Anyone up for a Pantry Challenge in November? - Page 16

[Thalia]

Used up one of the frozen lasagna portions from the freezer and two bags of frozen berries for berry crisp on Sunday.

On Monday used up half a jar of pasta sauce, a box of multigrain pasta, and the last of the TJ's basil salad dressing.

[Thalia]

Used up some of the multigrain noodles and the last of the pasta sauce today for lunch.

Used up the last of the noodles, half the remaining fat free sour cream, the asparagus from the freezer and the Canadian bacon from the fridge to make a Stroganoff casserole.

I have to figure out what to do with all our frozen mango and fat free sugar free pudding mix (cheesecake flavor). I don't have enough milk to make all the pudding, and I don't know if it will set if I add all the mango. Because it has artificial sweetner, it can't be baked into anything else. Hmm...

[Mom2Joseph]

Originally Posted by michelle524

What is scrambled rice? Is HBHW Hillbilly Housewife?

Yes, it's a Hillbilly Housewife recipe and it was fantastic! The *perfect* comfort food - great to replace mac n cheese as we are going gluten free. My DD loved it, it was fast, easy and nutritious! I added a little cheese to it too.

I also made some split pea soup using leftover turkey and veggies. Everyone loved it.

I will say - I had to buy chicken today. It was on sale 39 cents a pound so I loaded up the freezer. My DH and DD looove chicken so this was the perfect sale for us!

[Thalia]

39 cents a pound! That's great!

Tonight we are using canned tomatoes, pasta, dried beans, and chicken stock from the pantry to make soup, plus a fresh herb mix from the fridge that was about to go. We'll use up the last of the sour cream with it, too.

Dessert is pudding, using up some of the cheesecake pudding mix, mango from the freezer, and lite coconut milk from the pantry.

[artemis33]

this is the Red Lentil Soup Recipe I promised earlier.

Curried Lentil Soup

2 tsp olive oil
1 c chopped onion
1 1/4 tsp curry powder
5 c broth
3/4 c red lentils
2 TBS chopped fresh basil
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 (14.55 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
Fresh basil for garnish
Sour cream for garnish

Heat oil in large Dutch oven on med/high heat. Add onion; saute 4 minutes. Add curry; saute 1 minute (stirring). Stir in lentils, then add broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat. Simmer until lentils are tender, about 20-30 min.

Place 4 c of lentil mixture in blender - puree until smooth and return to pan. (****Instead of this, I use one of those stick blenders and blend right in the pan. I like this one pretty smooth.)

Add chopped basil, vinegar, salt and tomatoes; cook until heated through. Garnish with basil and sour cream.



I still have a TON of food in my pantry - but none of it is easy to make into meals.....*sigh* yeah, I guess that is what this is all about huh? I will probably be in the Dec Pantry Challenge if there is one I've gotten rid of a fair amount, but we've been sick * a lot * this month and I've gotten take out twice and Amy's frozen pizzas twice Plus eating at other people's houses for holidays.

I'm still trying though!!!! I used up some frozen chicken thighs and BBQ sauce tonight, so yeah!

I might make a whipped cranberry cheesecake with my leftover cranberry sauce...

[michelle524]

I know I said I was dropping out, but I'm coming back. I decided to end November by figuring out what's in the pantry, tossing the old junk and restocking in December.

Now I have questions for you all. I have the following items that I don't know if I should keep:

Honey
Powdered sugar
White sugar
Brown sugar
White flour
Quick oats
Molasses
Cocoa powder
(The above was all purchase/opened 3/06)

Crisco
EnerG Egg Replacer
Flax seeds
Rye flour
Bran
(I have no clue when these were purchased or opened, but it was definitely before 3/06).

Whole wheat flour
(Opened sometime mid-late 06)

I should mention an odd story that happened using some of the above. I made apple muffins and they were fine the first day, but then the next day when we broke one open, there were all these stringy, sugary things, so if you sort of "clapped" the halves together, there were these weird fine strings. I've never seen anything like it. We didn't eat anymore of those muffins, but I used the flours, sugars, honey, etc. in them. Should I toss this stuff and get new? I know it's a waste, but I paid for all of it over a year ago, the money is so long gone...

