Even when I try to make all of my meals at home, I still end up spending a lot of money on food due to multiple trips to the grocery store and miscellaneous purchases.
Rather than heading back to the grocery store, I've decided to see how far I can go on what I have. We were talking about one of my coworkers who will eat almost all of the food out of her pantry before she heads to the grocery store. So here's the plan: For the next 25 days, I'm only going to eat food that I already have on hand. That includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and beverages.
Why 25 days? Well, I have seven of my very closest friends coming into town that weekend. Since I'm co-hosting, it's not likely that they'll be up for eating my toaster waffles.
There are a few exceptions. Namely, milk and eggs. Those are two musts that I don't currently have on hand.
So what do I have to start with? Quite a bit actually. Here's a quick rundown of what I've got:
Freezer:
- waffles
- cheese ravioli
- chicken breasts
- frozen lemonade
- peas
- corn
- spinach
- fudgesicles
- chili
- minestrone soup
- 1 lean cuisine
- 1 package mahi-mahi
- tortillas
Fridge
- wheat bread
- yogurt
- apple cider
- parmesan cheese
- diet Coke (limited supply)
- beer (Miller Lite and Blue Moon seasonal)
- butter and margarine
- jelly
- chocolate syrup
- salad dressings (various)
- BBQ sauce
- chicken stock
- lettuce (condition unknown)
Pantry:
- pasta (spaghetti, rigatoni, angel hair, farfalle, macaroni, rotini)
- garlic
- onions (bag of small ones)
- 3 sweet potatoes
- 1 spaghetti squash
- corn muffin mix
- tea
- honey
- syrup
- oils/vinegars
- rice
- tortilla chips
- pretzels
- crushed tomatoes
- diced tomatoes
- Special K
- hot sauce
- spices
- chickpeas (1 can)
- artichoke hearts
- pancake mix
- marshmallows
- craisins
- coffee (thank God)
- cider mix
- hot cocoa mix
- cake mixes (carrot, devils food, spice,
- cream cheese frosting
- pudding mix (cheesecake, pistachio)
- beef bouillon cubes
- instant mashed potatoes
- oatmeal
- popcorn (stovetop kind)
- peanut butter
- pasta sauce (2 jars)
I'm sure this inventory will be helpful each night. There are some obvious meals in there - noodles and pasta sauce, PB and J, the leftovers, breakfast foods. There is also a noticeable absence of protein sources other than some canned beans, peanut butter, and a few chicken breasts. This may end up getting either pretty repetitive or creative towards the end (read: random).
What's going to be the hardest? Probably the Diet Coke. And the lack of variety. I'm anticipating lots of oatmeal and cereal. Plus eggs.
I started this off tonight, eating some noodles with butter/parmesan and some frozen peas. Plus one of the Diet Cokes. That might have been a mistake.
If you have any creative recipes with the above ingredients, send them my way!
Here goes...
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