Many of you joined me in January as I ate from our pantry, freezer and fridge for the Pantry Challenge. We successfully ate for $150 by using what we had on hand. Well, it wasn’t my intent, but the same thing had happened this week, and so far, I haven’t gone grocery shopping but used up staples that have been on hand.
Late morning, we finished off the buttermilk pancakes, filling up our bellies for probably under $2 total for the whole family.
For lunch, we had smoothies and left over taco soup, which is always better after a day or two since the spices blend.
Late afternoon snacks were some salad and chips (yes, I know that seems mixed up, but our family loves salad.)
Dinner was a combination of the world’s best comfort foods – meatloaf and my make ahead mashed potatoes. I love making Italian Mozzarella Meatloaf. Meatloaf is a wonderful dinner item where you can make the beef stretch by adding creative fillers which no one would ever guess. 🙂
As I look back at our last few meal days, it’s great to use up some of the things I had already in stock. I still have lots of ground beef in my freezer. The ten pound bag of potatoes NEEDED to be used up (yes, only a few signs of spring in that bag…:)), lots of grain to be ground and fruit to be used quickly since they were ripe when purchased (except for the strawberries. We keep a large bag of frozen ones from Sam’s Club.)
So what about you? What is on your dinner plan for this evening?
Have you thought ahead? That’s the biggest obstacle to reducing the grocery budget.
Don’t forget to see what Toni and Kate are doing this week in their kitchen. Plus Rachel has started a Meals with my Deals carnival you’ll love.
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What is the recipe for the Italian mozzarella meatloaf? Looked in the archives, but couldn’t find the actual recipe. Thanks!
I have no idea what’s for dinner tonight. I made sloppy joes last night with what I had on hand but I did have to buy the buns.
I am doing an eat from the pantry in March because the deals were too good to pass up in January. Tonight is leftover chicken/bean/cheese tacos on homemade wheat tortillas. Thanks for the inspiration! I love your blog.
I’ve been trying hard to make side dishes – rice, beans, pasta, veggies, etc – from my pantry to supplement whatever I’m making for suppers. I tend to do one-dish meals because my kids are still small (two preschoolers and a toddler) and don’t eat much! But leftovers go much further if there are side dishes and my hubby enjoys meals more too!
In between soccer games, I pulled out a meatloaf from the freezer. When I make one meatloaf, I always make at least one more to freeze. Last night I made 2 giant bbq chicken pizzas for our small group. That was easy and filling! I used the $.77lb chicken breasts that HT had last week. Planning is good. Blessings!!!
Luckily we are going to my sisters house for dinner tonight, but I’m bringing a big salad! But I have been SO inspired by your pantry and cooking posts I have been shopping at all different stores and saving a TON and eating out of our freezer/pantry constantly!! So thank you Jen! Your blog ROCKS 🙂
I have been looking around your blog for a little while today and can’t find your smoothie recipe? Is it on here? TIA! 🙂
Kristi
Our plans changed today. I had some sirloin out for kebabs but wasn’t in the mood to marinate and chop veggies and soak skewers, etc… So, I made up a double batch of pizza dough in the bread machine and we had yummy pizza for dinner with leftovers for tomorrow!
Enjoy your blog!