30 Day Pantry Challenge :Cream of Mushroom Gravy

I am starting to need to be a bit more creative as the days go by. I haven't been as strict as I was hoping to be, but parts of my stockpile are finally starting to dwindle. That is except the "cream of" soups. I really wanted breakfast for dinner so tonight I am going to use this recipe to make cream of mushroom sausage gravy. Gravy seems like the perfect way to use up some of these cans! How do you use your "cream of" soups?

30 Day Pantry Challenge: Unrealistic Goals?

I made my first trip to Walmart post challenge start. If you remember from my first post about our 30 Day Pantry Challenge, I have budgeted $200 for the entire month. Yeah, that was a joke. Needless to say I am a bit discouraged right now. My receipt shows a grand total of *cough* $67.55. Grant it, some of that is not food and I will break it down below to show exactly what I spent, but I don't expect it to be low enough to fit in the budget. So here it is broken down:

Bread-$4.06
Yogurt-$4.00
Chips-$2.18
Sprite-$4.28
Produce-$23.93
Lemonade-$5.00
Cheese-$4.18
Chocolate-$3.87
Food Total:$51.50

Now, to be fair, a few of those things aren't something I need to get every week (cheese and Sprite). And I will be cutting out the lemonade next week (Boo!) to cut back costs. I know some of it looks unnecessary but my DH is a very picky eater and those are his lunch items. They are non-negotiable. We are trying various healthier options, but for now it is what it is. This total also doesn't include our raw dairy which is $24 and again not an option to cut out. That total was not figured into my $200 budget though. What I do still have to figure in is my Azure order. That comes in on the 18th. While I am highly disappointed in how this shop went, I am still pleased that the total was less than 1/2 of what we normally spend so we are saving money. I think I may need to set a more realistic goal though.

30 Day Pantry Challenge: Menu Planning out of the Pantry Stockpile

This seemed like it was going to be the hard part. I have this complete mish-mash of ingredients. Random this and that. Somehow I have to look at my pantry and plan out dinners for the month. On top of this I have to be sure that I am using everything as best as I can so that I don't end up with a pantry with nothing but 22 cans of cream soups. What I need is a program that I can input my stockpile into and it will spit out recipes for me. I need Supercook! Go check it out and play with it! Whether you are looking for appetizers, entrees or deserts, Supercook does it all! Best of all, as far as I can tell it is free!

A few neat features of Super Cook include a suggestion cloud to help you fill in anything you might have missed as well as several thousand recipes to choose from!

Can you believe that this post has no affiliate links, hehe? Nope, really, I just loved the way this site was working and wanted to share it with you!

30 Day Pantry Challenge

Since our 11 day challenge has come and gone (BTW we did OK on it. I realize I never updated it. I am the worst about that.), I decided it was time to get the pantry cleaned out so we are now doing a "30 day eat out of your pantry" challenge. Basically, I am going to do my best to only shop for what is absolutely necessary and instead of stocking more food that will be overlooked, we will be eating from what we have. It won't all be uber healthy, but it will get rid of some things and allow me more space to start stocking up healthier options. This is technically day 3 for this challenge, but I am just now finding the time to post! I will try to post some of the recipes we try as well.

The Challenge: Eat mostly out of our pantry and freezer stockpile. Shop only for fresh fruit/veggies, dairy, bread and the hubs weekly lunch supplies.

The Rules: Besides shopping only for the above each week, we will not be eating out at all the rest of the month except for the two special occasions that happen this month. We went out Sunday for Mother's Day and will go out again next week for our 10 year wedding anniversary.

The Budget: $200 for the entire month. This includes a $50 order to Azure plus gives us a little wiggle room.

The Goal: To not only use up what we have neglected or forgotten in the pantry and the freezer but to also teach the kids good stewardship of the resources we have been blessed with. We will be no doubt be getting creative as the month goes on, so it will be a chance for us to work together to find unique alternatives for the foods we have. We will also be working on a month long menu plan.

I plan on keeping a list of the things we used up so that we can have a visual of all of the things we were letting just sit and expire.

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