Posts Tagged ‘pantry challenge’

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?

Pantry Challenge Update- Tofu Scramble

January 19th 2010 Posted at Uncategorized
13 Comments

The winner is:

busymomto5- “our house eats sooo much hummus!”
____________________________________________________________________________________________

I know that in my last update I had said that I had given up on the challenge due to a lack of pantry items however after some consideration I decided that I could do at least another week however I would need to pick up a few pantry items (4 cans of beans and 2 cans of tomatoes).   Yesterday breakfast was leftover quinoa chili I just couldn’t wait until lunch to eat it.  For lunch I had noodles with chickpeas, earth balance and curry powder, simple but yummy.

For dinner I used my sample of Wildwood Organics Sprout Baked Tofu – savory flavored.  I threw 3 shallots, 2 cloves of garlic and the tofu into the food processor and pulsed to break it up.  I threw it in a pan with some vegetable broth and toasted in some nooch, paprika and chili powder.  I added a frozen mix of corn, onions, peppers and black beans and 2 handfuls of spinach.  I had some Ezekiel bread left in the freezer and toasted it up to have with our scramble- unfortunately I didn’t photograph any of this.

I’m going to do a mini giveaway- I have a bunch of coupons for free Cedar’s products including hummus, salsa and their new creamy hummus- If you would like a chance to win, leave me a comment by 8pm on January 21st.  

Pantry Challenge Update

January 15th 2010 Posted at Recipes, restaurants, resturant, vermont
0 Comments

So I have been working on this pantry challenge and have come to realize it’s a fail.  I evaluated the contents of my cupboards and well I basically have tomatoes, tomato sauce, pasta and grains…no beans, no other fun pantry items.  My freezer is pretty sparse as well – only gin, bananas, edamame and sweet peas.  I think that this pantry challenge was a great idea but is just not going to work for me this month since I am lacking in staples. However I am considering coming back to this when i have a more well stocked pantry. 

I have to say though I have created some great meals this week.  My husband commented on the fact that they were fun and different than we usually have and actually have tasted great. I’ll leave you with some of the items I made this week:

Southwest Grits - Makes 2 servings

 

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup 5 minute grits
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 t each of  garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper, and paprika
  • 1 t cumin
  • 1/4 t chipotle chili powder
  • 1/4 cup frozen corn
  • 3 green onions thinly sliced

 

Directions:

  • In a bowl mix together grits, nutritional yeast and spices.
  • Bring water to a boil, while stirring slowly stream in the grits mixture.  
  • Turn the heat down to low and let cook this should take about 5-7 minutes, make sure to stir frequently.
  • Once the grits are almost done add in the corn and green onions.
  • To serve place grits in a bowl and garnish with green onion, corn and your favorite hot sauce.

 

Creamy Butternut Squash Penne - Serves 1

For dinner last night I took the bus into Burlington to meet my hubby after work for a date night.  We went to American Flatbread which is delicious.  I love their menu because it is simple – all they have are 10 signature flatbreads, create your own flatbread and a salad; however their beer menu is extensive – I’d say close to 100 different varieties as well as house made ones. 

Hubby had the Wolaver's Coffee Porter and I had Unibroue's La Fin Du Monde

We shared 2 small flatbreads- This one is Revolution Flatbread- housemade tomato sauce, caramelized onions, mushrooms and herbs

 

Our 2nd flatbread was the Roasted Tomato Salsa- house made salsa (wood fired tomatoes, garlic, jalapenos, cilantro), corn and black beans

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