Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Pantry Challenge update

The pantry challenge has been going pretty well. I had spent about $12 last week on milk, bread and some fresh veggies. This week I have spent about $25 dollars on milk, cheese, potatoes, lettuce, oranges, limes, lemons, sour cream and a loaf of fresh bread. I so wanted to buy lunch meat for sandwiches, but I held firm and repeated to myself that leftovers are fine for work night lunches.

This a box mix of Au Gratin potatoes that I gussied up with some cream, nutmeg and a little extra fresh cheese


Here is a pork butt roast that I fixed in the Easy Bake oven (NuWave oven). Sprinkled it with pork chop seasoning and a mixed spice blend with onion, garlic, cumin, celery salt, paprika and pepper. We had it one night with the Au Gratins and the next night Dude had the left overs and I made a teriyaki chicken breast and made mashed spuds and gravy.


Tonight I made meatloaf with a pound of hamburger, pound of ground pork, some chicken stuffing mix softened in water and milk, an egg, some Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce. I also make twice baked potatoes and split a bottle of Robert Mondovi White Zinfandel.

Since I was gone all weekend then I have worked Monday and Tuesday, I will spend tomorrow working on the menu plan some more. I had Physical Therapy today and told my therapist about the Brie and Kahlua appy. She wrote down the recipe as she is doing a cocktail party soon and thought it sound good. I told her my sister almost licked the plate.

Stopped and picked up a couple books from the library today-The French Laundry cookbook (which I'm sure I'll read like a novel and not cook from as I hear his recipes are quite involved) and Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans. I'm off to run a bath and read about food and call it a night since I had to wake up in the middle of the morning for my appointment. I'm sure it isn't the wine that made me sleepy.....

6 comments:

Monica H said...

great job on using up groceries in your pantry. I cleaned out my freezer a couple days ago and realized that what I was throwing out was old, frost bitten leftover bread pieces, slices, biscuits and rolls. I threw out a couple half gallons of ice cream that only had a quarter left in them that were also frost bitten. I'm just glad that none of it was meat.

I found that by making a weekly menu based on what you have already on hand helps.

Oh and those twice baked potatoes look delicious!

Debbie said...

I am also trying to use up what I have in the pantry and freezer. I was cleaning out my pantry and found a jar of gravy that expired back in 2007....how pathetic is that!!!!

buffalodick said...

I consider leftovers an innovative way to create separate meals from a base ingredient..My pantry was low, which we have restocked- tomorrow we go to a country store that has great meat deals.. I like buying right, and hate throwing out unused food! I'm not a cheapskate, but we can't waste the resources we have...

tamilyn said...

You are so right BD. We are trying to get to a point where we shop for a couple weeks worth of food at a time and not have the cupboards stuffed to the gills. It kills me to buy stuff that gets shoved to the back and then it goes bad before I find it again. I don't like to waste money nor food. Although I blame my hoarding on my Mom-she'll tell you the same thing.

noble pig said...

You are doing fabo on the challenge.

Alea Milham said...

Wow, very creative uses of the food you had on hand!