It’s the last day of the month, which means my January Pantry Challenge has come to a close. We started out by understanding the need to get organized and I offered a simple Freezer Checklist that might help. Then we addressed the issue of stockpiling food and when is “enough, enough?” If you haven’t read the comments, there is lots of great wisdom in them. I interrupted my Pantry updates, by sharing about Game Day foods and my love for this Beer Dip recipe, even though I don’t drink beer.

Truth be told, it was officially interrupted twice this month when we hit the Pepperidge Farms Thrift Store I(and got two cartloads of items – hello – Goldfish for a quarter) and then when my hubby came home with a fridge full of some amazing mark down meat specials declaring, “You will be so proud of me. They had double stickers on them.”

I almost scolded, well, in fact, I may have started to chastise him for interrupting our Freezer and Pantry Challenge until I realized just what an act of service that was, and only a nagging wife would not appreciate the great shopping. So I shut my mouth, realized I had taught him well, and chuckled when our teen age sons declared him a hero for actually stocking up some great food in the midst of our challenge. 😉

Over all, the month has been a huge success, but I did not attack our chest freezer nearly enough to de-thaw it, which was one of my main goals. There’s still a 20 pound organic Turkey that I purchased for only $0.99/pound after Thanksgiving that I need to cook up, as well as a plethora of other unnamed objects that have disappeared into the abyss, but we only spent approximately $400 for our family of seven, so I was thrilled with the savings. I am actually going to extend my Freezer challenge through February and not make any frozen food purchases, since the food in the freezer must be eaten up and March is National Frozen Foods month. I want it cleared out since lots of stockpile deals will be occurring then.

I made so many crazy, yet yummy concoctions this month, which I will slowly post, but here are just a few new recipes that I recently posted using only  ingredients that I had on hand.

Lots of yummy soups accompanied with  Homemade Dumplings and these easy popovers (regular and cinnamon sugar sweet popovers)

I cleared up the mystery of London Broil and you all gave some great London Broil recipes (so moist and delicious)

Cheesy Cracker Chicken Recipe (3 ingredients)

Cheese and Egg Puff Recipe (but clear out your fridge and make it a meal)

I’ll follow up one more time as I work my way through this freezer because I am going to have to get awfully creative with what lurks in it, while still having my kids think I am a half way decent cook.

How did the rest of you do? Did anyone try the Pantry Challenge this month for any portion of time?

Remember, just jump in and give it a try. Even if it’s just for a week, use up what you have and be challenged to more creative in the kitchen.

Check out how my other friends made this Pantry Challenge work for them:

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