Pantry Challenge Day 4

Quick update for tonight's dinner...

Used from the freezer: 2 frozen pre-cooked hamburger patties
Used from the fridge: milk, Parmesan cheese
Used from the pantry: 1 box macaroni and cheese, 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes, 3 cans ranch style beans, 1 can refried beans

 We had frozen lean hamburger patties sauteed in the skillet with a can of fire roasted tomatoes and then topped with Parmesan... and macaroni and cheese.  The hamburger patties were some already-cooked HEB ones we had originally bought to actually make into burgers, and when we tried them in the store (of course they were sampling them the day we bought them, otherwise I never would have tried them), they were good.  Not so good once we got them home.  The meat was pretty dry... oh well.

This dinner started out as a "quick" dinner of macaroni and cheese and ranch style beans, which has been a go-to staple for Hubby and I for several years when we're really too tired to cook and just want something quick and easy that doesn't require a car ride and/or a drive through.  That's why you see "ranch style beans" on the pantry list of stuff we "used" tonight... haha, Hubby pulled out a can of beans... expired.  Pulled out another can... expired.  Same with the third can of ranch style beans and the can of refried beans.  That's when I decided to check the freezer to see if we had something I could turn into an edible meal quickly and came up with the hamburger patties.  I decided to try a trick my mom uses sometimes and just cook the meat in the skillet with a can of tomatoes on top, but when she does it, it turns out tasting much better.

Overall, not the best dinner we've ever had (by a long shot), but it was free and got some things out of the pantry, right!  I will say, if I'd ordered this at a restaurant (or something like it, and it came out tasting like this), I would have wanted my money back.

Oh, and the Boy had macaroni and cheese and a few bites of banana!

Pantry Challenge Day 3 (late!)

I know... I'm late!  Yesterday was Day 3 of our Pantry Challenge, and we didn't eat out, but I didn't get a chance to update the blog, so I'm doing it this morning... I had a good reason, though!  One of my dearest friends had her first baby yesterday!!  I am so excited for her and her husband as they start their journey into parenthood and pray they will find so much joy in that tiny baby boy as he grows and changes every day!

Food-wise, I kinda cheated... I at homemade food that I didn't go out and buy, but it wasn't my home, or my food... I took the Boy up to Nana and Papa's house and they watched him while I went to the hospital to check on my friend and see the baby, and they had dinner ready when I got back to pick him up (love them, they are awesome!), so I ate with them.

The boy had a mixed plate of peas, pasta, cheese, grilled chicken, and then some applesauce (and he stole some bread we were eating, too, after he finished his dinner and started running around.

My dad made some amazing shrimp, five different presentations - boiled, grilled with jalapeno, bacon, and cream cheese, and three different batters on some fried shrimp.  We had salad and bread with our shrimp, but didn't waste plate space with any other sides.

That's all for now, I will update again tonight (hopefully with pictures) for what we eat from our own pantry!

Pantry Challenge Day 2

OK so here's the update for Day 2 of our Pantry Challenge.  Earned our $2 for not eating out, but didn't get rid of much from the pantry, and dinner was good but a bit pathetic on the "well-rounded" aspect.

I had my 24-week doctor's appointment to check on Baby Girl this afternoon, so my mom came over to watch the Boy and Hubby met me at the doctor's office on his way to work, since he's on nights this week.  This was the longest appointment ever!  I got there at 3:45 for my 4 pm appointment, and wasn't walking out until after 5:30!  Got home at nearly 6 and the boy had been too hungry to wait for his dinner, so my mom made him a grilled cheese and cut up a banana for him.  Nana to the rescue!

I had a set of steaks in the fridge we got on sale a couple days ago that were going to go bad if we didn't cook them today, so Hubby came home for "lunch" break and we cooked them with some olive oil, soy sauce, garlic salt, and pepper in the skillet, and that's it.  No sides, no veggies, no fluff.  I was too tired to worry about doing anything else with it.  The steaks were good, though, and had good flavor (we were worried they'd be too salty)...

I hate having so much beef in one week, but tomorrow will be beef again to use up the last of the meat from the fridge, then it's on to the freezer, yay!

