Welcome to the fourth week of the Eating from The Pantry & Freezer Challenge!  Here’s what it’s all about or you can read the post from Week 3.

For those of you who have been doing this challenge all along, way to go!  You’ve reached the end!  And to those of you who have joined in at some point, even for a week, thank you!

I’m sure that by this point you’ve seen some significant savings or you’ve even noticed that you’ve been shopping less often.  Even just a week or two of eating what you already have can make a big difference and help you put extra money towards larger grocery purchases, debt payments, or simply to help save up for something you’d like to buy!

Here’s my update from last week

There’s actually a bit more room in our freezers!  Enough room that my father-in-law was able to store some stuff while he was looking for a new fridge/freezer after his broke.

But, as I suspected, I can keep going on this challenge for a while yet since we’ve still got plenty of food!

In total I spent about $20 this week on milk, eggs, produce and yogurt.  I’m quite pleased that I’ve been able to stay under my $25 limit for the week!

I’ve still got plenty of chicken, ground beef, and a few already made freezer meals.  So, we’ll be having some chicken dishes, and most likely some beef dishes!

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week:

Monday:

• Breakfast:  Refrigerator Oatmeal
• Lunch:  Potato Soup
• Dinner:  Chicken and Cheese Bundles (with homemade pizza dough instead of puff pastry), salad

Tuesday:

• Breakfast:  Banana chocolate chip muffins, fruit
• Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwiches
• Dinner:  Asian Vegetable Pasta (with chicken), artisan bread in the slow cooker

Wednesday:

• Breakfast:  Refrigerator Oatmeal
• Lunch: Smoothies
• Dinner:  at my parents

Thursday:

• Breakfast:  cereal, fruit
• Lunch: Egg salad sandwich
• Dinner:  Roast beef, roasted potatoes, steamed veggies

Friday:

• Breakfast:  Banana chocolate chip muffins, fruit, yogurt
• Lunch:  Tomato soup
• Dinner:  Black Bean, Corn and Rice salad burritos (recipe coming)

Saturday:

• Brunch:  Bacon, eggs, hashbrowns
• Dinner:  Greek Chicken Skewers, grilled veggies, pasta salad

Sunday:

• Brunch:  Waffles
• Dinner:  At my Parents again!

Now it’s your turn, what will you be eating this week?

Now that the challenge is coming to a close, has the challenge been difficult for you?  What types of meals have frequented your table?  Would you be interested in doing another challenge later this year or early next year?

And most importantly, did you get things cleaned out and meet your goals?

Welcome to the third week of the Eating from The Pantry & Freezer Challenge!  Here’s what it’s all about or you can read the post from Week 2.

Here’s my update from last week

Well, this is a bit embarrassing, but not many of the meals I had planned for last week got made.   We had family in town for the week so many of our dinners/lunches were thrown out the window because we were all over the place.  Many meals at the in-laws and a couple out of town at a cousin’s house!

The meals we managed to eat were breakfast every morning, egg salad sandwiches, waffles, tacos, and fettuccine Alfredo.  Needless to say, we still have quite a bit of stuff in our pantry and freezer!

This week should be different.  We don’t have any company (until Saturday!) so I anticipate eating through quite a bit of our stuff!

I also picked a whole bunch of cucumbers, tomatoes and blackberries (yum!) from my Mom’s garden.  I can see some tasty salads in our future!

Getting creative with what you have left

At this point in the challenge you may have come to a point where you need to be creative when it comes to using up what you have an abundance of and filling the spaces of those things you wish you could go out and buy.

There are a few great websites out there that will come up with some recipes for the ingredients you already have on hand.  All Recipes is one of them.  Simply input the ingredients you have and the ingredients you don’t have and it will pull up a list of recipes you could make!  Recipe Matcher and Food.com (find the recipe sifter in the top right hand corner, orange button) are also good resources!

Can you provide some examples of how you use ingredients that you have an abundance of?  Or even some examples of what some ingredients you can use in place of other ingredients?

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week:

Since not many of my planned meal got made last week, you’ll see some recycled meals on this week’s menu.   To complete my meals this week, I spent about $17 on yogurt, produce, milk and eggs.

Monday:

• Breakfast:  Refrigerator oatmeal (recipe still coming!)
• Lunch:  Smoothies
• Dinner:  Black Bean, Corn and Rice salad burritos (recipe coming)

Tuesday:

• Brunch: Waffles or pancakes
• Dinner: Marinated steak, pasta salad. grilled veggies

Wednesday:

• Breakfast:  Banana chocolate chip muffins, yogurt, fruit
• Lunch:  Leftovers
• Dinner:  Perogies and Sausage, steamed veggies (needs to be a quick dinner)

Thursday:

• Breakfast:  refrigerated oatmeal
• Lunch:  Potato soup
• Dinner:  Out for a BBQ at a friend’s house

Friday:

• Breakfast:  muffins, yogurt, fruit
• Lunch:  Egg salad sandwich
• Dinner:  Cheesy Beef & Rice, salad

Saturday:

• Brunch: Bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast
• Dinner:  Crockpot BBQ meatballs, rice, veggies

Sunday:

• Brunch:  Smoothies
• Dinner:  Asian Vegetable Pasta (with chicken), artisan bread in the slow cooker

Now it’s your turn, what’s your update and what will you be eating this week?

