2016 Food Pantry Challenge_week 3

This week's Pantry challenge was a complete disaster. The food train (along with the budget) went completely off the rails...

Fri 1/8/16-The all american classic! Burger, fries and homemade milkshakes. Much needed because it was a rough week. I like to make the skillet burgers with worcestershire, garlic and onion. It reminds me of a little bar called Quatman's (Norwood, Ohio) that I would sometimes frequent years ago for a quick and cheap lunch. The outside (or the inside for that matter) didn't look like much, but jeez was the food good, quick and cheap. There was always a line out the door. The tables were covered in vinyl checkered tablecloths. The burgers were served piping hot with gooey cheese, pickles, a side of salty potato chips and an ice cold can of soda pop. My burgers aren't as exactly like Quatman's--but close!

Saturday 1/9/16 Was supposed to be soup beans with ham, fried potatoes and corn bread. Except there was an impromptu birthday party for one of my sisters, which involved delicious LaRosa's pizza, kettle chips w/ diablo sauce, a rainbow chip birthday cake and ice cream. So no cooking for me!

Sunday 1/10/16 was deemed leftover day. A friend invited me out, since we had not had a xmas gift exchange and the hubbs was on call. So my friend and I  met up at at TGI Fridays, she picked up the tab which was generous and kind.  I ordered the SEASONAL HARVEST APPLE CHICKEN SALAD
"Grilled all-natural chicken seasoned with hickory-smoked sea salt served over mixed greens with kale and topped with goat cheese, green apples, sea-salted chopped almonds and a mix of crunchy rice noodles, dried apricots and pumpkin seeds. Drizzled with Pomegranate Vinaigrette."  The salad was a very large portion. I took  1/2 home and ate it the remainder for dinner. I wish I had taken a picture. The salad was colorful as it was flavorful. I think I will try to copycat this salad at some point in the future.

Monday 1/11/16-Meatless Monday with super veggie 'sketti. This was a 15 minute meal.  I added a bag of frozen italian style vegetables (green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower) to boiling pot containing the remaining angel hair & spaghetti noodles. While the pasta & vegetables cooked, I tossed some garlic toast in the oven.  After draining the pasta, I had a jar  of 3 cheese pasta sauce, which I tweaked by adding 2 tablespoons of a sundried tomato paste w/ herbs, some fresh ground pepper, a twist of pink himalayan sea salt and sprinkled liberally with parmesan. Served with bagged salad mix and the hubbs didn't miss the meat at all. This will be a recipe in the rotation.

Tuesday 1/12/16--was scheduled  as baked chicken, au gratin potatoes and brussel sprouts but we had our first serious snowfall of the winter season. That meant a sleepless night of waking up to check the weather, a 3:30 am wake up for me and early call out for the hubbs to shovel and salt. A crappy commute home, after an already long day, resulted in chicken tenders and tater tots for dinner. And passing out shortly thereafter. ugh

Wednesday 1/13/16--brinner of sausage,pancakes, and eggs was replaced by cereal for me. After another 12 hr workday, the hubbs grabbed a sandwich before bed. Go adult.

Thursday 1/14/16--The original dinner plans of tuna casserole was scrapped for home made cheese coneys made by the hubbs because I had an awful day. It was a very emotional day for me. I had to take my pet Guinea pig, Petunia, to the vet to be euthanized. What made this even more terrible, is her companion, Pansy  was euthanized previously, 2 months to the day . They both were very longed lived for Guinea Pigs, being over 6 years old. But it still not easy decision. Bye little fuzzy faces. I will miss both of you and your antics. 

Pansy (left) and Petunia (right)

Week 3 Plan

Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
01/15/16	01/16/16	01/17/16	01/18/16	01/19/16	01/20/16	01/21/16
Leftovers	“Brinner”	Baked chicken	Tuna Casserole	“Taco Tuesday”	Kielbasa	Sloppy Joes
Fend for yourself	Cheese Omelet	green beans	Broccoli	Taco salad (no shell)	Sauerkraut	brussel sprouts
That box of cereal is calling your name!	Bacon	squash soup	Sugar free	Fiesta rice	Mashed potatoes	Macaroni & cheese
Or eat a poptart, I don't care	toast		orange Jello	Chips & salsa	dinner rolls
Just wash your own dishes...			w/ fruit cocktail		applesauce cups

Wins for week 2--Having a hubbs being so considerate to cook for me despite his working long hours.

Losses for week 2-- Going off track on both the menu plan and budget. I spent $58. That puts me $43 over budget for the month to date. I hope I can recoup the budget overage the remainder of the month. I am also trying to figure out where I am spending the the money (what in particular purchase is the extra money going towards). I reworked the menu slightly. Fingers crossed,  I can get back on track.

