We’re on day 4 of the Eating From the Pantry Challenge… and I had figured we’d be almost out of food by now. But I keep coming up with plenty for us to eat! 🙂
Silas woke up early this morning, sauntered out to the kitchen where I was, and asked if he could please make cookies. We had a cookie mix in the cupboard, so I said he could make them.
Other than me heating up the butter and putting the cookies sheets in the oven and pulling them out of the oven, he did everything else all by himself! And the cookies turned out pretty well!
Almost everything is boxed up now, so we’re starting to get creative with things to do around here once school is done. Today, it was playing with playdough I picked up this weekend at the dollar store.
What we ate:
Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal
Lunch: Chips, Banana Bread, salad
Snack: Crackers, cookies, apples with almond butter
Dinner: Fried eggs, toast, pineapple
Are you eating from the pantry this week? If you are, leave a comment telling us what you ate today. Or, if you’re blogging about this challenge, leave a link to your direct blog post below that details what you ate for the Pantry Challenge today. I can’t wait to see your creative ideas!
Leigh says
We are pantry eating this week. This blog inspired me. I went through our deep freezer and regular freezer at the beginning of the week and made a master list of what we had and threw out the stuff that was bad. There wasn’t a ton “bad” but I hadn’t realized just how many bags of chicken bones I had… oops. I threw out about 12 baggies of chicken bones alone and KEPT 2 of the newest ones, I love homemade chicken broth.
Last night we had “souped-up” Ragu (not may favorite hence at the back of he pantry) and pasta with your homemade yeast rolls.
Tonight we are having grilled chicken sliders on a few more of those rolls, grilled peppers, greenbeans and some baked potatoes.
Happy Healthy and Wealthy Girl says
Breakfast – smoothie and turkey sandwich for my son and me, cereal for my daughter
Lunch kids ate at school, I had chicken soup
Dinner – turkey pot pie and fresh salad from my garden
SuperMoney says
This is great–never let anything go to waste!
A lot of times, the items that get forgotten in the back of the pantry (or even the bottom of the fridge) are the things that really should’ve been eaten in the first place. Oatmeal, nuts, fruit cups, forgotten stew from a few days ago, those gluten-free vegan bars you wanted to try, the grapes that got left in the bottom drawer…
I like how your meals aren’t all structured, and totally account for those odd items that don’t go with anything or would require a shopping trip to make “awesome.” Canned sliced pineapple with dinner? That’s funny, but tasty and free.
Taryn Raulston says
I loved doing this challenge! The budget was tight this week and I had lots of leftovers that I didn’t want to waste – so I got creative and we tried some different things. Thanks for the inspiration!
Crystal Paine says
I’m so glad to hear this!
lucy comber says
I’ve been trying to add a little cushion to our grocery budget so I can stock up on pantry essentials when they are on sale so this pantry challenge was timely. At the beginning of this challenge I wasn’t sure how creative I could get with our meals, but I’m surprised at how many meals I’ve managed to create with just the stuff we had in the cupboards! Of course it helped that we had lots of ham and other left overs from Easter. Never knew there were so many ways to cook ham 🙂
Nicki Schroeder says
I have thought about doing this so often over the years…just eat up everything in the freezer and cupboards before another grocery trip….but I always stress out and can’t seem to do it. But this week as I’ve been reading your posts I’m beginning to think maybe I can do this. Which scares me, cuz in think we may not see a fresh fruit or veggie in this house for a month or two if I were to be hardcore! I might have to cheat a little just so we get enough veggies in our diets. But I think I’m gonna take the plunge and try it! Praying you are well. 🙂
Crystal Paine says
Definitely still buy fruits and veggies if you don’t already have them canned, fresh, or frozen… but I know you can do this! Babysteps, babysteps! 🙂
Vanessa B says
Breakfast- yogurt
Lunch- kids had chicken nuggets, carrot and cucumber sticks and dip
I made myself a diet veggie soup, it was tasty but not filling, so for an early snack I made cheese pita pizzas
Dinner- Creamy Shrimp and veggie pasta with Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Dessert- Easter candy, my husband ate a whole bag of peanut M&Ms
Jennifer says
We’re still hamming it up. I made ham and potato soup for dinner last night. The rest of the Easter ham will have to go into the freezer for later.
Denise says
I know you’re in the midst of packing and moving… but do you ever make your own play doh when you aren’t in the midst of craziness?
One of my favorite childhood memories was homemade play doh!
Crystal Paine says
Yes, we definitely do! My kids’ favorite is edible playdough! 🙂
Ai @ Less to More says
I made enough food on Monday and Tuesday that we’re still trying to finish all the leftovers. I have a rule that I won’t cook a third dish during the week until the other dishes are done. It has really saved us money and reduced waste. Breakfast was scrambled eggs. Lunch was sandwiches. Dinner was leftovers.
Stephanie @ Six Figures Under says
You salad looks yummy! I love salad with lots of mix-ins!
BREAKFAST
-Cinnamon Rolls- I made bread last night and instead of 4 loaves like I usually make, I made three loaves of bread and made the 4th ball of dough into cinnamon rolls that I put in the fridge and baked in the morning. This is pretty out of the ordinary, so my kids were thrilled!
LUNCH
-Pancake PBJ Sandwiches- Funny story- I put the bread in the oven pretty late last night. My husband and I did our bedtime routine (pjs, brush teeth, scriptures and prayer together) and the bread still had a few minutes. I went ahead and laid down, sure that I would hear the timer go off in a couple minutes. Well, my husband sat straight up in bed at 3am and said “the bread!” I jumped out of bed and got the bricks out of the oven!
DINNER
-Sweet and Sour Turkey on Rice– I used frozen turkey, frozen peas, canned mandarin oranges. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as I had hoped.
Overall, it was an odd food day. Here’s our normal no-spend month menu: http://www.sixfiguresunder.com/no-spend-month-menu/
It’s been nearly a month since we bought any food. We are doing fine, but I will be excited to go shopping in May!
Karen says
Breakfast: cereal, fruit, hot cocoa/juice
Lunch: ham and cheese sandwiches using the last of the Easter ham
Dinner: last two hamburgers from the freezer (kids ate hotdogs) and the last of the buns. Used the rest of the tomato from last night’s BLTs. Used ketchup/mustard packets so we don’t have to pack them.
Buffy says
I’ve been inspired by your pantry challenge! After celebrating two birthday suppers back to back at restaurants in the past week, I’m trying to not spend on unnecessary grocery items or eating out until the end of the month. Even though my kids begged for take out tacos from our favorite Mexican restaurant, supper tonight was ham steaks, seasoned rice, carrots w/ranch and fruit cocktail. They ate every bite and never mentioned the tacos again!
Crystal Paine says
Yay! And way to go!