January 2008 pantry challenge - Page 2

[Hanilulu]

I'll join! I have a bad habit of buying food that looks interesting and then never cooking it, so I could use this challenge!

[isosmom]

Alright, I've got my meal plan through the 7th.
1/1 - Pasta e fagioli. I've been craving this and thought New Years would be a good day for it. Plus there will be leftovers for lunch through the week. Using dried white beans, potatoes, canned tomatoes, onions, pasta, and carrots.
1/2 - Bean and potato salad. Using beans and potatoes from the pasta e fagioli.
1/3 - something from the freezer
1/4 - Boston baked beans. Weather is supposed to be bad, so something in the oven all day should be nice. I'll serve with cornbread or tortillas. Using pinto beans, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes.
1/5 - something from the freezer
1/6 - Cornmeal crusted tofu and coleslaw. Using tofu, cornmeal, cabbage, and carrots.
1/7 - Lentil and rice pilaf. Using onions, lentils, and rice.

[hlkm2e]

Originally Posted by hlkm2e

I'm in, I'm going to cut and paste the thread I started for myself in Meal Planning, maybe you all can help me more!

Would anyone like to help me plan meals from my pantry?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just took an inventory of my pantry and I want to plan some meals around it. We are currently in an apartment while we have some renovations done and I don't want to build up too much of a stock because I don't want to move it back. I can and will buy meat/produce/perishables to go with pantry stuff to complete meals. I just am trying to keep the pantry down to a minimum.

Here's my list.

Baking stuff (I didn't bring stuff to do major baking, my bread pans, mixer, etc. Most I could do is simple quick breads, not even muffins)
Sugar
Brown sugar
flour
vanilla extract
almond extract
TJ's pancake mix
cornbread mix
cocoa
oils
vinegars
salt
brownie mix
chicken bouillon
bread crumbs
italian seasoning
greek seasoning
taco seasoning

Canned
6 cans pineapple
2 spaghetti sauce
salsa
greek olives
4 Amy's cream of mushroom
4 cream of chicken
2 black bean
2 kidney bean
2 white bean
corn
6 diced tomato

Boxed
TJ's au gratin potatoes
2 taco shells
2 TJ's stuffing
2 lasagna noodles
3 spaghetti noodles
popcorn
8 annies mac & cheese
2 penne noodles

Other
wild rice
bread crumbs
white rice
peanut butter
quinoa
tuna
pepperoni

We eat everything, vegetables, meat, salmon. We don't do Indian food. We like hispanic, italian, greek, a lot of other things. My 1 and 4 year old eat most anything. I have several differents meats in the freezer and we always have a variety of veggies and fruit. Right now I have chicken, pork, and beef in my freezer and asparagus, cabbage, salad stuff, grapes, apples, oranges, strawberries that I can think of off the top of my head. Just to give you an idea of how we eat.

Thanks!

eta: We have no food allergies or sensitivities. I am eating a ton because I'm pregnant with twins, so I eat about 3000 calories a day! Plus, some convenience items I'm not used to having, but I have now due to pregnancy cravings.

Here's my meal plan for the next week or so. These are just the main dishes, I will supplement with salad and veggies/fruit. The parenthesis are the items from the pantry.

1. Spaghetti with meat sauce and meatballs (x2) spaghetti noodles (2) spag. sauce (2) ground beef in freezer (1) meatballs in freezer (1)

2. White Chicken chili in crockpot (x2) cream of chicken soup (1), white beans (2) cream of mushroom soup (1) shredded chicken from freezer (1) corn (1)

3. Red chili, kidney beans (1), ground beef (1), black beans (1), diced tomatoes (1) we will have this one day over rice (1) and one day over corn chips

4. whole chicken cut up and baked in the oven from freezer, with quinoa pilaf (1),

5. chicken casserole with leftover chicken from the meal before and leftover rice from the chili, plus spaghetti noodles (1)

I'll make cornbread to go with the chili (3) and we'll eat the leftovers for breakfast. I'll use the pineapple to make fruit salad that we'll eat for breakfast and lunch. I can use the pepperoni's to make tortilla pizza's for lunch and the peanut butter for sandwiches, also. The olives will go on salads.

I'm going to try to come and post what we actually eat each day to try to stay accountable.

[artemis33]

I am in!!! I started out doing one in Dec, but fizzled out when I got busy with holiday stuff

I have a little extra motivation to clear out things right now because:

1)There are still things lurking in my pantry that have been there too long and the whole thing needs reorganized.

2)My refrigerator is on it's last legs so we might be getting a new one very very soon. So, I don't want it to be stuffed if it suddenly goes out!

3)We are considering a move this summer so I am trying to clear out much of the excess in our home - in all areas.


One problem I have right now is I can't really bake like I had been. There is a problem with my oven so I am not comfortable using it until it gets looked at (again : ). I had been making bread and working toward making all of our crackers and such from scratch, but can't for a while.

My menu so far:

Tues
breakfast: oats with leftover cooked apples and cranberries
lunch: chicken veggie bean soup using up leftover chicken and homemade broth
dinner: something with my black eyed peas, kale and maybe some chicken sausage but I don't have an exact dish yet (ideas???)