2016 Food Pantry Challenge_week 2

Well the first week seemed to go pretty smoothly for the Food Pantry Challenge (to be referred to as FPC from here on out)

Week 1 summary
Fri 1/1/16-Pamko crusted pork chops, cottage green beans,  sauerkraut perogies (for good luck!), glazed carrots and corn bread. It was a great meal. I made the green beans cottage style (chicken bouillon, onion, minced leftover xmas ham, bay leaf, a dash of mustard powder and cracked black pepper) and they could have been the main entree.

Sat 1/2/16-Thai Sweet Chili Meatballs, white rice, potsticker and spring rolls. What began as an appetizer became a tasty meal! Click the Food Pantry Challenge link (at top of the page) and scroll down for the recipe.

Mon 1/4/16-The Asian Chop salad (pre-packaged from Dole) was a refreshing change from all of the heavy food during the holiday season. I defrosted the chicken in the fridge Sunday night, marinating the chicken in about a cup of Panera bottled Fuji Apple dressing with 1 tbs oil, I then sprinkled it with some Kroger Zesty Seasoning Garlic/ Onion blend. A quick spritz of cooking spray on a foil lined cookie sheet, in the oven at 400°F for about 20 minutes. Yum! Plus there was enough leftover for my lunch the next day. score!



Tue 1/5/16-"The Toddler Special" This is always a favorite with the hubbs. All I can say is..meh. I am not a fan of boxed mac n cheese but I keep 1 or 2 boxes on hand-in the event my niece Lele comes over-because she loves the stuff. I am not fond of much of any  kind of seafood and  I made the extra crunchy fish tenders instead of fishsticks. I did not make french fries, since they were on the menu for Friday. I did buy 1/4 lb coleslaw, since I felt like there should be some kind of vegetable. I skipped the pudding cups reserving those for lunches, since we still had leftover jello.

Wed 1/6/16-Turkey vegetable soup. It was so  satisfying! I did a quick dump of all the ingredients in the crockpot before I left to go to work. I came home to a delicious aroma filled home. I made biscuits using the copy-cat baking mix I made last weekend (more on that later). All told there was maybe 25 minutes of hands on food prep time. I was free to enjoy my night doing nothing...ok not really. I did laundry and played on the laptop, but that is pretty close to doing nothing. The remaining soup was portioned,  It will make for a nice quick lunch. I was able to use my mini lunch crockpot I received as a xmas present. No standing in line waiting for the microwave.

Thur 1/7/16--Grilled cheese sammies and leftover Turkey soup . No leftovers for the Turkey soup. We had it for dinner then lunch. So Campbells tomato soup it was! 10 minutes in and out of the kitchen.

Week 2 Plan

Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
01/08/16	01/09/16	01/10/16	01/11/16	01/12/16	01/13/16	01/14/16
Cheeseburger	Crockpot soup beans	Leftovers	“Meatless Monday”	Baked Chicken	“Brinner”	Tuna Noodle Casserole
French fries	and leftover xmas ham	Fend for yourself	Super veggie spaghetti	Au gratin potatoes	Pancakes (from DIY baking mix)	Broccoli
side salad	Fried potatoes	That box of cereal is calling your name!	garlic bread	(frozen from Xmas)	Scrambled eggs	Sugar free Cherry Jello
milkshake	Cornbread Muffins	Or eat a poptart, I don't care	side salad	Brussel sprouts	Sausage links	w/ fruit cocktail
		Just wash your own dishes...

Wins for week 1
Knowing what was on the menu really alleviated the stress of me thinking about it. The time savings is great.

Losses for week 1
Leftover day on Sunday--the container from 1/1/16 (2 chops, a cup of cottage green beans, 3 pierogies, 1 tbs. of carrots and 1/4 pie) were not eaten. I was a little bummed about the waste.  My cutoff is 3 days in the fridge to eat. I prefer to freeze things the same day or next. I am kind of weird about food storage. I was much better about packaging and freezing the remaining meal leftovers. And the budget did take a hit. I allotted myself $40 and I spent $68. Yikes! Hopefully I make this up over the next few weeks. In my defense the hubbs asked for "frozen meals" and Krogers had Lean Cuisines for $1.69 each. So I bought 10 but the hubbs is on call which means long hours and sometimes he misses supper. He stashed these in his work freezer for back up. I also bought some fresh produce, backfilled some staples.

Onward to week 2!

