I am participating in a Eat from the Pantry Challenge this month. First full week (week 1 was only two days) finished and so far I’ve only had to buy bread, tortillas, and pop-tarts. The pop-tarts may not sound like a necessity, but DH had to leave early one day this week and I just threw cereal in a plastic baggy for him. The pop-tarts are just in case an occasion like that happened again, since they seem to keep pretty well in their little foil pouches.
Note: Food mentioned at midweek studies are NOT from our pantry. It is what was provided at church, but I mention what it is for ideas for my readers, since they are always simple yet delicious.
Day 3
- Breakfast: donuts at church
- Lunch: quesadillas & grilled cheese for DH / cereal for me
- Dinner: cheesy rice with green beans (see below)
Day 4
- Breakfast: green smoothies (had to buy spinach & juice)
- Lunch: spaghetti-o’s & mini ravioli
- Dinner: chicken noodle soup over pasta & peas (I try to use soup as a sauce when I’m not sick or cold)
Day 5
- Breakfast: cereal
- Lunch: leftovers: cheesy rice for both of us, and…
- baked potato from company Christmas party for DH
- pasta, peas, and soup for me
- Dinner: Spaghetti at a midweek study at church
Day 6
- Breakfast: cereal
- Lunch: macaroni alfredo for DH, and leftover mini ravioli mixed with extra macaroni & alfredo for me
- Dinner: A really yummy meatball stuffing casserole at another midweek study at church
Day 7
- Breakfast: cereal
- quesadillas for DH, grilled cheese and last of the cheesy rice for me
- Dinner: beef stroganoff*
*This was a Kroger kitchen creations (store brand Hamburger Helper) that’s been in the cupboard forever. Not even just this cupboard, but the one at our last apartment!
Day 8
- Breakfast: slept in – skipped
- Lunch: leftover stroganoff
- Dinner: cinnamon chicken (see below)
Day 9
- Breakfast: overslept – skipped
- Lunch: leftover cinnamon chicken
- Dinner: creamy basil chicken pasta*
*This was a sort of Macaroni Grill chicken helper box that I got with a coupon several months ago. I wouldn’t buy it again because normally it’s overpriced, but it was sooooo good I need to invest in some basil to try to make it myself.
cheesy rice with green beans
A couple months ago I made a big batch rice with greens (saw this on another blog, and I’m going to try to figure out which!). For whatever reason, it was going away slowly and I decided to get rid of the last of it by stirring it into some cheesy soup that I’m pretty sure DH brought into the marriage. Then I boiled some green beans to serve with it. It was quite tasty and I highly suggest it!
cinnamon chicken
I got the recipe from $5 Dinners.com, but it doesn’t appear to be up anymore. I have it saved in my Google Reader, but she may have took it down for copyright reasons (or the link changed, but I can’t find it on the site) so I’m not going to post it. However, she modified it from this recipe by Cat Cora for the crockpot, and to be under $5. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead. My favorite dish of all time is chicken cacciatore and it tasted a lot like that, but with a hint of cinnamon.
This has been a lot of fun. I think I will continue keeping an inventory or making a loose weekly or monthly menu plan. It’s been a lot easier to decide what I’m going to make by consulting a piece of paper instead of a fridge, freezer, and cupboard.
Tags: Eat from the Pantry Challenge
