January New Year Pantry Challenge - Page 9

[Alyantavid]

Ok the tuna was icky! I'm not much of a fish person to begin with and I'm not a fan of the tuna.

Tonight is taco soup and quesadillas.

meat - freezer
onions - freezer
tomato sauce - pantry
roasted tomatoes - freezer
sauce packet - pantry
refried beans - pantry
tortillas - I buy those almost everytime I go to the store, I have to make my own!

[aprildawn]

Originally Posted by Alyantavid

Ok the tuna was icky! I'm not much of a fish person to begin with and I'm not a fan of the tuna.

My meal didn't pan out either. We were supposed to have arroz con pollo. I was going to sub a shallot for the onion in the recipe. I thawed the chicken, had it browning in the pan, went to chop my shallot and it was MOLDY!! I just bought it last week. Sheesh! I had a can of Rotel which has chilis, tomatoes, and probably onion in it too, but I decided to pull the chicken from the pan and put it in the fridge. DH got an onion on the way home from work. I didn't want to wait for him to get home to finish dinner, so we'll have the arroz con pollo tonight. Last night I threw some fish sticks in the oven to serve with a box of mac-n-cheese. Not exaclty yummy, but at least we didn't go hungry or go out to eat!!!

[Ruthiegirl]

Whoa! We are really putting our pantry to work. We are working our way through our last bag of brown rice (I buy it in 25 pound sacks) and the beans are disappearing from the shelves. The freezer is emptier and emptier and our fridge is nearly empty.

I still have a chicken to work with, three bags of cranberries and a lot of shelf stable stuff. I think I am going to work on making pot pies this week. I have onions, peas, meat, flour, organic shortening -- chicken pot pie sounds really good. Cranberries? Cranberry sauce is good and I have a recipe for cranberry bread that I really like.

This has been a great challenge -- can't believe how much I have learned. I mostly wanted to clear things out and see how far we could stretch our pantry. I am getting some great feedback from dh and have been working up a BIG list for my next co-op purchase.

[1growingsprout]

Tonight we are going to mc'ds for dinner. I know I know but its $1.69 happy meal night (hamburger) and we promised the kids...They have made a good dent in the pallet of pop tarts i still have. LOL.

For xmas someone sent us $25 to mc'ds so that should cover most of the meal plus they can play.

This afternoon I am going to organize the pantry so i know exactly what is in there, then i am going to organize the linen closet.

Lunch is going to be sandwiches and soup. Campbells is profitable because of us. LOL

[shelbell]

Originally Posted by bscal

Hi and welcome. Pretty new to this thread myself but really striving to have a better organized and more efficient pantry this year. Here's my chicken pot pie recipe:

3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced (or 2 15-oz cans chicken, drained)
1 cup carrot coins, cooked
1/2 cup peas
1 medium potato, peeled, diced and cooked
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
1/2 packet onion soup mix
2 prepared pie crusts

Prebake pie crusts as directed on the package.
Put both cans of cream of chicken soup into a large bowl. Slowly add the chicken broth to desired consistency (I prefer it somewhat thick so I normally use about 1/2 the can). Then whisk in the onion soup mix.
Add the chicken and veggies to the creamy filling, stir to combine and then fill the pie plates.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Notes: Veggies can be canned, fresh, frozen or any combo. You can add celery or onion (or anything else). The amount listed above will fill 2 pie plates and I do not add a top when I make it in the prepared pie crust. I bake 2 at a time and then freeze one for later. I thaw it completely and then bake it at 200 for about 30 mins to warm through. Makes a great gift to take to someone with a new baby! You can make this in a large casserole dish (the recipe above will fill a 9 x 13 pan) and use 1 stick melted butter, 1 cup milk and 1 cup Bisquick for a topping.


That's the basic chicken pot pie recipe. My friend has used cream of celery and veggie stock to make it plus some leftover frozen veggies (several bags with a little bit left in them) and it turned out great. You can use beef stock and leftover pot roast to make beef pot pie or leftover turkey and chicken stock to make a turkey pot pie. It's pretty easy to look in the pantry and sub things out. I've just used salt and pepper when I ran out of onion soup mix and it tasted just fine.

HTH,
Beth

Thanks so much!!! I have a couple of cans of cream of chicken soup, may use one of those and a cream of celery, and I have plenty of chicken stock. No onion soup mix so I'll likely just throw in some chopped fresh onion I need to use up. Sounds like it will be much yummier than a bland white sauce!

