Eat from the Pantry Challenge

[moosmommy]

Who wants to do an Eat from the Pantry Challenge? The goal is to mostly just use what you already have at home. My personal goal is to not spend more than $200 this month at the store for groceries, dog food or cleaning supplies. I also want to keep a running list of what I have purchased and what meals I can come up with. Let me know if anyone is interested.

[chiver78]

I would totally be up for this, if I hadn't just spent the last month doing the same. I'm working on the last few meats from the freezer now, which shouldn't take more than another couple weeks.

good luck on your goal, though. I was more interested in making sure I wasn't wasting things that were close to expiration than I was about minimizing my spending.

[taz157]

My DH and I have somewhat been doing this. We've nearly cleared out our freezer and somewhat working on the pantry.

I've been meaning to make a list of what's in our pantry too. Like chiver, DH and I were more interested in making sure we weren't wasting things then in minimizing our spending.

Good luck!

[Wisconsin Beth]

What are the rules for this? Do milk and fresh veggies/fruit count?

[dividend]

I'm doing this already. I was freaking out to DBF yesterday about the crazy amount of food we have in the fridge/freezer/pantry. I'm pretty sure I have enough food to last through the entire month of October. I would be down for a challenge to keep me on track. I'd like to spend <$150 on groceries for 2 (plus my monthly game night where I feed 10-20) in October.

[moosmommy]

Wisconsin Beth there are no rules really. Just the ones you make for yourself. I will have to definitely purchase milk and fresh veggies through this. I just want to reduce on my waste of food at home and also use up a lot of the food we have in our pantry. I just think posting gives us accountability. So I am starting today. I will be going to the grocery store on the way home to hit up Food City's midnight madness sale. I will be posting what I purchase and how much that way its out there. Hopefully it should be kind of fun and interesting towards the end of the time how weird the meals have gotten.

[Loopdilou]

I try to do this at least one week a month, which means my "pantry" is relatively barren. A good thing too, since it's just a cabinet.

[moosmommy]

I also want to work on planning out meals better. So this weekend will be me going through the freezer, pantry, cabinets and fridge and writing everything down.

[ohmomto2boys]

I always try to clear out my pantry, but then there is an awesome deal on Pasta, granola bars, salad dressing, etc. etc., so I end up stocking up a bit. I am really good about rotating items so things don't go to waste. Same with the freezer, I start to work on clearing it out, but then there is a huge sale on meat or pizzas (I like to have these on hand), etc. It is hard for me to pass up good deals (stock-up price). I do need to make a bit of room so I can get a couple 10-12 lb turkeys in November!

[p8nt]

I'd like to be in. My canned goods shelf is over flowing. I have lots of tomatoes and sauce that I could get some pasta sauce made. I'll need to buy onions and sausage (I do half ground beef/half sausage)

We eat a lot of salad and fresh veggies so I can't leave those shopping trips out - but I'll make a big effort to use up a lot of what I have.

[moosmommy]

Okay so here is the list of what I am getting today and prices (I love the Midnight Madness sale):
3lb bag of onions $1.29
Corn chips $1.49
Grape tomatoes .99
Imperial spread .64
Biscuits 1.24 for 4pk
Mushrooms BOGO 1.99
Peppers 2.50
Brocoli Crowns 10/$10
Fruit Rollups (my daughter likes these for a treat and they are usually like 2.50 or more for 10 but today they are on sale for .94 if you buy 4 packs plus I have a .50 coupon)

[mizbear]

I'd like to get back to pantry eating. I used to do a lot of it and then life happened.

I will have to inventory everything.

[mizbear]

My pantry challenge will most likely be just moi unless I can get DM on board. She is coming around slowly- but thinks that because we made a big pot of beaners and weeners that we are now cooking and planning meals (insert eye roll and dramatic sigh with 'Oy vey' here)

[Sam_2.0]

DH is out of town for a few days, so I will be avoiding the store for as long as I can. Last night I just ate what DD was having for dinner, and we even shared a bowl. It was the height of laziness But she thought it was pretty funny and we both got fed. We can at least go until Friday without hitting up the grocery store. Good thing toddlers don't mind random foods for dinner.

[mizbear]

Toddlers can be the coolest dining partners.

[ses]

I am in! I had to chuckle when I saw this thread. I just sent visiting family on their way home after a five day visit. I kept pulling stuff from the pantry and freezer while they were here and using things I had on hand. I only had to buy some broccoli, a pint of ice cream (to go with a frozen pie) and a bag of dinner rolls (I didn't want to take the time to bake while they were here.) I used the last of the bread and all but one egg and 1.5 cup of milk for french toast before they left. And I have a few slices of ham left.

