Category : pantry challenge

June Pantry Challenge Week 1

June 5th 2010 Posted at Recipes, pantry challenge
2 Comments

Hey Bloggies! It’s week 1 of the June Pantry Challenge and I am really excited to see what I can come up with this week. I hope that some of your out there are inspired to participate as well. This week I picked up a great number of items and stayed in budget. Here the beautiful selection of produce:

Organic Bananas $2.57
Organic Broccoli $2.13
Organic Vidalia Onion $1.27
Organic Baby Spinach $1.48
Organic Garnet Yam $1.85
Organic & Local Kale $2.50
Organic & Local Red Russian Kale $2.50
Organic & Local Yellow Zucchini $2.60
Organic & Local Cucumber $3
Total: $19.90- That means I have 10 cents to spare!

The first dish of the week was Korean BBQ Tempeh Sandwiches with Sriracha Vegan Mayo, 5 Spiced Garnet Yam Fries and Garlic-Soy Sauteed Kale.

Korean BBQ Tempeh:

  • 2T Presidents Choice Korean BBQ Marinade (purchased in Canada)
  • 2T low sodium Shoyu
  • 80z Tempeh, quartered

Preheat the oven to 400F. Place the tempeh in a baking dish and pour the marinade over the tempeh.  Bake for 20 minutes.  In a pan heat a thin layer of oil and sautee the tempeh until it has browned a bit on each side. Serve on a bun with tomato, baby spinach and sriracha vegan mayo.

Sriracha Vegan Mayo

  • 2 T vegan mayo
  • 1t sriracha

Blend together and spread on a bun.

Five Spiced Yam Fries

  • 1 Yam cut into fries
  • 1/2T olive oil
  • 1t 5 spice powder
  • 1/2t wasabi spiced salt

Preheat oven to 400F.  Toss the yam with oil and spices.  Place on a sheet pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Garlic-Soy Kale

  • 1/2 Bunch of Red Russian Kale, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 2 cloves of garlic chopped
  • 1/2T olive oil
  • 1t low sodium shoyu
  • 2t seaweed gomasio (Eden Organics)

In a large saute pan heat the garlic and oil over medium-high for 1 minute.  Add the kale and mix in the shoyu and gomasio. Cook for 2-3 minutes until it is wilted.

June 2010 Pantry Challenge

June 3rd 2010 Posted at pantry challenge
5 Comments

As many of you know the Hubz and I are moving to a new apartment at the end of the month and since I don’t want to have to pack up everything in my cupboards I have decided that it is time for another pantry challenge. Basically I will only be allowed to buy $20 of fresh produce and spices/nutritional yeast for the remainder of the month.  We have a CSA that is starting June 16th that comes every week so that will be on top of the $20 we are “allowed” to spend on fresh produce. Also additionally there is a strict NO EATING OUT rule for this month the only exception is for my daily coffee/tea at the coffee shop where I go to work in the mornings before work. I challenge YOU to try this pantry challenge as well. Please feel free to approach this challenge in anyway that you would like (i.e. if you have a family of 4 you may allow for $40 and/or you may allow yourself to purchase non-dairy milks, tofu, ect.).

Why should you participate?

  1. To create new recipes
  2. To save money
  3. To limit  the waste of food
  4. BECAUSE IT’S FUN!

I’m excited to see how well I do, while still eating healthy. If you would like to participate as well please leave a comment telling me about your plans for this challenge.  Also if you have a blog I encourage you to blog about this challenge and do weekly updates about it. I will be blogging each week detailing how much I spent that week and the meals that I made using the items I purchased, the items from our CSA and of course everything from our pantry/fridge/freezer.

Q: Have you ever tried a pantry challenge? How well did it go for you?

Pantry Challenge Week 1 Update

March 19th 2010 Posted at Uncategorized, pantry challenge
4 Comments

Here is my update on what we have been eating this week for our pantry challenge.  So far this whole pantry challenge thing has been easy and we have been enjoying ourselves.  It feels great to just get in the kitchen and try and put things together to make a healthy, filling and nutritious dish.  My husband also makes it even more of a challenge because if it were just me I’d eat rice and beans with steamed veggies or veggie chili but he just isn’t in to that all the time so I am forced to come up with new ideas. I am thinking that next week will be challenging once the supply of frozen veggies starts to deplete but we are still going to go strong!

