Eating From the Pantry Challenge: Final Post

We are nearly done with our eating from the pantry challenge (just two days left). And since I am in full Freezer Cooking mode this week I think it is safe to go ahead and post my final results:

So here were our family's goals for the Eat from The Pantry Challenge:

1) Stop at the store a maximum of three times in January.

2) Buy mostly "fresh" foods including meat, bread, dairy (milk, eggs, cheese, etc.) and produce (fruits/vegetables) (I will allow myself to purchase a few "pantry" items to round out a meal and I will still pick up any free or super cheap after coupon "pantry" items to store for future months-but this will come out of our budget!)

3) Cut our typical grocery budget in half from $290 to a total of $145 or less on groceries during the month of January.

Here is how we actually did:

1) I went to the grocery store 5 times as a part of the pantry challenge....but I have been to the grocery store an additional 2 times this week plus I still have a trip I need to make to get all the things I need for this Freezer Cooking day. So I think it is safe to say that I threw that goal out the window! The truth is I like going to the store, it is fun to get out of the house, to shop for deals, and I usually take the kids to the park when we are done so they like it too.

2) Well I think I caved on this goal too. I did buy a lot of fresh ingredients, but I bought a lot of pantry things as well. I justified it to myself though because we did not eat from most of the pantry things that I bought this month they were just things to "re-stock" the pantry for next month. Our meals came from the things we already had on hand, but I still cheated by breaking my goal.

3) Finally...our budget. I did better here. I had hoped to half our $290 budget and spend $145. I actually spent $193.18. Going over by $48.18, this can be attributed to buying re-stocking pantry items and things for this Freezer Cooking Day. We still cut our spending this month by$96.82!

I did not really meet any of our goals, but we did have fun looking at food in a new way and because I was able to re-stock our pantry in the process and I am cooking so much freezer food this month I think we will be able to dramatically reduce our spending next month too!
There was one goal that I came up with mid challenge that I am hoping to stick with for my family and that is once the pantry is cleaned out we should be more discerning about the foods that we bring back in.

So we are going to try to limit our consumption of the following things:

Preservatives

Processed sugars & high fructose corn syrup

Processed foods

MSG (I found this hiding on the labels of many products in our pantry!)

Artificial Colors and Flavors

Now when I say limit I mean just that, I don't want to try to eliminate them because I don't want to set myself up for failure, I just want to see if we can do better and have even more natural foods in our house. The biggest challenge for me and my family is going to be nitrates. We love lunchmeat, hotdogs, and the only type of pizza my son will eat is pepperoni. I know there are no nitrate added versions, but according to Consumer Reports these products may have equally high levels of nitrates from other sources. So I would love some advice on this! Or some ideas on toddler friendly lunches that don't involve the above list!!!

What are we going to do with the extra $96.82 that we saved? Well I decided to spend $76.70 of it toward this goal and stock our pantry with products that will make the goal more obtainable. Since I did the $1 Prime Shipping I blogged about here, I already got the stuff!



I bought the following products from Amazon using subscribe and save to get the discount (you can cancel right after you purchase):


Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Raw Blue Agave, 44 Ounce Bottle (Pack of 2) - $14.20

Hodgson Mill Bread Mix, 16-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 6) -$9.61

Coombs Family Farms 100% Pure Organic Maple Syrup Grade B, 32 Ounce Jug $16.83

Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Sucanat (Brown Sugar), 16-Ounce Pouches (Pack of 12) $36.09

Eat From the Panrty Challenge: Highlights

I have had a busy month and have not posted many recipes from our Eat from the Pantry Challenge! Here are a few additional recipes we ate on our Eat from the Pantry Challenge. Click here so see all the related posts.

I made the corn dog muffins here and they were a huge hit!



I tried to make the mac and cheese cups I failed on before here. (I did an experiment last month individually wrapping them and that worked). Plus I had much better success using the recipe here, but there was a new problem. I used Wacky Mac and my picky toddler would not touch them with a 10 foot pole because he was convinced there was peppers in there! Also as cool as I thought the idea of eating mac and cheese with your hands was for toddlers I have decided it is really just not that cool. So for freezer cooking day I am making mac and cheese and freezing it in bags!

I did not want to waste all the cups I made though so I put them in containers along with some peas and frozen chicken for my husbands lunches. This way when he heats then up he can just mix it all together. Mac and Cheese, chicken and peas is one of his favorite combos.

I cooked up the rest of a boxed waffle mix and used blueberry applesauce in place of the oil to reduce the calories.

I made Easy Spaghetti from the Recipe here, after we ate that for 2 days I was ready for something new but we still had leftovers so I made Spaghetti pizza. You mix the cold spaghetti with 2 eggs and put it in a skillet with a little oil. Cook it until it starts to set, top it with your favorite toppings (we used cheese and pepperoni) and pop it in the oven at 350-400 until the cheese browns and the whole thing is set about 20 min. Then let it cool about 10 min, slide out of the pan and slice like a pizza!

