Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Eat From the Pantry Challenge

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This month two blogs that I frequent (in the button above) are hosting an eat from the pantry challenge for the month of January. Our pantry and freezer are overflowing, and since my inlaws gave us a deep freeze for Christmas, (wahoo!) I thought I'd take stock, eat everything, and start fresh. As a matter of fact, after seeing just how much we have, I'm wondering if we'll be able to extend the challenge in our house into February! In any case, our usual grocery budget is $50 per week, or roughly $200 a month. I'm going to attempt to spend just $50 total in January, mostly on produce and dairy. So far, we've bought 2 gallons of milk, a dozen eggs, and a head of romaine lettuce. Seriously, we have so much food that I actually think this will be doable.

I'm late getting my post up this week (sigh), but here's how we're doing...

 

What we've eaten this week:

Blue Cheese Stuffed Pork Loin

Veggie Beef Stew with Homemade Artisan Bread

PF Chang's Knock-Off Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Healthy "Fried" Rice and Glazed Carrots

Italian Pear Pork with Mac n' Cheese and Apple/Pear Sauce

Overnight French Toast from leftover homemade bread

Pumpkin Pancakes

Banana Bread

Strawberry Nutrigrain Bars

 

I'll admit to not being a strict meal planner. I usually just make a list and pick and choose depending on what I feel like that morning. So I just made a list of meals we have the ingredients for/ have in the freezer and then we'll get creative when we run out!

 

Future Meal Choices:

Mexican Chicken

Asian Lemon Chicken

Sweet Potato Manicotti (loosely based on this recipe)

Chicken Enchiladas

BBQ Pork Sandwiches

Chicken Parmesan

Chicken and Dumplings

Lasagna

Taco Soup

Top-Your-Own Flatbread Pizza

BBQ Feta Flatbreads

Cheesy Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

Coconut Sweet Potatoes

White Chili with Corn Bread

 

Breakfasts and Snacks (mostly from the freezer):

Sour Cream Banana Bread

Pumpkin Pancakes

Mini Quiches

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Chocolate Oatmeal Muffins

Breakfast Cake

Sweet Potato, Zucchini and/or Pumpkin Bread

2 comments:

amosclarkson said...

Once again, Tori, your cooking (crafting, sewing, etc.) but me to shame. $50 a week....how??! We don't have a pantry OR a deep freeze so our food fills up 2 cupboards & a fridge/freezer. Hubby isn't home for dinners & I work several evenings a week so that makes it hard to cook. Sigh. Oh well, I enjoy learning from both you & Anjanette!

Anjanette said...

Oh Amy, she definitely puts me to shame, too! :) Love the ideas Tori - and kudos to you for the great food budget!!! I can't wait to have a deep freeze!