Spring Pantry Challenge

[charming23]

Last night we ended up not doing french toast but having meatball sandwiches with meatballs from the freezer, sauce from the cupboard, cheese, and some buns that needed to be used up. We had side salads with them.

Breakfast this morning will be the french toast and sausage.

Lunch will be whatever you can find in the house and dinner is going to be chicken stirfry with tropical hawaiian teriyaki sauce.

 

[pjlla]

Well.... breakfast for the men was mickey waffles (thank goodness for the "complete" pancake mix that doesn't need milk or eggs), V-8 fruit fusion juice that has sat in the fridge unopened for a LONG time. DH liked it, DS refused to try it. I made myself a mickey waffle with my Fiberone complete mix. The men also had some bacon (precooked package I had leftover from the holidays). Yesterday's b.fast for the men was the last four eggs in the house, toast, and the previously mentioned pre-cooked bacon. (Bacon is a HUGE treat in our house.... I usually only buy it for special occasions.)

We will be scrambling to find something for lunch today. Yesterday's lunch was grilled cheese for DH using almost the last of the bread, the last of the Bagel Bites for DS, the last pita pocket with some turkey for me. We finished the pretzels, chips, and most of the baby carrots too. Maybe canned soup for lunch??

I have some hamburg defrosting in the fridge.... DS loves my meatloaf and I haven't made it in months, so I am going to try to make a meatloaf today (assuming it can be done without egg). That will use the last of the onions and celery in the fridge and I will officially be totally without fresh veggies. Frozen peas (the last of the frozen veggies) to go with that and some couscous or instant mashed potatoes and a jar of apple sauce... dinner is done.

The shelves/fridge are getting pretty bare, but I'm doing GREAT using up some overages. I still have plenty of meat in the freezer (2 whole chickens, 3 pork tenderloins, 2 pork roasts, 1 pack of chicken breast, 1 pack of drumsticks, 2 packs of marinated steak tips, 2 packs of chicken sausage), so I will just be refilling the fresh produce, milk, bread, eggs over the next week. I'd like to make it into February without a big spend at the grocery store. Thanks for your continued inspiration here!.............P

 

[momto1]

Yesterday was a pretty good day for getting some thing gone! I made 2 loaves of bread - cranberry nut and marachino/cranberry/nut. I used up the fresh cranberries, a partial jar of marachino cherries, open bag of walnuts and open bag of sliced almonds. I found another partial bag of sliced almonds that I didn't know was hanging around.

For dinner I planned to make a Poured Pizza using up 3 open bags of various types of church we discovered the dog had eaten the frozen pound of hamburger that was left on stove to defrost.

Ended up doing pasta with pesto and shrimp with french bread. So used up a bag of shrimp and the bread.

Today - bagel for me for breakfast, dh and ds had eggs and cheese using up a bag of cheese.

Lunch - Guys are doing a hot dog fundraiser so sounds like hot dogs.

Dinner - Pulled pork from the freezer and some type of sides.

Lori

 

[Priorityonecb]

We've been doing well!! I came in under budget on groceries this week at $40!! Tonight's dinner is a total freezer use up meal, and one that was requested by the family! Chicken and dumplings using leftover chicken and tons of vegetables I had been putting aside as we had leftovers. I think I'll make some cookies for dessert, with ingredients from the pantry of course!

 

[lisam427]

picked up my angel food order. between that and what my relative gave me last week and my order, my freezer is completely packed. also i went to wegmans and spent $47 . my monthly total is $160.00 out of my $200.00 budget. i have plenty of food so next month i probably wont be spending much. Still not bad for 2 people.

heres my menu this week
sunday-macaroni and beef, salad
monday-crockpot pork roast, mashed potatoes, frozen vegetables
tues-quiche, salad
wed-soup made with vegis and leftover roast, rolls
thursday-meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans
friday-pasta, salad
saturday ribs, baked beans, frozen vegetables

lunches will be leftovers-
breakfast- the usual cereal, eggs, toast, pancakes, yogurt, fruit.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Today is bbq chicken for lunch, and beef stir-fry for dinner. I may also bake some bread or something too, for some reason I really feel like cooking and baking today.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Just back from Wegmans and Aldis. Total of $66.00. Not too bad. Not as low as I would like, but definetely not too bad. I did get 2 packages of the 100 calorie packs for DD who wants to watch her snacking for the next couple of weeks. Usually I make her pay, but her going away to college soon keeps running through my mind so I guess I am gonna just treat her for a while. Also, they had this wonderful sample of fresh mozzarella with basil, asiago, and roasted tomatoes. The tomatoes were out of this world. I bought some to put on DH and mine meatball subs tomorrow.

