Good (cheap) Eats, Tammy’s Recipes, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, The Finer Things in Life, and Getting Freedom From Debt are hosting a pantry challenge this month. Since I’d already decided to cook mostly from our pantry and freezer in order to keep our budget in line, I decided to play along. It’s good to do these things with a group. You get support in sticking to your plan, and the other participants bring different ideas to the table: ideas that might not otherwise have come to mind.
I also tried a dish suggested by one of my readers this week. I always appreciate getting suggestions from people who read my blogs or follow my Facebook page. There are many good cooks among them. I love to learn new things.
I did do some grocery shopping this week because we were low on frozen vegetables, and I wanted to include cottage cheese and yogurt in our meals. Still, I think I did a pretty good job of using what we had on hand.
Here’s what we ate this week:
Monday, January 2:
- Breakfast – Apple and cheddar muffins, stewed rhubarb (from the freezer)
- Supper – Steamed cabbage, roasted carrots, beets, and potatoes, béchamel sauce infused with baked onion and nutmeg, gingerbread and warm applesauce for dessert.
Tuesday, January 3;
- Breakfast – Parsley and chive biscuits (from the freezer), boiled eggs, apples
- Supper – Grilled bratwurst (from the freezer), carrot and raisin salad, brown rice, apple and cranberry pie (cranberries from the freezer).
Wednesday, January 4:
- Breakfast – Oatmeal and applesauce
- Supper – Pantry Shelf Tomato Soup, cottage cheese and dill dinner rolls (made with dill from the freezer), apple and cranberry pie
Thursday, January 5:
- Breakfast – Homemade granola, mandarin oranges
- Supper – Lyne Minshull’s tuna noodle dish (see note below), canned cherries
Lyne Minshull made a post on my Facebook wall that said “Hi Aunt B! I just saw an interesting recipe that looks inexpensive and is a variation on the old tuna noodle casserole. It is Pesto Penne with tuna. 1 pkg penne, 2 cans tuna, 1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes and 2/3 cup pesto (which I made and froze last summer). Cook penne, drain, add all other stuff (including broth/oil from tuna). Serves 4 but could easily be halved. Easy!"
I had neither basil pesto nor sun dried tomatoes but I did have arugula pasto and fresh grape tomatoes so I made linguine, roasted grape tomatoes, and arugula pesto. It was really good! :)
Friday, January 6:
- Breakfast – Canned pears in brown sugar syrup with ginger, vanilla yogurt
- Supper – Scrambled eggs on herb and onion waffles, green bean and red onion salad with roasted tomato vinaigrette (made with green beans and roasted grape tomatoes left over from Thursday).
Saturday, January 7:
- Breakfast – Raisin scones, sliced cheddar, apples
- Supper – Slow cooker pork roast and white bean ragout, snickerdoodles (from the freezer)
Sunday, January 8:
- Breakfast – raisin scones, boiled eggs, mandarin oranges
- Supper – Pork and Bean Pocket Breads, corn salsa, cucumber and pickled beet salad, canned pears in brown sugar syrup with ginger.
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