I need to spend as little as possible or nothing on groceries this next pay period (2 weeks). So, I thought a pantry challenge might make it a little more fun. LOL I thought we could post meals we eat and how little we end up buying...

Anybody up for it?

Aileen

I need to-- we are in the process of ripping the kitchen out and I really need to use some of the food in them LOL. I know already that we are very low on produce and kid snacks/food, so I am going to have to make a run to the store very soon. And we are planning to go out of town for at least a few days. SO put me in tentatively LOL

I would be, but I've been doing my own personal pantry challenge for the last few weeks. I don't think I've had a "real" shopping trip for more than a month, and our pantry is starting to look bare bones. I realized over the weekend that the only meat I have left in the house is one chicken so I really need to restock. But it's been such a great feeling to make due with what we have and know we're not wasting food. Good luck to you guys!

I'm in! My folks just visited and rented a cottage on a pond nearby for a week. They stocked the fridge and pantry and now it's all ours! :D We have a LOT we need to use up...I was just looking at the counters and wondering where I'm going to stuff all this food. We need to eat it asap! Plus our budget is stretched beyond thin this month due to some unexpected expenses.

I would if I had your pantry/freezer :lol:

Mine's pretty much empty. :wah:

Yep. It's pretty lean around here right now but I'd love to get it to go farther.

I'm going to go put up a load on the line then I'll do an inventory of the kitchen.

how about we share meals to make with the staples that I am sure that everyone has in the pantry? Pasta, rice, dried beans, etc? Finding new things to do with pasta could help me a LOT LOL

how about we share meals to make with the staples that I am sure that everyone has in the pantry? Pasta, rice, dried beans, etc? Finding new things to do with pasta could help me a LOT LOL

Great idea...

I just made up a big batch of blueberry muffins with some dried blueberries I had on hand. Here's the recipe for anyone interested. It's the first time I've made this one. It is AWESOME!!!

To Die For Blueberry Muffins


4 1/2 cups flour

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

6 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 cup milk

3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries


for topping:


1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter, cubed

1 cup flour

4 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon


Preheat oven to 400 degrees (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Mix oil, egg and milk and add all at once to dry mix. Stir to moisten. Fold in berries. Fill muffin cups right to the top. Mix together ingredients for topping and sprinkle on each unbaked muffin. Bake for 20-25 minutes. This recipe in tripled as shown here and made 24 when I made them yesterday.


For lunch we are having left over black bean/corn salad w/ leftover chips.

We'll probably have muffins for snack.

For dinner, I think I'll make some very low meat spaghetti sauce over whatever pasta I have :lol: and have some freezer veggies and toast. I do have a decent pantry stock up on lots of things, but I'm really low on others and I'm planning to do this for 3 weeks, so it will get much worse towards the end. And it's much lower than it was when you were here Allison.

This looks like fun. I have $30 cash for the rest of the week. I would actually like to stretch it to the following Friday. My pantry isn't buldging right now so it should be interesting.

Tonight we had tacos. We needed to eat up the bagged salad before it went bad so that worked out good.

Maybe I'll make some pumpkin spice muffins tomorrow. I'll have oatmeal for breakfast and the kids cereal. lunch is leftovers. dinner will be grilled pork ribs, parm. potatoes, and broccoli.

Todays menu... :)

B- blueberry muffins/milk
L- leftovers
S- fresh veggies & dip
D- Chilli, I started beans soaking last night.

I can do this next week. I am not going to be home the rest of this week.

I'd love to keep an eye on this thread - we're always tight on money and have TONS of pasta! :D My husband can be super picky, which is part of my challenge, so I hope some of you mamas have awesome ideas! I'm trying those muffins in the morning - we just went blueberry picking and I'm trying to use the 2 bucketfulls before they turn.

ME! I have been working on this these last two days.

Here's my menu for the next four days:

Potroast, mashed potatoes, fresh baked bread

Chili, salad, and cornbread

Tamales, spanish rice, Quesdillas

spaghetti, garlic green beans, sour dough bread (frozen loaf)

(yes, it is raining and cold... I can cook things like this. ;) )

For breakfast we have cereal, oatmeal with plum sauce, frozen blueberries, or maple syrup, pancake mixings, eggs and toast

For lunch we have pasta salad, tomato and red papper soup, tuna sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches,

I am sure there is more, but this is as far as I have gotten. I have $60 for the next week and a half so I need to spend wizely, and I want to not spend ANYTHING until the weekend on food or gas or anything else (Don is also on a cash diet, and he has $47 left including gas money.) we will see if the cash diet works. :)

Val

Here's what we're eating tonight and tomorrow.

Wed. dinner
~pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast

Thursday
~oatmeal, cereal, or leftover pancakes
~leftovers or whatever you can find
~chicken, broccoli, corn casserole, rice

Ate the tamales and spanish rice tonight. :) Tomorrow we will be out of town... wish me luck! I am planning on bringing food, but who knows what will actually happen. ;)

Val

Our lives have been crazy busy this summer and we have not been eating well or out of the pantry very often. As of Monday things will be back to normal for two weeks before we are gone for a week again so I am going to limit my food purchase to fresh produce at the farmers market, milk, and eggs.

So far so good. I'm managing to not buy too much. I'm actually hoping I can continue it through this next 2 week pay period too. I'm getting low on meat even thought I'm using it sparingly. I have lots of home raised pork though still, so we'll be eating that I guess. LOL

Aileen

Okay, I need to do a pantry challenge but I have no idea how to do it! Our cupboards are pretty thin to me but I got use to having them heavily stocked for the winter.

I'm thinking that I sit down with my food and make up a menu plan of what I have on hand, right? What about all the odds and ends i end up with? If I post what I have on hand that I can't think of how to use could people help me?

I'm thinking that I sit down with my food and make up a menu plan of what I have on hand, right? What about all the odds and ends i end up with? If I post what I have on hand that I can't think of how to use could people help me?

Yes, that is how it works. And yes, there are lots of creative mamas here who cold help you use up the odds and ends. Post away... :)

Aileen

So I just made the yummiest dish out of seemingly nothings... I had half a jar of salsa, some left over squash and white beets from stir fry saute'd in rosemary, oregano, and sage with olive oil, broccoli, left over brown rice, and chedder cheese.

I mixed them all together and topped with chedder cheese. I cooked it in the oven until it was all warm and then turned on the broiler and made the top nice and brown.

Oh and yes my dh and daughter picked out the squash, but it didn't ruin the dish at all.

It was SO good! That was our last "eating from the pantry" meal, and we lasted 4 wks with $50 a week. :)