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Administrative, Finances, Healthy, Main Dishes, Review

January Pantry Challenge

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Wow, so February starts in just a few hours, 2016 is already 1/12th over!  How are you all doing with those new years resolutions?  Been to the gym every day, stuck to a calorie goal, finances in ship-shape, in fact taxes have already been filed?  Yeah, me too.

Just kidding!

I don’t really do the resolution thing, because it is far too easy to set yourself up to fail.  I am more a believer in long-term goals with short-term goals break down.  By taking a big life goal, solidifying your reason for desiring it, and then breaking it down into smaller, easily achievable goals, you set yourself up for continual personal improvement.  Plus you have the ability to look back and see what worked and what didn’t, and tweak or change your goals if your lifestyle and desires have changed.

This is the final post in a series of a challenge I set for myself Jan 1st, to cook out of my pantry/freezer and only spend $20 per week on fresh groceries.  Below are the first three week’s summaries:

Week 1 Recap
Week 2 Recap
Week 3 Recap

This final week, I was surprised at how quickly this month had flown by.  When I did my one grocery stop, it felt like more than enough.  I think I have adjusted to fewer grocery store trips, which is likely a very good thing.  Looking back at the past few weeks’ lists, I realized I still had 3 out of 4 kiwis in the refrigerator.  I also had to throw out half the cucumber because it went to mush before I could slice & eat it.  Other than that, I have done quite well with not buying too much or wasting produce.

Fruit/Veg $11.96 Meats $3.29
Celery 1lb $2.49 2/3 lb ham $3.29
Ginger root $0.30 Dairy $5.35
3lb oranges $3.77 White cheese $1.48
Bananas (8) $1.35 Organic yogurt $3.87
Avocados (2) $2.00
Collard greens $2.05 Total $20.60

 

This week I got brave and bought a head of collards, because I know they are chock full of chlorophyll and good stuff.  I chopped up a few leaves to toss into salads, some of the leaves got blended into a sauce for the gnocchi, leaves were added to soup, and one day for lunch I used the leaf as a wrap for tuna salad.  I also ended up getting a small pack of ham and some white cheese to make sandwiches for my fiancee for lunch.

White Bean, Sausage, & Collards Soup

Jan 23 – Pork ribs & baked potato soup
Jan 24 – Leftover stuffed shells for lunch, pork chops, Spanish rice & salad
Jan 25 – Buffalo chicken sandwiches
Jan 26 – Butternut squash gnocchi
Jan 27 – Sausage, white bean, & collard greens soup
Jan 28 – Lasagna with spinach
Jan 29 – Leftover lasagna
Jan 30 – Leftover pizza, buffalo chicken on salad

AS for the budgeting part of the challenge, not counting the couple of times we had meals outside the home, the total I went over is: $3.30 + $2.34 + $1.08 + $0.60 = $7.32

Which means a total of $87.32 for all the “fresh” groceries the entire month of January.  Not bad at all.  I don’t think realistically I can keep that up for many more months beyond this, but it is a good illustration of how much having a stocked pantry can help, especially in case of a natural or financial emergency.  Now I know that if something catastrophic were to happen, or the fiancee and/or I were to lose a job and we had to really tighten our belts, the pantry I normally keep can indeed see us through.

 

How about you, any resolutions or goals you are keeping, or struggling with?  Feel free to share!

 

Administrative, Finances, Informative, Main Dishes

Pantry Challenge – Week 3

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So now we are in the home stretch of this challenge!  Week 3 of January has come and gone, and I’m planning our final week of January and eating from the pantry.  If you’re just tuning in and want the full scoop, check out these posts:

How it all started & Why
Week 1 Update
Week 2 Update

The only wrench in this week so far is the impending snow storm the East is getting this weekend.  As I write this early Saturday, we already have a few inches of accumulated snow, with more on the way all weekend long.  But I’m not worried.  We have plenty of food still stocked in the freezer & pantry, including non-cook items like packaged salmon & tuna, granola bars, and pop-tarts (yeah, I still have a few boxes I bought on sale a while ago hanging out…)

Chair covered with snow

To prepare for the snow storm, we also brought in three extra stacks of fire wood and piled it in a corner of the living room, found three flashlights and made sure there were new batteries, and have lots of water stored away, just in case.  When it comes to Mother Nature, you just never know what she’s gonna throw at you.

This week, all I’ve bought at the grocery store includes:

Dairy Fruit/Veg
Kefir (2) 5.28 Avocado 0.98
Half and half 3.98 Apples (3) 1.87
Ricotta cheese 3.47 Bananas (9) 0.86
Yogurt (8) 3.64 Oranges (2) 1
TOTAL $21.08 Pears (2) 1.32

 

I’m just over my $20 limit, which is fine.  All told, I’ve gone over each week, but by $3 or less each time.  If this were an actual life-or-death financial situation, I would definitely not be buying as much fresh produce, or any at all.  Sometimes, you have to sacrifice short-term nutrition until you are in a more stable financial place before you can add back in fresh produce and dairy.  But I am lucky enough to have the resources to not worry if I go over my budget by a dollar or two, and am very thankful for that!

