“Eat from the Freezer and Pantry Challenge”
I’m imposing this challenge on myself because we have a ridiculous amount of frozen food stored up in our two large freezers. I looked at all that I had in our upright freezer and our chest freezer this morning and couldn’t believe how I let it get this bad with buying food but eating out more often than not because I was too lazy to menu plan and be prepared each day. Not only is this expensive because I’ve been buying food that is just sitting in the freezer, but also I was choosing to get take-out, which in the end costs twice as much as what groceries cost.
So this is where the self-imposed freezer and pantry challenge comes in. I plan to try and use as much as I can from what I already have on hand and only buy the absolute necessities from the grocery store each week until I can get my freezer and pantry under control.
Here’s an example of what I mean, so on Tuesday I have on the menu to make tacos and burritos along with Spanish Rice. I did a quick inventory of my fridge and freezer and realized I had all of the ingredients to make this meal happen except the fresh tomatoes. I decided it’s not a necessary purchase this week and we can most definitely live without tomatoes on our tacos and burritos. I also noticed that my lettuce in the fridge is getting a little wilted so the plan is that some of us will make taco salads to use it up before it goes bad.
This week’s menu:
Monday – Leftover chicken wings, mac-n-cheese, and veggies from Sunday night’s dinner.
Tuesday – Tacos & Burritos w/homemade tortillas & Spanish Rice
Wednesday – Crockpot Beef Stew over rice with a chunk of buttered baguette
Thursday – Shake-n-Bake pork chops, mashed potatoes & gravy and green beans
Friday – Oven-fried Chicken Thighs, buttered egg noodles and carrots
Saturday – Leftovers
Sunday – Ham, Au Gratin potatoes, green beans, crescent rolls, and deviled eggs with banana pudding for dessert.
Here are the ingredients I have ON HAND:
- hamburger (thawed in fridge)
- flour, oil, and baking powder for tortillas (in pantry)
- lettuce, block cheese to shred, sour cream (in my fridge)
- homemade salsa (in my “cantry” – I canned the salsa this past summer using fresh tomatoes)
- box of Rice-a-Roni Spanish Rice (in my pantry)
- beef stew (previously prepared meal frozen in my freezer)
- Jasmine rice (in my pantry)
- Baguette (in fridge)
- Shake-n-Bake (in my pantry)
- pork chops (frozen in my freezer)
- potatoes (in my pantry)
- gravy packet (in my pantry)
- chicken thighs (frozen in my freezer)
- fried chicken boxed seasoning (in my pantry)
- egg noodles (in my pantry)
- carrots (in my “cantry” from where I canned carrots two years ago)
- ham (in my freezer, but I need to put it in the fridge to start thawing for Sunday)
- potatoes (in my pantry)
- half and half (in my fridge)
- cheddar cheese (in my fridge)
- green beans (in my pantry)
- whipped cream
Here are needed ingredients I need TO BUY, most of which are for Sunday’s Easter meal:
- potatoes (Sunday)
- Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (Sunday)
- eggs (Sunday)
- bananas (Sunday)
- Nilla Wafers (Sunday)
- Vanilla pudding (Sunday)
