New Year Grocery and Pantry Challenge, how did you do? - Page 3

[dachshundqueen]

Originally Posted by ILoveMyBabyBird

We have a lot canned goods too, what are some good recipes for evaporated milk? I've used in a couple things, but looking for some more, not sweet recipes.

I sub evap milk for cream in my chicken/chana tikka masala. You can also sub it in baking for a richer flavor.

Liz

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by Camile Rynd

We also stocked up on bean thread noodles at the Asian market and I have no idea what to do with them.

Do you have spring roll wrappers? Those are great in there w/some lettuce, ginger, carrot, whatever you have.

Originally Posted by ILoveMyBabyBird

i'm a bit reluctant to post some of the recipes i use on a regular basis, b/c we cook primarily indian food here for dinner. which if you don't have the spices already then it would be expensive for you buy them at the grocer and would be kind of counterproductive for the challenge. So do many of you cook indian food and have lots of spices like, tumeric, garam masala, cumin, coriander and the like? Just wondering if anyone is interested...We also cook primarily vegetarian here too...

right now as far as staples go we have about 30lbs of flour,

We don't have much pasta about 6 boxes and 5-6 jars of spahghetti sauce,

We have a lot canned goods too, what are some good recipes for evaporated milk? I've used in a couple things, but looking for some more, not sweet recipes.

Ok, so yes, yes, to the Indian spices/recipes. Not vegetarian here, but love vegetarian dishes, and do at least one vegetarian night weekly. I keep alllllll kinds of spices!!! I figure if I keep my spices stocked up w/a huge variety, I am more likely to try new flavor combos while I'm cooking (I don't use many recipes-I cook by feel/mood,etc.). I may start out w/the intention of making something Tex-Mex-y and end up w/it morphing into Italian or Asian, lol. This is very common. Kids or hubby will ask what's for supper (while I'm already cooking)and I'll say I have no idea, lol.


You have flour. You need pasta. Add an egg to the flour and some salt and maybe a bit of oil and a tad bit of water. You have pasta.

Evaporated milk can be used in any recipe calling for milk. Just reconstitute it and use as you would any milk. I like to keep some on hand for when *someone* has used the last of the fresh milk and I don't want to trudge up the hill to the neighbor's for more.

[Amys1st]

Chicky2, you crack me up. You amuse me to no end, keep posting! LOL I have been known to have recipes morph into something totally different.

We have a handful of meals that sort of just happend either by mistake or just changed a few things here and there to make it a bit different. My DH says it keeps life and eating amusing and fresh. Personally it helps when we are low on cash some months or when we need to use up some stuff.

[irishdancer]

I am in...

My DH had two furlough days this past month, so his paycheck is really short (we get paid once a month)....add to that a larger than expected X-mas CC bill and we are in a very tight spot. My mother gave me a $300 Whole Foods gift card, and I need to only use that for groceries, no extra money from our account (not that there is any). I am going to see how long I can stretch out our pantry items without having to shop...so far I have 10 decent dinner meals. I have plenty of oatmeal, so breakfasts are covered. I have about 12 lbs of flour, so I can bake bread, cookies...I can use the oatmeal to make bars for snacks and lunches. Fresh produce is the only real expense, and rice/soy milk. I am cutting out dairy for the month anyway. I am a vegetarian, as are two of my kids. DH and my youngest will just have to eat what is left in the freezer (about 4 chicken breasts) and then eat only veg too....won't kill them. I would actually like to have the whole family go veg (actually vegan, but I don't forsee that happening).

So I actually think that $75.00/week for a family of 5 is doable. We don't need any toiletries or pet supplies for this month. I actually want to see if I can do it, and make it a permanent budget goal anyway...so being forced into it might be a blessing in disguise.

Thanks!!!!!!

Rachel

[irishdancer]

Originally Posted by ILoveMyBabyBird

i'm a bit reluctant to post some of the recipes i use on a regular basis, b/c we cook primarily indian food here for dinner. which if you don't have the spices already then it would be expensive for you buy them at the grocer and would be kind of counterproductive for the challenge. So do many of you cook indian food and have lots of spices like, tumeric, garam masala, cumin, coriander and the like? Just wondering if anyone is interested...We also cook primarily vegetarian here too...

right now as far as staples go we have about 30lbs of flour, 40 lbs of rice, 10-15 lbs of legumes. 16lbs sugar, all the baking supplies, I also have way too many boxes of cereal, i don't know how i ended up with so many, as i knew my family didn't like cold cereal all that much and now we are trying to get through 12 boxes. I really only need to have 3-4 boxes in my stockpile. My family prefers oatmeal, pancakes, muffins for breakfast, or smoothies...We don't have much pasta about 6 boxes and 5-6 jars of spahghetti sauce, but we have about 8 bags of those pasta sides that i realize my family doesn't like much either. Funny that my family struggles through a lot of processed stuff, except candy/chocolate and chips, but i try not to buy chips too much..

We have a lot canned goods too, what are some good recipes for evaporated milk? I've used in a couple things, but looking for some more, not sweet recipes.

I have all of those spices in my pantry and more!! I love Indian food! One thing I love about being veg is that I get to use tons of spices and recipes from all over the world. I bought a 12lb bag of organic brown rice from Costco (Lundberg). I also have tons of dried beans/legumes. Soooo if you want to post any of your staple recipes, I would love it!!!

