Pantry Challenge: Week Three

The Pantry Challenge still chugs along.  All I've bought this past week is milk (of course) and while buying organic salad greens I saw that organic bananas were fairly inexpensive and picked up a couple of bunches.  

When I'm figuring what we're going to have for dinner, I either poke around in the freezer to see what needs to be cooked, or I look at my rough list for ideas.  This list isn't anything fancy, but  I just jot down dinner ideas that I find while rummaging through my cookbooks. 

Sometimes I note what special ingredients the recipe has that I want to use up and I always write down the cookbook and page where it was found.   

This week we started with a cheese tortellini that had been hanging out in the freezer with homemade canned spaghetti sauce from the summer (when I first made it I thought it might be a bit sweeter than I liked, but now it has melded into an incredibly good flavor!) and homemade bread into which I mixed a little less than a tablespoon of garlic powder and dried parsley.  

Another meal we ate was chicken breasts baked in a 9 x 11- dish with cut up carrots, potatoes, and garlic all tossed in olive oil, and a baked acorn squash.  I cook my squashes by throwing the whole thing in the oven on the oven rack and baking it until a fork pokes in easily.  I then cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and the skin usually peels right off.  Then I mash it with what ever seasonings I want to add.  It's simple and good!

Homestyle Chicken and Sausage was a big hit.  I only added sausage though.  

One night we ate out.

And our Sunday dinner was an easy Baked Ziti Casserole from Family Feasts for $75 a Week.  

My family loves their desserts and this week I made a pumpkin pie and brownies and last night a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I freeze some of the cookie dough in dropped spoonfuls so that I can just take them out, put them on a cookie sheet, and have fresh baked cookies anytime.    

One goal of this challenge is to clean out one of the freezers we have (we have a chest freezer and an upright freezer) so that I can defrost one and then move everything over and defrost the other.  It would be nice to actually be able to turn one freezer off over the summer until we stock up on our meats in the fall.  

Next week will be my last week reporting on my Pantry Challenge, but I will continue following it all the way into the spring - when the fresh vegetables start coming in!

Pantry Challenge: Week Two

I should look at my previous week's Pantry Challenge update so that I can remember what I wanted to cook the next week. 

  

This is what I planned: 

Leftover Holiday Bean Soup, homemade biscuits

Manicotti (I made it awhile ago and it must be used)

Roast chicken, pumpkin bread

Apricot Pork Chops

Baked Salmon, corn relish, cabbage salad with asian ginger dressing

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Pumpkin Ravioli

Salad, every day.

Other than the Baked Salmon and Leftover Holiday Bean Soup this is not what I cooked.

The salmon was yummy and with it we had a cabbage salad (thinly sliced green cabbage, grated carrots, and sliced almonds) with Asian Ginger dressing (recipe to follow).  The recipe comes from Family Feasts for $75 a Week.   You've got to check out this cookbook!  I was dubious about the recipe, but even the kids gobbled it up! 

Another day we ate Pork Chops rubbed with a Barbecue Spice Rub that is one of four Rubs - Barbecue, Mediterranean Herb, Cajun, and All-Purpose - a friend gifted me.  Mmmm.  

I made some rice with the pork chops and mixed a bit of the homemade Asian Ginger dressing into the rice while it cooked.  It flavored it beautifully.

The next day I had a ton of leftover rice.  I sauteed and browned red and green peppers - frozen from my summer garden, onions and garlic - from my summer garden, and sweet bulk italian sausage - from my summer pig, into another great dinner!  

We ate leftovers a couple of nights and soup that was hiding in the freezer.  I adore hot soup on these cold and breezy days, but I guess I made it too much and my daughter finally told me she was tired of soup!

I had to make a run to the grocery stores for some big shopping and ended up spending $217 at our big box store for assorted odds and ends - flour, organic apple juice, toilet paper, etc.  This included giant bags of dog and cat food.  Along with about $8 at the bakery thrift store, $30 for a huge hunk of cheese, and another $25 at the local grocery store for milk, a lemon, and bananas, that is our grocery bill for quite a while!  $217 + $8 + $25 + $30 = $280.  Not too shabby for a month's worth of groceries for four people.  We'll see how long I can cook meals off of this shopping trip.    

The big expenditure at our house is milk.  We can go through up to a gallon a day.  At almost $4.00 a gallon that adds up fast.  I started looking for a local dairy from whom I could buy milk because they usually sell it for about $2.00 per gallon.  Unfortunately, even if I find a dairy, I can't blog about it.  With all the hoopla about raw milk I fear the "milk nazis" could shut down any dairy I would find.  

I made a pumpkin pie out of my kakai pumpkin puree.  The pie tasted rich and pumpkiny, but not quite as sweet as an actual pie pumpkin would have yielded.  My husband, the pumpkin pie aficionado, said he liked the less sweet taste better.  I'll definitely plant this pumpkin next year!  

Asian Ginger Dressing

Makes about 1-1/2 cups

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup white vinegar

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 Tbsp. peeled and minced, fresh ginger

1/2 tsp. salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a pint-size container with a tight fitting lid.  Shake well.

2.  Remove lid and heat jar in microwave on High 1 minute just to dissolve honey.

Cool and shake well before serving.  Store, tightly covered, in refrigerator up to 2 months.