What do you think?

[artemis33]

Michelle -

I'd keep the honey, molasses and the cocoa powder. Those keep well.

If the flax seeds are whole and were kept cool, they might be OK - definitely toss if they are ground though.

I'd toss the rest - baking stuff is usually on sale this time of year. Old flour will give you poor baking results - that might be what happened to your muffins.


I need to clean out my baking drawer still too..... It is a total mess because it is stuffed full and my toddler likes to get in there and rearrange things - ugh!

[heathenmom]

I used up 3 of my 5 cans of coconut milk last night, but with another backfiring effect: the chicken curry w/ coconut rice I made was delish (even dh thought so, and he's not keen on trying new recipes), and will now be joining the regular meal rotation. : Good thing I can get it for 25 cents/can at the discount grocery. LOL

If anybody's interested, here's the recipe I used: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Coconut...ce/Detail.aspx

with these modifications:
* increased servings from 1 to 6 (LOTS of leftovers, for today's lunches and then some)
* cooked the rice in my rice cooker -- sticky at first, but ended up great
* used chicken instead of tofu
* used half green beans (frozen) and half baby carrots (which I parboiled in the microwave)
* added a pinch of ground red pepper, a little more curry powder, and the rest of a can of coconut milk.

What I'll do next time:
* add some sliced onion and maybe some garlic
* use sliced carrots - the baby carrots were too big
* add salt to the rice before cooking
* more red pepper - it definitely needed a little kick
* more coconut milk for the sauce - it was SOOOO delicious that I wanted extra

[AKmoose]

Darn, wish I'd seen this thread at the beginning of the month! Starting about mid-October, I did this too! The only things we bought were dairy and fresh fruit/veggies. We actually had some great meals, as I was forced to be creative and actually COOK some food No claims of great kitchen skills coming from me!

I still have plenty of "stuff" to use up though...especially dry goods. I pretty much cleared out our chest freezer which was so liberating

I'm off to search to find some good baking recipes to use up random things like amaranth flour, gluten-free mix, soy flour, and the like...wish me luck!

[Smokering]

Okay, it's the last day of November! And I'm stuck for dinner--help?

We have:

--a frozen, largeish chicken breast
--frozen peas (lots) and corn (not many)
--creamed corn... no, I never did manage to get rid of it
--coconut milk
--rice, brown, white and arborio
--a fair few eggs
--tinned tomatoes
--some wholemeal linguine
--chickpeas
--green and red lentils
--carrots
--onion
--capsicum

Plus some things I just don't want to eat... couscous, for instance. Why did I buy couscous? I don't even *like* couscous. Neither does DH!

Soooo, ideas? I could maybe steal heathenmom's idea and do a chicken curry or butter chicken, and make some garlic naan to go with it.

[mbtmom2000]

I just wanted to post a follow up on our results. We joined the challenge ,and we did great! We used up most everything in the freezer(except 5lb frozen mixed fruit and 1lb skirt steak) and left only a few cans in the pantry.

We did go over budget a little for thanksgiving, but it was not that big of a deal since we spent so little on food the rest of the month.

This was a great experience for me. It made me get more creative and it helped me spend less on the grocery bill.

We didn't make it all month but we had food until 11/28(our goal was Nov 22).

Dawn

[Mom2Joseph]

really hitting the bottom of the barrel here -

grilled cheese with a cucumber for lunch.

more mashed potatoes and peas last night....

Of course I did buy those 25 pounds of chicken! Guess what we're eating in December??

Smokering: your post made me want to EAT! The curry and garlic nan sound so yummy. Must make that soon!

[Thalia]

We got rid of a lot of stuff in the freezer and pantry, thanks to this thread, although I was a late joiner.

I'm going to post a December thread for anyone who would like to keep going, whether as a hard core pantry challenge or just being more mindful of using up old stuff.

p.s. Mom2Joseph, your grilled cheese cucumber lunch made me giggle. I love both cucumbers and grilled cheese, but yeah, that does sound like a not-much-left-in-the-pantry lunch.