Welcome to the second week of the Eating from The Pantry & Freezer Challenge!  Here’s what it’s all about or you can read the post from Week 1.

Here’s my update:

As it seems with all my weeks, not every meal I had planned got made.  Things just come up or we have more leftovers than we thought!  For example, this weekend, Jesse was in a soccer tournament and the game I went to watch was right at dinner time, so I grabbed a hot dog from the concession.  We also have family in town this week so Sunday dinner was at my in-law’s.

But I did manage to rid our freezer of a few things!  Some chicken is gone (BBQ chicken salad, Chicken in basil cream sauce), a container  of chicken noodle soup is gone, along with quite a bit of produce.

I added up my receipts from my groceries last week and I ended up spending $21.19.  Milk, yogurt, whipping cream, watermelon (first of the summer!), grapes, nectarines and bananas is what I bought.

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week:

Monday:

• Breakfast:  Bran muffin, yogurt, fruit
• Lunch:  Egg Salad sandwich
• Dinner:  We will be be out of town for the day visiting family

Tuesday:

• Brunch:  Waffles with peach sauce
• Dinner:  Fettucine Alfredo, Caesar salad, garlic bread

Wednesday:

• Breakfast:  Refrigerator Oatmeal (recipe coming)
• Lunch:  Potato soup
• Dinner:  Beef tacos

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Banana chocolate chip muffins, yogurt, fruit
• Lunch:  leftovers
• Dinner: Black Bean, Corn and Rice salad burritos (recipe coming)

Friday:

• Breakfast: Refrigerator oatmeal
• Lunch:  Smoothies
• Dinner:  out to eat with family

Saturday:

• Brunch:  French Toast
• Dinner:  Appies

Sunday:

• Breakfast:  Muffin, yogurt, fruit
• Lunch:  Egg salad sandwich
• Dinner:  Marinated steak, pasta salad. grilled veggies

Now it’s your turn to share your menu plan with the rest of us!  We’d also love to hear your progress and saving report!

It’s time to start the Eating from the Pantry & Freezer Challenge!

I told you last week that I’d be sharing my goals and plans, so here’s what I’ve got in mind:

My number one goal is to clean out the pantry and freezers, especially the freezers!  It seems like we’re always throwing stuff out because it gets lost for far too long.

Secondly, I’d like to spend only $25 each week on the items I decided to keep buying (dairy, eggs and produce).  I think this is going to be very feasible, especially since my Mom’s garden is starting to produce a lot of veggies!

It’s important to decide on an amount you’d like to spend during the challenge.  By not setting an amount, you could be setting yourself up for spending too much!  Determine how little you think you can get by on.

Also, I think it’s important to say to make this challenge your own.  Decide what will work best for you to help you clear out your pantry and freezer while still making it a challenge.  Maybe this means you won’t be buying any household items (toilet paper, toothpaste..etc) because you really do have enough to get you through until the end of the challenge.  Or maybe you realize that you have a ton of stuff to go through so you can actually do the challenge for 5 weeks.  Make it yours!

Now, how am I going to make this happen?

I took inventory of our pantry and freezers (and discovered I had a lot more than I thought)!  Here’s what I’ll be working with:

• Lots of chicken breasts
• Quite a bit of beef (ground, a roast and a few steaks)
• One package of ground turkey (will make two meals)
• Plenty of flour, bran, oatmeal, rice, pasta, quinoa
• Lots of frozen fruit (peaches, strawberries)
• A bunch of freezer meals I prepared before Sienna was born (Shepard’s pie, shredded beef, potato and chicken noodle soup, Cheesy beef & rice)
• Plenty of produce from my Mom’s garden, especially cucumbers, tomatoes and beans right now

I’m actually quite shocked at how much I found and I’m sure I could do this challenge for longer than the three and bit weeks I have planned!

Here’s what we’ll be eating until next Monday (when I’ll have our next menu plan posted)

Wednesday:

• Breakfast:  Refrigerator oatmeal (recipe coming)
• Lunch:  leftover rice and black bean burritos
• Dinner: Perogies and Sausage, steamed veggies (needs to be a quick dinner)

Thursday:

• Breakfast:  Refrigerator oatmeal
• Lunch:  Chicken noodle soup
• Dinner: BBQ Chicken Salad

Friday:

• Breakfast: Bran muffins, yogurt, fruit
• Lunch:  Smoothies
• Dinner:  Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce, Greek Quinoa, steamed carrots

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Bran muffins, yogurt, fruit
• Lunch:  out to Tim Hortons!
• Dinner: Fettucine Alfredo, Caesar Salad, Garlic Bread

Sunday:

• Brunch:  Waffles with peach sauce and whipping cream
• Dinner:  Possibly at my parents, or we’ll have marinated steak, pasta salad, grilled veggies

The only thing I have to buy for this week is whipping cream!   Yay!

On Monday, August 13, I’ll be back with my next menu plan and how much I actually ended up spending on groceries to get through this week’s menu!

Now, it’s your turn to share your menu plan, goals and plan of attack with the rest of us!