This past week’s menu included:

Jan 16 – Butternut squash macaroni & cheese for lunch, Olive Garden for date night dinner
Jan 17 – Black bean turkey burgers & fries, salad
Jan 18 – Chicken cacciatore
Jan 19 – Leftover burgers, asparagus, potatoes
Jan 20 – Burritos
Jan 21 – Stuffed shells, salad
Jan 22 – Leftover buffet

Breakfast was mostly oatmeal (steel cut oats, dried cranberries, cinnamon & water or nut milk) or toast & almond butter, and lunches were almost exclusively leftovers from dinner.  One day I went and got lunch from a food truck at work, and one night we used a gift card from Christmas to go to Olive Garden for dinner.  Both of those occasions ended up giving us enough leftovers for two more meals as well, so one time eating out = 3 meals total.

Butternut Squash Macaroni & Cheese

Overall, this challenge is not as challenging as I thought it might be, but that is likely because I’ve stocked up so thoroughly before now that I have too much excess.  So I guess I’ve learned I need to either calm down on buying when there are deals (sad face) or have these challenges on a more regular basis, where I use up a good portion of pantry items before I buy more.

It is also teaching me to be more creative about leftovers.  For example, I had a butternut squash that I had used for decoration for Halloween (yup, they last a looooong time) and also some cracker-sized cheddar cheese slices I’d bought on sale and we never used.  Therefore, I naturally decided to make butternut squash mac & cheese.  Even using only half the squash made a TON (there is still enough for another serving or two…) and I have half a cooked and mashed squash, to turn into soup, or butternut squash gnocchi this week!

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

Just looking in the fridge at what odds and ends are still hanging around can give you ideas about what to make that will cost you little to nothing extra for a whole new meal, so this is a big money-saver.  And of course, if all else fails, make soup!  Now with winter finally roaring to life, there’s nothing quite so warm and comforting as a hot bowl of soup.  You can throw just about anything into a pot, add water and spices, and have a meal ready in 20 minutes flat.

Stay tuned for the final week!

 

Administrative, Finances, Healthy, Informative, Main Dishes

Pantry Challenge – Week 2

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To read earlier posts on this challenge, why I’m doing it, and how the first week went, go here:

Welcome to 2016!
Pantry Eating Challenge – Week 1

This is week 2 update.  Things are still going well.  I have to fight the urge to go grocery shopping almost every day, which I know makes me a total weirdo. 🙂  I went to the store twice this week, once for bananas, and then again because we were almost out of milk, yogurt, kefir, and fresh vegetables.  I still hadn’t used the asparagus I bought last week, but we went through milk faster than I thought we would.

What did I buy this week?

Dairy Fruit/Veg
Yogurt 3.9 Bananas (8) 0.6
Kefir 8.37 Blueberries 1.49
Gallon milk 2.69 Can pineapple 0.99
Spinach 1.49
Org. bananas (6) 1.82
TOTAL 22.34 Cucumber 0.99

 

The first store trip was just for the organic bananas, and I picked up a cucumber as well because I knew I had a little bit of dill left from 2 weeks ago.  Mixed with plain greek yogurt, it made an awesome topping for lemon pepper fish.  The second trip was Thursday, and I absolutely love that ALDI is on the ball with healthy offerings!  They now have many items from their own label which are gluten-free, organic, natural, etc.  They offer some of the best prices around.

Yogurts and bananas are a staple we go through pretty quickly.  The blueberries, to be honest, were an impulse buy because they were on sale and looked so good!!  And they really were, totally worth it.  Then the spinach was another staple item, and we were almost out of milk & kefir.  The pineapple was another impulse, because it’s high in vitamin C and I anticipated making smoothies at some point.  Or potentially another batch of cranberry sauce, because I still have about a pound of raw cranberries in my refrigerator.

The menu from this week included:

Jan 9 – Leftover seafood linguini
Jan 10 – Steak, rice, & steamed broccoli
Jan 11 – Lemon pepper breaded fish with cucumber dill yogurt and mashed potatoes
Jan 12 – Quinoa & red beans
Jan 13 – Beef roast, chopped potatoes & carrots, asparagus
Jan 14 – Shrimp fried rice
Jan 15 – Leftovers

Breakfasts included oatmeal with dried fruits & nuts, whole wheat English muffin with almond butter & jam, smoothies, or a fried egg sandwich on whole grain toast.  The bread products were purchased on super sale a while ago and in the freezer, as were the beef roast, steaks, white fish, and shrimp.  Potatoes can last for months at room temperature away from light, and carrots can last several months in the crisper.  Even if they start growing eyes or hairs, they are still edible.

Quinoa is a very healthy seed, and a whole grain.  I chose to use quinoa instead of white rice for the red beans, and it was a perfect match.  The beef roast I pulled out of the freezer and thawed in the refrigerator a day before cooking.  Fried rice is always a good choice, because you can add pretty much any vegetable ever, so it’s a good way to use up what’s about to expire and also you can spread out a smaller amount of meat to feed you several meals.  I used a pound of shrimp here, and the bag I purchased was two pounds, so I still have one more pound of shrimp in the freezer.

You’ll also notice that I incorporate leftover nights often, as well as taking leftovers for lunch.  I often make lots more than we need for one meal on purpose, because then I just pack it into single serve tupperware, and we have another meal just waiting to be heated up.  This makes packing a lunch super easy, and on days when I don’t want to cook dinner, we already have several different options available from the past couple of days.  Leftovers are an awesome way to cut down on the time spent cooking, as well as save yourself some money too.

Let’s see how this week goes!  Halfway there…