It's a darn good thing...

I'll hit the grocery store for at least part of our groceries tomorrow. This is what my fridge looks like:




At least I could get a good look at how badly it needed to be cleaned (which is why the produce drawers are out!)

My pantry and freezer look about the same. I DO have food, but I'm limited on variety and things I can actually use. What can I do with ten lbs of frozen chicken breast, 8 tubs of Cool Whip, 6 boxes of cereal, 3 boxes of taco shells and 3 bricks of cream cheese, 2 single servings of applesauce, 2 leftover pancakes and a jar of garlic...??? Ha!

The end of the pantry challenge...

I actually wasn't really ready to end the pantry project. It was just getting good! However, I only had one cup of milk for the girls left! I knew that if I didn't go today, I had lost my chance, and I wouldn't make it for another week or so. We can't go a whole week without milk! We were pretty low on fresh fruit too, and that just doesn't work around here.

I was pretty disappointed with the sale ads once again this week. I decided to just make a single trip to Hy-Vee. I had really kind of planned on having money leftover, but we I was able to dig up some good deals and matches with coupons. Of course, no money leftover! Oh well!

Here's what we got.

36 donut holes
1 dozen Eggland's Best eggs
1 gallon of Roberts OJ
1 lb of smoked turkey breast
1 bag of Farm Rich mozzarella sticks
1 bag of Ore Ida fries
1 box of Cheez-Its
1 4lb bag of oranges
1 Earth Grains 100% whole wheat thin buns
2 big boxes of Cheerios
2 cans of black beans
2 Mussleman's healthy selects applesauce
1 package of wheat hamburger buns
1 5 lb bag of 100% whole wheat pastry flour
2 box of Kashi cookies
1/2 gallon of hormone free whole milk
1 Glade mini candle (free)
1 bottle of 7th Generation dish soap (free)
4 bottles of Coke (3 were free)
9 lbs of bananas
3 green bell peppers
6 bags of Ocean Spray cranberries
3 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts

My pre-tax total was right around $53.00. I saved 10% on all of the organic items, about $16.00 with coupons and $.10 for bringing two of my own bags.

We're going to try a new recipe for black bean hamburgers tonight. It also looks like I have a good deal of whole wheat banana bread and cranberry almond bars in my future! I'm going to see if I can find a good cranberry orange bread or muffin recipe, I think too. Stay tuned for a baking update!

New Years Eve from the pantry...

We got a New Years Eve surprise this year! My husband was scheduled to work New Years Eve day. His work days usually starts at 6:45 AM and ends when he is done. It is very normal for him to get home at 9 or even later at night. I had basically just planned on making a nice dinner for myself and the girls. Of course, he would warm up the leftovers when he got home. The good/bad news is that his face swelled up really badly from the cold during the early morning, and they sent him home from work. That is bad news for his paycheck, but it was a good day to have him home all afternoon!

We started the early evening with appetizers. I made a dip where you layer cream cheese, salsa, black beans and cheddar cheese. You just microwave it for a minute or so, and you're good to go. It is DELICIOUS. I haven't made it in a really long time, but I love it so much! I was so thrilled when I realized I had all of the items I needed either in my pantry or freezer. (I did, however, have to stop and get chips and 2 (free) 2 liters of pop! I guess that is kind of breaking the rules, but considering it was a holiday, I don't think it's a big deal.)


Our entree for the evening was orange chicken over peas and brown rice. I used to use a recipe that my mom taught me, but I've adapted it a little since discovering Juicy Juice's Juicy Apple Chicken recipe. My recipe went kind of like this:

INGREDIENTS

4 (about 1 1/4 pounds total) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion
3 cups of orange juice
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon of soy sauce

DIRECTIONS

SEASON chicken liberally with salt and ground black pepper, if desired. Dust with flour.

MELT butter in large, nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken; cook on one side until golden brown. Turn chicken over and stir in onion, orange juice, soy sauce and garlic. Cover pan and bring to a boil. (Orange juice should come all the way up the sides of the chicken but not cover entirely.) Reduce heat to medium and uncover pan. Sauce should remain bubbly. Once the sauce has turned a a dark golden color and reduced to a thick, sticky sauce, remove chicken from skillet and place on serving platter.


For dessert, we had a white chocolate and cherry cream cheese ball with cinnamon and sugar pita chips. My mom brought the cheese ball mix for me from a little trip they went on over the weekend. I was SO happy to see it since I knew I had cream cheese in the freezer. It was a great addition to our holiday meal, and it was GREAT with the pita chips! I never would have thought to serve it on pita chips if not for the challenge of eating from the pantry. Now, I'm not sure I'll ever serve it any other way! So yummy!



In the end, it was a really delicious meal. All of my family members loved it. It was a really good exercise for me. It did have to stretch my brain a little to think about what to make since I hadn't been to the store in nearly 2 weeks, but I'm not sure it would have turned out any better had I had $1,000 worth of groceries to choose from.

Now...to go eat some leftover white chocolate cherry dip! YUMMMMMMMMMM!

Don't make it harder than it has to be...