So enough of me rambling. I am going to put my weekly menu in the next post, since it will most likely need tweeking during the week.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Sunday: Salsa Chicken from the crockpot thread over tortilla's or spanish rice.
Monday: Meatball subs with salad. (No going back this week, I even bought the rolls.
Tuesday: DS treated us to Subway.. His little girlfriend was over and wanted to look "cool"
Wednesday: Soup and sandwiches...
Thursday: Chicken something, roasted red potatoes, and a veggie
Friday: Spaghetti and any leftover meatballs (spruced up sauce with chicken Italian sausage

Then back to Saturday...... and a new week.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I've been doing well with my grocery shopping, I've mostly stuck to not buying anything other then dairy, produce, and bread. Though I did spend a bit on meat, pre-portioned marinated pork chops were reduced to $3.99 for six, and I had a coupon for $2 off a 6-pack, so that came out to 30-some cents a chop. And since I only buy and cook for myself most nights, I like have them individually frozen like that.

I do need to restock on a couple pantry items; I just opened my last bag of flour, and I always like to have at least one full bag so I'm never out, I also need spaghetti noodles, completely out of them, and mayonnaise, I'm at the end of my last jar.

 

[KKB]

My mom stopped by w/ a $5 off $50 at my fav grocery store that expires today! Plus there was $5 off fresh butcher meat...
SO....
hot dogs .39
pork loin roast $1.49/2lb (was 6.49 before the $5 off)
milk .88/half gallon (limit 2)
braeburn apples .66/lb.
we also needed bananas, bread, Diet Dr. Pepper
(will be getting Diet Mountain Dew at Walgreens...3/$10 isn't bad, but buy $20 worth & get $10 in bucks!)

SO this afternoon/evening the kids had 2 basketball games, a meeting & baseball practice...SO we hit a local fast food fav (Runza) w/ coupons for the boys & my mom treated us girls to a bar & grill.

Monday BBQ pork
Tuesday talapia
Wednesday something w/ hamburger...
Thursday frozen pizza (oh, got Digiornio for $5--can't make it homemade for that!)
Friday chicken breasts
Saturday beef stew
Sunday--haven't looked at game schedules yet...not sure...

 

[Swimnoid]

I'm at the point in the pantry (and somewhat in the freezer) where I had to actually restock! They had some great deals though and they are having a store brand sale as well. You get $$ off your next rip for the more store brands you buy. I have found almost all of their store brands are just as good or better so not a problem for me. I bought 23 store brand products and got a coupon for $5.75 off next time and a couple of other $1 off coupons that were linked to other products but are just $ money off your total.

This week will be in some order....

Steak (on sale) pierogies (freezer) salad (already had)
spaghetti and meatballs (from the restock)
pork chops in crock pot (Freezer) mashed potatoes (restock)
shrimp pasta (freezer and pantry)
THURS=take out chinese as a treat!

Trying to get back in the habit of taking my lunch to work so I have to think about that for awhile.

 

[charming23]

Breakfast this morning is the last 2 bagels with cream cheese. Lunch will be leftover chicken stirfry from last night.

This is what dinners look like for the rest of the week
Tonight- Grilled Pork Chops with Baked sweet potatoes and applesauce
Tomorrow- Going out for my Grandma's 90th B-day
Wednesday- Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato fries
Thursday- Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Friday- Chicken and dumplings
Saturday- My Grandma's 90th birthday party

 

[tinkarooni]

Just posted on the no buy thread.....I am thrilled that I have food money left over at the end of the month.....well it's only $4.00 but still I made it. We had some big expeses this month to come out of food money....1/4 beef a 1/2 of a pig, all my garden seeds and pre-ordered plants and now my grandfather is moving near us to assisted living and I have put a lot of money oop to help him get settled, toiletries, snack foods, cereals, fresh fruit etc. SO I am super thrilled that with all of these extra costs I was able to eat out of the freezer and pantry and not have to dip somewhere elses for extra money. I also can't wait for February, a short month already, to see how much I can save!

I cleaned out my pantry and organized and found a bunch of things I didn't know I had. Have been using up things from there and there is actually bare shelf space now!

