stew with bisquits.
Wednesday: Grilled Cheese sandwiches and Soup (I have a lot of canned soup and we really need to put a dent in it)
Thursday: Ham w/scalloped potatoes, green beans and applesauce
Friday: Meatloaf, sweet potatoes, and peaches...

Saturday: No clue, as always the kids lives will dictate the meal.

Hope everyone is staying warm and having a great weekend!

This week really got flipped on me. DS was in immediate care on Sunday and now we know the hard way he is very allergic to the Zpac. He scared the bejeepers out of me, hiding the rash thinking he had acne on his chest... Needless to say I did not eat out once, but I am taking him to Starbucks after the drs. tomorrow.

So

Wed: Sloppy Joes with boxed rice mix
Thursday: Grilled Cheese and soup
Friday: Sick boys choice... (I will even let him eat out if he wants, just so thankful it wasn't worse)

Are we going to continue February in this thread or OP are you going to start a February Challenge. Is anyone still game?

 

[Priorityonecb]

Another "good" one tonight!!! I had a batch of potato soup in the freezer, and a little bit of leftover ham. I am combing those with some frozen corn. Ham and corn chowder for pennies!

 

[sau418]

Tomorrow is the big shopping trip. I am estimating $250 - $300, but that will be for almost the entire month other than weekly bread, milk, and eggs. We do a CSA and are getting a winter box next week for $35 and that will pretty much cover our veggies for the month. My list includes 21 dinner meals, cereals for breakfast, and lunches for the girls as I usually do leftovers for lunch. I make a list of 21 meals that we like and then check them off as we go through the month, doesn't work well for everybody, but it seems to work for us.

Tonight is Pizza delivered, before DH heads OOT for work.
Friday - saurkraut and kielbasa
Saturday - umm not sure yet
Sunday -hot sausage sandwiches
Monday - BBQ meatloaf
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will be clean out left overs as DH is OOT most of next week. The the weekend we will be at my parents so that is taken care of, I will make a cake for my dad's birthday so those ingredients are on my list for tomorrow as well.

 

[50sjayne]

This week really got flipped on me. DS was in immediate care on Sunday and now we know the hard way he is very allergic to the Zpac. He scared the bejeepers out of me, hiding the rash thinking he had acne on his chest... Needless to say I did not eat out once, but I am taking him to Starbucks after the drs. tomorrow.

So

Wed: Sloppy Joes with boxed rice mix
Thursday: Grilled Cheese and soup
Friday: Sick boys choice... (I will even let him eat out if he wants, just so thankful it wasn't worse)

Are we going to continue February in this thread or OP are you going to start a February Challenge. Is anyone still game?

Well, I like having this thread-- I never got the challenge part of it, but it does inspire me just in itself. Also you get a lot of good tips on putting things together creatively.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Well, I like having this thread-- I never got the challenge part of it, but it does inspire me just in itself. Also you get a lot of good tips on putting things together creatively.

I am way okay with keeping it here til we max out the thread. I would love to do the whole year actually, but there would be a "stocking" period. I am hoping to do a huge shoppping trip at the end of this month which will compensate plus more than what I started with. So I will post when I re-stock as it would be impossible to go the whole year....

 

[lisam427]

tonight is a beef roast, mashed potatoes, frozen corn. put it in the crockpot tonight. we didnt go to the store tonight. guess we will go tommorrow. tommorrow we will be having something with italian sausage. not sure about the sides yet.

 

[smiller]

DSis made some really yummy chicken pot pie tonight. Why can't I ever get mine to taste as good?

We ate up the minestrone, some of the pizza, and some of the baked penne for lunch. I'm hoping DBIL will finish the Polish sausages, pork chop, baked penne, pizza, beef dumpling soup, gyros & fries, and Jello. Or, is that too much to ask?

Whatever's left over I'll eat for lunch tomorrow! We do have some house guests coming over tomorrow so I'll have to whip up a little better lunch for them - maybe one of my "soup and sandwich" specials!