When I first started our grocery project in August of 2008, it took several weeks to build up a freezer and pantry stock. A lot of nights, we just kind of opened up the fridge and grazed on what we had because I wouldn't have everything I needed to make a real meal. We discovered that it wasn't painful, that we were eating less and more healthfully and that sometimes we enjoyed the freedom to decide for ourselves what sounded good. I decided to save orange juice chicken for tomorrow night, so tonight, we went back to that old tradition.

For dinner, my big girl grazed on raw veggies and hummus, a peanut butter sandwich and half an orange. I had a mini bagel with cream cheese, the other half of an orange and a few pita chips with hummus. My husband and my little girl are having a mini confetti chicken casserole that I had in the freezer.

Don't worry -- the goal of a pantry challenge doesn't have to be making the fanciest and most elaborate meal you can concoct from your overstock. You don't have to over think it -- just open up the fridge and have at it! That being said, wait until you see what I have planned for our New Years Eve dinner tomorrow (day 13 of the pantry challenge (sort of)) night!

Tuesday's Eat from the Pantry Experience

Yesterday when I got home from work, I came home to a super picked up and clean house -- especially considering that I had still left it in somewhat of a Christmas mess. Without thinking, I said to my husband, "Maybe I'll bring home Chipotle tomorrow night as a thank you." I tried to get out of it, but I couldn't! Soooooo, dinner was not from the pantry but out of a Chipotle bag. We'll make the orange juice chicken pencilled in for tonight's dinner for dinner tomorrow night instead.



My husband's lunch are always a particular challenge for me. They have to be breakfast AND lunch, not need to be heated or refrigerated, not be too crunchy for the crown on his front tooth, and not need require more than one hand. See my problem??? Pretty much all of his lunches are "pantry challenges!" Since I try to otherwise feed us a good variety of whole foods, it can be a little hard for me to keep a decent stock of lunch-worth food. I got lucky this time around in that we still had some Christmas foods around that would work for his lunch. Tomorrow he'll have two mini bagels with cream cheese, a Honeybaked ham and cheese sandwich, cashews, an orange, raspberry applesauce and a few piece of Andes toffee candy. He usually buys a drink on the road with his own spending money unless I have something I can send him easily. It's his special splurge, but I do keep thinking I should get some money from him in advance and buy him a case of some sort of bottled drinks. I am pretty on top of things, but that is one thing I can just never manage to think about ahead of time.

Pumpkin Brownies

I know I said "no baking" due to an egg and milk shortage...but...I forgot about this pumpkin brownie recipe I've been meaning to try. I had a brownie mix that desperately needed to be used, so I gave it a shot! The brownie recipe is not so much of a recipe as it is a brownie mix and a can of pumpkin. It's basically the same principle as substituting applesauce for oil, but when you sub pumpkin, that's all you need! The health benefits are even better as the pumpkin provides more fiber and is a good source of vitamins A and C, among others.

I was a little bummed because I thought we were out of ice cream. Alas, I found two Klondike bars shoved in the back of the freezer. We dined on big ol' brownie sundaes for dessert, and we didn't even feel bad about it because we were using stuff up!

And, just in case you are thinking eating from the pantry week is looking not so healthy, here's what we had for dinner:



We haven't had tuna noodles in a LONG time, but boy was my hubby happy! Plus, I am always happy to feed my girls a good dose of omega 3s AND greens (brain foods!) This is a great recipe for making sure some essential nutrients find their way in to your kid's diet. To make this, I just mixed a family pack of tuna, about 1/2 cup of light mayo, 1/4 cup of sweet pickle relish, some chopped celery and peas and salt and pepper. Then, I stirred cooled Ronzoni Smart Taste noodles in to it, and voila! Super easy and just like my mom used to make for me!

Mini Eat-From-The-Pantry Challenge

What a crazy, busy weekend it's been. I feel like my four days off flew by with barely a chance to catch a breath -- even with being stuck at home all day yesterday!

The grocery store ads weren't great this week, so I decided it wasn't worth making an extra trip out in the snow and cold. Instead, we're going to try eating what we've already got and adding our extra $50 to the principal on our car loan! Thankfully, due to the Holidays, what we've already got to eat includes delicious Honey Baked Ham, Hickory Farms and all kinds of other random goodies. It will still be a little bit of a challenge though, as I will be working M-Th this week. I am pretty good at just getting by with whatever we've got, but I feel bad about leaving my husband in that predicament. I'll write out a short menu plan for him, so he won't have to "think" about what to feed everyone.

For breakfast/lunch/dinner, we'll be eating...

Monday - biscuits and jelly / ham sandwiches and oranges / tuna noodles and apples

Tuesday - cinnamon sugar whole wheat toast and blueberries/ ham sandwiches and steamed veggies / confetti chicken casserole

Other breakfasts this week will ikely be baby's favorite. Lunches will likely be ham sandwiches all week long. For dinner, I'm planning on really easy things like spaghetti and orange juice chicken. One thing that is kind of a bummer is that I only have about a half gallon of milk and one egg. I'll have to ration those items, so that will mean no baking or breakfast for dinner! Bummer! If all else fails, well, I've got about 5 Mrs. Smith's pies and 10 tubs of Cool Whip. We may be in a sugar coma by Friday, but surely we won't starve!

See also www.orgjunkie.com.