Pantry Challenge Day 1

Day 1!!  I made whole wheat shell pasta with meat sauce, and that's what all three of us had... we were a lot cleaner than the Boy was, he had to have an immediate shower after he finished!

Here's our pasta, on the new dishes I got for Christmas...

We used about 2/3 of a box of whole wheat shells, a can of tomato paste, a small can of tomato sauce, a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, and a couple tablespoons of Penzey's Italian Seasoning.  Fridge stuff was an onion, some garlic, and ground beef.  I've got leftovers for lunch tomorrow, too!

We had to go to the store before dinner anyway, but we only bought a few things for the Boy, and some bread... no clue what I'm making tomorrow for Day 2...

Here we Go! Pantry Challenge 2012!

Here's the picture of our pantry... before I've organized it.  See, I told you it was ridiculous!

Here's a picture of the bottom shelf and floor area, which is the stuff Baby Boy can reach (and play with).  His food mostly sits on the bottom shelf (Mum Mum crackers, applesauce, etc) but it's also been overrun with a bunch of other things!

 Here's our inside freezer, stocked full of who-knows-what, and as soon as we eat the ice cream I'll have room for some more of the Boy's meals (I like to make a big batch of stuff and freeze in little containers so we always have stuff on hand to feed him).

 The freezer also has a very full top drawer...

I'm not going to post pictures of the deep freeze in the garage, because what will probably happen is we'll eat from this freezer, then move things inside as we empty this one, and I'll post pictures of that as it happens.

Here's how this will work - we'll cook each night (or some nights have leftovers) and I'll post what we made, how it turned out, and periodically update the pictures with how the pantry and freezer are looking.  I'll also post when I have to go to the store to buy fresh stuff so we can keep track and make sure I'm not adding anything to the pantry!

First order of business for today: organize the pantry so I know what we've got in there... then, decide what I'm cooking tomorrow.  I'm thinking it'll be spaghetti, since I have ground beef in the fridge I bought and haven't frozen yet.

Here we go!

Catching Up... and a Challenge.

First, let me say I know it's been forever since I've posted anything!  Lots has happened since my last post in... um... April, 8 months ago!  Let's break it down:

April-May - finishing up the school year, spending as much time with Baby Boy and Hubby as possible
June - relaxing and enjoying a break from work
July-August - we found out we were PREGNANT with baby #2!!  This was very exciting for us, as we'd talked about wanting our kids to be close in age... We're due April 28, 2012, and found out in November we're having a GIRL!
September - Baby Boy's first birthday!!
October-December - craziness of the Birthday/Holiday season in our house.  We've got six immediate family birthdays during that time, plus a couple extended family ones, our anniversary, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  Whew!

We all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to what 2012 will bring, which is what brings me to the "challenge" portion of the post... here's the background info:  I'm kind-of a food hoarder.  I know.  Crazy, right?  What exactly does that mean?  My pantry shelves and freezer (and most of the time the fridge, too) are always full.  When I go to the store, I don't check to see what I already have on hand, I just go and buy what I think I might need.  If I have a specific recipe I'll be using that week, I usually buy double on the pantry items needed, and there's no real justification as to why.  For example, if I'm making something that calls for 2 cans of crushed tomatoes and a can of chicken broth, I'll more than likely buy 4 cans of tomatoes and 2 cans of chicken broth.  I'll usually add in a can of tomato sauce and tomato paste, too, in case I need to alter the recipe... or just to have them in the pantry...  Needless to say, because of this, every shelf (and the floor) of the pantry are full.  They're usually really organized, so it's not like I can't find anything, but the lower shelves are a bit messy these days with the Boy running around and wanting to dig around in the pantry.  I think I have 6 boxes of pasta in there (and that's a modest guess)... I've decided this is ridiculous.  I can't really figure out why I'm this way about buying food, and probably don't want to get into the psychotherapy aspect of it.  I'm not afraid of running out of food, I'm not preparing for some disaster where we have to survive on what we've got, I just.... I don't know... buy too much stuff.  Same thing with the freezer, and the fridge.  When I walk through the produce section, I always buy tomatoes.  We may already have them at home, but I always buy some.  I always buy lettuce, with the intention of having a salad with our dinners... does it happen?  Not usually.  The Hubby (rightfully) gets upset at all the perishable things that get thrown out, because unlike cans of chicken broth, the lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, and cottage cheese all go bad pretty quickly.  The second part of the problem, other than the hoarding, is that we don't cook at home enough, and spend WAY too much money eating out or grabbing fast food.  Honestly, I think I've cooked at home maybe 5 times this month.  Sad.

