Week 1…Pantry Challenge

***I am sharing our week a little early because we will be gone the next few nights and won’t be eating at home.

We are off to a great start with the “eating from our pantry” challenge.

You do remember that we are eating from our stockpile and trying to spend no more than $25 per week for the month of January?

This week, so far, we have had for dinner: (please know that I am not a fancy cook…I am usually a pinto beans and potatoes kind of girl)

Spaghetti with meat sauce that was made from venison that a friend gave us.  We also had a whole grain bread that was delish.

Applesauce Pancakes (recipe below) with turkey bacon

Homemade Mexican taco bake.  Again, made with venison from the freezer and pinto beans that I cooked and made into refried beans.  Such a cheap way to make refried beans.  No need for canned ones anymore when these are so cheap and easy.  Do you make your own or buy them?  We also love ChiChi’s salsa and had this on hand to go with our tortilla chips.  Sadly, salsa is almost gone so this will be something we wait on to buy again unless it makes it to the $25 list.

Grilled mozzarella cheese sandwiches with tomato soup

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Our breakfasts have been mainly oatmeal, toast made with 9 grain and seed bread,  cereal, breakfast casserole made with our farm fresh eggs and juices that we make with our juicer. 

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Lunches are always a hodge podge of things that we have left over or soup, sandwiches, or hummus with broccoli or pita bread (my personal favorite)

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My only purchase this week so far is milk.  I will end up needing to buy more fruits and veggies for our juicer but that should do me until next week. 

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Just a little fyi…we juice apples, carrots, broccoli, kale and sometimes pears on pretty much a daily basis.  We love our juice!

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These are the applesauce pancakes I was talking about earlier.

Here’s how you make them…

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour (or substitute another cup of all-purpose flour if you want)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/4 cups milk

2 eggs

2/3 cup applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Mix together all dry ingredients first.  In another bowl, mix your wet ingredients and then combine.

**My family loved this new recipe that I found from The Hazel Bloom.  They were hearty and delicious. **

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We also love breakfast for dinner so you will see breakfast quite often on our dinner menu.  Since we have chickens and get fresh eggs, it’s also a cheap and easily available meal for us.

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So, that’s how our week played out food wise.  We still have a ton of food to make meals from and should be going strong next week on our week 2 of our challenge.

I have not been to the grocery store yet but will probably go on Sunday for a few things.  I’ll let you know what I spend.  There should be no problem keeping with my $25 weekly budget.

Cheer me on if you would like or offer any suggestions…I would love it!!