Ring in the New Year with a Pantry Challenge!

[Amys1st]

The title says it all! I love the challenges this time of the year! I have several bags of opened pretzals etc, cans of this and that plus supplies for baked goods that need to be used up.

With the holiday, I was able to stock up on various canned goods etc so we are pretty stocked. But, I still have various things that need to be used up. So lets declutter our cabinets and freezers, eat what we have and depending on how you roll-

-put off going to the grocery store for a few days (w exception  to fresh items such as eggs, bread, milk etc)

-stretch your food budget and use what you have

-whatever else you need to do!

[artemis33]

I'm with you!  I have a fairly well stocked pantry and freezer right now, and would like to minimize grocery spending for the next few months.  I also want to make sure that the things I was stocking up on 'in season' actually get used  (fruit, half hog, 2 dozen chickens).

I will continue to buy eggs, milk and greens every week for sure.  Probably yogurt as well, though I may try making my own again (never really love the flavor, so I keep going back to my favorite plain store bought.) I'm sure there will be some other things in there, but I'd like to really focus on using what we have and minimizing cost.

Will be working on a menu for this week tomorrow. :)

[justmama]

I'm in!  I need to cut my spending this month and use up lots of little things here and there so that I can concentrate funds on building a good pantry stockpile. 

Question about yogurt.  My kids love stoneyfield farms vanilla yogurt but they refuse to eat my homemade yogurt no matter how thick I make it.  They just don't love the flavor and they hate honey drizzled in after the fact.  Any thoughts on flavoring homemade yogurt?

[BetsyS]

We use jam to flavor homemade yogurt.  If you stir it in it tastes really good, and the whole thing is sweet.  I'd agree about the honey drizzled in--I only like that with one specific brand of greek yogurt.  Otherwise, it's too much contrast between the sweet honey and the tart yogurt.

[Amys1st]

We started with baking a few pumpkin pies. Found some cannd pumpkin and condensed milk etc in the pantry and DH made up 2 pies. Now doing things like takinng a few items and making a cassorole, soup etc.

[HollyBearsMom]

We love frozen blueberrie in yogurt! My son likes they way the crunch.

I am planning on sticking with January 2011 homecooking challenge and tie that in with a pantry challenge.  I have tons of jarred salas from the summer as well as store bought, pluse lots of dried pasta, rice flour, sugar etc.  My freezer is well stocked.

Hoping the combo saves me money and gets us eating healthier!

http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1287830/january-2011-home-cooking-challenge

[justmama]

For breakfast this morning we did homemade granola with milk for one and the other two had oatmeal.  One had brown sugar, frozen blueberries, and dried apricots chopped up.  The other had brown sugar, coconut, and sunflower seeds.  They both scarfed it down.  Lunch at the zoo(man was it CHILLY! but the animals seemed to LOVE IT!) was bean and cheese burrito and apple for me and for the 3 year old was leftover diced ham, homemade applesauce, cheese stick, and a storebought yogurt.  I was tempted to stop for munchkins at Dunkin Donuts after that because she was such a good girl and we had so much fun but I was good.  I didn't stop.  Took her home and gave her a hershey's kiss leftover from Christmas cookie making.  Now we are going to be making bread and yogurt today and staying home for the rest of the day so it was a no-spend day and no eating out.  Zoo was a membership my mom gave me for mother's day.

[TwinMom]

My refrigerator broke overnight on 12/31...Happy New Year!  We were able to buy one on the 1st but it won't be delivered until the 5th.  For now we have two coolers on the back porch that I have to keep draining and refilling--let me tell you, it is not easy feeding a family of six out of two coolers!  My goal is to start over with the new fridge, fill it with new food and completely eat up what is in the coolers.  I think that today for lunch we will be eating hummus, boiled eggs, and whatever the mystery meals are that came out of the freezer and are now thawed. 

[newcastlemama]

I am trying to use up odds and ends to save money. Our resolution here to to stick to a grocery budget to increase our savings account this year.

The other night I was able to use a jar of leftover cranberrry sauce and stuff in the house already to make this http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/12/supuer-simple-cranberry-roast-beef-or.html 

I also found all the stuff to make chicken cachattorie over brown rice the day before.

I need to use some large pieces of wild pig too so I am slow rasting some in BBQ sauce this weekend to make pulled pork sandwiches for our homebrewing party :) I think I have all the stuff to make the rolls too!

[bodhitree]

Inspired by this thread, I have already:

-Used tomato paste, red lentils, and pasta that were sitting in the pantry (along with onions, garlic, and carrots that we also already had) to make pasta with red lentil-tomato sauce. Yum!

-Planned two meals around the kasha that has been sitting in the pantry for like a year, so that I can use it up!

-Used some buckwheat hot cereal that I bought months ago and never even tried.

Now if I can figure out what to do with the coconut, sunflower seeds, and cashews that have been in the pantry forever, I'll be golden. Oh wait, all those sound like they'd be good together--maybe I can make some kind of no-bake cookie with them.