Here's the challenge, then.  We have decided starting January 2 (not the 1st, because Hubby is working and I'm having dinner at my parents' for "New Year's Food"), we are eating strictly from our pantry and freezers.  Yes, I said freezers... there are 2, the main one attached to the fridge in the kitchen, and a very full deep freezer in the garage.  No picking up fast food, no going out to eat while we're out running errands, no ordering pizza because we're hungry NOW and there's nothing cooked.  Eat what we've got.  We (and by "we" I mostly mean "I") have to be really creative, not so much at first while there's tons of stuff in there, but later, when I'm out of easy meals and I'm actually having to think up ways to put all these ingredients together.  I'm actually pretty excited about it.

Here's the payoff (other than cleaning out the pantry and then reforming my shopping habits when I do start grocery shopping again)... for every day we make it without eating out, Hubby and I each get a dollar.  At the end of the month, we put our 30ish dollars in our spending accounts and go on a date together, out to eat somewhere, to celebrate.  Honestly, we may be extending the challenge to February, too, because I think I probably have enough food stored up for 2 months (or more?).  If that happens, same rules apply ($1 each per day, date night at the end of the month).

The only exceptions to the "no grocery shopping" rule are for the Boy and the fridge.  I refuse to ruin his diet (and he's had pretty much all homemade food since he started eating) by having him eat packaged and frozen stuff... he's going to have to have fresh fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs, yogurt, etc.  Granted, he's eating lots of table food these days, and will definitely eat what we're having a lot of the time (spaghetti, casseroles, chicken, etc.), but he'll still have to be supplemented with fresh stuff, too.  Also, we'll have to keep some perishable, refrigerated items on hand for us, some of the same things the Boy will be eating - I have to keep eating healthy during (and after) my pregnancy, so there's no way around that.  But absolutely no pantry items and no meats (we have many pounds of meat in the freezer).

So, here we go!  I have a couple of days to get the pantry organized (and, knowing me, I'll probably inventory it, too), and get some meal ideas floating around, and I'll post pictures of the pantry and freezer starting out, then progressively as we go throughout the challenge, and I'll try to post each day what we ate and how it turned out!

Yay!
-Wifeypie

A Confession...

OK I have a confession to make.  And I purposely waited until today to post this: I hate April Fool's Day.

I absolutely, completely, wholeheartedly hate it.  I can't handle the jokes and pranks, and am a nervous wreck all day long!

This year, for example, it was a workday, and I had to spend the day around other people at work.  I didn't mention April Fool's to my classes, and I didn't even do "calendar time" to discuss the date with them!  During my lunch and conference period, I hid out in my classroom so I wouldn't have to see anyone, lest they try to play a joke on me.  I didn't initiate any conversations with anyone, and read each email carefully so I would know if something was up.  As soon as I could, I went home, and spent the evening with the Hubby and the Baby Boy.  Even in talking to Hubby, I didn't mention April Fool's, because although he knows how much I hate it, and how much stress it causes me, I didn't want to remind him about it!

It wasn't until I was crawling into bed after 10 pm on April 1st that I finally could breathe a sigh of relief.  I'd made it through another dreaded April Fool's Day without incident.

My irrational (yes, I know it's irrational) fear of this day doesn't stem from any bad previous experience, or a horrible joke gone wrong that someone tried on me before... I really don't know where it comes from, or when it started.  Maybe I'm afraid of having everyone laugh at me or I'm afraid of feeling stupid when I buy into a joke being played, I don't know.  All I know is I want no part of it.  Ever.

I know I'm opening myself up to major pranks next year (or even on other days this year), now that everyone knows how much I hate them, but please please please don't!  On my side, there will be no laughing afterwards.  I'll probably cry.  And I hope that's enough deterrent for anyone.