Pantry Challenge Update: Meals

Now that I have my freezer cleaned out and my canned goods and cupboards organized, I have a complete list of what we have on-hand. I've used this list to create meals for the whole month of January. We weren't home much on the 1st - 3rd. We ate leftover bean soup on the 3rd, so let me pick up with this Monday. Here's what we've been eating this week and what's to come:

Monday - Pita Pizzas
Tuesday - Broiled fish, noodle mix, green beans
Wednesday - Broiled chicken breasts, rice mix, peas
Thursday - We'll be out of town for dinner.
Friday - Chili (clearing freezer space!), cornbread
Saturday - Beef vegetable soup with barley, more cornbread
Sunday - Pepperoni roll (a big one that we'll cut up)


I only had to buy mozzarella cheese to complete this week's meals! I'll be sharing the rest of my meal ideas we continue through the month. Hopefully you've jumped in and are clearing out the older items in your pantry too!

Pantry Challenge Update: What a Snow Day Gets You

I ended up having a snow day today, so I was home with my family! (Emma was not happy about not being able to get back to preschool today, but I did a little happy dance when I got the call that my office was closed.)

I spent the day working on my Eat from the Pantry Challenge goals. Here were my goals along with my progress.

• Empty the freezer. Toss what's beyond its usable life. Inventory what's left. Maybe put all of our frozen veggies in some type of container so that they don't spill over onto the rest of the contents of the freezer. DONE


• Empty the big cupboard. Toss what's beyond its usable life. Inventory what's left. Move to the basement the things we don't use that often or items with multiples. DONE


• Empty the small cupboard. Toss what's beyond its usable life. (I'm pretty sure that there are old spices lurking there!) Only keep things I know I'll use. Move a few more boxes of cereal upstairs from the basement. PARTIALLY DONE - CEREAL MOVED


• Inventory what's in the basement cupboard. DONE

I was pretty surprised at what was in my freezer. I had an idea of what was there, but I didn't realize that there was enough food to cover (in a heaping kind of way) my kitchen table! Here's what came out of the freezer, not including a few bags of frozen bananas that were WAY past their expiration!

I found 1 1/2 bags of chicken and thought I only had 1. I found a box of frozen treats that only had 1 cup inside. Getting rid of the box cleared up some space. I popped the Fla-Vor-Ice into a container in the freezer door, allowing me to get rid of that box too. I put the frozen veggies into a container, and I did the same with the gazillion bags of shredded zucchini. (What in the world am I going to do with all of this zucchini!?!?) I'm hoping that we'll eat up the remaining ice cream soon so that we can get rid of those cartons too.

The funniest thing I found was a large white container that held multiple blue ice packs (the ones you use in lunch boxes). I'm the only one who takes a lunch, and I rarely use a blue ice pack. So I kept one in the door and put the others away. No need to take up precious freezer space with those!

Now let's compare the BEFORE and AFTER pictures....

BEFORE

AFTER

I also emptied the big cupboard and found MANY things that were expired. In fact, one of the boxes of Jell-o from the top shelf (which I can't reach without standing on a chair) had a sell by date of July 2007. *GULP!* Guess I should do this more often, eh?

The lesson learned by cleaning out this cupboards was that girls who complain about lack of cupboard space should clean out their cupboards more often. I was quite surprised by how little went back into the cupboard (and how heavy the garbage bag was when I was done!).

BEFORE

AFTER

I've now inventoried everything that we have on-hand, and I've created a list of 20 meals that can be made from those items. I've got a list of the odds and ends that will need to be bought to fill in the gaps. We went to Kroger this afternoon and bought those items. I'll post those for you later tonight along with the meals that I've planned with what I found in my pantry.

Are you keeping up with the challenge? I'm so glad I started. It's not too late to jump in and join us!!

Menu Plan Monday: Eat From the Pantry Challenge Week 1

This is the first week of the Eat From the Pantry Challenge, and I'm a little behind. Between traveling and getting caught up on laundry, putting away gifts, and unpacking suitcases, the only pantry inventory I've completed is the extra canned goods area. (Fortunately, it's still looking good!)

I really wanted to tackle the freezer this weekend. Looks like that's going to be a job for Monday evening. I did buy 2 bins for my frozen veggies and shredded zucchini today... Does that count toward my organization points?

