Day 1 of 30 Day Pantry Challenge

Day 1 Goals, Leftovers and Inventory

A dutiful blogger and home economist that is a little more organized would likely tell you to take a full inventory of all your pantry and freezer items and make a meal plan accordingly, I am not that blogger. Well I can tell you to do that and it is likely a good idea but I'm not doing that myself, at least not for week one.

Why am I not taking inventory?  

Because I have so much food on hand week one should be a no brainer.  

I'm a casual couponer (formerly an extreme couponer) and I love Ibotta.  I stock up on items whenever I can.  We are a hunting and fishing family and have a well stocked freezer.

I'm setting a goal of not spending more than $100 on groceries this month.  I think I could do with less but my husband likes his coffee creamer and soda (only from a can) and they don't give either of those items away.  The only other things I'm planning on purchasing is bread, dairy, eggs, if needed and fresh produce.

I know roughly what I have on hand:

I have lots of meat, thanks to my hunters

Several jars of various pasta sauces, thanks to Ibotta

Several boxes of plain and a few flavored pastas, another Ibotta surplus 

Man oh man do I have rice, plain, flavored, dry, instant, as well as heat and eat.

Home canned veggies along with a few store bought.

Frozen bread dough

Biscuit mix

Corn bread mix

This is why I'm not taking an inventory yet.

Week one will be mostly about using up our perishables that are in the fridge.  For example, yesterday's veggie and meat and cheese trays are going to be tonight's creamy, cheesy vegetable soup.  Waste not, want not right?

What about breakfast and lunch?

I have a ton of cereal, granola bars and oatmeal for quick week day breakfasts.  Hubby likes an English muffin with sausage and cheese every morning, these will have to be purchased by week 2 (he really drags my budget down 😉). I've got pancake, muffin a waffle mix if we want to have a bigger breakfast on the weekends.

Lunches for hubby is usually leftovers and there should be no shortage of those since I'll not only be cooking more often but I've also got previous leftover meals in the freezer. For my daughter and myself, we can also do leftovers or I've got lunch meat in the fridge and freezer and plenty of canned soup and convenience foods.

As the month draws to an end I will likely have to get a little more creative as my family grows bored with spaghetti. 😁This is where an inventory and a little more planning may be necessary. 

Please follow me on my journey, hopefully I'll have some pointers and insights as well as some delicious recipes to share.

I will post again tonight to let you know how our first dinner goes.

30 Day Pantry Challenge

Ever hear of a Pantry Challenge?  Ever taken a Pantry Challenge?


It's not a complicated concept, let's just eat what we already have on hand.  Perhaps you've taken the challenge without even realizing it due to a period of unemployment, illness or just a month that lasted longer than your budget.

I keep a fairly well stocked pantry and freezer.  By most people's standards I keep a VERY well stocked pantry and freezer.  With that in mind I think a pantry challenge would do me good to use up items before their expiration date and to just rotate the old with the new.  I've got freezers full of meat that I'm always in a panic to use before the next hunting season and home canned goods that I'd like to use up before the next garden is ready for harvest.

Our ancestors would stock up and preserve food for winter.  I think that mind set is still in us, bread into us down to a cellular level.  Grocery stores are readily available for most of us yet even they offer several opportunities a year to stock up on canned goods by the case as well as buying meat in bulk. 

Well, winter is hear and I'm ready to cash in.  I figured what better time to take a self imposed pantry challenge than the first of the year.  We all want to lose a few pounds, just the act of eating in rather than out will help achieve that.  Everyone always wants to declutter, why not start with the shelves.  Resolving to save money?  Check, this covers that too.  Have you already bought these groceries, yes.  Will you have to replace them, perhaps.  But coming off of a month of gift giving many may enjoy a month to just breathe a sigh of financial relief knowing that they can greatly reduce their grocery budget.  Finally, how many would enjoy more family time.  Eating together accomplishes that as well.

January 2nd will kick off my 30 day challenge. Will I have a $0 grocery budget, of course not.  There will still be perishables and my hubby has to have his soda and coffee creamer but If I can get by with that being my only grocery purchase I will be saving hundreds of dollars the month of January.

It's likely that my family will not even notice a change in meals the first week or two, as the pantry shelves clear they may notice the meals getting a little more creative but that doesn't mean they can't still be delicious.  Have you ever noticed that sometimes when the power goes out or when you're forced to cook from your cupboards that the meals actually get better than when you have all the conveniences of daily shopping?  I know I have.

Take the challenge with me, or simply follow along for tips or pointers on how to do your own in the future.  Don't have a well enough stocked pantry to do 30 days? Just do a week or two.  Bottom line, any meal that you can make work with what you have on hand is one less meal coming out of your budget for the month

Mac N' Cheese Soup......Comfort Food to the Max

With Christmas in the books and plenty of leftovers in the fridge, I didn't even have to try to pretend I was going to remember to thaw anything for supper tonight.  As I was leaving work and driving the hour plus commute home my mind began to wander down the what's for dinner path.  I knew we had about eight pounds of ham left so clearly that was my best choice.  I quickly remembered a Mac N' Cheese soup that I had made years ago.  I couldn't remember the entire recipe but remembered it had Velveeta Shells and Cheese and Campbell's Cheddar Soup.  I also remembered I had originally seen it in an issue of Taste of Home magazine, many, many years ago. (Probably at least 15 years)  I likely still have that issue on my cookbook shelf but thought it might be in an archive online.  I googled, 'Taste of Home Mac and cheese soup'.  The first search result sounded delicious but was more "from scratch" and definitely not the same recipe.  The second result was the winner, though I almost didn't recognize it because it called for broccoli.  I thought about it a vaguely remembered that perhaps the original recipe did call for broccoli and I just omitted it because I didn't like broccoli at that time.  I do now so I stopped to pick up broccoli on the way home.