[vm9799]

hey all. tonight's dinner was whole wheat pancakes with fresh blueberries, bacon and fruit. YUM! i love having breakfast for dinner because we are NOT breakfast people in my house. and the best part was, my dh made it. i had a couple of orders to package up for my etsy shop, so he took over.

not sure what's on the menu for tomorrow. i'll figure it out in the morning, when i get home from my women's bible study.

[aprildawn]

!!!!

Please tell me I didn't just give my family food poisoning.

Quick replay of the story. I was making arroz con pollo (mexican chicken w/ rice). Yesterday I started to make our dinner. I was browning four chicken thighs (bone in). I went to chop my shallot and found it moldy. There was no onion or substitute around. I took my chicken out of the pan (it had been cooking probably 12 minutes-ish) and refrigerated it immediately.

Tonight I have a fresh onion and begin to finish up the dinner I started last night. As I'm ready to add the chicken thighs to the pan to simmer with the stock while the rice cooks I notice one of them has a little bit of blood that's seeped out of the meat. "Well, it'll finish cooking in the pan," I think to myself.

As I'm eating I begin to freak out that what if the partially cooked chicken made all kinds of food poisoning overnight and now we're going to be awake all night sick??!?!?

It can't be bad, can it? I mean, it cooked on the stove top with the rice, tomatoes, broth for at least 30 minutes. It finished cooking through AND should have killed any pathogens in the meat, right? I know chicken does weird stuff. Is partially cooked chicken OK to refrigerate and finish cooking later?

[1growingsprout]

Originally Posted by aprildawn

Please tell me I didn't just give my family food poisoning.

Quick replay of the story. I was making arroz con pollo (mexican chicken w/ rice). Yesterday I started to make our dinner. I was browning four chicken thighs (bone in). I went to chop my shallot and found it moldy. There was no onion or substitute around. I took my chicken out of the pan (it had been cooking probably 12 minutes-ish) and refrigerated it immediately.

Tonight I have a fresh onion and begin to finish up the dinner I started last night. As I'm ready to add the chicken thighs to the pan to simmer with the stock while the rice cooks I notice one of them has a little bit of blood that's seeped out of the meat. "Well, it'll finish cooking in the pan," I think to myself.

As I'm eating I begin to freak out that what if the partially cooked chicken made all kinds of food poisoning overnight and now we're going to be awake all night sick??!?!?

It can't be bad, can it? I mean, it cooked on the stove top with the rice, tomatoes, broth for at least 30 minutes. It finished cooking through AND should have killed any pathogens in the meat, right? I know chicken does weird stuff. Is partially cooked chicken OK to refrigerate and finish cooking later?

Im not sure on that one.... i probably would have finished cooking it yesterday then warmed it up tonight... hummmmm

[aprildawn]

Originally Posted by 1growingsprout

Im not sure on that one.... i probably would have finished cooking it yesterday then warmed it up tonight... hummmmm

It looked done last night. It was brown on both sides and had been cooking at least 6 min on each side. Ugh. I really hate cooking chicken. I should just give it up all together. Fingers crossed we don't get sick! :

[lolar2]

It was probably cooked enough last night, then.

[bscal]

Update on my most recent pantry success. I have been searching for a good basic muffin recipe that I could alter to put whatever I wanted into it. I found one and had all the ingredients to make it in the pantry. I am in the middle of my 2nd one in a row while typing. This is SO good! I ended up making a batch with my 3 yr old today while DS was napping and we have 12 left out of 22. Here's the recipe:

Basic Muffin Mix
Makes 11 cups mix

8 cups flour (if you prefer whole wheat, use whole wheat pastry flour)
3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons nutmeg

Combine everything in a large bowl. Store in sealed container in a cool dark place or divide into freezer bags and freeze.

To make muffins:
3 cups baking mix
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 cup berries (thaw if frozen), raisins, chocolate chips, etc.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together.
Bake in a prepared muffin pan-either lightly greased or in paper cups - filling cups 2/3 full.
Bake for 20 minutes or until nicely browned.
Cool for five minutes in the pan then turn out on to a rack to cool.

