Pantry Challenge - Page 7

[dbsam]

Originally Posted by dachshundqueen

Maybe packing snacks with you would be a better short term solution. Even if they aren't the super healthiest, like pb crackers, mozzarella sticks, fruit, dried fruits, nuts, granola bars. Things to tide you over until you can make it home. That's what I've been doing. Of course, they may not eat fabulously for you when you get home after eating snacks, but at least you don't drop a bucket of cash on a meal only to add insult to injury when they are still hungry.

Liz

You're right again! When they were younger, I always carried a small cooler with snacks because I didn't want them eating unhealthy food. I've gotten lazy.

[caiesmommy]

Yest. We ended up having a house full for dinner, so we did a bit of shopping(sadly).

I made a potato salad, pasta salad, cesear salad, tofurkey sausages, veggie dogs, and we had coconut milk icecream sandwiches. A veggie bbq fest LOL

Though I spent a bit, Ive got left overs for today so that helps me feel a little better

[dachshundqueen]

Well last night's quiche was awesome, the kids actually ate it. Amazing. I was pretty impressed myself. We had a ton of veggie sides, as I did end up going shopping at the International Market and saved myself a ton of money by doing so. I am on a super tight leash on money/food budget right now, so conventional is all we can do, aside from meats.

Anyways, tonight is the pork and potato pie and I have one pie crust left over from last night, so it works out perfectly.

The veggie BBQ sounds like it was a hit, and at least you have a ton of leftovers. I've never successfully made potato salad. I am not really a fan of it, so that may attribute to my inability to properly prepare it!

Amy congrats on your food inventory!

Liz

[dbsam]

Amys1st…I’m impressed! and embarrassed that my groceries bills are too high.

I have a plan for today:

Breakfast - scrambled eggs and banana pecan bread(using up old bananas)

Lunch - grilled veggie dogs and grain sausages with broccoli (Trying to use up frozen broccoli – my children do not like it but I am hoping they will eat a little. We also have some frozen green beans from last year's garden; but they don't look too good; I'll try cooking them.)

Dinner- bean tacos

I’m completely out of fresh fruit and veggies so I will run out and get a few items – but not over buy because I have a produce box coming Tuesday. I’ll also need the produce to put together something for my daughter since she will not eat fake meat and likes salads daily.

[caiesmommy]

Originally Posted by dachshundqueen

The veggie BBQ sounds like it was a hit, and at least you have a ton of leftovers. I've never successfully made potato salad. I am not really a fan of it, so that may attribute to my inability to properly prepare it!


Liz

Honestly I HATE potato salad and never make a "traditional one" I make mine w still semi hard boiled potatoes..i hate when they turn to mush. And then red onion, red pepper, and a dressing made out of dijon mustard, olive oil, apple cider vinegar and lots of fresh dill from the garden The only type of potato salad I'll eat

So today has been snacking. Apples, grapes(at nanas), leftover pasta salad

Dinner tonight is going to be a gumbo/jumbalaya type thing lol. A friend is coming to dinner so shes stopping by the grocery store and picking up rice, canned tomatoes and frozen okra for the meal as her contribution. Which means I;ll have extra okra and brown rice laying around for next week I'm using the leftover veggie sausages, taking the kernals off of the leftover corn in the fridge, using some swiss chard from the garden for greens in it. And whatever veg is laying around. Rounding it out with some of the black beans I have dried in the cupboard

[dachshundqueen]

Banana Muffins

I baked banana muffins this morning while DH slept in. I had to return a HBB I bought for DD this afternoon, and I was gone for 2 hours. While I was gone DH said the children were hungry and ate some muffins, um, they ate ELEVEN muffins. He said the kids really liked them. Recipe is on my blog, but has white sugar in it, you can sub 1/2 as much honey should you so desire.

But seriously, 11 muffins between an almost 3 and a 5 year old?? Wow.

