July Pantry/Freezer Challenge

[kathirynne]

I started June with a flourish, and then got bored with the things in my kitchen (so I went to the grocery and spent more than I should have. : )

But now I really need to use up some groceries (and STOP buying more! : ) for two reasons. First, I can't afford it, and second, I am painting the kitchen in August (with a "Happy Birthday" gift card to Ace Hardware from my favourite uncle : ) and I want to move the deepfreeze into the kitchen when I've finished painting. (It will be easier to move if it's empty! )

Anyone else up for a July challenge?

We could post what we make, what we use up to make it, how long we've gone without a trip to the grocery, ask for ideas/recipes to use certain things, et cetera.

We could also post our "Grocery Grand Total" at the end of the month. (With maybe a small prize for the lowest total?)

Who's in?

[hlkm2e]

I'll be in. I did pretty well last month. My fridge was so empty today that I cleaned it out. All that's in there right now is milk, juice, bread, eggs, butter, cheese, tortillas, fruit and veggies. And condiments in the door. I have two whole shelves open!

The pantry is clearing out also. I do have 2 cartons of oats though, anyone have a good easy oatmeal cookie recipe?

I have bread, meat, cheese, and butter in the freezer. And tomatoes, grains, and soups in the pantry. So, I should be able to go another month. I am going to be watching for deals to stock up though. I've been clipping coupons and waiting to buy when deals are good. It makes it easier when I have a pantry to live off of between deals.

[HydeParkB]

I'm in! I'm sort of hit and miss with these Pantry challenges. I don't do most of the cooking in the house, so I have to just do what I can.

I really want to cycle through what we've got. With a deep freeze, lots of kitchen cabinets, plus the regular fridge and freezer, we've got so much food. My personal goal is not so much 'not buying' as using as much as possible out of the pantry.

In June I made some mango popsicles from coconut milk and canned mango. We've got plenty more canned mango, so that will be a good mix with fruit juice, plain or with yogurt.

We've got lots of pesto to use before the basil comes in for this year.

Anybody have any ideas for an arm roast? I was going to do crockpot stroganoff, but I don't have any mushrooms.

[hlkm2e]

I have to admit, I'm not exactly sure what an arm roast is, but this is what I did with my pork shoulder last week.

1st day
Put the pork shoulder in crockpot overnight, it was big so I wasn't sure how long it would take.

2nd day
I cut it in 3 pieces, froze 2. The 1st piece was dinner that night. Made baked potatoes and asparagus with feta. Sliced the pork thinly and served with some of the juice.

Frozen pieces
1. put in sauce pan with bbq sauce, had bbq pork sandwiches

2. shredded and mixed with tomotoes and chilies, made pork enchiladas.

[rosie_plus_one]

We have TONS of bags of beans (thank you WIC check every month). I've got kidney beans, northern white beans, split pea, and I think a few others.

The weather is just too darn hot to think about soup right now. Any other usages?

I've also got maybe a pound of stewing beef in the freezer that I'm aching to use but I don't want to make a beef stew! Any other ways to go?

We recently went for 2 weeks without grocery shopping but all we did was eat the good stuff in the pantry, so now all the random stuff is left. Maybe one Costco trip this month and that's it?

[kathirynne]

Whole Wheat Berries

I have an overabundance of wheat berries, and aside from borrowing a grinder and grinding them into flour, I don't know what to make with them.

Any suggestions would be helpful!

[member]

I'm in! I'll post more when I am at home.

[kathirynne]

Originally Posted by rosie_plus_one

We have TONS of bags of beans (thank you WIC check every month). I've got kidney beans, northern white beans, split pea, and I think a few others.

The weather is just too darn hot to think about soup right now. Any other usages?

I've also got maybe a pound of stewing beef in the freezer that I'm aching to use but I don't want to make a beef stew! Any other ways to go?

You can cook up the beans in your Crock-Pot and use them in bean/rice burritos. (Someone suggested this to me as a way to use up rice, and we love them! )

You can do stir-fry with stewing beef. (Veggies and meat stir-fried over rice)

HTH

[rosie_plus_one]

You're my hero! Thank you so much for the ideas!

If you were going to spend about $150 at Costco on food to last for a good part of the month, and you ate quite a bit of meat, what would you buy?

Refried beans, canned fruit, frozen chicken breast?

[spiderdust]

I'm in! I feel like we barely made a dent in our pantry during June, our pantry was so full.

Rosie, I'd buy frozen or dried fruit instead of canned, but that's just my personal preference.

[sweetfeet]

I'll play. Last month I participated but didn't post my progress. Anyhow I have probably less than 50 items in my pantry now. I'm down to things like flour and a few cans of beans. No packaged food is left. Yesterday I went to the spice store at the farmer's market. They have awesome prices. I picked up some baking soda and baking powder. As I was completely out and craving choco chip cookies hard core. The prices are half the price of the grocery store. I also bought a ham hock for bean soup at the market. It's free range and all that good stuff. I spent $45.65 yesterday between the farmer's market and the grocery store. I've eaten most of the fruit already.:

Last month I spent $188.xx on groceries including toiletries so my goal is to be under $200 this month again. It'll be harder though now that I've used up most of my pantry stuff.

I like buying out of season fruits and veggies frozen from trader joe's. They taste awesome and are perfectly ripe.

[Red]

I came searching for this thread! (I knew there'd be one)

It's time for us to start putting away food fro the winter, but I also need to use up the rest of the older stuff. I have a few random things, lots of meat and fish in the freezer, greens and peas in the garden, beans and rice, etc.

And TWO of my kids are spending the summer 1500 miles away with my oldest daughter! Cooking for 3 is super hard.

