Pantry Challenge Update!

I’ve been busy in the kitchen. Baked Pumpkin Spice French Toast using up bread that was getting stale. 

Breakfast bowls using sausage I had browned and froze last Sept and Oct (links and crumbles), eggs that were past their best by date, but still good, tator rounds and cheese I had shredded last fall and froze. I portion out a serving into sandwich bags, place in a freezer zip lock bags and freeze. To reheat, I remove frozen from the sandwich bag and reheat in the microwave. Add peppers, onions and other vegetables as you wish. 

Cheeseburger Tator Tot Casserole 

Pumpkin black walnut bread (I cut the sugar by half)

Crack Chicken Spaghetti

Honey garlic pork loin (that I covered in BBQ sauce as it needed something more) and green beans (canned) with potatoes (canned), bacon and seasonings. 

An applesauce raisin cake that tasted wonderfully but was a flop as the outside was hard and the middle was raw. May look for another recipe to try. 

Deviled eggs and no bake cookies. 

Taking Stock and Getting Organized

Ham! And some more ham! My father mentioned buying a ham to split with me in December, but then didn’t mention it again. I then purchased two hams at Sam’s Club right after Christmas. One was $5 off, the other $10 off. Two days later my father brought over the ham he had bought. I made ham (great northern) and beans and vacuum sealed the rest. I have 10 packages with 2 cups diced, 1 package with 1 1/4 cups diced, 1 package for beans (bigger chunks) and 2 packages sliced. I also frozen some Canadian bacon and ham steaks I had in the fridge. I’m set for ham for a while!

Pasta! Pulled out all the boxes of pasta that I have.  I’ve since used one box of spaghetti and a box of penne.

Straightened up the upright freezer and the fridge freezer.

I cleaned out my spice cabinet.

I’ve also printed off recipes or pulled recipes I’ve already had that use ingredients from my pantry, shelves and freezer and put them in a new 3 ring binder for easy access to dish/meal ideas. 

Pantry Challenge Update

The challenge is going great! Somethings I’ve used and made; 

Sweet potatoes. I bake these, allow to cook, wrap in tin foil and freeze in a freezer zip lock bag.  They’ll last for months this way.  To eat, remove foil and microwave. They taste like you’ve just baked them.  I like taking these camping. 

 

Back on Sept or October, several grocery stores had 5 lb bags of russet potatoes for $0.88-0.99 each. I bought a couple of bags. I ate them for lunches with cheese and butter and I made some into potato soup. I might have used them another way. This is what I had left and they were beginning to look bad. I baked them, cooled them, cut off the skins and made twice baked potato casserole, which I froze for another day. 

I baked 3 packages of bacon. I hate frying it and rarely do I make bacon that isn’t the fully cooked kind you can microwave, but these packages had been on sale. I froze the cooked slices between wax paper overnight and then filled freezer quart bags with slices to use for future recipes. 

I made crock pot teriyaki apricot pork chops. The apricot preserves were best by October 2022 and the pork chops were frozen in February 2022. I made a box of Rice-a-Roni fried rice (best by 7/22) and added a small can of peas and carrots (best by 12/22) to eat along side the pork chops. 

With the remaining pork chops, I made Swiss Pork Chop Casserole. This was SO good! I’ll make it again, but alter the recipe some. I thought it was too salty. I think I’d spray the casserole, rather than melt the butter. I would not season the pork chops. And I’d probably top each pork chop with a TBSP of crushed croutons, rather than use the entire bag. Oh, and I subbed sliced from a block Mozzarella cheese as I didn’t have any Swiss cheese. My slices were thicker than sandwich slices as the recipe calls for, but cheese is never a bad thing! Click on the link below for the recipe  

Swiss Pork Chop Casserole

I had a large tub of sour cream to use up and made my families sour cream sugar cookies (sorry no picture) and Pryaniki or Russian Sugar Cookies (shown in picture). The recipe calls for a glaze that called for powdered egg whites. I debated making a different type of glaze as I didn’t have powdered egg whites, but decided to leave them unfrosted. My sour cream sugar cookies call for frosting, but I prefer them unfrosted too. Pryaniki link below; 

Pryaniki

With that sour cream, I made a chicken casserole with two boxes of Stove Top (one of the boxes was best by 10/22) and a taco casserole that used taco meat I had prepared and froze in August 2022 (sorry, forgot to take a picture).