Liz

[Fruitful4Him]

Originally Posted by dachshundqueen

I baked banana muffins this morning while DH slept in. I had to return a HBB I bought for DD this afternoon, and I was gone for 2 hours. While I was gone DH said the children were hungry and ate some muffins, um, they ate ELEVEN muffins. He said the kids really liked them. Recipe is on my blog, but has white sugar in it, you can sub 1/2 as much honey should you so desire.

But seriously, 11 muffins between an almost 3 and a 5 year old?? Wow.

Liz

Wow; you must be quite the cook.

[Ianthe]

We had a B-day party for my 1 year old baby today.. I made baba ganoush, hummus, pasta salad, fried pickles and cupcakes. That is what is for dinner now (the leftovers).

Today was CSA pick up day, and I used a WIC voucher to get veggies for the pasta salad. I spent the last of my $5 food money to get pita bread.

5 more days until payday.... it's all pantry cooking until then!

[Amys1st]

Made some "interesting" pizzas last night. A regular cheese pizza for dds. For us one had bbq sauce, chicken, onion, and pineapple. The other had fontella cheese, avacado, fig and onions. I think if I made that again, I would cook the pizza and add fresh avacado and figs.

We made blueberry muffins yesterday to use up 2 pints of organic blueberries in the fridge. Still munching on them today! My ILs came for breakfast yesterday so they took some with them as well.

Also, I bought turkey on sale at the deli and so did DH. Great minds think alike! So instead of going to our favorite middle eastern restrnt for lunch (dds' favorite) we had turkey sandwiches. I found an awesome bread too. We make them with a bit of mayo, sliced cucumber, sliced avacado, and some alfalfa sprouts. Since the ILs are also taking a road trip to see my SIL (she usually rides in on her broom, but wont this summer thankfully) we had so much leftover deli turkey, I made them sandwiches to take tomorrow.

Tonight, found some salmon in the freezer along with some string beans. We will also make some garlic mashed potatoes with buttermilk and green onion.

[Ianthe]

Our deep fryer is still set up from fried pickles yesterday (my sister's request!).. so I am going to use it tonight to make fried okra (frozen okra, breaded and fried by me). To make it truly Southern, I'll make Creole Black eyed peas with brown rice to go with them. I've got everything on hand!

...4 more days til payday!

[dachshundqueen]

Baked some blueberry muffins today. I already ate 4. Ha ha.

Went out to lunch by myself on Saturday and Sunday, first two days in 5 weeks I had some time to myself. Wow.

Dinner with the inlaws last night so free. Thanks to pregnancy, it didn't stay down. DH kept asking me why I hurled in the sink. Um, I'm pregnant? I'm not sure if it's a comment on the MIL's cooking or not.

Otherwise, we're doing great on the pantry challenge. The freezer and cupboards are looking pretty bare. I've got some white beans cooking, to make kale and white beans for lunch during the week and to make some white bean sausage gravy for breakfast (makes A LOT of breakfasts!).

Right now I've got some chicken fried rice going and I also have a chinese vegetable soup going (I tried it and it's really good). So both should go over well. Of course, I used 2 chicken breasts so the night I planned for chicken later in the week will be vegetarian instead.

DH remembered his lunch and breakfast this AM so that bodes well. Onwards and upwards!

Liz

[Ianthe]

Tonight I am making split pea soup with peas from the pantry and onions and carrots from the CSA

[Keeta]

Tonight I made creamy sherry pasta casserole with peas, mushrooms, and soy curls. Everything was either pantry staples or desperately needing to be used (mushrooms!)

[dbsam]

This thread is really keeping me on track – even though I hate cooking!
We are eating much too late because we stayed outside until 8:00 and because we ate a late lunch. So I am throwing together something...
My daughter is eating cucumber and tomatoes (picked from the garden) with vinaigrette, garlic bread, and yogurt with strawberries and granola. She also wants a few spoonfuls of cashew butter and an orange.

My son is eating a veggie dog w/no bun but a side of garlic bread, yogurt with strawberries and granola, celery with peanut butter, and an orange.

