Pantry Challenge: Day 4

And I didn't take pictures again. Sorry! Just a recap today.

Breakfast
Cereal and milk for all.

Lunch
Leftover soup and cornbread (finished both).

Dinner
Chicken Divan with broccoli, rice and cranberry sauce.

The fridge is getting less cluttered and we are eating probably better than we were before I started because I am actually planning meals. I don't really know why I ever got out of the habit. Laziness I guess and then blamed it on having a baby. Well, I kinda can't do that forever! Have to say this has given me a confidence boost in the dinner department!

Pantry Challenge: Day 3

Day 3 and I haven't given up yet! It has to be a record. I am actually enjoying this, I haven't had to panic at 5:00 and do the "we are eating whatever crap I can find in the freezer" again. Liberating! And part of this is that I have rekindled the love affair with my slow cooker. I LOVE it. I take about 15-20 minutes in the morning, switch it on and walk away (or run and scream "I'm free!"). Like today I fixed up a roasting chicken I had thawed from the freezer and cooked it til it was falling apart. Then I picked it clean, threw the bones, skin and other rejectamenta back into the crock and reserved about 3 cups of breast meat for tomorrow. The rest of the meat I shredded and used up a bottle of BBQ sauce (I even rinsed it out ;-) ). When it was time for dinner I threw the rest of a bag of fries in the oven and grated cabbage and carrots for coleslaw using up yet another bottle with the dressing (rinsed that one out too!). It was delicious. After dinner I attended to the chicken remains in the slow cooker. I added half an onion left over, a stalk of celery, 2 small carrots, a bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme and s&p. Covered it with water, stuck it on low, I will have stock in the morning. Yay multitasking, sleeping and cooking at the same time, didn't know I was that talented did you?


So here was the days meal recap:

Breakfast
Fried eggs and milk for Puzzle Boy, fried egg, cornbread and oj for mama. I had my other smoothie for a snack late in the morning.

Lunch
PB & J for P.B., leftover lentil soup and more cornbread for mama.

Dinner
BBQ chicken sandwiches, coleslaw and fries. The picture doesn't do it justice, it was sooo gooood!!!

Shopping Trip: Trader Joe's

Organic brown eggs- $3.79
Sea salt- $1.49
Organic unsalted butter- $4.79
Organic frozen broccoli florets- 2 @ $2.49

Total: $15.05 (gift card)

Pantry Challenge: Day 2

Puzzle Boy went back to school today so our morning was the typical drive into the city to his school. He eats GF cereal on the way in, he's not a morning eater really. After I dropped him off, Mini Me and I hopped over to Whole Foods (my favorite store) to grab some gallons of organic milk and a few other missing items from the menu. I still need to go again for some basic things I have run out of (kosher salt anyone?). Here is what I bought today:

2 gallons of lowfat organic milk- $11.98
1/2 gallon of orange juice- $3.19
2 Odwalla smoothies (2/$5.00)- $5.00 + $.10 bottle deposit
1 cabbage (@ $1.29/lb)- $3.13
1 large bunch of celery- $2.49
1 package whole wheat burger buns (8)- $3.29

Total: $29.18

I drank one of the smoothies for breakfast and the other one will be tomorrows breakfast. I am not a morning person, ok? And I have given up coffee, my favorite thing. After tomorrow I will be making my own smoothies, today I fell victim to a sale and a twist top.

For lunch I had a sandwich with leftover ham and PB had GF pretzels with a clementine and cheese stick. Mini had a baby yogurt. The kids lunch items are staples in this house, I will be restocking by week 2 or 3.

For dinner it's lentil and ham bone soup. We had a ham bone in the freezer from my grandmother's Christmas party that needed to evacuate. I immediately thought of pea soup, a family fav, but alas I was out of dry split peas! I thought, out I will just grab some at the store tomorrow! Then my mom said, "No!" so I said "Lentils!". Let the innovation begin!

Lentil and Ham Bone Soup

1 meaty ham bone
1 lb green lentils
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small heart or 2 lg ribs of celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped small
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dry thyme leaves
1/8-1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake
salt to taste
6-8 cups of water (to cover by 1 inch)

Dump it all in your crock pot on low for about 6-8 hours until the lentils thicken the soup. Remove the bone and meat, chop up the meat and add it back. Remove the bay leaves, they might hurt your throat. Or leave them in, I hear it's good luck to the one who gets one in their bowl! Just don't eat them, I beg you.

Chop your veggies.

Add bay leaves.

And thyme.

Aaannd red pepper flakes.

Ready for the cover. It will be delicious!

Along with the soup I will be making bacon cornbread! YUM.





Let me know if you are participating and tell me how you are doing! Leave a message, I love messages!

Pantry Challenge: Day 1, Oink oink

Sorry, I did not think to take pictures of our meal last night! Envision a baked ham with a few baked potatoes and veggies.

I will give you a little back ground here. We went to Florida for Christmas this year. Before we left we cleaned out the fridge and took a lot of food with us in the RV. But when we got home we had not so much to put back. So you will see me supplementing just a little with the grocery store! No, I am not going hard core here even if I do have a huge box of dry milk in my pantry, it just don't taste the same! But I am going to fore go take out and what not, thus Saturday nights will be homemade pizza night instead of $5 pizza night.

So, anyway yesterday we had typical breakfasts, cereal and the like. My brother got me a breakfast sandwich and sent it home with Montana Man but I had already eaten so I had that for lunch. Montana Man got the pantry special of tuna melts on english muffins for lunch. I had an open package of wheat english muffins in the freezer that needed using and I scrounged a can of tuna, mayo and american cheese. It was fast (he was hungry... now!), and it was tasty. Then for supper as a fore mentioned, we had the ham. There is just something about ham that is funny to me. It's like this big fat lump of pink mystical meat that appears only on holidays and buffets. It makes me think of words like oink. I did not buy this ham, it was given to my mom. We baked potatoes that were hanging out in the deep end of the fridge, finished a bag of peas and carrots from the freezer and a can of cream style corn. That was day one! Next up, lentils (no seriously, stay with me, they are good!).

January 2013 Pantry Challenge

Happy New Year readers! Last year was a year of trials for my family, time to start the year off right. So lets eat the pantry! No, not the actual pantry, that would be silly and full of splinters. Lets eat the majority of the contents starting today, January 1, 2013. If you would like a detailed description of this challenge please scoot over to GoodCheapEats.com. This mama is a frugal one and she has been doing this challenge for years. I first saw this challenge last year on TammysRecipes.com and thought it would be fun to do. If I hadn't been massively pregnant and had just moved, I totally would have! But now I am not, so here we go.

I have taken inventory, I have thought of meals, and I have made a menu for the month.

What's on the menu this week:

Tuesday: Baked ham, baked potatoes, peas, carrots and cream style corn.

Wednesday: Lentil soup with ham and vegetables, cheddar bacon cornbread.

Thursday: BBQ chicken sandwiches, oven fries, coleslaw.

Friday: Chicken divan with broccoli, cranberry sauce.

Saturday: Homemade pizza.



Pantry used:

ham
potatoes
peas and carrots
cream style corn
ham bone
lentils
bacon
cheddar
cornmeal
flour, etc.
whole chicken
BBQ sauce
fries
coleslaw dressing
broccoli
bread crumbs
cranberry sauce
pizza sauce
sausage crumbles
mozzerella cheese
misc. veggies from fridge

Grocery List:

whole wheat buns
coleslaw
cream of chicken soup