We also had Jambalaya with Turkey Sausage and Black beans from the freezer & Cornbread made with a can of corn from the pantry:

Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Curry

Last night for our eat from the pantry challenge we had curry! My husband and I used to eat curry on dates in college when we had access to many great Indian restaurants and he misses it often. I have tried many authentic recipes and not had much luck with the taste, but I found a recipe once that included some unorthodox ingredients and loved it. After tweaking it over time I finally came up with a version that is great at home (I will say the real stuff at an Indian restaurant is still my favorite though!)


I use:

1/2 cup whole milk
1 box v8 butternut squash soup
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion
1/2 lb cooked chicken
1pkg cooked peas
2 med potatoes pealed and cooked
couple of handfuls of golden raisins

Start with sauteing the onion in olive oil, then add flour and cook for a min or so until the raw taste is gone. Add the milk and a box of V8 butternut squash soup as the base, add curry power and spices to taste. This will vary from brand to brand and your particular tastes but I like McCormick curry powder with the addition of a little garlic power and cumin and salt. I use quite a bit of curry powder (at least a tablespoon but I never measure when I make this dish I just taste as a go so I can't give an exact amount.) Then I add cooked chicken, frozen peas and cooked potatoes. Warm through and serve with rice and naan.

Since it eat from the pantry month I did not have all I needed for this but I really wanted curry. So I substitute some frozen purred pumpkin for the butternut squash soup and I doubled the chicken since I did not have any potatoes. I also used up a half a bag of dried apricots in place of the golden raisins.

I served the curry with couscous and toast (I did not want to make a trip to the store for naan). I think it turned out just as good as it usually does, but I do wish we had some naan!

Eat From the Pantry Challenge

We have been doing well on our eat from the pantry challenge, but I have been so busy I have not had a lot of time to post pictures or recipes of what we have been eating. Last week I made this ham and bean soup recipe. I was inspired by the recipe here from the free cook book I told you about here.

But since it is pantry challenge month I altered it quite a bit. Here is what I started with:

Then I decided to add a can of chicken broth because I did not think there was enough liquid and I threw in 2 diced sweet potatoes that were going south in the pantry. (that's what soup is good for right!)

Here is how the soup turned out!

I also cooked up some barley separately, because I don't like how bloated it gets if you cook it in the soup and I made french bread for the first time ever!

Here is the recipe for the bread:

1 cup of water

3 cups of bread flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

cornmeal

egg white + 1 tablespoon of water beaten

*Put the first 4 ingredients in your bread machine (in the order your machine suggests) on the dough cycle.

*When the cycle is finished. remove dough, punch down, cover and let rest for 10 min.

*Then divide dough in half and on a lightly floured surface roll into a rectangle, then twist into a spiral, and seal edges.

*Place seam sides down on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal and brush with 1/2 egg white mixture

* Cover and let rise for 35 to 45 min or until doubles. Score top with 3 or 4 diagonal cuts and place in a 375 degree oven for 20 min.

* Then brush with the remaining egg mixture and bake an addition 12-15 minutes until the bread sound hollow. Cool on wire rack.

Here are my results (I made 2 batches):

I think I did pretty well considering it was my first time, and the bread machine really did most of the work! (I will try to improve on keeping the loves a consistent size and shape). I also used all purpose flour because I did not have any bread flour as the recipe called for. I can not wait to try with bread flour, I am sure it will be even better!

Our meal was yummy and HUGE it fed us 3 nights!

The next day I took the left over french bread and sliced it into 1/2 slices and put it in a bag overnight to get a bit harder. The next morning I made a french toast mixture of eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon. and let the bread soak in it for about 20-30 min while I got dressed.

Then I cooked them in batches a skillet with a little cooking spray. They make excellent french toast "sticks." They are perfect toddler size and they freeze better than french toast made with regular bread!

Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Our Goals

For the Month of January my Family is going to attempt to participate in Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom's "Eat From the Pantry Challenge." You can read more about the challenge here or here, but basically each family is encouraged to set their own goals that are realistic for them. If you are interested in participating you should also read the post here "My Pantry is Different from Yours" it will help you in setting goals for your own challenge!

I still hope to do quite a bit of freezer cooking this month since having prepared meals is so helpful while I am in graduate school!

So here are our family's goals for the Eat From The Pantry Challenge:

1) Stop at the store a maximum of three times in January.

2) Buy mostly "fresh" foods including meat, bread, dairy (milk, eggs, cheese, etc.) and produce (fruits/vegetables) (I will allow myself to purchase a few "pantry" items to round out a meal and I will still pick up any free or super cheap after coupon "pantry" items to store for future months-but this will come out of our budget!)

3) Cut our typical grocery budget in half from $290 to a a total of $145 or less on groceries during the month of January.

**we usually have dinner out once a week as a family (this comes out of a separate budget so we plan to continue eating out)