Wed:
breakfast: eggs or oats
lunch: ?
dinner: red lentil curry

That's all I have for now but that buys me a couple days to get creative.

I'll be supplementing fresh produce and dairy for sure, and probably meat at some point, but I want to use the tons of beans, grains and pasta in our pantry as much as possible! If I can just use that stuff up I will be very happy

[1growingsprout]

Ok today i just did a mini shop to get us over the hump... bread, milk, baby items..

Tomorrow we are having
Breakfast...pancakes/syrup
lunch... sandwiches and chips
dinner... pasta/sauce/bread rolls

Wednesday
Breakfast... sticky buns
Lunch... soup/crackers grilled cheese
Dinner.... pasta leftovers w. added veggies and a salad

Thursday
Breakfast... oatmeal
Lunch...hotdogs/mac n cheese
Dinner... chicken /rice/veggies

Friday
Breakfast... cold cereal or poptarts
Lunch... spaghetto's and veggies
Dinner... Any leftovers or item of choice

Snacks are from our 'snack jar' and the rule is NO NEW SNACKS can be opened until we have significant progess on our current open packs...

I vow to stick to this as best as possible and NOT GO GROCERY SHOPPING UNTIL SUNDAY (at the soonest)

[greenegirl]

I'm in. DH and I agreed to get some of our outgoing expenses under control. One of the first things we are tackling is the food budget. We spent an average of $750/month on food in 2007, and it is only the two of us!!! That included a lot of eating out, obviously, and also includes purchasing seeds for our garden.

Before I even saw this thread, we agreed that tomorrow we were going to inventory the pantry, freezer (we have a 14 cubic foot upright) and refrigerator, make a meal plan with those ingredients and a minimum of items from the store. I'm definitely going to need to get some fresh vegetables and fruit, but not sure what else until we do the inventory.

[sunanthem]

i'm in . I just got groceries today. I would like to use all of it up before buying too much more. Guess I need to make a menu!

[greenegirl]

We inventoried the refrigerator and freezers while we watched Rockin' New Years Eve on TV. We have it on a spreadsheet and there's already about 100 items listed. We still have to inventory the pantries! We are going to do that tomorrow, though.

[my2girlz]

I'm in. Here's my menu for the week.

Monday~leftovers
Tuesday~chicken drumsticks, rice, broccoli
Wednesday~beef stew, biscuits
Thursday~pork, rice, veggies
Friday~fish, asparagus
Saturday~roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots
Sunday~bacon, ham, potato soup, biscuits

[1growingsprout]

Originally Posted by 1growingsprout

Ok today i just did a mini shop to get us over the hump... bread, milk, baby items..

Tomorrow we are having
Breakfast...pancakes/syrup
lunch... sandwiches and chips
dinner... pasta/sauce/bread rolls

Wednesday
Breakfast... sticky buns
Lunch... soup/crackers grilled cheese
Dinner.... pasta leftovers w. added veggies and a salad

Thursday
Breakfast... oatmeal
Lunch...hotdogs/mac n cheese
Dinner... chicken /rice/veggies

Friday
Breakfast... cold cereal or poptarts
Lunch... spaghetto's and veggies
Dinner... Any leftovers or item of choice

Snacks are from our 'snack jar' and the rule is NO NEW SNACKS can be opened until we have significant progess on our current open packs...

I vow to stick to this as best as possible and NOT GO GROCERY SHOPPING UNTIL SUNDAY (at the soonest)

So far today we are juggling the list but are sticking to the grand theory..
Breakfast was cereal and cookies
Lunch was hotdogs and chips...
SNACK is assorted veggies from the fridge, cheese and ranch dressing... crackers too... what a great way to prepare my veggies for the pasta sauce...
Dinner is going to be pasta and salad

As long as i stick to the menu plan i dont really care what order things are made in... again as long as nothing goes 'bad' waiting its turn

[mumkenna&lucas]

I am going to try and join in also..only dairy, produce and bread..
I am going to have to take inventory of my pantry. I know it is a little bare compared to usual..But still stocked.

[mamavegan]

I went shopping yesterday, but bought items to work with things we already had.

We bought:
veggie stock
bread
mushrooms
organic green beans (frozen)
chips and salsa
water
soy creamer
onion
garlic
potato
orange juice
sugar
flour
vanilla extract

Lunch was:
black eyed peas, green bean casserole, and rice and gravy.
All of the veggies were from the pantry and the gravy and casserole gravy were from scratch. I'm don't cook as often as I should, so I was really proud of myself. Hubby really enjoyed it, too.

[HydeParkB]

I admire those of you who take the time to do an inventory. I always get too discouraged. It's a great problem to have too much food, I know.

What I try to do is pick out a dozen or so items to use. They might be things that have been neglected too long (like my organic brown rice) or weird items - like jars of curry sauces that I'm not sure why I bought but they aren't going to be used in our regular, everyday cooking.

I think I'm going to make up some brown rice and then make veggie or chicken burritos with it. These can be frozen and I'll grab them as I'm out the door to work. We've got lots of veggies in the freezer, and I suppose I can cook up some black beans too.

