The Pantry Challenge

After a rather expensive trip to Costco and a rather expensive Vacation expense our family has decided to attempt The Pantry Challenge.....

Game objective:  To eat all food in the pantry before shopping again.

Game Rules:  Don't shop!

Exceptions:  Fresh Produce is allowed.

 Pantry Picture - Week 1

Interesting discoveries and actions taken in week 1:
1. I was already able to clear out my cupboards and reorganize.  Before I took the picture of course :)
2. I have moved all my baking supplies to more accessible shelf to encourage me to bake more.
3. The kids are out of their staples, fruit snacks, orange juice and lemonade.  They are drinking water and the occasional Crystal Light Raspberry Flavored Drink I found in the back of the cupboard.  This is a good thing.  I WILL break my kids from their dependency on sugared beverages.
 4.  If you have chocolate cake mix in your cupboard you can apparently bake it for no particular reason, but because it's there.
5.  We have run out of all potato products, we ate the last of the Dried Potato Flakes last night.  I think one of my goals will be to never buy them again.  Real potatoes or nothing.
6.  Tom and I have given up our luxury of liquid coffee creamer.  We have some old powdered stuff left we are using right now.  Coffee will run out soon and it won't be pretty.
7. We have A LOT of Worcestershire sauce and ketchup.
8.  Our Garage freezer is already empty, defrosted and awaiting a thorough cleaning.
9.  Friends are offering us food.
10.  The kids think we are broke and that they are going to starve.
11.  We are actually trying powdered milk today.  Wish us luck!

Today is the Superbowl:  Tom's wish list for Super bowl food is:
Barbequed wings, chip and salsa and beer.

What we will actually have for Superbowl: 
Frozen Pizza, Jello, Blueberry Pie, Chex Mix and Home Brew

Things purchased in Week 1: 
One quart of 1%Milk
18 eggs
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  Week 2 

 

Interesting discoveries and actions taken in Week 2:

1. I don't make a good frozen blueberry pie. ( I think I didn't cook it for long enough)
2. My kids would rather starve than try anything new.
3. A lot more baking is required than in my usual week.
4. Powdered milk doesn't fool anyone.  My son is calling it "filk" (fake milk)
5. The upright freezer is empty, cleaned out and turned off.
6. This week I have baked banana bread and cookies.
7. No coffee creamer left, I cant drink coffee without creamer.
8. My husband gets big points for bringing me a Raspberry Mocha home on the way back from work.
9. We have A LOT of pasta. 
10. We have a lot of yeast?? What was I thinking?
11. I found a botte of Torani Irish Creme flavoring syrup, mixed with a little milk (not filk) and my coffee is drinkable again.  
12. I still miss coffee creamer.
13. Tried to make ham and lentil soup with a ham hock I found in the freezer, some lentils and some barley.  It was very average and I have a lot left.

 Produce purchased in Week 2:
One gallon of milk, 18 eggs, cheese and a loaf of bread.
We let each child choose a fruit or vegetable to buy so now we have kiwi fruit, apples, sugar snap peas (woah $10 a bag!!) bananas and carrots.

Total cost of Groceries this week:  $50

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Week 3

 Okay, so I think we're making a dent in it.  Haven't had to make anything too crazy yet, but Im in desperate need of interesting things to do with rice.

 Interesting discoveries and actions taken in Week 3:

1.  I tried to make a soup with a ham hock, lentils and barley, it was edible but not good.
2. I did make some bread, which wasn't too bad (pictured below), I'm guessing not enough yeast and the oven was too hot.  Second attempt this week
3. Once again, my kids will try nothing.grrrr However Tom and I polished off a can of British custard purchased in approximately 2010 and also discovered we have a can of powdered custard mix circa 2001. A delicious topping for Orange sugar free Jello (who buys this stuff?)
4. Dinner conversation often turns to our latest favorite question "if you could buy any food you wanted what would it be?"  Answers of the week; Matt - Orange Juice, Summer - Deli Turkey, Adam - Frozen Pizza, Sally - Coffee Creamer, Tom - Beer
5. Never buy the five pack of lettuce from Costco, I guess I thought I'd be eating a lot more salads!  I can not get rid off all this lettuce.
6. I'm surprised how much I miss onions.
7. Mentally, we extended the pantry challenge to some other areas.  Liquor cabinet, wine rack and bathroom cabinets.
8. No wine left.
9. Tom finished off a bottle of Cinnamon Schnapps Goldshlager which he bought "to ply the girls", I believe those were his exact words. (before we were even engaged over 18 years ago). "I don't always drink Goldschlager, with real gold flakes, but when I do I sound very sleazy."