Just heard DSis say, "Now we can cross off the Jello!" so I suppose the food is getting eaten over there in the kitchen!

I love having this thread to read for ideas on how to use up my pantry and freezer - it's a great motivator. I'm game to go as long as possible!

 

[sau418]

I am all for keeping the thread going. Even though I am in stock up phase the ideas are keeping me on top of my game so things do not get lost in the great abyss of my freezer.

 

[tinkarooni]

DSis made some really yummy chicken pot pie tonight. Why can't I ever get mine to taste as good?

Personally I find food always tastes better when I don't have to cook it.

We are in the process of moving my DGF into an assisted living facility. My DM is bringing him in from out of state this weekend so DH and I are doing all the moving ourselves. I was so tired today I really just wanted a pizza. I had originally planned to cook a big meal (previously posted) but a snow storm is moving in on us so we had to move the moving up so we aren't hauling a U-Haul trailer in a blizzard. So tired today.....but I remembered that I had leftover sauce with meatballs in the fridge from the other night. Boiled some pasta, cooked some broccoli. Not exactly a meal fit for a four star restaurant but we ate at home, most of the food groups were accounted for and everybody's happy. Especially me....pizza would have been $20.00 out of my very tight self imposed budget. I would much rather use my eating out money for better eating out than greasy pizza on the run.

 

[charming23]

Did a bit of shopping today for next week and only spent $12.58. We will need milk later on in the week (I just bought some monday and it takes us about 1 1/2 weeks to finish a gallon). But other than that we have everything we need in house. Pretty good.

We did splurge and get takeout from Five Guys Burgers and fries for dinner but other than that we have been eatng all meals at home this week.

 

[50sjayne]

Lordy went to Costco today. Meant to take out some of the teriaki chicken breasts tonight and have sandwiches with the sandwich thins I got, but the demo ladies were out in full force and I left Costco extremely guilty and full. Lol-- it is why I went there really knew there would be tons of good samples because of the superbowl. So I'm just having the Caesar salad I pick up everytime we go because we love it. Also worked though 'cause husband is dominating the kitchen tonight preparing stuff for the Turkey dinner He does Thanksgiving every year, and everytime we cook the cheap turkeys from the freezers--he does the whole thing lol.
Been reading Jerry Seinfelds wifes book on hiding healthy stuff in food and am getting lots of ideas of healthily using up pantry and freezer stores. One thing I was delighted with was the sweet potato mix she does to add to stuff-- I have a whole Costco box out in the garage I need to use. Lots fo good baking ideas too.

 

[charming23]

Since it was cold and snowy out I spent the day doing homework and baking for the week. I made some pepperoni bread, lemon poppyseed bread, whole wheat bread in the bread machine, and have bananas ready to make banana cake tomorrow for dessert during the game.

Lunch was some of the pepperoni bread dipped in marinara.

Dinner tonight is pork roast with buttered noodles and harvest apples.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We were bad today! We did a full remodel of our youngest daughters room which involved hours of errands as well to get various things. We were exhausted and starving, so we ordered Pizza Hut. We did get a pretty good deal with the $10 any amount of toppings and it really hit the spot to just sit down and eat hot, yummy food!

 

[momx2]

Well, I have been using this Challenge since December as more of a freezer challenge instead of pantry. I don't buy a lot of processed foods any longer so I don't keep much in my pantry as I once did.

I did go to Kroger yesterday and spent $204, but saved over $52 in coupons and money back. I did buy 1lb of italian sausage to make meatballs and 1lb of ground turkey because it was on sale and I had a coupon. I have already used them to make the meatballs, ate 1/2, froze 1/2.

I am now down to only 4lbs of ground turkey, 2lbs of ground beef, 1 pkg. of 1.5lb chicken, 1 huge beef brisket...still, one bag of chicken tenders, one turkey breast and one whole turkey. We have finally eaten through most of the frozen meats!!!!

