It has. It has been ONE week.
What is happening in your household?
Have you seen any disruptions in things you are used to and use a lot?
We had a hard time finding the all purpose flour the other day and substituted some whole wheat flour in a recipe we had not tried before. It actually turned out awesome since I added a little extra baking powder to it. We will make it that way from now on because of the pleasant surprise.
And we are now on powdered milk and canned cheese, which is fine since we only use milk for cereal and baking…with two Littles who have some sensitivities to it, we do not have the issues another family would have that are heavy milk drinkers.
I have not been feeling well the last couple days, so we have been relying on simple meals with the crockpot, or things like Sandwiches made from PB and homemade jelly. My Handy Hubby is finishing up a 14 day stretch at work, and I am looking forward to having him around this weekend so that I can accomplish a little more. My oldest daughter is turning into an amazing cook, and I am very proud of her. She can make some mean Coconut Chicken curry at 14, and her Macaroni and Cheese is to die for. Super glad to have her loving what she does, and watch her grow.
We are halfway through the challenge and next week will either be the make or break for most of you. 😀 I hope you are learning a lot about your food usage and what works for your family.
Blessings,
~Heather
PS—what has been your favorite meal completely from your pantry this challenge?
Meal Plans for this week:
Thursday
Breakfast: Eggbake in the crockpot
Grease your crockpot well. Use all stale bread up and cube up enough bread to fill crockpot halfway through. Mix in seasonings of your choice (I love to use sage, thyme and salt/pepper). You can make it straight egg or add sausage, whatever will fill the family’s tummies. I always add onion, pepper if I have some, often zucchini or another veggie, and then pour the eggs over the top and push everything into the egg mix. Good ratio for the egg mix is 3/4 egg. and 1/4 milk. Put lid on and set to low. Takes about four-six hours to cook.
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Dandelion Jelly Sandwiches
Dinner: Pan fried Pork chops, salad from garden, and Chocolate chip cake from a Master Mix
Friday:
Breakfast: Peach Cinnamon Scones
Lunch: Chicken Salsa Sandwiches from Crockpot (take rolls, and put this mixture on them: 1 pint drained shredded chicken, 1 cup salsa, 1 cup crumbled cheese, salt and pepper to taste., then wrap each sandwich in foil and put into the crockpot on low for a couple hours. By lunch they will be melty awesome goodness.
Dinner: Stuffed Peppers (our bag of Peppers is starting to go bad so it is time to get them used up!). We often use our enchilada filling (which we have a little extra from earlier in the week left!) to stuff them.
Saturday:ÂÂ
Breakfast: Fresh fruit and toast.
Lunch: Corned Beef, Cheese and Onion roll up
Since Saturday is my baking day, I always set aside a little bread dough to make into one of these for lunch or later in the week. Roll one loaf of bread dough out into a rectangle. I slather with mayo and mustard, then top with various toppings. In this variation, I use one pint drained and shredded corned beef, pan roast some onion slices (One large onion), and top with canned shredded cheese. Carefully roll this up starting with the short side, then pinch the seam and ends closed. Prick with a fork so it does not explode, allow it to rise for about an hour, and then bake for a meal. I cut it into slices, and it feeds my family for a full dinner and another lunch. 😀
Dinner: Veggie pizza
If you have not tried our pizza variations, I would encourage you to check them out. Saturday night is always our pizza night. And a LOT of awesome little leftovers can be made into pizza that rocks and your kids will love. 😀 If you have something they might object to, puree it up into the sauce and they will never know it is there. 😀 Sneak mom trick, I know, but it works like a charm.
Well doing pretty well actually, but see that I need to be planting more salad greens as of right now I have plenty of lettuce and spinach but it would not last much after two weeks.
Tuesday:
Breakfast
pancakes made from food storage(flour, dried eggs,baking powder, powdered milk added dried blueberries) Home made syrup.
Lunch:
ham and cheese sandwich
cherry tomatoes from garden
water
supper:
made a southwestern goulash,home canned pinto beans,canned tomatoes,onions , leftover bits of steak, baked ham and smoked sausage all from the freezer little bags of leftover chopped up meat.Added seasonings and small green salad.
Wednesday:
Breakfast:
breakfast burritos (made with powdered eggs,scrambled sausage,in home made flour tortillas. Served with home canned salsa, coffee and cantaloupe donated from a sweet neighbor.
Lunch:
Crackers and cheese with more cantaloupe and cherry tomatoes from the garden
Supper:
chicken enchiladas
brown rice(food storage
refried beans (home canned pintos
leftover green salad
home made ice cream bars/not really ice cream
cool whip with mini marshmallows and mini choco chips between graham crackers and frozen , nice sweet low calorie. I have cool whip in freezer but this could be made with whipped topping made from reconstituted dry milk product.
so far no trouble but I do a lot of food storage and I use it all the time I did not use any of my dehydrated onions but I have and do I just reconstitute them in boiled water and drained then I use them in cooking just like fresh onions
Today I made wraps for brunch as we did not get around to eating breakfast today, I used bought tortilla wraps from the freezer but I do make homemade tortillas ,the only thing I used some whipped cream cheese I had in the fridge but I usually make yogurt cheese, i make my own yogurt all the time just need to make some more so did not have the cheese.
We will have the leftover chicken enchiladas tonight from last night they are so good no need to transform them but we eat left overs all the time. I am adding some fried zucchinni as I have a lot of zucchinni from the garden right now and my grandson requested it ,he is here for the weekend.
I know I am going to have to get some more containers for water and need a lot more water than i have stored at this time. so far so good we will see how it goes next week.
Pat, you ROCK!!!!
Thank you!
~Heather <3
We’re doing just fine here. Having the chickens and the goats has made this much easier since we won’t run out of eggs, milk, or fresh cheeses. At day 8 he refrigerator is starting to look a little bare, and I am starting to get more creative with the cooking.
I tapped into my canned baked beans last night, which my daughter and I put up last fall I think. I served those alongside of fried hasty pudding and some country ribs from the pig we butchered last year.
Tonight we made fresh mozzarella so we can make tortilla pizzas for dinner. That will be the end of the store bought tortillas, but I do have masa and lard so if we decide we want more I can always whip some up.
See, you are rocking this George! Thanks for sharing how you guys are doing! Our fridge is looking rather bare too, and yet we are still eating well. Thankful for planning ahead!
Blessings
~Heather
I thought we were doing well until my husband walked in with a gallon of milk this week 🙂 I thought he understood – NO grocery buying – he stated he looked in the fridge and saw that we were out and thought I could not go with out milk. lol – and he does not even drink white milk. I have powdered milk, so I’m using that and freezing the milk. Everything else has been out of the freezer, off the shelf or out of the fridge. We’ll see how next week goes. We are down to just two meats in the freezer so I’m going to try black bean burgers next week to see if I can pull it off with my husband as meat. lol
Thanks for the challenge – it has made me re-evaluate my food storage.
Cindy Norred
SO proud of you. That takes courage and wisdom to make that decision and follow through with it!
Gotta love on the husband, just trying to fill a need. 😀
Blessings
~Heather