When I saw the Eat from the Pantry Challenge that Fishmama from Life as Mom and Crystal from Money Saving Mom were doing for January, I just had to give it a try. I have never done much "Once a Month Cooking," so I don't have extra meals stashed away in the freezer (unless we're going to eat pie, Cool Whip, & lemonade for dinner!). But I do have a LOT of food in our kitchen cupboards and on our basement shelves, and I know we need to rotate through what is stockpiled away - especially in the basement.
I started with taking an inventory of all the food in our freezers, on our basement shelves, and in the kitchen - and discarding all the expired items, which amounted to more than I expected. Feeling terribly wasteful, I decided that my main goal is to work through the excess that we have, and get to a point where our food supplies fit in our kitchen cupboards. Most of what is in the basement came from great "deals," but they are only deals if I'm actually using the items, not letting them expire on the basement shelves.
Normally, we plan to spend $100 per week on groceries, which includes toiletries and household items as well. That $100 amount is my target, but we often go over it by a little, or pick up extra milk and bread throughout the week without counting it in the weekly tally. For January, while attempting the Eat from the Pantry Challenge, I know we can't completely avoid shopping. But I want to limit our purchases to produce, dairy, meat (as needed), and bread - spending as little as possible to fill in the gaps in what we already have available here at home.
Last week, I was successful with my shopping goals. I made one trip to the grocery store, limited my purchases to that "outer rim" of the store, and spent $53. Those purchases included a beef roast for $2.29/lb and pork chops for $1.49/lb - both of which I will use in this week's menu. Bud made a quick trip to Wal-mart yesterday to buy milk, a few other dairy items, some fresh fruit, and laundry supplies - spending a total of $32. We will need to make at least one more trip for milk later in the week (the boys go through about a gallon a day), but I think we'll be able to stay under $50 for our grocery expenses this week.
"From the pantry" solutions and challenges from last week:
- Used some of the frozen blueberries (that I had forgotten were in the freezer) in our pancake dinner.
- Created a new topping for my baked macaroni and cheese recipe. It calls for croutons, but we didn't have any. Instead I used buttered whole-wheat bread crumbs and seasoned them with Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning. I think I actually prefer it this way, because the bread crumb topping was more evenly distributed over the entire dish than when it is topped with croutons. I'll definitely use variations on this topping for other casseroles in the future.
- I didn't feel like cooking on Saturday, and the guys had requested pizza. It would have been so easy to just order some, or make a trip to Little Caesar's, despite the cold weather. But, thanks to the challenge, I dug out the from-scratch recipe I used when I was on a bread-baking kick a while ago. The dough wasn't as cooperative as I remembered, but I made two batches (three large pizzas' worth), and everyone ate their fill.
- I have a lot of Tastefully Simple baked good mixes in my kitchen cupboard. Some are current, some are retired items that are no longer available. I really want to make use of them, and I'm sure the boys won't complain about eating more baked desserts. I mixed up cranberry pecan muffins on Saturday, which combine two of Bud's favorite flavors!
- The only "failed" meal of the week was just a matter of picky eating. Friday night, for our main dish, I used up the partial bags of popcorn shrimp, boneless buffalo wings, and cod nuggets - so everyone could enjoy their favorite. I paired them with a box of parmesan couscous and some glazed carrots. B refused the couscous, R rejected the couscous and the carrots, and W wouldn't eat the carrots. I don't think I'll bother to buy more couscous for a while!
Overall, the first week of eating from the pantry was a success, we have spent significantly less for groceries so far this month than we usually do, and this week's menu plan came together nicely. Next week? Things might get a little more difficult! Are you eating from the pantry this month too? Check out Crystal's update and share your own Eat from the Pantry progress here!
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