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.

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I am participating in a Eat from the Pantry Challenge this month. This week was really easy, only being two days long!

Day 1

• Breakfast: we slept in until noon
• Lunch: Leftovers* for DH, cereal for me
• Dinner: We went to my mom’s for my brother’s birthday. She made her award-winning chili

Day 2

• Breakfast: we both skipped breakfast (had seconds on dinner late the night before)
• Lunch: Leftovers* with mashed potatoes and corn
• Dinner: crockpot chicken (see below)

*Leftovers: This was the leftovers of the meal I made on New Year’s Eve, which I want to take a moment to mention, because it’s not only frugal, but super easy and quite tasty! What is it? Banquet’s Homestyle Bakes: chicken, biscuits, and gravy. Everything you need comes in a box and you just add water. The preparation is a breeze, as you are mostly layering everything in a 8×8 baking dish. I don’t have one so I used two loaf pans and it turned out fine. The only bit of work needed is mixing the biscuit mix, which is a few seconds of stirring by hand in a small, separate bowl. I find this box at Walmart for $3 and it makes 5 servings according to the nutritional information, but can easily be stretched to more. Even if you eat it by itself (which would then be about four servings), it comes out to $0.75/serving. However, I would suggest serving it with corn, peas, or some other veggie for a more balanced meal.

Crockpot Chicken
I have no idea what to call this. DH referred to it as “Becca’s Herb Chicken” and I guess that’s what we’ll call it in our house. It’s simple enough that it probably has a real name that I’m not aware of, as I’m fairly new to the cooking world. I made this based on what I had, after browsing several slow-cooker chicken recipes. I didn’t have the right ingredients for anything I saw, so I took the concepts and just starting throwing what I had on hand to my crock pot. This is what I did, which was just enough for one meal for the two of us in my 1.5qt crock pot.

• Pour a small amount (2tbsp?) of olive oil on the bottom of the crockpot
• Add six strips of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Place 2 tablespoons of butter on top
• Sprinkle generously Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and granulated onion
• Set on High for 2.5 hours
• Add a cup or two of frozen green beans
• sprinkle with butter buds and garden salt
• Set on Low for 2 hours

I served this with Italian toast (toasted Italian bread with mozzarella on top). We were still hungry so DH made more toast and I had the rest of the mashed potatoes for lunch. My picky DH really liked this, so use it as inspiration and modify it for your own pantry.

Week 2

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One enemy of frugal living is impulse buying, and one key to frugal living is creativity. So I decided to participate in the challenge by Money Saving Mom and Life As Mom, which is to reduce grocery shopping and mostly live off what is already in your fridge and pantry. By pledging to do this, you will lower the chance of making a trip to the store to one item (which turns into five), or *gasp* grabbing fast food. Plus, you’re more likely to try something new by being creative, especially as you get to the final dregs of your pantry (which would be fairly quickly if you have small cupboards).

I already spent half of January’s budget on December 23rd, but a decent portion of that was cheese. It’s expensive, but we buy in bulk and go through it pretty quick, thanks mostly to my husband. Also, some of what I bought was for food we brought to my grandma’s for the Christmas gathering, and we got a pretty good feast in return. So I want to try to spend as little as possible on groceries in January. Every person’s pantry and needs are different, so we are encouraged to make up our own rules and remember it’s NOT a contest.

Facts about my household:

1. There are only two humans
2. We go to midweek studies 2x/wk and eat dinner there
3. My husband often skips breakfast and eats a bigger lunch

Now for my rules:

1. I can only buy milk, produce, and bread, with the exception of:
2. Food for my birthday party (i’m turning 25 this month)

I still want to try to be creative in order to save money on my party, but it’s going to be pirate-themed, and there will be specific foods I need to buy that I don’t already have. Look forward to posts on this too.

Today I took an inventory of my pantry and freezer and was surprised to find how much food I had. I even skipped stuff like cheese, chips, cereal, and coffee so that my eyes wouldn’t be deceived. I filled a page with lists of food that could make main or side dishes. I’m going to let this inventory list serve somewhat as a menu plan for the month. Since we’ll only be eating dinner at home five times a week, I see no problem in making everything last the entire month. Stay tuned for my first week of eating from the pantry.

Week 1
Week 2

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