~ from "Family Feasts for $57 a Week" by Mary Ostyn

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I usually write about the dinners I'm serving for the Pantry Challenge, but breakfasts and lunches are included in the Challenge as well.   We usually eat biscuits, eggs in some form, toast, or hot cereal of some kind, for our breakfasts  - and leftovers, or soup and sandwiches, for our lunches.  Today, to go with lunch, I'm going to try to make a homemade tomato soup using canned tomato sauce from this summer's crop.  It should make enough to last 3, 4, or even 5, days!    

My First Week of the Pantry Challenge

I successfully finished the first week of the Pantry Challenge and found myself spending a lot more time cooking, but I think as I get on track the time will be less of an issue.  My husband has finally, after 5 years, stopped working full time down in Baltimore with only weekends at home and I'm cooking for one more person.

We ate very well and I found myself testing out some of the things I had processed over the summer.  I used  of my dried cubed zucchini in a "Homemade Rice a Roni" (the recipe follows) that the family loved. 

The next night, I mixed the leftover "Homemade Rice a Roni"(the recipe makes a lot) with browned bulk italian sausage, onions, and some sweet green peppers that were getting wrinkly.   

The family raved about my "Teriyaki Pork Roast" and I got to use up some ginger that has been floating around for awhile. 

After a successful fishing trip my husband came home and grilled Steelhead fillets.

We ate "Pat's Meat Stew" using up some venison shoulder - and a Holiday Bean Soup using a mixed batch of beans and a ham steak.  

On PTA meeting night I made a platter of Havarti cheese cubes, homemade bread slices, carrots, celery, and ranch dip. 

For desserts (because they always want dessert!)  we had coconut drop cookies, brownies, and a homemade apple crumb pie that had been waiting in the freezer.  

How did I enjoy the first week?  I truly enjoyed that we took the time to sit down to meals, talk, and eat good food.  What a pleasure it was to actually use up food rather than disposing of it after it had languished in the pantry and become inedible!

After looking through my pantry and perusing my cookbooks, here's a sampling of what I've planned for future dinners.

Leftover Holiday Bean Soup, homemade biscuits

Manicotti (I made it awhile ago and it must be used)

Roast chicken, pumpkin bread

Apricot Pork Chops

Baked Salmon, corn relish, cabbage salad with asian ginger dressing

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Pumpkin Ravioli

Salad, every day.

________________________

Homemade Rice a Roni

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

2 Tbsp. oil (olive oil is good)

2 cups uncooked long-grain white or brown rice

1 cup uncooked vermicelli or spaghetti broken into 1-inch pieces or shorter

5 cups beef broth

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or sage (I used 2 Tbsp. dried basil)

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (I used fresh carrots, odds and ends of assorted frozen vegetables, and dehydrated zucchini)

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper or to taste

1. In a wok, or heavy skillet, heat butter and oil over medium heat,  When butter begins to melt, add rice and toss to coat well with butter and oil.  Cook until some of the rice starts to brown

2.  Add pasta and keep stirring until some of it has browned bits as well.  When mixture begins to stick a little, add broth, garlic, basil, and mixed vegetables.  Cover and continue to cook until rice is tender, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If rice starts to stick to the bottom before it is fully cooked, you made need to turn down the heat a little and add 1/2 cup water.  Total cooking time for white rice will be 20 to 25 minutes.  Brown rice will take 40 to 55 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

~Adapted from "Family Feasts for $75 a Week"

Pantry Challenge

Have you made your New Year's Resolutions yet?  Have you made a goals list for your homestead?  

We're still working on putting our goals for 2012 together, but one goal we're starting today is a "Pantry Challenge."  What this means is that my family will attempt to eat as much as we can out of our own pantry for the next month.  We'll be going to the grocery store less and having to take more time to plan meals. 

We spent the fall getting our pantry stocked and I hate to see all that hard work go to waste.  But each year it seems like there is far too much food that doesn't get used up and it ends up being thrown away, fed to the chickens/pigs/dogs/cats, or composted.

Sadly, the wasted food does not come from stocking too much.  It comes from going to our grocery store for this and that ingredient and picking up more every time I'm there.  Why?  Because it takes more time to cook, or I forget what I have, or it's not something I really like and I think "why did I buy that?"  It's as simple as I just don't have the ambition to cook or, more likely, I just simply forget to plan.   

I'd love to be able to claim the Pantry Challenge as my own idea, but it's not original.  I follow a blog named Good Cheap Eats.  The Pantry Challenge and it's "rules" originated from there.  You can find those "rules" here.

Yesterday was the first day of my pantry challenge.  I wanted to make a traditional pork roast for New Year's Day, but due to poor planning the roast wasn't thawed in time.  So I found some easy-to-thaw pork chops, the last box of Stove Top stuffing (I know, terrible stuff), and I almost always have cream of mushroom soup in the pantry (I bought a big case of Pacific Foods All Natural Mushroom Soup the last time I was at our "local" big box store, named BJs.  It's a bit more gelatinous in nature than I like, but tastes pretty much same as Campbells -I'll have to use it up).  Then, I went on to the Stove Top website and found a good recipe for Pork Chop Stuffing Bake here.   I made a salad from some great salad greens and some fresh red and yellow peppers that need to be eaten up before they go bad.  I segmented a tangelo from the case that I had bought at the high school from the FFA students.  We have lots of Christmas cookies left over for our dessert.  Dinner!

The family loved it.  There wasn't a bit left.

Starting next Monday I'll keep you updated on how well this challenge has done and (hopefully!) have a meal plan for the next week.

Will you join me for the Pantry Challenge?  I'd love to hear how tackle it!

Please head over to Barn Hop #43 at Homestead Revival!