I made an apple crisp using apple pie filling I made and froze in September 2021.  I used up several items and made a batch of breakfast burritos.  I’ve been enjoying them for breakfast. 

Using crescent rolls that were best by 12/22, pepperoni I had frozen from a Managers Special at Dillons last fall and am open bag of mozzarella cheese, I made pepperoni roll ups. The idea came from Mama Sue’s YouTube channel;  

Pepperoni roll ups

Not bad, if you ask me! I cleaned out the refrigerator last week. I have enough blocks of cheese to last me a long while! I have two more cans of crescent rolls that I need to use (best by 1/23). Oh and I found a snack pack of applesauce, the six count cup size package, in the fridge that is best by 1/23 that I need to eat or use. The fridge freezer is next. Haven’t been to the grocery store all month, but have gotten lettuce and tomato at Sam’s. 

Pantry Challenge 2023

I have way too much food. I spend too much at the grocery store for a family of One! I don’t go to the store and buy just what I need, rather I browse the isles and add extra things to my cart. All reasons to challenge myself to a pantry challenge. 

My goal is to not visit a grocery store for all of January and February.  I’m allowing visits to Sam’s Club for dairy, bread and fresh produce.  I am not bringing anything into the house that has to be frozen.

This is my basement pantry set up.  I plan to share a picture of the freezer another time.  Focus items are; Bisquick that expired in October. It’s a small box, shouldn’t be hard to use up. Minute Rice that I bought a couple of years ago during CoVid and expires* in May. Old Fashion Oats.  I thought I had more than I do, but I easily use the quick cooking oats, but not the old fashioned oats. Pepper ridge farms dry season stuffing. I have four bags, two of two varieties! I do not need four! 

Canned chicken. There was a time I didn’t like it, but now I love it. Not as good as rotisserie chicken, but a big time saver. I have some shredded rotisserie chicken in the freezer and some breaded chicken strips, nuggets and maybe filets. I don’t have any chicken breasts, thighs or legs. 

Beans! Hyvee had them on sale fall of 2021 for $0.19. I picked through and got cans that didn’t expire till 2024 and I think I bought 24cans! I’ve made a big dent in them making chili or taco soup. 

Tomatoes! Yikes! I only have one jar of spaghetti sauce and I’m planning to try my hand at making my own using canned tomatoes. I use tomatoes in chili and taco soup, but I need more ideas on how to use up those tomatoes. 

Two purchases I don’t use, need in this picture. The canned mixed vegetables and Aldi canned potatoes. I read an Aldi fans post about how wonderful the canned potatoes are, so of course I had to get some. Same with the two cans of mixed vegetables. I need to find uses for both. 

Crackers! Yes, that’s a lot of crackers! I love to make my own version of Lunchables with cheese, lunch meat and crackers. Sometimes I add pickles. I also eat cheese and crackers as a snack or for breakfast or dinner, especially in the summer when I’ve worked outside and don’t want much of a meal. 

Cake mixes! A few of those are brownie mixes, but the cake mixes are all chocolate! And the frosting, it’s all vanilla! It’s rare that I make a cake, maybe once a year, so this is an example of browsing the isles, seeing a good deal and buying what I don’t need! Oh, I spy a spice cake mix. I saw a video on YouTube where someone made cookies using a spice cake mix and canned pumpkin. 

Grape jelly. I feed it to the birds and go through a lot of jars. 

Poor lighting, I’m in my basement. I have:

Five pumpkin

One pumpkin pie mix 

One of each; apple, strawberry blackberry pie filling 

Two cherry pie filling

Five fried apples (can, Aldi)

One cherry maraschino 

One crushed pineapple

One pineapple ring 

Cherry jam

Strawberry jam 

I need to find uses for the pumpkin and fried apples. And the pie fillings! The rest have 2024 or longer expiration dates. 