Day 1- Sunday:

  • Breakfast: Cornmeal Pancakes with berry sauce (made from frozen berries)
  • Lunch: Leftovers from our dinner party- chickpea romanesco, saffron-garlic rice and roasted asparagus
  • Snacks: Hubby and I split a Lucy’s Cinnamon Cookies Sample and a package of Daneille Crispy Fruit Chips- Pineapple;  I also had a Texas BBQ Primal Strip Sample
  • Dinner: Homemade WW bread with sauteed cabbage, Italian Field Roast sausage, onions, mushrooms and 1 heaping tablespoon of Tofutti cream cheese and hubby and I split and orange for dessert

Day 2- Monday:

  • Breakfast: 2 slices of WW Homemade Bread with Tofutti cream cheese and a cup of decaf coffee for me and some maple brown sugar instant oatmeal for the hubby
  • Lunch: Hubby’s lunch was homemade WW bread with a huge salad of romaine, carrot, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds and raisins with a homemade balsamic raspberry dressing
  • Snacks: Danielle Mango Crispy Fruit Chips
  • Dinner: Beans and cabbage with mexi spices in a big chili wrap with some reduced fat salt and pepper chips and a glass…or 2 of red wine

Day 3- Tuesday:

  • Breakfast: Coach’s Oats with chia seeds, stevia, banana, cinnamon, coconut PB and a few mini chocolate chips for me and instant maple brown sugar oats for the hubz
  • Lunch: neil had leftovers from dinner last night and I had a big wrap with romaine, BBQ sauce and Gardin Buffalo Chicken
  • Snacks: Baked Salt and Pepper Lentil Chips, orange
  • Dinner: BBQ Dinner- Veggie Dogs with mushrooms and onions and BBQ potatoes

Day 4- Wednesday:

  • Breakfast: refried black beans and tortillas and a coffee
  • Lunch: Leftover BBQ potatoes and hot dogs
  • Snacks: Nugo Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Bar, Trader Joes Fruit Strips
  • Dinner: Homemade refried black beans, sauteed cabbage and southwest corn in GF tortillas that weren’t great so we each only ate one and we had some beers

Day 5- Thursday:

  • Breakfast: leftover black beans with cabbage and corn for me and oatmeal for hubby
  • Lunch: low carb tortillas with black beans, romaine, hot sauce and scallions for me and leftover black beans with cabbage and corn for hubby
  • Snack: Baked BBQ chips, teriyaki primal strip, Sensible Foods Dried Corn Snack, Coconut Water
  • Dinner: Field Roast Italian Sausage, Sauteed Cabbage and Potatoes (we ended up eating a like 3 bites of potatoes and were done.)
  • Dessert: Blueberry Crisp Pie

Note today I picked up 3lbs more of cabbage at $0.25/lb  so that makes my weekly total: $19.44

Pantry Challenge 2010 Redux

March 14th 2010 Posted at pantry challenge
3 Comments

As many you know I attempted to do a pantry challenge back in January however after a week and half of trying I realized our pantry was just not overstocked enough to follow through with the challenge. Now that my pantry is stocked back up I have decided that it is time for a pantry challenge redux.  Basically I will only be allowed to buy $20 of fresh produce a week and non-dairy milk for the remainder of the month. I have a packed pantry, freezer and fridge right now and we are in desperate need of cleaning it out, oh and it’ll be nice to save a little dough ($).   This challenge will help me do a number of things:

1. Create new recipes

2. Saves money

3. Ensures that food does not get wasted

I’m excited to see how well I do, while still eating healthy. This week I picked up:

  • 2.07 lbs of Bananas $1.43
  • .19 lbs of Garlic $.76
  • 1 package of Scallions  $1.69
  • 10oz of Mushrooms $2.49
  • 3PK of Romaine Hearts $3.49
  • 4.61 lbs of Navel Oranges $4.57
  • 1lb Carrots $.89
  • 5lb Russet Potatoes $1.69
  • 2 Lemons $1
  • 2.71 lbs of Green Cabbage $.68
      • Total: $18.69

Have you ever tried a pantry challenge? How well did it go for you?

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