Eating From Pantry Challenge

I'm going to join in on this because it is kind of fun and because I had already decided to do it before everyone else did, therefore, I'm not on any sort of band wagon. I'm anti band wagon.

So this challenge started last week. The idea is that you attempt to diminish your stock pile of random canned goods and freezer food over the month while buying as little as possible at the grocery store. This is a good time for me to start this since I just now got a husband back to eat food and, when Karissa moved, it all of the sudden hit me that the Army probably WON'T move my giant pile of canned food on behalf.

So I trotted back to my food shelf and checked what I had. Here is a list of the stuff I wanted to make dent in of over the next few weeks:

5 cans of chicken broth

5 cans of beef broth

4 cans of pumpkin

3 cans of yams

2 cans of mushrooms stems and pieces

2 cans of diced tomatoes and green peppers

2 cans of diced green chilies

1 jar of banana peppers

2 cans of black beans

1 can blackeyed peas

1 can tomato paste

4 cans cream of mushroom

1 can cream of chicken

1 can evaporated milk

3 cake mixes

2 can crushed pineapple

2 cans cream of potato

1 cream of celery

1 can refried beans

2 boxes vanilla pudding

3 boxes jello

A variety of canned veggies

Jar of taco sauce

Wow that was a boring read.

Now, because Luke heads of to work in the deep darkness of the early morning and because Dave is still a baby cereal kind of guy, we don't really do breakfast and lunch around here. My menu plan is basically all dinners. The panty challenge therefore started with New Years dinner:

Ham

Sweet potato casserole

"Pink stuff" (pineapple/cottage cheese/cool whip creation)

Pumpkin pie

... bye bye 2 cans of yam, one can of pumpkin, one crushed pineapple and one box of jello.

Last week I made:

Pumpkin sausage noodles (NOT delicious so no link for you)

Texas ranch chicken casserole (totally delicious -- but no link available -- and made a TON, so we ate this pretty much off and on the rest of the week)

Pumpkin dessert bars

... bye bye 2 more cans of pumpkin, 2 cans of chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes and green peppers, a can of diced green chilies, one cream of chicken and one cake mix.

Now, this week's plan:

Shrimp fettucini

Mexican chicken skillet (baked into tortillas), (can of corn, can of black beans)

Black bean taco pizza (taco sauce, can of black beans, diced green chilies)

Pumpkin lasagna (that final can of pumpkin)

Eclairs (both vanilla pudding boxes)

And next week, so far:

Chicken pot pie (one cream of potato and the cream of celery)

Chili (remaining diced tomatoes and tomato paste and chicken broth)

mushroom chicken noodles

So! My list should look more like:

3 cans of chicken broth

5 cans of beef broth

1 cans of yams

1 jar of banana peppers

1 can blackeyed peas

4 cans cream of mushroom

1 can evaporated milk

2 cake mixes

1 can crushed pineapple

1 can cream of potato

1 cream of celery

1 can refried beans

2 boxes jello

A variety of canned veggies

So that was a terribly boring post. Sorry about that.