Mac N' Cheese Soup

Ingredients:

1 package (14oz) Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese (the one with the creamy cheese sauce, not the blue box with the powder)

1 cup water plus water to boil macaroni in

2 Tbsp Finely chopped onion

1 can (10.75oz) Condensed Cheddar Cheese soup

2 1/2 cups milk

1 cup Chopped fully cooked ham

Directions:

1. Set aside cheese sauce packet from macaroni and cheese mix.  In a large saucepan, bring 8 cups water to a boil.  Add macaroni and cook 8-10 minutes until noodles are tender.

2. Meanwhile, in your stock pot bring 1 cup of water to a boil.  Add broccoli and onion; cook, uncovered for 3 minutes.  Stir in soup, milk, ham and contents of cheese packet; heat through. Drain the cooked macaroni and add to soup pot, stir.

Say grace and enjoy

Coney Corndog Casserole

This recipe was the truest form of a So You Forgot to Defrost moment.  I got home from work a little after 6 o'clock and didn't have so much as a plan for dinner.  The sausage had still been in the freezer so I threw it into a sink of hot water while I prepared the corn muffin mix.  By the time that was done the sausage was thawed just enough to cut through.

My daughter was less than thrilled when I told her my plan for dinner since she doesn't like chili but she ended up LOVING it and even had seconds.

My hubby who also doesn't care for chili or corn bread had a second helping and will have it for lunch a couple more times this week as well.

All and all, I would say it was a success!

Coney Corndog Casserole

Ingredients:

2 8.5 oz boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix

3 eggs

3 Tbls vegetable oil

1 small can diced green chilies

2 cups shredded cheese, divided, I used Pepper Jack

1/2 cup sour cream

1 lb kielbasa or hot dogs, cut into bite size pieces, honestly I think most any meat would work, I used Cajun spiced Andouille Sausage

1 40oz can prepared chili

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

sour cream, if desired for topping

Directions: 

Combine eggs, oil, chilies, 1 cup shredded cheese, and sour cream in a large bowl until blended.

Add muffin mix and combine just until moistened, batter may be lumpy.

Spread half of corn muffin mix into the bottom of a greased 13x9 casserole dish.

In a large skillet brown sausage pieces (if using burger or other raw meat cook until brown throughout)

Once browned, add chili, brown sugar, garlic powder, chili powder and pepper.

Heat until hot mixing to distribute spices evenly.

Once hot add 3/4 cup cheese, stir until melted.

Remove chili from heat and pour it over the corn muffin mix in the casserole dish.

Top with remaining corn muffin mix doing the best you can to spread it across the top without mixing it into the chili.

Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese (I may have used more)

Bake uncovered for 28-32 minutes until corn bread is golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to set for 5 minutes before serving.

Say grace and enjoy!

Free Cereal, Free Jasmine Rice and more!

The Fillows cereal rebate reloaded to my gallery yesterday, so I once again scored 5 boxes of cereal that were free after the rebate.

The Mahatma Jasmine ready to serve rice was also free after the $1.88 rebate.

We really enjoyed the .48 Hormel Natural Choice snack packs so I bought 5 more of them since they also reloaded to the gallery.

How about Hunt's Best Ever Ketchup for .43 after a $1.75 rebate? Yes please!

Added in lots of other goodies using the Ibotta rebate as well.

Below is  my total purchase, $54.85 at the register, only $21.47 after rebates! Plus, since I redeemed 10 rebates I'm very close to earning several bonuses.

If you'd like to join my team use referral code cjbduxp when you get the app.

$0.47 Noosa, $0.63 Bird's Eye Sides

Noosa printable paper coupons are available on their website.  Ibotta rebates are not effected by the use of coupons so these savings can be stacked.

I had two paper coupons that were $1 off with the purchase of two Noosa yogurts.  The Ibotta rebate was $1 off when you buy three.

I purchased four at $1.22 each, had two $1 off coupons and $1 Ibotta rebate making these .47 each.

The Bird's Eye Steamfresh sides were only $1 to begin with at Walmart and my Ibotta rebate was for .75 off when you buy two, bringing these down to just .63 each after rebate.

We can earn bonuses faster as a team.  If you'd like to be a part of my team use referral code cjbduxp when you get the app.

Creamy Cheesy Tortellini Soup

Creamy Cheesy Tortellini Soup

Ingredients

8 cups chicken broth

19 oz bag frozen cheese tortellini

12 oz bag frozen peas and carrots

16 oz bacon or sausage

1/2 cup heavy cream

shredded parmesan cheese for sprinkling on top

Directions

1. Bring the broth to a boil over medium high heat in large soup pot.

2. Meanwhile, pan fry bacon or sausage until cooked, drain off grease.

3. Once broth is boiling add frozen veggies and return to boil.

4. Add the tortellini, cook 3 minutes.

5. Add bacon or sausage.

6. Add heavy cream and simmer an additional 2-3 minutes.

7. Season with salt and pepper to taste and top with a pinch of parmesan.

Say grace and enjoy!