I ended up not going grocery shopping at all last week and while we're getting low on some basic supplies, I decided it would be fun to challenge myself to see if we could go another five days without going to the grocery store. So welcome to the Eating From The Pantry Challenge!
My personal rules for this challenge are that I cannot dig into the After-the-Baby Freezer Stash and I also must try to use up as many odds and ends as possible. In addition, I'm going to try to come up with fairly balanced and nutritious meals, though they might be a little different and less-varied than our normal fare.
I'll be blogging what we eat each day, along with pictures and maybe even some recipes. My hope is that we not only make it until Friday of this week without hitting the grocery store, but also that this challenge to myself might inspire you to stretch what you already have a little farther or be more creative with what you have on hand.
Sometimes it's so easy to become accustomed to going to the store every week (or multiple times per week!) that we aren't as good of stewards with what we already have in our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer. This can not only lead to waste, but unnecessary expenditures.
To aid me in coming up with meals for this week, I made up a list of meal ideas to work from based upon things we have in our cupboards, freezer, and refrigerator which need to be used up. We may or may not use all of these this week, but they will certainly serve as a springboard for ideas.
Here's the potential ideas list:
Breakfast Ideas:
Baked Oatmeal
Cream of Wheat
Pumpkin Waffles
Organic toaster pastries
Biscuits and gravy
French Toast
Bagels
Lunch Ideas:
Grilled cheese sandwiches
Baked potatoes
Shrimp
Beans and rice
Egg salad sandwiches
PB & J sandwiches
Leftovers
Dinners:
Stirfry
Steak
BBQ Beef sandwiches
Spinach rice and cheese casserole
Lasagna
Cheese and veggie pizza
Stay tuned for the daily scoop on what I concoct using what we have on hand! For more menu ideas, check out Organizing Junkie.