I think the time is coming for a no-spend/pantry challenge month. - Page 5

[MAMom]

Originally Posted by Synchro246

I've already started whiddling away at some of my pantry stock. I have a mini-loaf of "cocktail" bread. It's sourdough. It's not delicious. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how I could use it in a cooking recipe.
PLEASE??????

You could make breadcrumbs out of it & use in meatloaf or something like that.

Or make bread pudding out of it.

Or soak it in butter and garlic and make croutons from it.

Or make mini french toast from it! I bet your kids would be delighted with that!

Or let your kids feed it to the ducks

[MAMom]

I love this challenge & I'm so in!

We've already used a bunch of stuff since I first read this thread & January hasn't even arrived yet!
___________________________________
SAHM to a spectacular DS (5/2003) & delightful DD (2/2006 HBAC!)
International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN)

[Aldara]

Okay I am in tooo!!!!!!! We have a ton in the pantry and I want to clear it all ou before I go shopping with menu and lists in hand!!!!! I figure that will be the easiest way to do this thing....Start the month saving money...My hubby will love it:-)!
Blessings

[spiderdust]

Originally Posted by Synchro246

I've already started whiddling away at some of my pantry stock. I have a mini-loaf of "cocktail" bread. It's sourdough. It's not delicious. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how I could use it in a cooking recipe.
PLEASE??????

Stuffing!
Breadcrumbs!

[Attila the Honey]

How about eggs baked in bread cups - something like this?

http://www.recipelink.com/ch/2002/no...trecipes1.html

You'd have to use more than one slice per muffin tin, but I think it'd work. I've seen many variations on this, do some googling.

[Vixenmama]

Originally Posted by hlkm2e

Last night I took one of the free calendars we got in the mail and wrote out a meal plan for the month. I have enough meat/protein in my freezer/pantry to easily get through January without even skimping I made a grocery list for the first week of the year. I plan on going once a week to get fresh produce, her is my first list

lettuce
asparagus
bananas
apples
grapes
raspberries
strawberries
broccoli
tomatoes

I will only buy them if they have organic, so some things will get left off. I figure asparagus or broccoli (although dd will be disappointed if she can't have her asparagus) and raspberries/strawberries.

I have meal planned for hamburgers, so I thought about putting buns on the list, but decided to use wheat toast instead.

Do you have a meal planning blog? Because just reading your shopping list made me think "they eat goooood in that house"!

[hlkm2e]

Do you have a meal planning blog? Because just reading your shopping list made me think "they eat goooood in that house"!

I have no idea how to make a blog : But it looks like fun, I love reading other people's. We eat yummy stuff, but usually pretty plain. Lots of stirfry's, grilled veggies with just olive oil and lemon juice. Lots of raw fruit. We eat meat, too. Usually just cooked on the stove with some seasoning. I was a really picky eater until my first was born. I decided I wanted her to eat well, so I needed to learn to eat well. Now I love most veggies and we hardly eat any junk food. Fast food went out over this summer. I enjoy cooking and planning just not cleaning up I'm proud to say my dd is a great eater, her favorite food is asparagus! Well, that and vanilla ice cream

[Jennisee]

This just got a lot more serious for me. We have been talking about visiting friends in Las Vegas, and I think we've decided to do it, but I am committed to paying off the credit cards before we go. My new motto is going to be, "Do I want this, or do I want Vegas?" My basic rules I've come up with:

--Meal plan, meal plan, meal plan. Groceries will only be dairy, produce, eggs, and staples we truly need. I think I can keep this under $100 for the month.

--Only eat out when we go to the movies (we were given a season pass as a Christmas present), and keep it simple and frugal.

--Before buying something new, I will question whether we truly need it, and I will try all my secondhand resources.

--I will still follow the pricebook mentality and stock up when something is truly at its lowest price.

--I won't put off things that need done, like car repairs.

Originally Posted by Synchro246

I've already started whiddling away at some of my pantry stock. I have a mini-loaf of "cocktail" bread. It's sourdough. It's not delicious. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how I could use it in a cooking recipe.
PLEASE??????

I used up a loaf of French bread by making a broiled raspberry dessert. I cut the loaf into slices, spread each slice with melted butter, sugar, and a tiny bit of cinnamon, sprinkled fresh raspberries on top, spooned melted raspberry jam over the top (melted in the microwave), broiled until the bread was golden and the sugar was melted and crunchy, and then topped with whipped cream. You could use other fruit--fresh apples and apple jam, canned peaches and peach jam, etc.

I also use up bread by brushing with melted butter or olive oil, adding minced garlic or garlic powder, maybe adding a little cheese, and baking. Garlic bread!

[Softmama]

i'm in...

[hlkm2e]

My dd is sitting on my lap at the desk right now playing meal planner. She has a calendar open and a pen in her hand. She keeps asking me, "OK, it's sunday, what is yiayia going to make you?" And then she writes it into the sunday slot on the calendar. Cracking me up!

[Vixenmama]

Originally Posted by hlkm2e

I have no idea how to make a blog : But it looks like fun, I love reading other people's. We eat yummy stuff, but usually pretty plain. Lots of stirfry's, grilled veggies with just olive oil and lemon juice. Lots of raw fruit. We eat meat, too. Usually just cooked on the stove with some seasoning. I was a really picky eater until my first was born. I decided I wanted her to eat well, so I needed to learn to eat well. Now I love most veggies and we hardly eat any junk food. Fast food went out over this summer. I enjoy cooking and planning just not cleaning up I'm proud to say my dd is a great eater, her favorite food is asparagus! Well, that and vanilla ice cream

Dd (4) is sooo picky and I just can't relate. I came from "eat it and like it" people and I usually do. DD, on the other hand, doesn't like something if it has a brown spot on it, if it's unsymetrical, etc. etc. etc. Ds (2) eats like a mini-adult, everything from curry to grilled onions and mushrooms and cesar salad. He is a fabulous eater. I guess I just want Dd to have good nutrition and enough choices but it's soooo hard. She comments about every freaking thing I put on her plate. Another odd bit: she eats a very large breakfast, a medium sized lunch and a tiny dinner.

