Thursday, April 24, 2014

Eating From the Pantry - 2

Well, it was bound to happen!!  We ran out of cereal!  Tuesday we had oatmeal.  Wednesday we had ham and cheese omelets.  Today we had breakfast burritos (without any potatoes - just egg and stuff in tortillas).  I have really noticed that the kids seem more full aka satisfied, off of these breakfasts than they do with the cereal.  But I sure do like the convenience of cereal. 
 
Tuesdays dinner was fish sticks, green bean casserole with pears.
 
Last night we had a ham and corn potato soup.  I knew we were out of frozen corn but I figured we had canned corn.  I was wrong.  We did have a can of creamed corn so we improvised with that.  We also used leftover Easter ham instead of the prepackaged stuff from the store.  We also had some bisquick biscuits to go with. 
 
I am really enjoying the end results of these meals, but the figuring them out is a bit more difficult.  I usually have a list and that keeps meals super simple! 

Monday, April 21, 2014

Eating From the Pantry

This past weekend was Easter!!!  

Christ has risen!

We had family from both sides over and some friends.  It was super fun and nice to see everyone and to celebrate the rising of our King.  Unfortunately we spent much more of our monthly food budget then we should have.  I told Brian that this week we would be eating from our pantry because I was not going to the store for a while.  

Last night I started digging through the freezer to see what we had.  I found a tupperware with diced frozen onions and celery and one with tomato paste.  There was a portion of Polska kielbasa and some frozen peas and corn.  I sautéed up the onions and celery a bit of garlic and other spices.  I then diced the kielbasa and sautéed it too.  Next I added the tomato paste, some chicken broth and some wine.  Lastly I added in the vegitables.  I let all of that simmer while I boiled up some shell pasta.  Then we ;mixed it all together and called it dinner.  I was amazed how well it turned out.  Brian actually complemented me on my creativity since I usually have a dinner plan and cook off of recipes.    

Today I mentioned to my brother, who lives with us, the plan of not going to the grocery store.  It was his night to cook dinner and he did great.  Although, that was not surprise to me!!  He is amazing with the "from scratch" cooking.  He will often look in the pantry and come up with a meal.  I usually have to look through the cookbooks/recipes and then shop for things to come up with my meal.  He make up some homemade hash browns in individualized portions.  Then he added scrambled eggs and sausage links.  What a yummy dinner.

We have about a week more (ideally) before I go to the store again.  We will see what we can continue to make happen.