[artemis33]

Originally Posted by bodhitree 

Now if I can figure out what to do with the coconut, sunflower seeds, and cashews that have been in the pantry forever, I'll be golden. Oh wait, all those sound like they'd be good together--maybe I can make some kind of no-bake cookie with them.

you could also use them all in homemade granola.

[renaissanceed]

I was hoping to find this thread!  I need to do some serious menu planning around the items that have been sitting in my pantry for longer than I care to remember - assuming they are still good.  Rice noodles, I am talking to you!

We seem to spend a lot of money on groceries but it's mostly fruit and veg and dairy and mostly organic so I guess that's why it's so much.  But I'm hoping that clearing out the pantry will also cut down on spending a bit as well as preventing these items from going to waste.

[justmama]

Originally Posted by bodhitree 

Inspired by this thread, I have already:

-Used tomato paste, red lentils, and pasta that were sitting in the pantry (along with onions, garlic, and carrots that we also already had) to make pasta with red lentil-tomato sauce. Yum!

-Planned two meals around the kasha that has been sitting in the pantry for like a year, so that I can use it up!

-Used some buckwheat hot cereal that I bought months ago and never even tried.

Now if I can figure out what to do with the coconut, sunflower seeds, and cashews that have been in the pantry forever, I'll be golden. Oh wait, all those sound like they'd be good together--maybe I can make some kind of no-bake cookie with them.

nice job so far.  I say you make granola or granola bars with those.  you have oats right?  http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/06/16/recipe-connection-homemade-granola-and-granola-bars/

[Amys1st]

We have our annual beef 1/2 coming sooner than later so I  will use up my frozen stock. I am a bit under the weather today, so a hot n sour soup sounds like a great idea.

DH found in the Sunday paper, a great chicken pot pie recipe so I will thaw out some chicken thieghs and  use up some veggies in the fridge.

[HollyBearsMom]

Used  the last of an opened bag of brown rice, oopened bag of frozen peas, the end of a wedge of Parmesan and the last few squeezes of shrirach (sp) for my lunch today!

I think by the weekend I might actually see the back of my freezer!

 DH found in the Sunday paper, a great chicken pot pie recipe so I will thaw out some chicken thieghs and  use up some veggies in the fridge

Love a good pot pie!  What kind of topping-curst, biscuit, dumplings?

[bodhitree]

Originally Posted by justmama 

Originally Posted by bodhitree 

Inspired by this thread, I have already:

-Used tomato paste, red lentils, and pasta that were sitting in the pantry (along with onions, garlic, and carrots that we also already had) to make pasta with red lentil-tomato sauce. Yum!

-Planned two meals around the kasha that has been sitting in the pantry for like a year, so that I can use it up!

-Used some buckwheat hot cereal that I bought months ago and never even tried.

Now if I can figure out what to do with the coconut, sunflower seeds, and cashews that have been in the pantry forever, I'll be golden. Oh wait, all those sound like they'd be good together--maybe I can make some kind of no-bake cookie with them.

nice job so far.  I say you make granola or granola bars with those.  you have oats right?  http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/06/16/recipe-connection-homemade-granola-and-granola-bars/

Thanks for the link, that recipe looks really good. We just don't eat granola often. We are currently on a very restricted diet due to trying to figure out DD's food intolerances, so I actually do need some kind of cookie-like thing so I can have a treat and not feel like I'm totally deprived. I think I am going to try subbing the coconut, cashews (chopped so DD can eat them easily) and sunflower seeds for most of the oats in my no-bake cookie recipe. That'll also help me save the expensive gluten-free oats for breakfast oatmeal. Yum!

[renaissanceed]

I made a meal plan for the next 5 days that includes some of the mountains of quinoa and rice we seem to have accumulated as well as lentils, the rest of the disgusting macaroni and cheese stuff that DH likes and some salmon!  Now to stick to it...

[Amys1st]

We used a pie crust recipe and DH added parm cheese plus a bit of sharp cheese we had in the fridge. We made the recipe but he added some brussel spouts, chick peas and a few other oddities. DD2 loved the sprouts. All in all, a mature taste and DD1 wasnt too crazy about it. DH loved it. I am calling it butter pot pie from the amount of butter he used (even though he cut it back from what the recipe suggested!).

[justmama]

Today is pantry convenience food night.  AKA JUNK!  Today is my youngest daughter's 3rd birthday so I made a dinosaur cake with lots of frosting and junk.  And for dinner she requested dinosaur chicken nuggets and french fries.  I'll have a veggie burger and some fries.  We are peeling up the last of the clementines to put on the side.  Breakfast was blueberry pancakes from scratch requested by the birthday girl.  I put some in the freezer for later as well.  Lunch was a mishmosh of leftovers.

[justmama]

Originally Posted by renaissanceed 

I made a meal plan for the next 5 days that includes some of the mountains of quinoa and rice we seem to have accumulated as well as lentils, the rest of the disgusting macaroni and cheese stuff that DH likes and some salmon!  Now to stick to it...