Yield : 12 muffins

Tip: Most muffin recipes call for either 1 cup or 1 1/2 cup of "stir ins". I added 1 cup oatmeal and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. I filled mine about halfway because the kids don't like huge muffins and made 22.

Other variations that I'm going to do soon (all from the pantry):
Dried cranberries and chopped almonds
Shredded apple (peel an apple and shred it with a carrot peeler) and 1/2 tsp of apple pie spice
Oatmeal, chopped pecans and Heath toffee bits (my fave cookie recipe)

Enjoy!
Beth

[amyamanda]

Well, since we're beginning this challenge with a well-stocked pantry, so far so good.

I love that we have good meat in our freezer. We "splurged" pantry-challenge style last night, and made Chinese beef and peapods with chuck steak cut into strips and cooked up with garlic, ginger, tamari, and arrowroot - and frozen peapods and red peppers from last year's garden. And brown rice. Yummmmmmmm. We are rationing what is left of our wine stash, so we had red wine with it. I think it's our absolute most favorite gourmet homemade meal.

Yesterday we had muffins for brunch and popcorn for snack. I had a couple of handfuls of peanuts and raisins for breakfast. I am sure the kids ate peanut butter sandwiches sometime during the day also.

DH took leftover lentils for lunch yesterday. He has three more days of work until he's home with us. I will continue making enough dinner to equal the next day's lunch for him (and possibly the rest of us).

[velochic]

Should we start a new thread to continue so that we don't bring the server to its knees?

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by velochic

Should we start a new thread to continue so that we don't bring the server to its knees?

I pm'd the mod to find out.

Other than that,

We are using up stuff to get ready for our trip next week as well as get ready for my side of beef coming in a few weeks.

For today:
leftover enchildasas for dh for lunch
leftover soup for Magie and I. Plus we had leftover babbaganosh.
Liz took turkey sandwich to school for lunch

for dinner instead of pork chops, we are having swedish meatballs and noodles. I also have a few rotting bananas to use up for a bread.

[Dar]

Originally Posted by velochic

Should we start a new thread to continue so that we don't bring the server to its knees?

No, you're all still good. When you start pushing a thousand posts in a thread, then it's time for a new one, but the server is okay with this...


Thanks for asking, though!

Dar

[HydeParkB]

Tonight is Chicken Pot Pie, I think. We have lots of chicken in the freezer, and plenty of appropriate veggies. DH is making this one. :

I think I'll make some Brown Rice Chili on Friday - we have a ton of brown rice. Need to make it before it gets warm next week. Right now is perfect chili weather in Missouri.

[velochic]

Originally Posted by Dar

No, you're all still good. When you start pushing a thousand posts in a thread, then it's time for a new one, but the server is okay with this...


Thanks for asking, though!

Dar

Thanks, Dar and Amy!!

[SAHDS]

So far, so good. DH did buy milk and lettuces, but that's it. I was SOOOO tempted to stop after Scouts and get take-out but instead I dropped DD off, went home and found 2 pizzas in the freezer and made those with salad and garlic bread. I am still proud of myself, LOL.

Tonight will be lemon pepper chicken (freezer), rice pilaf (pantry) and canned green beans (why do we have 17 cans?). Maybe I'll bake some rolls.

[vm9799]

we are in the middle of a crazy winter storm right now. it's been snowing literally ALL DAY LONG. ugh. i think we've had about 4-5 inches of snow with a high of 12 degrees : and the low tonight is supposed to be -5 degrees : i'm anticipating that school will be canceled tomorrow.....or at the very least there will be a delay.

soooo, tonight for dinner we're having tomato soup and grilled ham/swiss or turkey/provolone sandwiches and romaine salad.

[katheek77]

We are officially out of leftovers. I'm going to make a shrimp scampi tonight with either pasta or rice, depending on my mood. Shrimp and veggies from the freezer, pasta/rice from the pantry.

VM, your storm is hitting us now. My boss told me to go home an hour and a half early...it took me 3x as long as normal to get home...glad she let me go when she did.

I need to plan out my meals for next week and beyond. We're a couple days ahead of the game, what with eating leftovers/scrounging the past few days. Tomorrow I pick up our veggie box, as well, which will be dearly welcomed. We are completely out of fresh fruits - DD just peeled the last clementine - and the only fresh veggies we have are potatoes, onions, and two sweet potatoes - that will also have a half gallon of cider, which will please DD and DH immensely.