[Fiestabeth]

Originally Posted by Vixenmama

Another odd bit: she eats a very large breakfast, a medium sized lunch and a tiny dinner.

Good for her! They say that's the healthiest way to eat, or graze throughout the day and don't have any large meals. My older dd is the same way - the amount she will eat at breakfast blows me away.

[jillyofthevalley]

I'm totally in! After a couple months of really mindless spending : and a huge pantry and deep freeze bursting at the seams, we really need to smarten up around here. I think we have enough food in this house to do the pantry challange for 6 months yet we're still constantly at the grocery store for no other reason than pure laziness. Easier to pick up something quick rather than get creative and use what we have.

I'm just heading out the door to Costco to pick up some basics (mayo, mustard, ketchup, a months worth of lunch meat and a few other things to help make meals out of what we have here). Other than that, for the month of January I'll be buying only fresh produce (which we get from an organic delivery service) and dairy (which we also get delivered) so there's no need to even enter a grocery store and be tempted. We've got tons of personal care items in the bathroom cupboards so I don't think we'll run out of that stuff. We use mostly cloth instead of disposable around the house so we're good there too.

January will be the month that I actually see my bank account in the black instead of the red (I hope!).

[Vixenmama]

Originally Posted by SunflowerMommy

I'm totally in! After a couple months of really mindless spending : .....

My Costco bill the Friday before Christmas was.....um, how do I say this, what my family spends a month on groceries, and we are not thrifty shoppers. : (that did include 3 bottles of champagne (gifts) and some new sonicare toothbrush heads--and oh yea, we had crab legs and shrimp for Christmas dinenr) We're not hedonists, really, but once a year (with family) we have a really fabulous dinner and this was it.

Anyway, I cleaned out the pantry yesterday (new year's decluttering challenge) and I realized that a lot of what we have is "holiday" or "junk" food. Bags and bags of nuts, chocolates, truffles cookies, brownies, etc. etc.

My freezer is stuffed too, but I'm not sure what I have in there now...I guess that is what I'll be doing tonight.

Anyway, even if I have to shop for real food a bit more than I planned I'll stick with the spirit of the thing and use up everything we possibly can.

I love the idea of the cornstarch pudding.

[Softmama]

Dh was rooting through our pantry today and pulled out a half full box of bran flakes. he said, "I'm just gonna pitch this because we never eat it".
I screamed NO! I told him about the pantry challenge and told him we have to stop throwing out all our food.
So...what to do with bran flakes? not bread or muffins as I am a bread hound and trying to lose some weight.

[Vixenmama]

Originally Posted by Softmama

not bread or muffins

Doh!

No seriously, you could make some very HEALTHY muffins that weren't so snackalicious, with very minimal sugar. They would be full of fiber which is great when slimming.


I can't wait to see if someone knows what to do with bran that's not bread or muffins...could it be used as a breading on chicken or fish?

[BurgundyElephant]

I'm in. No-spend January sounds like fun!

[leomom]

I'm in!

My Rules:

1. Necessities only: dairy and produce most weeks
2. Shop in the 10 items or less aisle
3. One "snack" item a week for pregnancy cravings
4. Make own bread

[spiderdust]

Originally Posted by Softmama

Dh was rooting through our pantry today and pulled out a half full box of bran flakes. he said, "I'm just gonna pitch this because we never eat it".
I screamed NO! I told him about the pantry challenge and told him we have to stop throwing out all our food.
So...what to do with bran flakes? not bread or muffins as I am a bread hound and trying to lose some weight.

You could crush the flakes up and use them for breading. You could also use them as a binder for meatloaf.

[melissel]

I'm sooooo ready. I was thinking it would kind of defeats the purpose if I stocked up beforehand, but oh well, we went to Costco tonight with my mom, and I spent $155 (yikes! the most ever there). For the most part it was "staples" that will round out our meals (or so I keep telling myself ):

Feta, olive oil, canned salmon, and balsamic vinegar (my DH makes slamming salads with this stuff, and if he has it available, he will ALWAYS take lunch to work with him)
Ketchup, mayo, etc.
A bag of trail mix (to keep DH away from the vending machines) and cranberries and raisins for the girls' snacks (and for cookies and muffins)
Giganto bag of chocolate chips (for pancakes, cookies, and desserts, the girls will be satisfied with 5-6 chips as a dessert, plus a piece of fruit).
Lots and lots of eggs!
Whole wheat pasta
A flat of granny smith apples (for baked apples, apple oatcakes, and my favorite apple muffins, which we bake in triple batches and freeze)
Red peppers (just because I love them so, in everything)
Chicken sausage (which DH took apart and wrapped in packs of two, so none goes to waste)

I'm planning to only buy dairy and produce this month, and I actually have a lot of frozen veggies and frozen milk put away, so maybe I won't even need to go to the store at all! I got my Frontier co-op order in today, so I'm stocked up on toiletries and cleaning stuff. I'm starting to make the switch to cloth TP (mainly for me, and maybe DD if I can get her on board), and we pretty much use cloth everything else. I think I'm set.

As for the no-spend, I don't think that will be too much of a problem. I may have to buy more bG 2.0s, since they're the only thing that seems to working for the toddler these days, but I'll see if I can't sell other dipes first in order to buy new ones.

I'm ready to roll! Happy new year, everyone!