That said, I'm not totally sure what this week's menu plan will truly hold. My goal was to de-clutter the freezer this week. I have tons of frozen veggies, and I'm pretty sure that some of them are perfect mixes for making soup. Considering the fact that the thermometer on our truck said SIX DEGREES this morning when we left for church, soup is sounding pretty good!!

The only meal I know I can commit to is homemade pizza Monday evening. Other than that, it all depends on what my freezer expedition uncovers! I'll keep you posted.

Are you cleaning out your pantry? Freezer? Have you uncovered any gems that will make for yummy meals?

If you're needing some meal planning ideas, stop by Menu Plan Monday hosted by I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Count Me In!

When I read Jessica's post about the Eat From the Pantry Challenge, I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. I know for a fact that there are things hiding in my cupboards and freezer. My personal challenge will begin with taking stock of what we actually have.

I started with our canned goods storage area. First of all, we have ZERO closets in this house and VERY limited kitchen cupboard space. When we moved in, my mom found this great wire shelving unit on clearance at Lowe's. We thought we'd make our own pantry space out of space that wasn't being used by anything else. The wire shelving unit ended up on the wall at the top of the steps to the basement. It's not a high-traffic area on most days, and it's worked out pretty well. I really should have taken a BEFORE picture for you. There were even clothes (mine... clean...) hanging from the shelves! EEEKS! It had become a catch-all for more than canned goods.
I cleaned it out first and was surprised by a few things that I found (and things I didn't find). Here's the AFTER picture.

Just a side note for those of you observant enough to see the insulin syringes. They're for our diabetic cat. We have to keep them up high so Emma doesn't decide to try to "help" by giving kitty his medicine. Most days we like him enough to spare him that ordeal.

I was surprised that I had so few canned veggies on this shelf. Time to stock up on those. I was also surprised to find a can of pumpkin (after borrowing one from my mom this past weekend because the stores were sold out!). I also realized that I have backup sugar but not flour. I do have storage space in the basement too, but I haven't checked there yet to see what else I'm hiding from myself!

I must now move on to tackle the freezer and a couple of food cupboards. I do have BEFORE pictures for these ones, because I haven't even started on them yet! Let's start with my freezer. (I seriously can't believe I'm showing you my freezer! This is reality, folks!!)

And the door....

Now let's head to the right of the fridge to my only decent-sized cupboard for food. This is where we keep the things we grab most often. The rest is in the basement. I'm wondering how we grab much of anything from this cupboard. You seriously should take your camera and go take pictures of your open cupboards. You don't realize how stuffed and disorganized they are until you post them for the world to see!

I see that I have some dried cranberries on the top shelf. Those were a great steal at Kroger a while back, but I have no clue what to do with them! Any suggestions? (Brandy, you'll be pleased to know that I do have a small box of powdered milk on the middle shelf. It's just hard to see!)

Next we move to the tiny cupboard above my stove. I keep my spices and cereal here for lack of a better place for them.

I keep reminding myself of the abundance of cupboard space that we'll have once we move. For now, I'll just haul things up the basement steps as needed. I don't have pictures of that area yet. It's actually fairly organized, so I didn't consider tackling it for this part of the project.

My next steps are:

• Empty the freezer. Toss what's beyond its usable life. Inventory what's left. Maybe put all of our frozen veggies in some type of container so that they don't spill over onto the rest of the contents of the freezer.
• Empty the big cupboard. Toss what's beyond its usable life. Inventory what's left. Move to the basement the things we don't use that often or items with multiples.
• Empty the small cupboard. Toss what's beyond its usable life. (I'm pretty sure that there are old spices lurking there!) Only keep things I know I'll use. Move a few more boxes of cereal upstairs from the basement.
• Inventory what's in the basement cupboard.

Once I have my inventory done, I will be able to more effectively plan meals for the next few weeks. We have some good stuff hiding in our kitchen and basement! Now I need to use it!

Are you up for the challenge? You can stop back here or head over to see what Crystal and Jessica are up to. I'm especially looking forward to Jessica's creative meal plans as she uses up the odds-and-ends from her pantry to feed her crowd.