People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it will never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway. ~ Mother Teresa

Monday, January 28, 2013

Pantry Challenge Week 3 - The One That Ended With A Dinner Party

Hi there.

If you are coming over from the Pantry Challenge, I wish you'd leave me a message. Something like 200 visitors and one/two messages. Don't get me wrong- I appreciate those I got, but you know... I love to hear from folks like we all do.

Admittedly, this is a super boring and quick post. I didn't have a moment to take pictures of cool things this week - BOO!

Anyway - now that THAT is out of the way. WELCOME! This past week was pretty good as far as the Pantry Challenge goes. I won't say great because I did buy a little more than I wanted at the store, but then again we did have a dinner party Saturday night... and people, I have no regrets.

Our meal plan was simple this week - leftovers leftovers leftovers. Seriously! We had rotisserie chicken on Sunday evening, leftovers on Monday and Tuesday we had leftovers from Saturday. Wednesday we had breakfast for dinner, Thursday we had burgers and fries, then Friday we had BLT's and soup. For the chicken leftovers, we did old-fashioned chicken & mushroom soup over rice - we also grilled some diced onion and garlic to add to it. Toss some broccoli on the side and you have dinner. Breakfast for dinner is always easy... and if you make the whole pack of bacon - you have BLT's the next day or so. I love that. If you save up a couple days leftovers you have a smorgasbord - which was my Grandma Helen's favorite when we were little.

So this week, I tried a Price Matching service. Did we save? Yes. But unfortunately unless I want to drive 30 minutes each way, our local WalMart doesn't do the BOGO and generic matches. It has to be brand for brand. So that was a bummer at the register. Luckily we only had two items that were BOGO, but we had a few meat items, which I'd have much rather gotten on sale. But - we tried. In the end, most of what we shop for just is not on the lists. It sounded SOOOO GOOD!  Have you all got a system that works great with deals and price matching? I'd love to hear about it.

I also tried uploading a weekly meal planner from www.office.com - HERE is the one we used.  I will have to get used to having breakfast, lunch & dinner on the meal plans AND I will have to get used to doing it weekly. I usually do it monthly and try to only shop once/month.  I am going to commit to it for a few months because I think it will take that long for us to get used to it.  I do like it though. It is especially nice for the weekends.

Friday evening we made brownies and cheesecake for Saturday. Saturday morning I went to church to work a 1st Reconciliation Workshop and then there was Saturday Evening. We had four couples coming, and a babysitter for three young boys. We ordered pizza for the boys (and took them up brownies and ice cream for desert) and we grilled steaks, chicken, asparagus, squash and had rice & sweet corn bread as well. Oh - and I made some strawberry sauce a la Emeril to go over the cheesecake, but did not have brandy, so I used Kahlua. YUM  It was good. Though admittedly we like our cheesecake PLAIN!  Nothing like a NY Cheesecake. Oh and by the way - the back of the Keebler Graham Cracker Crumbs holds the recipe I use. I am no genius baker... I just follow the recipe and it is GOO-OO-OOOOD!

I have to say, it was a great system we had too. One of the couples brought their daughter and she watched the boys upstairs. Can you imagine actually having an adult conversation without interruption at dinner? Well now that we had a little taste of it - we know we will be doing it again.

Oh and yesterday, Sunday -we did a big fat NOTHING and ate nothing but leftovers. I love that. I don't take meds well, and I took a half of a muscle relaxer because my back was killing me after standing all day Saturday. Well - I think that mixed with a glass of wine was a baaad choice because I woke up to the room spinning. So we slept in. I had a headache most of the day. We literally did nothing, which is rare... usually NOTHING makes me nervous, but when I say we were literally on the couch 90% of the day - I mean it. And that NEVER happens.

I plan to continue eating down the pantry through February, sticking to the "only dairy and produce" rule. Believe me, we have enough stuff. I will update you guys...

I sure hope you all had a great week.

Love, Hugs & Blessings,

Em
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7 comments:

  1. I tried using WM's price matching before and everytime they would try to get me on a technicality. It was just too much of a hassle. Plus I don't like to shop at WM anyway, they are just too big and the one closest to us isn't very clean.

    I enjoy reading about your pantry challenge. I am doing it too and it is inspiring to read about others going through it. Thanks!

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    1. Thanks. I don't love WM either. But we live in a small town with not a lot else to offer without a decent drive. That said - I am not sure the Price Matching is worth it.
      Take care,
      em

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  2. I find myself doing the "only dairy and produce" rule in our house too. It's amazing how much of JUST THAT alone we go through! I keep threatening my hubby we are going to get a cow because it would cut out the middle man, LOL! I'm sure that it gives you great thoughts towards the upcoming gardening season. I know it does for me! Good luck going into February. I know I am going to have to get a little more than just dairy and produce the next time I hit BJ's! Take care!

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    1. It would be cool to have a small farm with animals that served our purpose. We have a local farmer we go to for veggies, etc. He is going to teach lessons this year on how to grow a garden, etc. Can't wait!

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  3. If you are used to planning for a month, why don't you use that monthly calendar and use it to fill in the weekly?

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    1. Lee, that is a great question. I did plan monthly, but it was only dinners. I am trying to plan all meals now (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Snacks). I don't know if this is for us, but will see how we do. I may go back to just monthly and just dinners.

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  4. I'm also used to doing just dinners on my menu plan . I find that when I tried planning all meals, we wouldn't stick to them anyways since my husband works odd hours and sometimes he is just getting home by lunch-time, so it's not worth it for me to make a big breakfast for just me and my picky 3-year old. I was also thinking of trying the full meal plan again, we'll see how i can tweak it to make it work out for me!

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