2016 Food Pantry Challenge_week 1

2016 Food Pantry Challenge--are you in?

Once I pseudo-organized my pantry, baking cupboard, fridge, freezer and deep freeze I was appalled at the absolute quantity of food.  I want to keep some emergency reserves, of course, but I think I would like to move from having so much excess "raw" food to having prepared foods on hand for an easier grab-n-go during the hectic work week. Saving the weekends for preparing/cooking bigger meals when I have time or using the weekends to bulk prep.

The Rules

1. Take inventory of contents in fridge, freezer and pantry. 
2. Plan meals (weekly or monthly) based on contents. 
3. The object is to rotate food based on FIFO (First In First Out) to avoid discarding food that would otherwise expire. 
4. You can still grocery shop. Set a budget, make a list and stick to it! Avoid impulse shopping (Guilty!)
5. Avoid or limit eating out.
6. Have fun, be creative and enjoy!

I am going to approach this by saving time, saving ingredients and saving money.

1) Make use of the crockpot or pressure cooker. These 2 appliances turn cheaper cuts of meats into flavorful delicious morsels.
2) Unless I am bulk food prepping, cooking only what we will eat. I know it sounds silly but I tend to over cook. We are a family of 2 but I cook for 4-6 people. Planning a few twofer meals by intentionally cooking extra a main entree (e.g., pork chops one night, I can slice the extra pork into strips, freeze and have a quick fajitas another night or a double batch of lasagna to freeze and heat)
3) Utilizing my foodsaver more and packaging leftovers right away for the freezer.
4)  In my circumstances, I hope to keep to a weekly food budget $30-$40. I know that doesn't seem like much but I have a disgusting amount plenty of dried, canned and frozen goods. Since I bake my own bread, I plan to shop only for basic food necessities, such as fresh produce, milk, eggs, lunch meat, cheese or an occasional cut of meat if needed.
5) Throw in a few meatless meals and the budget stretches even further.

Week 1

Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
01/01/16	01/02/16	01/03/16	01/04/16	01/05/16	01/06/16	01/07/16
Panko crusted baked Pork Chops	Spicy Meatballs in a Thai sweet chili sauce	Leftovers	Asian Sunflower Chop salad	“Toddler Special”	Crockpot Turkey vegetable soup	Grilled Cheese sammies
Sauerkraut Perogies	w/ peppers, onions and pineapple	Fend for yourself	Spiced grilled chicken tenderloins	Fish sticks	(using leftover frozen Thanksgiving turkey)	leftover turkey vegetable soup
Glazed Carrots	steamed white rice	That box of cereal is calling your name!	Sugar free Strawberry jello w/ diced peaches	French fries	Biscuits
Cottage Green Beans	Spring rolls	Or eat a poptart, I don't care		Mac n Cheese
Cornbread Muffins	potstickers	Just wash your own dishes...		Pudding Cups
Whipped s.f. Cheescake

Friday (Jan 1) New Year's day, I cooked enough for 4-5 people but that was ok, since we had 2 additional people over for dinner. I was left with this amount of food, which is on the list for Sunday's leftovers. 

Saturday (Jan 2) resulted in 3 containers of leftovers. 1 container was mixed the remaining cup of rice and frozen "lean cuisine style" for a weekday lunch. The remaining 2 containers were also frozen, for future lunch, dinner or appetizer consumption. My goal is to use these types of leftovers within 60 days. Since these are home packaged (no additional preservatives) I feel they should have a much shorter shelf life.

Sweet n Spicy Thai Chili Meatballs 

 I made my meatballs from scratch. 1 lb each gr. round and hot sausage, 2 eggs, 3/4 c bread crumbs, 1/8-1/4 c milk, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes. Mix and shape into 2 inch meatballs. Lightly spay a foil lined baking sheet. In a 400°F oven bake meatballs for 20-25 minutes, turning about every 5 minutes to ensure even browning (and until no longer pink in center). Remove meatballs and allow to drain.

To the lined crockpot Add 1 and 1/2 bottles of Maggi brand Sweet Chili sauce, 15 oz of crushed pineapple (don't drain), add 2 cups of diced onions and peppers. Add meatballs. Cover and heat on high. Stirring frequently. Serve over steamed rice. **If you want a thicker sauce--make a thin slurry of cornstarch and water (2 tbs cornstarch per cup of cold water)--mix well. Remove a half cup if the crockpot sauce--let cool--slowly drizzle cornstarch mixture into sauce while whisking. Once it is all incorporated add it to the crockpot. Mix well let it cook at least 15-20 minutes and stir a few times.

I tried this food challenge last year and failed miserably. I think because I tried to plan ALL of the meals, it was too restrictive. By planning only the dinners, I hope it gives me more freedom to be creative and change up the menu if I need skip cooking for a day-which I will do my best to stick to the plan.

Fingers crossed annnddd GO!