September Freezer/Pantry Challenge [Archive]

Kat

9-4-13, 3:53pm

Our utilities went up (again!), so we really need to tighten our belts. Anyone want to join me in a freezer/pantry challenge for the month of September? My goal is to use up what we have and only buy a few perishables (mainly milk and produce) throughout the month. Over the past few days, we've had:

--Hamburger Helper from the pantry with meat and veggies from the freezer
--bologna and cheese and grilled cheese with cheese and meat from the freezer
--baked potato bar with cheese sauce and chili (chili from pantry, cheese sauce made with cheese from the freezer)
--hot dogs and baked beans (hot dogs from the freezer and baked beans from the pantry)

Tonight we are having apple pie oatmeal made in the crock pot and some scrambled eggs. The apples and eggs needed to be used up. We have a ton of oatmeal in the pantry! :-)

TMC

9-5-13, 8:30pm

I'll join in. I will also be using overflowing garden bounty.

Today breakfast was eggs (from the chickens we keep and cantalope (garden) gluten eating members had some bagels I found lurking in the freezer, toasted with strawberry jam to hide the slight freezer burn.

Lunch was just me, kids (teenagers) eat the school lunch, DH eats on expense account most days. I opened a can of tuna, added a tiny dollop of mayo and ate with a fresh sliced tomato.

Dinner was a pre-made freezer meal, Rachel Rays meatballs and mash. So good. I had the meatballs and gravy frozen, dug up some potatoes for the mash and found enough ripe corn on the cobs to round it out.

Heavy protein day today. Tomorrow morning we're having gluten free strawberry yogurt waffles with watermelon and cantalopes (all garden). For lunch I will finish up the tuna I opened today and dinner I want to go vegetarian. Trying to figure out what still.

I would really like to keep my weekly food budget to $90 per week for two adults and two hearty eating teenagers. I include toiletries, dog food, school lunch money and our 5 gallon jugs of water in this.

Kat

9-6-13, 4:01pm

Chili dogs last night; mini meat loaves and corn on the cob tonight. My snack today was a garden fresh tomato with a little salt and pepper. YUM! :)

TMC

9-8-13, 9:10pm

Such a good weekend here. Ate every meal at home, weekends are always such a failure for us, but by preparing in advance we did it.

Saturday we ran errands, I threw boneless chicken in the crockpot with taco seasonings and we made tacos with garden fixins for dinner. Lunch was soup and assorted leftovers.

Today we had hamburgers and fruit salad from the gardens. Dinner we polished off some leftovers.

I roasted a chicken for dinner tomorrow night, farmers egg casserole for breakfast this week and I made a menu plan for the next two weeks.

On a roll I really need to maintain.

Kat

9-9-13, 9:54am

Wow! You are rockin' it, TMC! :-) We ate out over the weekend--tacos and then ice cream for dessert. I'm not completely sorry--it was in expensive and a little treat now and then is nice--but now it's back to business. We actually have a lot of leftovers to eat for lunch today. Tonight we are going to my MIL's for dinner. I am going to try to bring a dessert I can make using up what I have around here.

TMC

9-11-13, 10:20am

Well thanks Kat. After fooling around so much for the last few months I really have to hunker down. I don't regret the fooling around though either.....it was worth it....we did a little traveling...spent some extra money and now I have an expense I am determined to pay case for at the end of this month.

I have been dragging my feet about going to to store. I am going to have to go today, yesterday I resorted to powdered milk, OK for chicken pot pie but we don't like it over cereal.

So some recent meals have been, chicken pot pie with the last of the roast chicken, a home made gluten free crust (I'm working on perfecting) and lots and lots of fruit and veggies from the garden. My DD13 is not eating enough fruit so we are starting every meal from now on with a fruit cup of some sort.

I had a PB&J yesterday for lunch and as usual DH and kids ate at work or school. Breakfast today was that Farmers Casserole that is now gone so I need a plan for tomorrow. Dinner will be the last of the pot pie and I found a package of frozen turkey in gravy that I thawed so there is enough for dinner. That takes care of another lumpy package in my freezer.

I just brought in from the garden a zuke, tomatoes and some strawberries. We'll use those today somehow.

fidgiegirl

9-15-13, 11:29am

Hey all,

We have some beets in the fridge from the garden. I am not in the mood to have them roasted. Do you think they can go chopped up in a soup, like potatoes or carrots? They are the bullseye kind, so yummy.

Kestra

9-15-13, 12:31pm

TMC

9-15-13, 2:20pm

Yes, definitely. But your entire soup will be pink.

I agree, pink soup....but that may be lovely.

TMC

9-15-13, 2:28pm

Sooooo tired of cooking. Have to work out some easy, quick meals.

I work at home, but full time. I have been cooking every day and trying to use garden produce. Unfortunately sometimes that means we'll have potatoes for dinner, but first I have to go dig them. Sort of looking forward to frost.

Today dinner will be baked ham, pierogies, baked zuke and steamed carrots.

Lunch was hot roast beef sandwiches and I cut up a ginormous watermelon from the garden. Cooked up breakfast casserole so everybody has something quick in the mornings and baked some pumpkin cookies for snacks this week.

Weekends are tough, we were running around yesterday so I ended up having to get DD something for lunch. $6.00 spent. I had some almonds with me so I snacked on them and waited until I got home. Not too bad considering usually the four of us will run errands and end of spending $50.+.

fidgiegirl

9-15-13, 2:59pm

I have spent a good amount of time in the kitchen today.

First, I peeled tomatoes and chopped and froze them.

Then, I deboned a rotisserie chicken and froze the meat that was left. We like to throw that in spaghetti sauce. Next I threw the carcass in the crock pot to make stock right away. I didn't salt it as the chicken was pretty salty to begin with; hope that will work out ok. I threw in other seasonings but not salt.