[CeciMami]

I'm in! 2007 was better as far as grocery budget goes but since I've done a MAJOR turn around in how we eat and now sprout and grind our own flower, juice, etc...the start up costs for doing that...well...added to the budget shall we say...

My freezer is pretty well stocked and so is the pantry so my goals should be easier to meet...I don't have a $ in mind, I will just try to avoid buying anything other than fresh produce this month so that I can sock away a little extra to order a few things from Azure next month.

[Amys1st]

Day 1: Happy New Year!

-Cereal and Yogurt for breakfast (normal thing here)
-Philly cheesesteaks for lunch, meat in freezer and so was buns and cheese.
Ribs for dinner, in oven now.

I made out our calendar for the week like I normally do. I cleaned out the snack cabinet and the baking, etc cabinet. We have a few bags of different nuts we can snack on or make into cookies. I have plenty of snack items from the Terra Farms and Just tomatoes coops so we are set there well past Jan.
My pantry is a huge walk in, so I will declutter tonight and organize and take pics too!

[HydeParkB]

I just made lunch for the rest of the week - a box of Annies Beef Stroganoff (pantry) with tempeh (freezer). I'm not really all the excited about eating it - it didn't smell to good while it was cooking. Hopefully it will be palatable. At least it is two more items out of the stock.

I was looking through my new crockpot cookbook earlier today, and getting all kinds of ideas, mostly involving our stash of dried beans.

And that lasagna I made for last night's dinner, I think that we will just continue eating it. I was going to freeze the leftovers for a few weeks from now, but DH likes it and we have more ingredients for another batch in a month or a few weeks.

[MonkeyPrincess]

Originally Posted by isosmom

1/1 - Pasta e fagioli. I've been craving this and thought New Years would be a good day for it. Plus there will be leftovers for lunch through the week. Using dried white beans, potatoes, canned tomatoes, onions, pasta, and carrots.
1/2 - Bean and potato salad. Using beans and potatoes from the pasta e fagioli.
1/4 - Boston baked beans. Weather is supposed to be bad, so something in the oven all day should be nice. I'll serve with cornbread or tortillas. Using pinto beans, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes.
1/7 - Lentil and rice pilaf. Using onions, lentils, and rice.

Is it appropriate to ask for recipes in this thread? If so, I'd love these. :

edited to add a request for mamavegan's gravy recipe, please.

[MonkeyPrincess]

Originally Posted by Amys1st

Day 1: Happy New Year!

-Cereal and Yogurt for breakfast (normal thing here)
-Philly cheesesteaks for lunch, meat in freezer and so was buns and cheese.
Ribs for dinner, in oven now.

I made out our calendar for the week like I normally do. I cleaned out the snack cabinet and the baking, etc cabinet. We have a few bags of different nuts we can snack on or make into cookies. I have plenty of snack items from the Terra Farms and Just tomatoes coops so we are set there well past Jan.
My pantry is a huge walk in, so I will declutter tonight and organize and take pics too!

Looking forward to pics.

Philly Cheesesteaks in Chicago?!?

[katheek77]

I'll do a modified version. I've actually been working on cleaning out our stores (we're moving in the spring/summer), and may need to do an outer aisle shopping weekly, but, I still need to set some "use up" goals.

Goals:
Boxed
*Finish a box of freakin cereal. There are SEVEN open boxes, PLUS a box of cracked wheat and a box of TJ hot cereal. My goal is to use up at least three boxes, for breakfast/snacks/etc.
*Use up one of the disgusting hamburger helpers DH insisted on buying. BLECH. Preferably for dinner and leftovers when I'm making a veggie meal he won't eat

Frozen:
*Use up two of the containers of frozen veggies.
*Use up at least one of the containers of frozen soup (I'm the only one who will eat it).

Bulk
*Use up the black beans and lentils. This will leave me with only oatmeal in my bulks (other than flours, which I use a ton of anyway)

Canned
*Use up two canned fruits or veggies
*Use up two cans broth

Other
*Use up sun-dried tomatoes
*Use up most of dried fruits/nuts/veggies bought for snacks - I won't need new as I've got a Just Tomatoes shipment coming soon.
*No waste in fridge! Esp. use up mushrooms, veggie juice, homemade yogurt, and homemade hummus!

It looks so easy, but it's also so easy to just buy new fresh food and let that stuff languish.

[mamavegan]

I actually modified my gravy recipe from a recipe for Tofu Almondine. I winged it a bit this time, because I didn't want to make quite as much as is usually used for the tofu bake.

Ingredients:
2 C water
2 Tbsp tapioca starch (or cornstarch)
1/3 C soy sauce
1/3 C almond butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 lb mushrooms (optional)


First, whisk together tapioca starch with water, soy sauce, and almond butter. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in large saute' pan & saute' onions, then garlic, then mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are cooked down and most of the liquid is evaporated, add the sauce mixture, bring to a boil and then back down to a simmer. If it's not as thick as you like, you can modify it by adding premixed water and flour to your desired thickness.

Let me know how you like it if you try it. My husband is omni and loves this gravy ~ as do I. :