Sunday was eggs and bacon for breakfast with some frozen blueberries, lunch was leftovers, dinner was a turkey breast with some homemade sweet potato fries, squash rolls I made from butter nut squash and some of the organic greens from the box I bought at Sams. I highly recommend this, it's lasting a long time and cost about $4.00. Best deal around. Still nice and fresh!

Today for breakfast we had oatmeal with some oranges my Mom sent from Florida. The kids are taking homemade chicken noodle soup, squash rolls and the yummiest Strawberry cake I made with some of my surplus frozen strawberries, a box of white cake mix and a box of Strawberry jello. Using up those boxes!

 

[momto1]

I totalled my spending last week at it was only $58! Yea for me!

Tonight - Swedish meatballs, using up the last of the meatballs in the freezer and the swedish sauce, egg noodles and salad.

I have to decide how to use the rest of the Sweet and Sour sauce I have. It will go with chicken and rice but I am not sure what I am going to do. I don't want to go buy any more veggies. So...

Now that I can get into my freezer and I am finding fod I forgot about. Not good. I have to big packages of mini hot dogs that I will tackle next week.

Lori

 

[50sjayne]

Just posted on the no buy thread.....I am thrilled that I have food money left over at the end of the month.....well it's only $4.00 but still I made it. We had some big expeses this month to come out of food money....1/4 beef a 1/2 of a pig, all my garden seeds and pre-ordered plants and now my grandfather is moving near us to assisted living and I have put a lot of money oop to help him get settled, toiletries, snack foods, cereals, fresh fruit etc. SO I am super thrilled that with all of these extra costs I was able to eat out of the freezer and pantry and not have to dip somewhere elses for extra money. I also can't wait for February, a short month already, to see how much I can save!

I cleaned out my pantry and organized and found a bunch of things I didn't know I had. Have been using up things from there and there is actually bare shelf space now!

Sunday was eggs and bacon for breakfast with some frozen blueberries, lunch was leftovers, dinner was a turkey breast with some homemade sweet potato fries, squash rolls I made from butter nut squash and some of the organic greens from the box I bought at Sams. I highly recommend this, it's lasting a long time and cost about $4.00. Best deal around. Still nice and fresh!

Today for breakfast we had oatmeal with some oranges my Mom sent from Florida. The kids are taking homemade chicken noodle soup, squash rolls and the yummiest Strawberry cake I made with some of my surplus frozen strawberries, a box of white cake mix and a box of Strawberry jello. Using up those boxes!

Yay everyone's eating sweet potato fries! Aren't they the best-- very good for you too. I had mine that I cut up twice this week so far, once with stirfry, and last night with chicken tenders I made at work for samples then ran out of customers so I bought 'em lol. I baked them with the sweet potatoes--turned out good. I've been putting cumin on the sweet potatoes and spraying them with olive oil. I got one of those olive oil dispenser things for christmas--love it. Did clean my freezer. Found a whole bag of potstickers I didn't know I had... Still need to clean out the garage freezer ick.

 

[smiller]

I so need to sit down and do some weekly meal planning for DSis's family (well, it includes me as well right now!).

There are lots of fun foods and complete meals in their pantry and freezer but I'll probably end up serving soup and crackers for lunch - due to lack of planning.

I'm glad this thread is inspiring me!

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

I so need to sit down and do some weekly meal planning for DSis's family (well, it includes me as well right now!).

There are lots of fun foods and complete meals in their pantry and freezer but I'll probably end up serving soup and crackers for lunch - due to lack of planning.

I'm glad this thread is inspiring me!

We all would be glad to help, just give a breakdown of what you have in the cupboard, freezer and we can help you make the meals. Sometimes, I take each day from a different poster to make my week. The same ole's same ole's hit hard after a while and everything blurrs together.

 

[momto1]

Wow, where is everyone today?

Tonight - Chicken leg 1/4's that I dug from the freezer and who know how long they have been in there? Squash and Boxed potatoe of some type.

Tomorrow I am working late and eating at work. DH and DS will have a frozen pizza.

Lori

 

[Priorityonecb]

Tonight's another good one! I am doing the salsa black bean chicken from the crockpot thread here! Using the last two chicken breasts from a huge pack I bought, and the veggies and soup from stock ups in the pantry! I'll serve that over brown rice from the pantry!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Today was burgers, I did a blue cheese-stuffed one for lunch, and will be doing a spiced one with feta for dinner.

I never did make that beef stir fry the other day, but will have to do it tomorrow before the beef starts going bad. I'll also be making stroganoff sometime this week, will probably be Thursday.