February Pantry Challenge... - Page 6

[brownay2]

Recipe~
all recipies has a recipe for a really yummy sweet potaoe casserole cslled, Charline's Sweet Potatoe Casserole. I guess you could substitue things that use personally use in cooking, or even omit some things. I have made this a few times.

[janerose]

Great ideas everyone!

Amy, thanks for the meatball recipe. I'll definitly make some up.

I'm doing things a little different this month. Instead of shopping every other week on payday I did a HUGE pantry restock this weekend. I should be good for at least 4-6 weeks on groceries & toiletries. The only thing I anticipate having to get is about $20 of fresh produce in a couple weeks and possibly some pet food/litter towards the end of that time. I spent about $350 all told, but at least 3/4 of the food was organic plus toiletries, pet food & the more $$ wheat litter we use. We're also going to try not eating out for the rest of this month. That alone will be a huge savings!

My next step is to make up a list of meals. I went through the pantry/freezer last night & made a list of everything I have to work with. This week we'll have a lot of ham-based meals since I made a ham yesterday. I set aside enough meat to use as a base in a couple dishes, plus the bone for soup.

Lunch today will be toasted tomato sandwiches. Dinner will be tacos. Brownies for dessert.

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by janerose

Great ideas everyone!

Amy, thanks for the meatball recipe. I'll definitly make some up.

We're also going to try not eating out for the rest of this month. That alone will be a huge savings!

My next step is to make up a list of meals. I went through the pantry/freezer last night & made a list of everything I have to work with. This week we'll have a lot of ham-based meals since I made a ham yesterday. I set aside enough meat to use as a base in a couple dishes, plus the bone for soup.

Lunch today will be toasted tomato sandwiches. Dinner will be tacos. Brownies for dessert.

Anytime I can help!

The list of meals has been a life saver and grocery saver for us. Its helps with not eating out which is what we try to do as well. We ate out last week with a gift certificate so that helped.

I have been "feeding the freezer" this past few days. I make a double batch of whatever I am cooking and half goes in the freezer for a meal in a few weeks. I guess you can also do cooking for a day and feed the freezer a months worth of meals. But since I like to cook, feeding the freezer over time works fine for me.

[Rainbowbird]

Helpful link for pantry substitutes

http://www.baking911.com/pantry_subs...ngredients.htm

I want to make brownies but don't have enough baking squares of chocolate. Looked this site up to find out how to substitute cocoa. They have sub. for EVERYTHING! I'm bookmarking it...

[Rainbowbird]

Dinner plans thread?

Hi, all, I posted this on the main Meal Planning page but didn't get any takers. I thought it would be fun and helpful to post what we are having or making for dinner each day. You know, a place where we can readily see what others are cooking without reading through other posts. Does anyone else think this is a good idea? Any thoughts on where it should go? I love reading what everyone is doing....esp. in the a.m. when I might not have a clue yet what i am going to make! LOL

[annettemarie]

Another pantry raiding recipe!
On Monday nights we always have some sort of roll or wrap, so I found this recipe in my MOPS cookbook. It uses up some of the tomatoes I have stockpiled, spaghetti sauce, ricotta cheese that goes bad at the end of the month, eggs from last week, and manicotti that's been hanging around waiting to be used. I used all ricotta instead of a mix.

Manicotti in Minutes

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine a jar of spaghetti sauce, a 16 oz can of diced tomatoes (undrained). and 1 clove of garlic or 1/2 tsp dried minced garlic.
3. Combine 2 C low fat cottage cheese, 1 C low fat ricotta cheese, 2 egg whites, and 4T fresh chopped parsley. Stuff 14 manicotti shells with cheese mixture.
4. Fill bottom of 9 by 13 pan with 2 cups of the tomato mixture. Arrange stuffed shells in a single layer; cover shells with remaining sauce.
5. Pour 1 C water evenly on the top. Don't worry about the watery appearance- it will cook off.
6. Cover with foil and bake 50 miutes. Remove foil and cook another 10 minutes. Serves 8.

from Beyond Macaroni and Cheese, the MOPS cookbook

[isosmom]

Rainbowbird - Just posted on your thread. Give it a minute, it'll catch on
So I'm running into an unforseen issue, dh is starting to feel like there's nothing to eat in the house. I guess because I've stopped buying prepared stuff. We don't have a microwave so even freezer pre-made stuff takes a while. Does anyone have any good ideas how to handle this? He's been totally supportive of this pantry style of eating, but he is home with dc while I work during the day and so is responsible for brekkie and lunch 4 times a week. So what do I do to make this easier for him?

[leomom]

For sancks for dh, I keep lots of nuts on hand...I keep an assortment in the freezer and just fill the jar when it's empty...

For breakfast, I like to have different dried fruits, seeds, nuts, and granola so everyone can make their own cereal.

[hlkm2e]

Isosmom, could you do some homemade package foods for him. Maybe make a big batch of pancakes, waffles, and freeze so he can pop them in the toaster. Then maybe make some french bread pizzas or enchiladas that he can just pop in the oven for 20 minutes. Or even lunch meat and cheese already to go. I'm sure some other moms have homemade prepackaged food ideas for you.

[Melis]

Broccoli Question

Hello
I bought a bunch of broccoli this week because it was a really great price. I was thinking that it was included in the list of things that could be chopped up and frozen, but when I went back into the thread to find out if I should blanch it first (I remembered someone asking, but couldn't remember the response), I found it was not listed as one of the things to chop and freeze for later. Do any of you chop and freeze broccoli? If so, can you do it raw? Thanks so much for the help!
Melissa

[leomom]

Yes, you can chop and freeze broccoli!

