I haven’t officially joined LifeAsMom’s Eat From the Pantry Challenge, but I am not sure why not. I have similar goals to her; we want to try and defrost the big freezer soon (although it will be into February because I have a turkey in there to cook that we won’t have a chance to cook until then), and we are trying to save money on food bills. I have planned out most of this month from the pantry/freezer with a few fresh additions (mostly produce, some pasta since I never stock up on the brown rice pasta since it never goes on sale). So far, we haven’t saved a lot of money, because we bought some things on really good sale (big can of olive oil for $5, Celestial Seasonings Christmas tea for 90 cents a box), but I am hoping the savings will trickle to the rest of the month (I think I took care of most of the shopping other than milk for the next two weeks).
Since we have almost a month of meals planned, and many are from items in the freezer or pantry, this meal plan is subject to change (I may swap out a planned meal from next week with one from this week) but so far:
Monday – Black beans (another recipe from an old Cooking Traditional Foods Menu Mailer; this one is super-popular in my house and cheap and basic), brown rice, some sort of veggie (likely salad)
Tuesday – Shrimp Yakisoba (we got a deal on shrimp for entertaining over the holidays and have leftover)
Wednesday – Leek and Goat Cheese Tart (recipe from The French Market: More Recipes from a French Kitchen
Thursday – Sausage and Peppers
Friday – Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce
Saturday – Spinach & Feta Quiche with Rice Crust
Sunday – Eggs and Bacon
Cooking without almost everything 
January 11, 2010 at 4:34 pm |
So, did you decided to participated in the challenge?
Stop by my blog and participate in my question: Do you wear rubber gloves when you wash dishes?
January 11, 2010 at 6:08 pm |
Leek and goat cheese tart sounds yummy. I wonder if I could do something like that using kefir cheese… I’m thinking that will be a near future kitchen experiment 🙂