My husband and I are going to eat grilled black bean burgers with sautéed zucchini, yellow squash, and onions (from the garden).

I went to Trader Joe’s, for the first time, yesterday and tried to limit my purchases. I was really impressed with their organic produce prices but didn’t want to purchase too much because I have a fruit box coming in tomorrow and I have the garden.

[dbsam]

Originally Posted by Keeta

Tonight I made creamy sherry pasta casserole with peas, mushrooms, and soy curls. Everything was either pantry staples or desperately needing to be used (mushrooms!)

I don't know what 'soy curls' are but this sounds wonderful! Do you have a recipe or did you improvise?

[Keeta]

I do have a recipe - it's from the cookbook 1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. I subbed the soy curls for seitan, rice pasta for the noodles and GF flour because my DH has wheat sensitivities. Oh and I just left out the parsley because I didn't have any. Also, I don't find it completely necessary to bake it for the full 30 minutes. Tonight I baked it for 10 and let it stand for 10 minutes and it was just fine.

Seitan Noodle Casserole

8 ounces fettuccine noodles, broken into thirds
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
1 cup frozen baby peas, thawed
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups vegetable broth, or more
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoon fresh minced parsley
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup dry sherry
8 ounces seitan, torn into small pieces
1/4 cup vegan Parmesan or a sprinkling of nutritional yeast
Paprika

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a shallow baking dish and set aside. Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling salted water until just before they reach the al dente stage. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the peas and set aside.

3. In a medium saucepan, melt the margarine and quickly whisk in the flour. Add enough broth to make a thick sauce. Add the parsley, thyme, sherry, and the reserved mushroom mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook, stirring, until thickened. Stir in the seitan.

4. Combine the noodles and seitan mixture in the prepared baking dish, mixing to evenly coat the noodles with sauce. Sprinkle the vegan Parmesan and paprika over the top. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 4 to 6

[dbsam]

Thank you Keeta!

[dachshundqueen]

Tonight is fridge clean out. We have a bucket of leftovers piling up. Red beans and yellow rice, fried rice, chinese vegetable soup, sent DH with the leftover pork tourtiere and the leftover quiche for lunch. Blueberry muffins are gone, so sad.

Otherwise, we're rapidly eating through our food. Faster than I thought we would be. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that in terms of budgeting. Last week we made it 9 or 10 days on a 7 day food budget. I have a feeling I'll have to shop earlier this week, probably closer to the 7 to 8 day mark.

Liz

[caiesmommy]

So the weekend was a bit shakey, with parties and dinners and such

Mon-Breakfast-berries from the raspberry bush and peanut butter sandwiches
Snack-fruit to go bars(treats from a bday party)
Lunch-leftover pasta that didnt make it into Fri. pasta salad, tomatoes, cukes, carrot hummus and scrambled eggs for the kids, and leftover jumbalaya from sat for dh and I
Snack-apples
Dinner-pasta STILL, tofu, veggies, hummus, and miso soup

Today!
Breakfast-bananas/berries I love having a berry patch
Snack-cookies(nanas house!)
Lunch-made kale chips, sweet potato fries(oven on for muffins), sliced mushrooms, hummus and veggie dogs(leftover from fri)
Snack-banana muffins(nana had bananas that needed to be used)
Dinner-THINKING-white beans sauteed with kale stems from chips and swiss chard from the garden and brocoli stalks leftover from raw veggies and hummus, garlic, onion, white wine. A rice and lentil blend I have in the cupboard that needs to be used. Salad with lettuce from the garden. And frozen corn on the side

Im really happy that Ive been using up the leftovers. And especially happy with the kids lunches not being the same. PB sandwiches. They seem to be happier with it too lol

[frugalmama]

Tonight for us is baked chicken with potatoes and carrots. I managed to get clearance whole cut-up chicken for .75 a pound, so we're using that. We're short on meat, so I bought all they had yesterday.


We're starting to make a little dent in the pantry a little, and a big dent in the freezer.