So, I shopped today, spent $75. I usually spend twice that! And I got an extra can of tomatoes, an extra pack of chicken breasts (cause they were on sale for really cheap! $1.75 a lb, boneless, $1,45 split.) I cooked the split on the grill tonight, make BBQ sauce out of some ketchup(and honey, brown sugar, garlic, spicy mustard, soy sauce and pepper)...I have 3 huge bottles of ketchup, not sure how that happened.
At least it doesn't go bad!

I guess my goal is to see how much I can buy for how little and then NOT Eat it! I want to just eat what's already here.

[hlkm2e]

Thanks to the June pantry challenge, I was able to clean out and organize my fridge and pantry. Here are the pictures for inspiration!

The pantry
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nakito...e2.jpg&.src=ph

The fridge
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nakito...e2.jpg&.src=ph

I also took 2 bags of food to a food pantry, stuff that I resisted using up last month and had been there awhile. I figured if I didn't use it during the challenge, I probably wouldn't use it before it expired, so I should just declutter and let someone else use it.

[HydeParkB]

Last month, while trying to see what's in the pantry, I discovered two cans with problems.

There was a can of pineapple (that I was going to use for a crockpot porkloin recipe) that was bulging. Glad we found that before it exploded. And one of my 4 cans of mangos had a small leak. Luckily it wasn't in the nice cabinets but in our basement storage area.

[ashleyhaugh]

im in for this... i did some shopping already for the month, but it was on friday, which was june, so doesnt count, lol

[member]

I am going with the cash system this month. I bought 5lb worth of organic, fair trade coffee for $35 and that leaves me with $125 for the rest of the month. We shop weekly but already I have meals based on what is in the pantry and using up a lot of the older stuff in the freezer.

[ashleyhaugh]

im gonna post my inventories like people did on the june pantry challenge- it'll be 3 posts, 1 for my chest freezer, 1 for the regular freezer, and 1 for the pantry, as i get them done....

here's the first one, for my chest freezer

Veggies and fruits
2 boxes of frozen spinach
1 box frozen broccoli
1.5 lbs frozen organic mixed veggies (our commissary just started carrying organic frz veggies)
750 g frozen peas and baby carrots
2 lb frozen broccoli
2 lb frozen mixed veggies
1 lb broccoli, cauliflower, carrots
1 lb petite whole green beans
1 lb petite sweet peas
1 lb stir fry mix
600 g soup mix veggies
1 lb black eyed peas
1.5 lb organic green beans

Protein
6 pk eye of round steak
5.5 lb brisket
1 pk cheap hot dogs
1pk Hebrew national all beef hot dogs
4 lbs hamburger
1 lb beef top sirlion steal
1.5 lb beef mock tender roast
4 pks of chicken breast with 2 in each pkg (I split and vacuum seal the big packs)
1 lb shrimp
4 pk bone in pork chops
3 lbs breakfast sausage
1.4 lb pork seasoned for stirfry
3 pk Italian sausage
1 pk brat wurst

Convenience foods
3 pie crusts
2 Amy’s enchilada meals
About ¼ or less, of a 5 lb bag of frozen fries

Breads, rice, etc
1 pk flour tortillas

Premade by me
3 bags or snow peas, about 2 c per bag
6 vac sealed bags of garlic mashed potatoes, 2 c each
3 vac sealed bags homemade meatballs, 6 each
1 freezer bag cooked kidney beans, about 2 c
3 freezer bags chicken spinach enchiladas, 4 each

Misc.
2 1 lb blocks of mozzarella
1 vac sealed bag of baby swiss slices, about ½ lb

[ashleyhaugh]

here's my above-fridge-freezer contents

Veggies and fruit
1 freezer bag yellow bell pepper slices
1 freezer bag orange bell pepper slices
½ freezer bag red bell pepper slices
½ freezer bag yellow bell pepper dices
The ends of a freezer bag of red bell pepper slices
The ends of a freezer bag of green bell pepper dices
¼ lb frozen peas
1 lb frozen broccoli
3 1 cup freezer bags of cooked pumpkin
2 freezer bags of cantelope cubes
2.5 lbs frozen strawberries
1 lb frozen blueberries
1 freezer bag blueberries
3 frozen bananas

Protein
3 vac bags of grilled brats, 2 each
3 vac bags grilled chicken breast, 2 each (I was in a grilling mood a few weeks ago J )
½ ham steak
½ lb stew beef
About 3 king crab legs


Convenience foods
2 organic veggie burger patties

Bread, rice, etc
1 hm loaf of foccacia
1 hm batch of oatmeal molasses rolls
1 hm batch of blueberry muffins
2 freezer bags of hm 4 grain pancakes, 4 each
1 pizza worth of hm dough
1 vac bag of cooked brown rice, 2 cups
½ bag of bake-n-serve bread, maybe 7 rolls

Premade by me
6 2 c containers of potato leek soup
2 containers of apple butter
1 freezer bag of cooked sloppy joe meat
4 vac bags of chicken veggie stir fry and brown rice
2 vac bags black beans and brown rice


Misc.
1 lb unsalted butter

[member]

I've made a list of what's in the pantry and freezer and I shopped accordingly today, spending only $22 for the week (2 adults).

Cabbage and canned tomatoes were on sale, so I am making a huge pot of hamburger-cabbage soup (16+ servings) today, and later this week my new favorite dish lentil tacos - so cheap!

I have a lot of coconut milk and canned sweet potato puree so I am thinking of doing a baked coconut-sweet potato crustless pie or pudding for a nice dessert to last all week.

[memory maker]

subbing to get ideas so I can maybe join next month