Eat From the Pantry Challenge - It's So Over!

Technically I ended the challenge last week - I feel like it was a total success but I just had to go to the grocery store and re-stock. I feel that it was successful because it stretched my creativity, cleaned out a bunch of food that needed to be eaten, and got me into the habit of making weekly meal plans - a habit I am definitely continuing.

In my "naivete", I thought that meal-planning would be boring because it would make life so predictable. Um, hello! lol With a 6-month old, I need that one piece of predictability in my life! It's nice to have a plan for the week and to know exactly what I need to buy. I should also add that with just the two of us, I really don't usually need to cook 5 days a week - something I didn't actually realize until I started writing it down. About 4 meals really works for us, with leftovers the rest of the days!

In the process of eating from the pantry, my friend and I had a Freezer Cooking Day. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and we are definitely doing it again! I'll share what we cooked when FishMama and Money Saving Mom host their Freezer Cooking Day in February.

Without further ado, here's the plan for this week:

Monday: Chicken in a Bag from Freezer Cooking Day (crockpot meal) {I found this originally on Money Saving Mom but can't find the link now}

Tuesday: Pan-Seared Tilapia (I use 1/3 cup or less of flour, only 1 T oil and add Montreal Chicken Seasoning and some garlic powder)

Wednesday: Angel hair with meat sauce

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Johnny Marzetti (very easy with pantry staples; I sub some garlic for the celery - obviously not 2 cups though :)

Weekend: Leftovers, soup, etc.

I'll probably make up some pumpkin chocolate chip bread since I have the mix leftover from buying it in the fall.

And there you have it!

Linking to Org Junkie's Menu Plan Monday

Eat From the Pantry Challenge - Week 2

Crystal asked everyone to post how they did last week with the challenge. (Check back here if you want to see my plan for Week 1.) I bought chicken, milk, formula, and $11 worth of other food because we had guests on Saturday night.

This week, I spent about $35. $31 was for us (mostly produce and dairy/cheese items we were out of) and the other $4 covers the meal I'm bringing to a friend. She had a baby a week before Christmas and I'm bringing her dinner tomorrow because I remember how awesome that was when people did that for me!

Here's the plan, Stan!

Monday - Homemade {Turkey} Bacon and Onion Pizza

Tuesday - Veggie Stir-Fry (this is the meal I'm doubling because my friend is a vegetarian and also breast-feeding. It's a hard combo to cook for, let me tell you!)

Wednesday - Chicken Parmesan (Rachael Ray's recipe - I don't use the thyme or rosemary)

Thursday - Burgers with Rachael Ray's Oven Fries (are you sensing a theme?!)

Friday/Saturday - Taco Soup (I couldn't make this last week because I forgot that I didn't have any crushed tomatoes; I made two crockpot meals instead)

Sunday - Any leftovers (we eat a big family dinner every Sunday afternoon)

Desserts:

Banana-Chocolate Chip muffins (those got subbed for berry crisp last week)

Berry Crisp (this will be doubled for my friend - can you tell I have a lot of frozen berries taking up space in my freezer? :)

I think this challenge has been great for us so far - we've definitely come in below our $75 weekly grocery budget both weeks. We've also only spent $16 of our $50 household budget (so $100 total) for the past two weeks. Since I'm not really shopping, I'm not picking up anything for the house while I'm in the store. Although we're definitely going to need diapers and toilet paper next week. :)

The biggest challenge so far is not buying a lot of my regular "diet" foods (they're SO expensive!) So far I have been steadily losing weight again, so maybe I'll realize I don't need them anyway!

Eat From the Pantry Challenge

I just want you all to know that as I typed this title I accidentally wrote "panty" the first time. Whooo!! Not that kind of blog, that's for sure! :)

Anyway, a friend and I are doing a freezer cooking day on Martin Luther King day, so I figured that these two weeks would be the perfect time to work out cleaning out the freezer to make some space. It's actually kinda fun!

This week wasn't completely grocery-budget free; I purchased about 12 pounds of chicken on sale for $1.88/pound and some milk for both of us and formula for Luke. Next week I'll probably have to stock up on some raw veggies again. But other than that, we're pretty much good to go!

The plan:

Tuesday: Smothered Chicken

Wednesday: BBQ Turkey Meatloaf {from the freezer}

Thursday: Rachael Ray's Pasta Carbonara {I make a few subsitutions like turkey bacon, white cooking wine, and whole wheat pasta}

Friday and Saturday: Taco Soup using freezer beef {we'll eat the leftovers on Saturday}

Sunday: Pasta with meat sauce {I'll reserve a little meat before I add it to the soup}

Desserts/Snacks:

Raspberry Yogurt

Chocolate Chip Cookies from the freezer

Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins {bananas from the freezer}

We may have my brother- and sister-in-law over this weekend; if so I'll make a berry crisp using frozen berries when they come over.

I think this is my first week EVER to use a menu - it was more fun than I thought!