Pantry Food and Meal Plans
As I mentioned earlier, we have been eating largely from the pantry (which includees the freezer) in January. While the official challenge, hosted by Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom technically ends with the end of this month, I'm finding that we still have quite a bit left that we really should eat, and I'm enjoying the challenge, so it's likely we'll continue at least a form of it into February. This also ties in well with my usual goal to consume the produce frozen from the previous year's crops before the end of Lent. Here's what we ate from the pantry last week, and this week's sort-of plan. (I wasn't feeling very motivated last weekend -- and I'm pretty sure this is going to be a problem.)
Monday(s): Cranberry Roast and Scalloped Potatoes last week; Fish Sticks and Peas this week. The roast was originally on the schedule for the previous Saturday, but we ended up having Pancakes instead, because I discovered that we were, in fact, out of onion soup mix (one of the three ingredients, one of them being a roast, for the Cranberry Roast). The fish sticks were a purchase from this month's reduced grocery shopping, combining an infrequent sale on the item with a hgh-value coupon, for our "we need to get out the door quick" Monday evening.
Tuesday(s): Vegetable Stuffing Casserole; Meatloaf and Applesauce. Several boxes of stuffing mix are in cupboards from holiday sales, and we also had the shredded cheese, Miracle Whip, and frozen vegetables for this dish, which is somewhat of a staple at our house. Now that we had to buy onion soup mix, we have some on hand for making this sweet-and-sour meatloaf recipe from Quick Cooking, which also uses some of the ground beef from our freezer.
Wednesday(s): Dinner Out; Pasta, Maybe?. Last Wednesday was a dinner out at a local pizza place which donated some of the proceeds to Nora's preschool. I am thinking it likely that we will see some sort of Pasta dish on the plates, since I haven't set any meat out to thaw nor found any great inspiration.
Thursday(s): Leftovers; Unplanned. DH and Nora had leftovers, while I used a coupon for a free roastburger from Arby's prior to my meeting.
Friday: Pizza/Hot Dogs and Pillsbury Bake Shoppe Swirlz; Pizza. Friday night pizza. Last Friday, we also ate a couple of the hot dogs in the half pack that had remained in our freezer, and Nora and I finished off the last two Bake Shoppe Swirlz from a grocery sale/coupon deal.
Saturday(s): Shrimp and Wild Rice Casserole and Banana Bread; Unplanned. Used up the remains of one bag of wild rice and opened the next one, and used the bag of shrimp from our freezer for this casserole, which is one of my three-year-old's favorite meals. Three of the six bananas hanging out in my freezer as "ends" of bunches that were just starting to turn too mushy to eat went into the loaf of banana bread. (Yes, that means I have enough left for another loaf.)
Sunday(s): Tomato Soup and Rice Krispie Bars; Unplanned. Sunday was kind of a pickup, leftovers day for the most part, although we did use up some of the giant free box of Rice Krispies and the big bag of marshmallows in the pantry to create Rice Krispie bars, and Nora and I sipped our way through one of the cans of tomato soup from the pantry. (It went very nicely with the banana bread.)
Monday(s): Cranberry Roast and Scalloped Potatoes last week; Fish Sticks and Peas this week. The roast was originally on the schedule for the previous Saturday, but we ended up having Pancakes instead, because I discovered that we were, in fact, out of onion soup mix (one of the three ingredients, one of them being a roast, for the Cranberry Roast). The fish sticks were a purchase from this month's reduced grocery shopping, combining an infrequent sale on the item with a hgh-value coupon, for our "we need to get out the door quick" Monday evening.
Tuesday(s): Vegetable Stuffing Casserole; Meatloaf and Applesauce. Several boxes of stuffing mix are in cupboards from holiday sales, and we also had the shredded cheese, Miracle Whip, and frozen vegetables for this dish, which is somewhat of a staple at our house. Now that we had to buy onion soup mix, we have some on hand for making this sweet-and-sour meatloaf recipe from Quick Cooking, which also uses some of the ground beef from our freezer.
Wednesday(s): Dinner Out; Pasta, Maybe?. Last Wednesday was a dinner out at a local pizza place which donated some of the proceeds to Nora's preschool. I am thinking it likely that we will see some sort of Pasta dish on the plates, since I haven't set any meat out to thaw nor found any great inspiration.
Thursday(s): Leftovers; Unplanned. DH and Nora had leftovers, while I used a coupon for a free roastburger from Arby's prior to my meeting.
Friday: Pizza/Hot Dogs and Pillsbury Bake Shoppe Swirlz; Pizza. Friday night pizza. Last Friday, we also ate a couple of the hot dogs in the half pack that had remained in our freezer, and Nora and I finished off the last two Bake Shoppe Swirlz from a grocery sale/coupon deal.
Saturday(s): Shrimp and Wild Rice Casserole and Banana Bread; Unplanned. Used up the remains of one bag of wild rice and opened the next one, and used the bag of shrimp from our freezer for this casserole, which is one of my three-year-old's favorite meals. Three of the six bananas hanging out in my freezer as "ends" of bunches that were just starting to turn too mushy to eat went into the loaf of banana bread. (Yes, that means I have enough left for another loaf.)
Sunday(s): Tomato Soup and Rice Krispie Bars; Unplanned. Sunday was kind of a pickup, leftovers day for the most part, although we did use up some of the giant free box of Rice Krispies and the big bag of marshmallows in the pantry to create Rice Krispie bars, and Nora and I sipped our way through one of the cans of tomato soup from the pantry. (It went very nicely with the banana bread.)