My first attempt at bread in about 15 years.  It's okay but I notice I'm the only one eating it.

Produce purchased in Week 3:
18 eggs, 2 loaves of bread, butter
We let each child choose a fruit or vegetable to buy so this week we have kiwi fruit (Matt), apples (Adam), cantaloupe (Summer), onions, bananas, asparagus ( I'm the Mom so I get more choices).
The "dream foods" of the week were deemed not technically pantry items and not horribly unreasonable.  Matt is begging for OJ for goodness sake.  So we got them too.  OJ, deli turkey and one frozen pizza.

Total cost of Groceries this week:  $59

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Week 4

 I emptied a shelf!!

Interesting discoveries and actions taken in Week 4:

1. Wow we are eating a lot more fruit when there are no cookies and chips in the house.  Yippee!  nearly had to shop for fruit and veggies twice in the same week.
2. I have started "spiking" my kids food.  
3. I sneaked wheat flour into my bread. 
4. I sneaked pink Herbalife Nutritional Shake Mix into my daughter's pancakes and told her they were Valentine's Pancakes.
5. Intend to start sneaking oatmeal next.
6. We have a lot of macaroni, I intend to make Homemade Macaroni and Cheese this week.  My kids have never seen it, tried it, or even know it's possible without a a cardboard box and a packet of cheese mix.
7. I love the convenience of Spaghetti Sauce to make my kids favorite meal but think I should really stop buying Hunts (for less than a dollar a can) and start buying something with no High Fructose Corn Syrup.
8. Not sure this is a pantry related item or not but my daughter is now electing to take cold pancakes to school for lunch instead of sandwiches.
9. Dreaming of buying a bag of potatoes this week but I know it will slow down our pasta and rice consumption.

Second attempt at bread was way more successful!  Now the kids are eating it while its still warm.  As it should be.

  Bread Recipe.

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp of yeast
2 tsp of salt
1 1/2 Tbsp of sugar
1 Tbsp of Shortening
1/2 cup of milk
3 cups of flour ( I used 2 and a half cups of all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of whole grain)

Mix the yeast in the warm water, then add the sugar, salt and milk.  Add shortening and then add flour slowly until you get the right consistency.  Doesn't stick to your hands and makes a nice ball of dough in a bowl.
Cover it with a cloth and put some where warm warm to rise.  Leave it for a couple of hours.
Knead it and slap it in a bread tin.  Cover it and let it rise again.
Bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and brush the top with melted butter.  This seems really important or else the top gets very hard.

Question of the week;  Which will be the Last Can Standing??  Four cans are in the running.

Nominees:  Sliced Beets, Frijoles, Mushroom Soup,Chicken Broth

Produce purchased in Week 4:
Eggs, Bread, Milk, Grapes, oranges, apples, bananas, kiwis, asparagus, frozen corn and coffee mate. Feeling a little bit bad about the out of season fruit we are buying.
Total cost of groceries: $32 (had to go shopping twice) $50
(I sent my husband and kids to the store this time.  They spent way less money than I did but they went to Winco.)  I prefer to buy my produce at Fred Meyer.  You should NEVER buy grapes at Winco unless you plan to eat them the same day.  Even then they just don't taste that good.
I had to go back for more eggs, milk and cheese.

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 Week 5

And the winner of "Last Can Standing" is.....

This week we were donated a 20 pound turkey.  My guess is we will be having turkey and mushroom soup sometime this week.

Not much progress this week due to cheating.  We bought coffee and pancake syrup.  Oops
There has been some dents made in some of these boxes but not enough to throw much away.  We have now got to a place where we need to buy other ingredients in order to use up whats in the pantry.  In the quest to use up taco shells and frijoles, I had to buy tortillas, cheese and tomatoes.