I do an inventory every quarter for pantry goods and staples. This will be done tomorrow. I consider my October "purge and replace" the start of winter preparations. I will know more tomorrow about where I stand.

This couldn't have come at a more perfect time!!

[moosmommy]

So I spent more than I thought I would at the store for a total of $94.45. But I got some veggies for salads for my lunch, milk, etc. I did not get any can food. That still leaves me $105.60 in my planned food spending for the month. But the best deal was a whole pork loin that I got for $14.00 that is usually $33.00. I cut this up into 12 pork chops and 2 roasts. This will be 4 meals for my family so could not pass it up. Tonight I will be going through pantry and fridge to see what I have. But most likely it will be salads for me all week and sandwiches for the DH for lunches. Dinner tonight will be leftovers to clean out the fridge of previous meals.

[Deleted]

So how do you find recipes so you can eat out of the pantry?

[Deleted]

I like allrecipes.com. They have a function where you can type in what you have on hand and it will search the site for recipes with those ingredients.

[Wisconsin Beth]

inventorying is an excellent idea. We've been gifted with a free bar and I'm toying with putting it in the kitchen. I'd get some more storage and more counter-space. But it would make a tight room even tighter. Something to talk about with DH.

[moosmommy]

I think more storage space in the kitchen is a great idea. We turned a utility closet in our kitchen into a pantry. So most of our actual cabinets do not have food in them. I like it better because you can open it up and basically see everything you have on hand.

[Wisconsin Beth]

The problem is the bar is 25 inches deep and the place I'd put it has a doorframe tight against where the bar would go, so the door would be a problem. Need to measure and stuff.

[mizbear]

gin- I base my recipes on what I know I will eat and eat leftovers or "morphed" recipes of.

I often cook a few ingredients in bulk and then keep making different things all week.

Some ground meat could be tacos, chili, hamburgers, sloppy Bears (it's a rip on sloppy Joes), meatloaf for DM, meatballs, psketty...
And I can extend ground meat (at least when I eat it) by adding lentils, beans and veggies.

[Sam_2.0]

Even DD got in on the fun tonight (even if she didn't realize it). I only buy milk for her and we were out. So we are using up the freezer stash of BM. Tonight's dinner was a couple of chicken quesadillas, a can of fruit cocktail, and some cheez-its for DD when she still wanted more food.

[moosmommy]

Tonight for dinner we will be having more leftovers to finish them up. Also I think I might make bean burritos with grilled veggies for dinner. I have some sour cream in the fridge we need to use.

[Deleted]

What is psketty?

[Deleted]

My guess is "spaghetti".

[mizbear]

psketty- Is a pantry clearing rip on spaghetti made with whatever non-jarred sauce or dressing is available. I have used red salad dressings like catalina or red russian by wishbone, italian, bbq, alfredo, ketchup and add seasoning or make my own. But I hate jarred spaghetti sauce. I created this when I was living in a 1 rm apartment and had no space and had to morph food all week.
TBear named it psketty. Which happened to be what I used to call spaghetti.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

I'm in if only to continue the challenge I've been doing on my own since the end of August. I started digging deeper than usual into my pantry because of all of the back-to-school expenses, fees for the kids' Fall activities, driver's ed tuition for ODS, Sunday School tuition, and some odds and ends bills I want to get paid. I do budget for most of these things, but, then I freak when I actually pay the money out -- it feels like we're hemorrhaging money these days.

So, I've essentially turned over all of the meat in the freezer. I've been making bread to reduce the amount I have to buy. The farm stands are starting to wrap up their seasons. And, the kids are back in school so that they aren't grazing out of the fridge and cabinets from morning til night.

I will continue to eat as much out of the pantry as possible, but, like OhMom, I'll still take advantage of loss-leaders and good sales to keep my stockpile stable.

I'm shooting to spend $800 or less (I live in a VHCOLA and have 2 very active teenage sons) this month for all groceries, household, health, and beauty stuff. So far so good. I haven't even been in a store since September!

[dividend]

This week is good so far. I've got a few more weeks of my farmshare coming in, so I've been mixing fresh produce and pantry / frozen stuff. I haven't been to the grocery store in 3 or 4 weeks. This week, we're eating leek and tomato pasta with roasted broccoli, chickpea and roasted veg stew with pasta, lamb meatballs with butternut squash tahini salad, pork / cabbage / dried mushroom stir fry, and probably a stuffed pepper casserole. Snacking on nuts, crackers, peanut butter, popcorn, apple sauce, etc.
I have normally done grocery shopping on the weekend. This time, I will probably only need milk, orange juice, bananas, and maybe some yogurt, and DBF and I will be good for another 2 weeks at least. Which will be awesome, considering that I just had to replace the clutch in my car, and today, it's in the shop again to have the alternator replaced! Ugh!