This month, I've been participating in the Pantry Challenge over at Good Cheap Eats. There are a couple of reasons for this - one, my grocery budget is out of control. I tend to be more than a little bit impulsive when I go to the store. I know a lot of people hate grocery shopping, but I actually love it. It's one of my favorite things to do. And when I see something on a serious sale or closeout, I always want to grab it! The result is the second reason...my pantry and freezers are bursting at the seams. We'll be getting our annual order of pig soon, and I need to get the big freezer cleaned out and defrosted, so this challenge came at the perfect time!
You get to make your own rules during the challenge. Since it's our first time, I decided I would just buy dairy, fresh and frozen produce (we don't keep much canned fruits and veggies on hand), and bread products (I rarely have time to make them these days and I'm not sure my family would eat them if I did!). The only exception to this rule was last weekend when we went out of town with my brothers and sisters-in-law, and I bought ingredients for one breakfast, plus LOTS of snacks. We came home with much of what I bought, so we have plenty of snacking to do!
One of the key elements (for me, at least) of the challenge is menu planning, to make sure that you are really using up the things you need to. Now, I could probably do this challenge for two months or more (and we probably will) before I see the back of the pantry. And I'm up to my eyeballs in ground pork products (plain and breakfast sausage), so it's been a challenge to keep things varied and tasty. And, to be honest, I bought about five pounds of ground beef just before the challenge started (we were out and it was on a good sale), so it wouldn't be all pork all the time.
So...here's what's on the dinner menu this week:
Sunday: Chicken strips, macaroni and potato salads, coleslaw
Monday: Orange Chicken (frozen from Trader Joe's - delicious!), green beans
Tuesday: Steak and pepper sandwiches
Wednesday: Pork Shepherd's Pie
Thursday: Ham hocks and beans
Friday: Pork fried rice
Saturday: I think we're getting takeout because it's going to be a crazy busy day!
What are you eating this week?
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