Interesting discoveries and actions taken in Week 5.

1.  We cheated. 
2. The strange phenomenon that people are now donating us food, in a quest to clear out their pantries came to a head this week when we were donated a 20 pound turkey by our neighbor
3. We had Thanksgiving dinner last night.
4. The only difference our Thanksgiving meal made to the pantry was one box of stuffing.
5. I'm making bread once a week now. I kind of like it.
6. I still haven't tried to make Mac n Cheese.
7. I made Chex mix for the sole purpose of getting the boxes out of the pantry.  It didn't work.
8. Still haven't made anything with oatmeal but I'm encouraging my husband to eat it for breakfast.
9. We are eating a lot more eggs.  Up to 24 a week now!
10. Without cereal we are drinking a lot less milk.

Quote that seems to be throwm around rather a lot lately:
"well, that's not technically a pantry item"

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Week 6

 Another shelf cleared!  Okay so I stacked it up a little high on the top shelf but it keeps me motivated.

Interesting discoveries and actions taken this week:

1. I made Macaroni and Cheese from scratch, the general verdict was "bland".  Not cheesy enough :( It has been suggested that next time I try adding bacon too.
2. Our fruit consumption has increased dramatically.
3. My teenage son has started eating breakfast again, (I think he is so hungry from not trying the food that is offered the night before) but whatever works.  This morning he had scrambled eggs, toast and fruit for breakfast.
4. I am cooking breakfast for everyone now as there is no cereal left that they will eat.  It feels good to make food my kids will eat ( a new experience) Breakfast it is......but Im ready to offer them cheerios once in a while.
5. A 20 pound turkey creates a lot of left overs in our house.
6. Trying bread rolls this week instead of a loaf.
7. Forgot to use that darn can of Mushroom soup in my last batch of turkey noodle soup.  Will try again today.

So I got a little carried away on fruit and veggies this week by going to Costco.

This is just the fruit, I also got asparagus, tomatoes, red, orange and yellow peeper,frozen corn and 24 eggs.

As well as that I bought some "not technically pantry items"  deli turkey, orange juice, margarine and chocolate chips.

Grocery cost this week: $115 oops!!

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Week 7

 We are getting low.

1. I got tired of messing around with the little boxes of eggs.  Went for a five dozen pack and although it takes up a lot of space in my fridge I don't regret it.  We have already used half of them.
2. Either I am a total failure at bread making or my yeast is no good.  I have a had a "failed to rise" experience 4 weeks out of 5.
3. I have decided to look for some grass fed local meat to restock.  I'm thinking maybe half a cow and half a pig.
4. For Summer's birthday dinner she requested spaghetti.  I bought Classico spaghetti sauce from Costco instead of my usual Hunts (which I believe contains high fructose syrup).  I could taste that it was less sweet and you can actually see the tomatoes in it the kids were not HUGE fans but they will come around.
5. Classico Spaghetti Sauce comes in the coolest mason jars.  I don't quite know how yet but they will be used for storage around here somewhere.
6. Some of the fruit I bought last week is still around although its getting a little old.  I didn't need to buy any fruit this week.
7. I'm at a place now where I need to buy some ingredients in order to use pantry ingredients.
8. The new plan is to work out what we are going to eat for each meal for a week and buy just what we need for that.  Husband's idea which I agree with in principle but KNOW we are not organized enough to pull off.
9.  

Grocery cost this week: $47

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 I think it's about week 10.  We promised the kids we would stop after our trip, so we have allowed them some shop bought cookies and lemonade.  However in my head, I'm still there.  It's so much easier to keep inventory of what you have when there is less of it.  It is so much more likely that you will grab a fruit or vegetable to snack on if there are no chips or cookies.  The strangest things I have left are barley and lentils and too much protein powder drink mix.  I have ordered a 1/4 of grass fed beef but it wont be available until May, which is when I guess I will turn on my extra freezer again and no doubt slip into bad habits.  I have converted to organic spaghetti sauce for my kids favorite meal and I am sure I have saved hundreds of dollars.