[Amys1st]

sign of this becoming a habit

Okay- I post a lot of what we are having for dinner as well as a lot of people so keep watching!

A perfect example of how this thread has helped me....

DH bought some country style ribs on sale yesterday. He asked me to make my pulled pork. It calls for a cup of bbq sauce and i cup of orange juice. Both are on my list for the next grocery run NEXT week.
Whats a mama to do?

I made from scratch- bbq sauce (took 5 minutes to prepare, 10 to cook) and there on my counter was an orange- freshly sqeezed oj!

Threw it all in the oven and done. I also finished feeding my freezer so now I have 15 plus meals ready to go.

I will be happy to post my bbq sauce if any requests.

[Jennisee]

I will be happy to post my bbq sauce if any requests.

Um, YEAH!!! :LOL

[Melis]

Amy, that is so cool! I find myself brainstorming a lot more as well. This is so much fun. Thanks for sharing and I can't wait to see your BBQ sauce recipe!

Melissa

[Amys1st]

As per request...

I found this in Saveur magazine months ago.

1 1/2 cups ketchup
4 tsp butter
1/4 cup cidar vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
juice of 1/2 lemon (I used jarred lemon juice it worked fine)
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard (I used gray poupon and it worked just fine)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper.

Combine ingrediants in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until thick about 10-15 minutes.

For my pulled pork:

2 lbs of boneless country style ribs or other pork
1 1/2 cup bbq sauce
1 cup orange juice

In a oven pan spray cooking spray and put pork in. Mix the oj and bbq sauce together and pour over.
In a 300 degree oven cooked covered for 3 hours.
Raise oven to 350 and take al foil off and cook another hour.
The pork should just fall apart and keep pulling apart. Serve on buns.

[Rainbowbird]

Originally Posted by isosmom

Rainbowbird - Just posted on your thread. Give it a minute, it'll catch on
So I'm running into an unforseen issue, dh is starting to feel like there's nothing to eat in the house. I guess because I've stopped buying prepared stuff. We don't have a microwave so even freezer pre-made stuff takes a while. Does anyone have any good ideas how to handle this? He's been totally supportive of this pantry style of eating, but he is home with dc while I work during the day and so is responsible for brekkie and lunch 4 times a week. So what do I do to make this easier for him?

Thanks for posting on the thread. I'm glad it took off!

My DS used to complain a lot that there was "nothing to eat" b/c after being a bachelor and buying convenience foods he couldn't imagine looking into the cupboard or fridge and not seeeing something he could immediately open up and eat. Over time he has come to see how much more frugal it is to cook from scratch as much as possible, and to eat more healthful snacks. He still says it once in awhile but now he realizes I will indeed be cooking something from the various ingredients and is better about snacking on things like:

nuts
fruit
peanut butter
cheese (I do buy wheat crackers still)
the homemade muffins and stuff I make

I do buy cold cuts--a high quality brand--so he can also make a sandwich if he wants to. He missed things like canned soup, hot dogs, packaged mixes for awhile but now he is more into health food and doesn't ask about them anymore!

[crunchy_mama]

nak I want to join as well. i have been really diligent about mealplanning I have a ton of stuff I have bought because I *should* eat it, but it just sits there. We really need to save money as dh's insurance went up $100 a month. This week I'm using up an old turkey breast and some celery.

isosmom- I have the same problem wih dh, however keeping leftovers handy helps, also freezing things like waffles and french toast so he has quick fix items- if I don't get around to cooking when he is hungry

[leomom]

Well, last week I spent a whopping 2 dollars on groceries.

This morning, when I went to have my coffee, I realized the milk was bad. Instead of running out to the store as usual, I pulled some dry milk out of the cupboard and mixed it up. Since I only use milk for my coffee, our milk often goes bad. I think I'll just use dry milk from now on. Which leads me to:

Question about powdered milk: How long will it stay good? TIA!

[janerose]

Originally Posted by leomom

Question about powdered milk: How long will it stay good? TIA!

Dry in the box it keeps a long time. Exactly how long I'm not sure, but quite awhile. Reconstituted it seems to keep about as long as regular milk.

Lunch today is hot ham & cheese sandwiches. Dinner will either be ham/onion/broccoli as quiche or on a boboli shell as pizza. I'm leaving it to dh to decide while he's home on lunch.

[Rainbowbird]

Well, I'm getting back on track

We've been eating out of the pantry since my last visit to store for produce etc. on Fri. Last night DS did stop to buy himself some roast beef for lunches, and a dozen eggs which I forgot to buy on Fri.

I finally made the Annies mac and cheese and DS and I have been having it for lunch. (The past two days.) He's decided that he likes it.

I have a grocery delivery order scheduled for Thur. It is about $115 but includes staples like olive oil, vanilla, etc. and meat. As well as just about everything else we need or are out of. I anticipate it will last 10 days or more. The delivery service really works for me. No squirmy DS in cart distracting me (although I love having him with me I find I have to rush and that means mistakes), I take my time and peek at my list everyday (the service saves all your lists so that you don't have to start from scratch every time) and add what I am out of or need. Then I go through it one last time the night before the delivery and cull anything I deem unnecessary. This keeps it JUST to what I really need and will use. And I do not get sucked in or distracted by sales or promotions or my sweet tooth in the store!

I've still gotta use up that TVP. Any interesting recipes for that besides just putting it in chili or spaghetti sauce?