Next, I chopped up all our banana peppers and froze them. I sent DH to the car to get the peppers I had picked yesterday at my parents' (an hour away) along with the tomatillos, and they are not in the car. Guess that means they are sitting on my parents' patio. That is really disappointing because I bet we will not see them again before the produce goes bad. :(

Later today I plan to inventory each freezer and do a big grocery delivery order. I should also throw on some beans overnight. We'd use more beans but need to have them ready to go.

fidgiegirl

9-15-13, 2:59pm

P.S. Thanks for the beet advice. :)

debi

9-16-13, 4:21pm

Or you can pickle the beets. I boil the beets, then put them on a cutting board or in sink, and cool them enough so that I can peel the skin off. Then slice them and put them in quart size canning jars. I make my brine by 3-1/2 cups vinegar, 1-1/2 cups water, 2 cups sugar, and 1 tsp. allspice and boil. Ladle into the beet filled quart jars. Pressure can at 10 lbs for 35 minutes.

debi

9-16-13, 4:25pm

BTW, I'm in. Made chicken breasts by using up some dry Hidden Valley Ranch packet mixed with bread crumbs (saved in the freezer, but thawed out) and coated the chicken. Put on cookie sheet to bake at 375F for 40 minutes. Last year's canned potatoes (slices), drained, made a mixture of milk, flour and shredded cheese. Placed potatoes in greased baking dish (9x9) and poured the milk/cheese mixture over it and baked along with the chicken. Season as you like. So chicken breasts with scalloped potatoes for dinner for 2 nights.

debi

9-16-13, 4:26pm

tonight using up ground beef from freezer, canned tomatoes from last year, and pantry item of chili beans (large can) -- making chili!!! Made homemade bread o Sunday, so bread with the meal.

TMC

9-16-13, 5:28pm

I am seriously dragging, this is usually when I pack it in and go out to eat. DH working late today and I had one of those days where I didn't even take a shower until dinner time. Ugg. Have been working on paperwork, phone calls, bills, insurance stuff, it just sucks the life right out of you.

DS15 home sick today, nasty head cold. I had to cook him lunch, grilled chicken, leftover cauliflower casseole and watermelon. For dinner I browned some ground beef and opened a jar of home canned sauce and boiled some pasta. I am steaming some zuke and carrots to go with it because that's what the garden is throwing at me today.

Did start in advance to use the boiling water pasta trick. Bring to a boil, add pasta, cover, turn off heat, wait 20 mimutes and voila. I was so impressed when I read you could do that, silly little thing but hey, why waste the propane.

Kat

9-23-13, 10:23am

Welcome, fidgie and debi! Well, I haven't been great about posting, and to be honest we have eaten out a few times. It's expensive and it destroys my dieting efforts (still trying to get rid of that last 10 lbs of baby weight!). Ugh! BUT...been doing better the last few days. Since I last posted, we've had lots of freezer/pantry/garden meals--homemade cream of mushroom soup with biscuits, scrambled eggs and toast, beef stroganoff, mac n cheese with hot dogs and canned green beans, roasted chicken. So I am starting to find my groove again. It is just really hard to cook some night when the kiddos are fussy. Today I am going to try to make turkey sloppy joes with turkey, onions, and peppers from the freezer and sauce from the cupboard. Don't have any buns, so I'll serve them over baked sweet potatoes with a little sprinkling of cheese (also from the freezer) on top.

Kat

9-23-13, 10:28am

Oh, I meant to add, too, that a prepared a bunch of fruits and veggies for eating. Washed and sliced celery and put in an old pickle jar full of water. Washed and de-stemmed grapes and cherry tomatoes, sliced a red pepper and put in a container with a little dip. DH is taking some medications now that have a side effect of hunger. I thought preparing healthy foods ahead of time would make us more likely to eat them. Good for our bodies and our budget since we already have them sitting around! :-)

TMC

9-24-13, 9:19pm

Still here....working hard at meal planning so we don't resort to take out. Cheated once with take out sandwiches. Back on the straight and narrow. I am soooo busy working I have little time for anything else. Luckily I work at home but sometimes that means longer hours.

Tonight planned leftovers, butternut squash from the garden, couple of meatballs, last of the fried chicken, carrots and dip. It may not be gourmet but everyone has a full belly.

Tomorrow I tackle a pile of zucchini!

fidgiegirl

9-24-13, 10:32pm

We made a chili from our garden tomatoes and stuff from the freezer. We did have to buy canned beans. I should really throw on a crock of beans because I got a good deal on some dry a few weeks ago. The chili was superb from the fresh tomatoes. It took me a while to peel them (in hindsight, I should have just boiled them down and then food-milled the skins off of them) but it was a labor of love and we savored it for three evenings.

Merski

9-25-13, 7:02am

Molly Katzen's earlier books EBF or Moosewood has a fine soup of beets and cabbage! Yummy!

debi

9-25-13, 3:09pm

Sorry haven't posted for a few days here. Made Spanish rice using last year's canned tomatoes from the garden and had hot dogs that were in the freezer. Made stuffed green peppers from bell peppers from the garden as well as onion, tomato from the garden and rice that I've had in the house. Will be making homemade pizza with tomatoes from garden, pepperoni from freezer and lunchmeat ham chopped up as well as olives that I've had in the pantry. Breakfast in the house for SO is pancakes, biscuits with gravy, cold cereal (Cheerios) or oatmeal. I usually eat oatmeal or a piece of fruit before I leave for work. All of our lunches are packed for work as well (don't like going through fast-foods - gets too costly and no good for one's health).