Poppy seed dressing makes the best grilled or baked chicken marinade. 

My russet potatoes were purchased back in October, I believe, when two stores had 5 lb bags on sale for $0.99. Haven’t seen that price since. Those I have left have started to grow eyes and a few have started to get soft. I have a plan for them. 

The sweet potatoes were purchased before Thanksgiving when on sale for $0.39 a lb. It’s cool enough they’ll last a long while down stairs. Eventually I will bake them, cool, wrap in heavy foil and freeze in zip lock bags. They’ll keep this way all summer. I love having a sweet potato in the summer or while camping. They taste as good reheated in the microwave as they did the day baked. 

Cereal. There are two boxes on another panty shelf. Those I eat when I’m craving something sweet and crunchy. Those shown in this picture are destined to be chex mix and Rice Krispie treats. 

Gatoraid is kept for the mail man. I stock up when it goes on sale and leave him a cold one in an igloo on the porch if the temp or heat index is above 90 degrees. You should always have a couple of gallons of water on hand should something happen that requires a boil order or a water main breaks and you’re without water while the city fixes it. 

I rarely eat potato chips (Doritos), but they were on sale. A lot of my purchases are they-were-on-sale purchases. Avoiding the grocery store and not watching the ads means no more they were on sale purchases. 

*Expires. Some items “expire” others have best by dates. In years past, I would have tossed an item the second it expired. I no longer do, but I make a habit of going through the pantry once a month and pulling items that I need to eat, which reminds me, I pulled a can of sauerkraut and got hotdogs last month for hotdogs and sauerkraut. Need to have that this month. A friend told me to add 1/2 tsp of baking soda to expired cake, brownie, cookie mixes and they’ll be fine. 

If you look, you’ll see I write the expiration date month and year on every item when I’m putting it away in the pantry. Someone years ago did that on a YouTube video I watched and I’ve done it ever since. Sure easier to find the expiration date when I store it than to try and find it when going through the pantry. 

My last visit to a grocery store was right before Christmas. I’ve been to Sam’s Club since then, but haven’t added anything to the pantry. Let’s see what I can make and how long I can avoid going to the store. 

Feral Cat Shelters

Several weeks ago, I found three large styrofoam igloos at a thrift store and decided to make them into feral cat shelters. I gave those three to my father and his porch cats have loved them. The igloos are used to ship refrigerated RX and I’ve checked with thirteen local pharmacies and only one has gotten in touch with me and they gave me three more igloos. 

*I tried a half dozen times to get these photos in the correct order and wasn’t able to. 

If you can get your hand on the igloos, they’re very easy to construct. You’ll need a 6” opening. I did a circle (traced a flower pot) on the first one, but have been cutting squares on the rest. I like to line the edges with tape to secure the styrofoam  I used Gorilla Glue masking tape  

 Line the igloo with ~2” of straw. Of note, the lid is larger than the bottom, so I made the lid the bottom. 

Tape the lid down and then run tape around the entire igloo at least once. 

Cover the igloo with a thick plastic trash bag. I used Husky industrial bags and some blue bags I had on hand for the largest igloo. Tape the bag closed as if wrapping a gift. 

Cut the hole for the opening and tape the edges of the plastic inside the igloo. Sit outside, out of the wind.  Once cats are familiar with the shelter, you can drape something over the opening as a flap. Do not put cloth items in the shelter, straw only.  Cats paws can freeze to cloth items in really cold temperatures. 

Hopefully another pharmacy will reach out to me with igloos so I can continue to make them for cats in need  

 

Calendar bookmarks

I sent calendar bookmarks in my Christmas cards this year. They’re easy to make, first you’ll need a template or two. 

Lay your template on the calendar and trace out the image you want. 

Cut out the traced bookmarks. 

Share with others! 

Territorial Capital Museum Christmas Tree Display 2023

I visited Lecompton, KS to see the Christmas Tree display two weekends ago. Always worth the trip! Aunt Netters in downtown Lecompton is a must stop too! 

271 Christmas trees this year! Display runs through January 7, visit if you can!