Day 6, Sloppy Wapiti

Sloppy Wapiti

Tonight was a "so you forgot to defrost" moment for sure.  You would think that since I'm writing this blog and participating in this challenge that I would be at least planning a little, that I would be at least a little bit organized.  You would be wrong.

While I was on one of the meal prep pages I follow on facebook yesterday someone mentioned that they were having Sloppy Joes for dinner.  I thought, that sounds good. It's been a while since I've made Sloppy Joes.  Do you think that prompted me to set out a pound of burger to thaw? Nope, sure didn't.

So once I got home tonight I grabbed a pound of elk burger from the freezer, used the pull apart microwave thawing method that I've mentioned previously and got to cooking.

Sloppy Wapiti

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Elk (or whatever meat you've got)

1/2 Yellow Onion, diced

1 cup Ketchup

2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

2 tsp Prepared Mustard (I used Dijon)

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

4 Hamburger Buns

Directions:

1. In a large skillet brown ground meat and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink.  Drain if necessary.

2. Stir in ketchup, sugar, mustard, garlic powder and salt. 

3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

4. Serve on buns.

5. Say Grace and enjoy!

Excellent with added cheese and condiments of your choice, I even sometimes like it with a little slaw on it.

Tonight we had our Sloppy Wapitis with choice of mac salad or potato salad that we still had leftover in the fridge and some tater tots that were in the freezer. 

Starting Grocery Budget $100

Day 6 Balance Remaining $84.64

Question of the Day, Did you know what Wapiti was before clicking on this link?

Answering the question of the day in the comments will get you entered to win a Toastmaster 10 x 16 Griddle.  I will randomly choose the winner from those entered on January 31st. 

Day 5, $2.50 entree of Creamy Chicken Lemon Parmesan

Creamy Chicken Lemon Parmesan

After a long day working and running errands I didn't even start dinner until after 6:30 but we were eating by 7:00.

I browned some chicken breast in olive oil while bringing a large pot of water to bowl for the pasta.  

Once the chicken breast was nearly cooked thru I added the jar of sauce, turned it down to a simmer, covered it and let it finish cooking while waiting for the pasta to cook.

Once the water was boiling the pasta was done in just a short eight minutes, I drained it, returned it to the pot and poured the sauce with chicken on top.

Served with home canned green beans.

 

Now the coolest thing about this meal is that it cost about $2.50.  Today it didn't cost me anything because all of these items were already on my pantry shelf and the meat was in the freezer.

I never pay over $2 a pound for chicken breast.  I cooked about a pound tonight.  I likely paid between $1.49 and $1.99 for this chicken.

I have eight boxes of this pasta, seven still remain.  Why so many? Because they were FREE after using my Ibotta rebate!

I have six jars of this pasta sauce remaining as well, I paid between .50-.75 a jar between coupons and Ibotta.

I am finding the hardest part of this pantry challenge is that I set the $100 budget.  It's really hard for me to pass up a bargain so I'm finding it's best if I don't even look at the ads or my Ibotta app.

I did however break into my grocery budget envelope Saturday.  I was at Walmart for something else non grocery and made the mistake of walking by the Christmas clearance section, they had big bags of trail mix marked down 75% so I spent $3.50 to pick some up.  Hopefully I don't regret that by the end of the month.

Sunday we dipped into our entertainment/dining out budget and celebrated our nephew's Baptism.  Since we ate out for lunch neither of us were hungry come supper time but our daughter wanted what she calls a "gourmet lunchable"(it's not really a lunchable at all).  It was $2.75.

Today I picked up my hubby's soda and English muffins. Basically I figured we have about $25 a week so I'm still ahead of the curve so far.  

Starting Grocery Budget $100

Day 5 Balance Remaining $84.64

Question of the Day, Do you use Ibotta or other savings apps?

Answering the question of the day in the comments will get you entered to win a Toastmaster 10 x 16 Griddle.  I will randomly choose the winner from those entered on January 31st. 

Day 2, Meatball Subs on Almost Homemade Buns

Meatball Subs on Almost Homemade Buns

The feast of Rose Bowl leftovers continues tonight with meatball subs.

These meatballs are awesome if you ever want to give them a try, I got the recipe off the OceanSpray Cranberry label at Thanksgiving. It's just 2 pounds of meatballs, a can of cranberries and a 12oz bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce.  Heat on the stovetop in minutes or in the crockpot on high for a couple hours.