Rachel

[pjs]

I want to be in. We've been at $250/week for a family of 6 for a few months now (yes, that does include nonfood items like paper towels- I'd like to kick THAT habit, tp, etc) and that seems really, really high to me. We're trying to go gluten-free, low glycemic but I'm not interested in the expensive substitutes (we'll just have deli turkey and cheese without bread). I've got to get rid of the insane amounts of mac-n-cheese in my pantry (bought mid-pregnancy with both the craving for it and the ease of a meal in a box for my kids) and get rid of some of the other junk (stuff we can no longer eat) in our pantry.

[MaddieMay]

Local grocery store is closed today, but making a list and going tomorrow. Need to stock up on some staples, but going with a plan in place. Also need to make some freezer meals.

Used up the last of my ground beef and a half bag of tater tots and had burgers tonight. Found two ears of corn on the cob that were freezer burnt and cut them up to use in taco soup. It was delish!

[Camile Rynd]

I would loooove some indian recipes, especially vegetarian. I was thinking that one good way to save money around here would be to replace a few of our meaty meals with vegetarian ones!

As far as saving money is concerned, I'm wondering how the big families can eat on so little? We are spending around $450-$500 (average) a month to feed myself, dh, and ds (21 months) and many of you are posting that much for twice the family!? What am I doing wrong? I suppose you can take 10% off of that because we also buy diapers/cleaning supplies/etc with that. Help me reduce my bill! We do eat a lot of fruit and fresh vegies but I can't imagine sacrificing those!

Also, anyone interested in posting organized pantry pictures? Before and afters? I'm curious about how many of you store/organize things!

Camille

[Camile Rynd]

I have a really great gluten free flour mixture recipe if you're interested! It's excellent.

[Camile Rynd]

[QUOTE=Chicky2;14867541]Do you have spring roll wrappers? Those are great in there w/some lettuce, ginger, carrot, whatever you have.

Ahh! good idea.

[Jenn_M]

I'm a freezer hoarder too!!! That and canned tomatoes. I need to lower our grocery bill and use up stuff in the freezers this month.

[Paxjourney]

I'm in! This is my first one, so I'm a newbi. Our household is Dh, Myself and our two girls 7.5y and 4y. DH will be gone the first 3mo of the year so its just me and them 2, which is how the last 2mo have been as dh is working on the east coast. Normally we average $145 a week for food, But.I.Have.No.Clue.How.That.Breaks.down!

We do have a pretty well stocked pantry and I NEED to do an inventory of our items.

[kings5queens4]

Day one is almost over and we are doing pretty good! This morning I had cereal from an unopened box I forgot I bought, lunch was salmon, and dinner is tacos with hamburger meat & a can of pinto beans we had that I threw in. The meat made enough for lunches tomorrow so there won't be a temptation to go out and eat.

[Hannah32]

I'm joining in. My hubby and I want to eat up what we have and pretty much confine grocery shopping to fresh milk and such. I'm pregnant right now, so my cravings are random and unpredictable, but I'm motivated. It'd be nice to have a month of lower grocery bills and there's also the issue of avoiding food waste.

I've got a good cookbook from the library: Eat Fast Cook It Slow. It's a book of crock pot recipes. We're doing pork fried rice tomorrow from leftover Christmas roast that we froze.

[my2girlz]

I would love to join this month. I want to start the new year on the right note. I'm hoping to keep my weekly amount under $100 and eat out of the pantry/freezer as much as possible. Making a menu will help tremendously. We'll be out of town over a weekend for dd2s gymnastics meet so I'll have to work hard to keep our eating out costs down.

Day 1 was good and no money spent.

[Janey31]

I'd love to be in too. I'm new to the boards, doing a big no spend challenge this year so looking for motivation on that thread and here.

I want to keep our grocery bill down to $150 a week for me, dh, ds9, dds 7 & 5, plus pets and household stuff. But we've got a few extra bills in January, so if I can cut it back to a bare minimum this month, that'd be great. The fridge, freezer and pantry are all pretty well stocked, and I really need to focus on meal plans and not being disorganised, which leads to takeout.

[MaddieMay]

Just got back from the grocery store-total bill was $175 BUT it included $40 worth of organic dog food, $15 worth of water, and about $20 worth of health supplies (razors, soap, etc.) So our food part was actually around $100, which is pretty good considering it was mostly meat, produce, spices, and misc. staples. They were out of stew meat, so instead of making another trip I'm just going to adjust my meal plan a bit. It feels so good knowing I won't have to walk into that place for another week!

[kings5queens4]

Anyone know what one can do with canned "navy beans" ? I don't even know what they are or where they came from but they have invaded my pantry...

[maciascl]

We are going to be moving at sometime within the next 6 months to a MUCH smaller place & I will not have a garage for food storage or an extra freezer any more. So I need to not only eat down my stock so we don't have to move it, but also learn to keep low inventory without spending too much because I run out of everything & can't load up when things are on sale. I am worried!

I guess the first step is to go through, clean out & organize what I do have. I try to meal plan for each week normally, now I just need to base them off pantry foods more. My kids should love this

[maciascl]

Originally Posted by kings5queens4

Anyone know what one can do with canned "navy beans" ? I don't even know what they are or where they came from but they have invaded my pantry...

I use them to make pasta fagioli. In a large pan sautee chopped carrots, onion & celery in olive oil (& anyother veggies you like). Add canned diced tomatoes, broth, italian seasoning, garlic, beans & about 2 cups spiral (or other shaped) pasta. Cover & simmer about 20 min. I also like to throw in some fresh baby spinich in the last few minutes. Yum!