I should finish emptying out the freezer in a week or two, except the turkeys. I can't decide if I'm going to restock or buy as I need it. I don't know what to do now.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Went to Sam's today spent $100.00 (this is my normal amount and is budgeted) and then went grocery shopping. I spent $40.00 this week, so I am really glad.

Yesterday we had Asian veggies over steamed pierogi
Sunday: Superbowl, pizza and wings

Monday: Leftover chicken stew with bisquits, pears
Tuesday: Ham with sweet potatoes, green beans, applesauce (didn't have last week as expected)
Wednesday: Lazy Lasagna, salad, garlic crisps
Thursday: Beef stroganoff, mashed potatoes, corn
Friday: I am going to try something new this day, I received a few cook books, but I am going to try one of the recipes.

Saturday is open and then the next week is Valentine Day and my birthday. Haven't decided if we will keep our schedule or throw caution to the wind and enjoy it.

Hope everyone has a great week. Diane.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We did well for breakfast (muffins that were given to us for poor service at Mimi's yesterday!). Lunch was the leftover pizza from dinner last night. Dinner will be wings, potato salad (used up the last of the potatoes from the pantry!) and baked beans.

 

[tavettava]

Tonight-chicken (from freezer) cooked in a homemade onion soup mix, a box of augratin potatoes (pantry), some peas from the garden last summer, and some corn (freezer).

Monday-unstuffed cabbage in the crockpot (have to use up a head of cabbage), and some smashed potatoes from the pantry.

Tuesday- chicken and rice soup for me (everything is in the freezer just needs to be thrown together and cooked) and the kids will have leftover's.

Wednesday we go to my dad's

Thursday-pork chops over potatoes (kinda like scalloped) and a veggie (all here).

Friday-homemade pizzas (all here).

 

[lisam427]

yesterday went to aldis and spent $46 (my total so far). we seemed to be out of everything! today i made a decent sized pot of soup for lunches for me and dd. dinner tonight was a piece of turkey breast from the freezer that was given to me. i threw that i the crock pot, had rice and corn (freezer) with it. whatever leftover turkey there was went into the soup. tonight i'm premaking a meatloaf. that way tomorrow dd can just take it out of the fridge and throw it in the oven for me. we will most likely have mashed potatoes and frozen carrots with the meatloaf. tuesday's dinner will be quiche. Wednesday will be bbq ribs (freezer) in the crock pot, baked beans,corn on the cob (freezer). thursday will be leftovers. friday we will have baked fish (freezer), boxed mac and cheese, and a veg from the freezer. saturday will be leftovers.

 

[charming23]

Yesterday we had made some bread in the bread machine that did not rise due to bad yeast, so I ran out and got some and made more this morning that turned out so well. I used the basic bread machine recipe from the hillbillyhousewife but used 3 cups white flour with one cup wheat. It is so yummy.

Everyone is over right now watching the game and I am hiding out watching a movie in my room with my cousin.

The rest of the week looks like this:
Monday: Leftovers or spaghetti and meatballs
Tuesday: Turkey tenderloin with mashed potatoes and corn
Wednesday: Potato and double corn chowder with salad.
Thursday: My Birthday and my Aunts and Grandma are taking us out
Friday: Homemade pizzas
Saturday: My family and friend b-day party
Sunday: Slowcooker honey glazed ham with baked sweet potatoes.

 

[tinkmom2]

We are getting alot of snow here tomorrow so I did my weekly shopping oday. I spent $107.09 and had about $8.00 in coupons. This is including cat food,soda, and feeds a family of 4 breakfast luch and dinner for a week. I stocked up on cereal this week because it was on sale and I had a coupon.

Superbowl Sunday I made bourbon chicken wings and mini barbecued hot dogs. (we were so stuffed after that I am glad I didn't make more.
This is some of the other meals I have planned for the week..
Indian style masala chicken and cauliflower with basmati rice
meatball subs with french bread and mushrooms
mini hamburgers and fries
tilapia baked fish
chili and cheese nachos

have a great week all!