I made my rolls from Rhodes Frozen Loaf Dough.  A loaf makes four nice sized hoagie rolls, if you want a footlong one loaf makes two.

I wrapped my frozen loaf in plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray and allowed it to thaw on the counter top for a couple hours.

I then used scissors to cut the loaf lengthwise and then cut those in half again crossways. Place these on a greased baking sheet and cover with the same greased plastic wrap that you allowed the bread to thaw in. 

Place somewhere warm and allow to double in size.  Remove plastic wrap and place in a preheated 350* oven for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy the amazing smell of fresh bread baking!

Assembling my sandwich consisted of hollowing out a shallow well on one side of the split open roll just to keep the meatballs from rolling out.  Then cheese, I put it on both sides because cheese is just that amazing.

You could eat it right now just like this but I popped mine under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese was nicely melted and just starting to turn gold.

I let everyone make their own plate choosing from leftover potato salad, macaroni salad and veggies that still remained even after last night's soup.

Say grace and enjoy!

Starting Grocery Budget $100

Day 1 Balance Remaining $100

Question of the Day, Do you ever get a chance to make homemade bread?

Answering the question of the day in the comments will get you entered to win a Toastmaster 10 x 16 Griddle.  I will randomly choose the winner from those entered on January 31st. 

Day 1 Dinner, Cheesy Creamy Veggie Soup

Cheesy Creamy Veggie Soup

Yesterday was New Year's Day and that means college bowl games. Any thoughts of starting a diet were going to be postponed until the 2nd. Since the Oregon Ducks made it to the Rose Bowl we knew we wanted to watch the game and enjoy all your typical snacks. 

With kick off came the first round of snacks, a meat and cheese platter, veggie tray and chips and dips. The really naughty foods came out at half time 😉

Everyone knew the hot food was coming so much of this initial spread was left untouched.  Not wanting any of it to go to waste I turned the leftovers into tonight's dinner.  A delicious cheesy, creamy vegetable soup.  While I don't have an actual recipe I can walk you through what I did. 

I've made some variation of this soup many times over the years.  It's always slightly different, never quite the same but always delicious. 

It varies so much because my available vegetables varies.  Tonight I made it with onion, garlic, carrot, celery and broccoli.  In the past I've included various peppers, cauliflower and potatoes as well. It's a great way to use up leftover or extra veggies or veggies that are nearing the end of their life.  Not to mention, when I eat broccoli I only like the florets, but when making soup I don't shy away from using more stem.

Tonight I started by sauteing onion, celery and carrot in a stock pot until the onion became translucent.

  

Then I added some minced garlic and sauteed an additional minute.

Then I added about 5 cups of water, enough to cover my veggies and brought it to a boil.  I added an appropriate amount of veggie and beef Better Than Bouillon.  You could also us canned, boxed or homemade broth for this step.

Once the soup was boiling I covered it and reduced the heat to a simmer.

Meanwhile I pan fried the leftover summer sausage until it was just lightly browned and starting to crisp up a bit.

Once the veggies are tender I like to use my immersion blender to puree the soup.  My family will eat almost any veggie if there's not a lot of texture and they can't pick out any one component.

Once blended I added the summer sausage and about a cup of heavy cream that was leftover from some holiday baking.

My secret ingredient to make quick soups taste like you put in the time is adding 1/2 to 1 tsp liquid smoke.

I then finished it off with a couple cups of cheddar cheese and left it on the heat just long enough to get that cheese melted.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Typically, soup may be served with saltines or oyster crackers but I used Ritz and they made it so delicious.

I have made this soup with all types of broth. I've also used cream cheese, sour cream and even just milk in place of the cream.  Of course any cheese will also do.  It's really a refrigerator soup, whatever you've got in there will work just fine.  If it's too thick add more liquid if it's too runny add some instant mashed potatoes to thicken.

Say grace and enjoy!

As for the rest of our day, my daughter and niece requested chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. 

For lunch they wanted some of the leftover naughty foods, so they enjoyed taquitos, chicken nuggets and mozzarella sticks.  Hubby had leftover Navy bean and ham soup.

Starting Grocery Budget $100

Day 1 Balance Remaining $100

Question of the Day, Could you make a full meal from items currently in your fridge? If so, what?

Answering the question of the day in the comments will get you entered to win a Toastmaster 10 x 16 Griddle.  I will randomly choose the winner from those entered on January 31st. 

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