This Is This Week

This week, meal planning out of the pantry started to get more challenging.

I had a special event planned for the kids Saturday night as well, so I knew I would probably need to do some grocery shopping this week.

Still, after last week and all my no-spend September cheats thus far, I wanted to do my best to minimize purchases.

The Planning

To start out the week, I had some leftovers in the fridge:

• A small container of stir fried veggies and about half a rice bowl from date night
• A half container of cornbread (also from date night)
• A container of unstuffed peppers
• Some homemade tomato soup
• About half a loaf of bread (leftover from lunch with the tomato soup)
• Brown rice
• Two or three servings of the enchilada quinoa dip
• Some fresh salsa
• Two small containers of leftover coconut mung bean curry and rice
• A gallon bag full of fresh kale
• Several fresh peppers, a ton of tomatoes, and a few peppers and zucchini

My plan for the week:

• Use leftovers Monday and Tuesday (for all the meals – I don’t mind having salad or curry for breakfast)
• Dinners from the pantry:
  • Black bean tacos/tostadas (using two types of corn tortillas)
  • Ramen soup with tofu
  • Sweet and sour chicken with rice and green pea

• Saturday’s special dinner: we were having A’s family over so the kids could “perform” the poems they have been memorizing in school. For our “Poetry Slam,” I planned to make assorted appetizers:
  • Veggies and hummus (I would need to buy the fresh veg)
  • Spinach artichoke dip (all ingredients from my pantry/freezer)
  • Chicken nuggets with a variety of dips (from the pantry and freezer)
  • Empanadas (leftover from my birthday dinner in the freezer)
  • Pound cake and peach compote parfaits for dessert (pound cake and peaches both from the freezer; I would need to buy whipped cream or make some coconut whipped cream)

What I Bought

I tried to keep things minimal this week while also taking advantage of some deals and accommodating the requests of my people; here’s what I bought:

• 2 lb Sungold kiwi (I had a coupon and this is a rare fruit for my kids because of the cost, so I indulged)
• 3 lb Red grapes (also had a $1 off coupon)
• Chopped romaine (I would have preferred the more economical romaine hearts but the store was out of stock)
• 4 English cucumbers
• 24-pack eggs (I typically prefer to buy local eggs from my neighbors but they have all been out of stock recently)
• Lemonade mix (a request by one of my son’s – the little entrepreneur would like to run a lemonade stand)
• 2-pk organic almond milk (I had a coupon but this was technically still an indulgence/more expensive than another non-dairy milk option)
• White vinegar ($1 off coupon, otherwise this could have waited)
• 2 lbs lemons (for the lemonade stand and also just for the household)
• 5 lbs organic gala apples (one of the fruits I always try to buy organic because of the high pesticide residue; these were pricey but the kid have been asking for apples)

Subtotal: $56.49 ($46.49 after my son actually holds his lemonade stand and reimburses me for the initial start-up funds for his lemonade mix)

I also stopped at Target and picked up a Play-doh set for my friend’s daughter’s birthday and a 1-lb bag of baby carrots – Subtotal: $6.92

Total this week: $53.41 (again, discounting the lemonade mix)

What I (Actually) Made

I actually made A the pasta dish pictured above using penne from the pantry and veggies from our garden; the sauce was simply made with pasta water, nutritional yeast, some capers and garlic powder

Wednesday

Breakfast: two slices banana chocolate oatmeal bread (meal prepped on Tuesday afternoon using pantry ingredients)

Snack: a plum, a mandarin, and half a peach

Lunch: leftover penne (from A’s dinner on Tuesday)

Snack: one pumpkin muffin; the kids had grapes, cucumbers and baby carrots with hummus

Dinner: I made the kids tacos-ish using some blue corn tortillas (soft) and yellow corn tortillas (hard shell) that were hiding in the freezer and pantry, respectively. I used three random cans of beans from the pantry (one navy, one kidney, and one refried) and mashed them together with a stray cajun seasoning packet. I chopped some of the romaine and some garden tomatoes and served everything with the last of the homemade salsa.

For me, I took the beans and veggies and made a salad over more kale from the garden

Thursday

Breakfast: two slices chocolate banana oatmeal bread

Lunch: leftover beans with green beans and rice

Dinner: ramen stir fried in a sauce I made using pantry ingredients (soy, miso paste, ginger paste, chili garlic sauce), garden zucchini, and a block of shelf-stable tofu

Friday

Breakfast: the rest of the chocolate banana oatmeal bread; the kids had eggs with English muffins I thawed

Lunch: I made baked breaded fish (from the freezer) for the kids with homemade tartar sauce and some of our pickles that we made using garden cukes. I took three little fish filets and chopped them to make a salad for myself with romaine and garden tomatoes.

Dinner: sweet and sour chicken (using a bottle sauce from the pantry and chicken from the freezer) with peas (also from the freezer), garden green beans and zucchini, and brown rice

Snack: mini chocolate chip cookie dough Larabars; red grapes; some squares of dark chocolate

Saturday

Breakfast: steel cut oats with banana and cacao nibs; eggs

Lunch: peanut butter and jelly for the kids; a few meatballs on thawed potato rolls for A; and a smoothie bowl for me

Snack: frozen yogurts we had forgotten were in the fridge; apples

Dinner: “apps” for our poetry slam celebration – a tomato basil salad using garden produce; spinach-artichoke dip and crackers using freezer/pantry ingredients; hummus with leftover cut veggies from the week (cucumber, garden peppers, carrots); baked chicken nuggets and fish (from the freezer); a variety of dipping sauces from the pantry/fridge; peach “parfait” cups using pound cake I had in the freezer, peach compote made using thawed frozen peaches, and whipped cream A’s parents brought with them

The Week in Review

I was pretty pleased with this week. I was tempted to run out and grab chips for the dip or fresh mozzarella for the salad on Saturday, and dessert was definitely aided by the whipped cream A’s family supplied.

Overall, though, this was another week that proved we can do a lot with what is in our pantries.

With only one week left in shelf-cook/no-spend September, I am actually wishing I didn’t already have another idea for an October meal challenge; I still have a number of items in the pantry that I would love to challenge myself to use!

Maybe this will be my mission in November before all the holiday festivities!

What’s the best shelf-cooked recipe you’ve ever made?