Pantry Challenge: Eating For a Week From the Pantry
In today’s video, I’m going to show y’all what my family had for dinner this past week. This was kind of a pantry challenge, but I did have to go to the store and get a few things. I will tell y’all everything that I didn’t have to purchase from the store. Here are my family’s pantry challenge meals.
Sunday night
On Sunday night, we had fried rice. This was part of my Walmart grocery budget challenge.
Monday night
It was the fourth of July. We had hot dogs and chips. Technically, we had everything on hand but the chips.
Tuesday night
On Tuesday night we tried out a new recipe for cheeseburger gnocchi.
I’m starting out by toasting the gnocchi in some butter in my pan.
Once they’ve browned up a little, I’m going to remove them and brown up a pound of ground beef with onion.
Once the beef has browned up a little, I’m going to put in salt, cajun two step, garlic powder, onion powder, and some pepper. I also added beef bouillon powder because the recipe calls for beef broth.
Now, some garlic.
That’s a large can of petite diced tomatoes.
And, then two cups of milk and one cup of water to make it a cup of beef broth.
I’m going to add back in my gnocchi and then I’m going to add ketchup and mustard. The original recipe doesn’t call for it. I just thought it would make it more cheeseburger-y.
Then, you’re going to let that simmer on low with the lid on for fifteen minutes. Then, there are two cups of cheese. I’m adding one and a half cups instead (saving the last half cup for garnish) because if my kids see cheese on top, they’re more likely to eat it.
This is what this pantry challenge meal looked like all plated up. We had everything on hand, except the milk and cheese.
Wednesday night
On Wednesday night my husband made fried fish. We had everything already for this pantry challenge meal. We also had fried potatoes.
Thursday night
On Thursday night, we had a kind of lasagna spaghetti situation.
My husband cooked dinner again and he used all the things you see. The only thing we had to buy was the cheese.
He also made garlic butter toast to go with it. This is what it looked like all plated up.
Friday night
On Friday night we tried out another new recipe. It was for a one-pot chicken lo mein. I’m not doing exactly what the recipe called for. I made some adjustments according to what we had.
I started out by taking two chicken breasts, slicing them up, and browning them in my pan.
Once they were pretty much fully cooked, I took them out and added one cup of water to get the brown bits off the bottom so my onions wouldn’t burn.
I’m sauteing the onions.
Once they’re softened up a bit, I’m going to add half a bag of frozen peas and carrots and then I will add in one clove of garlic and let that saute for another minute.
Then, I’m going to add back in my chicken.
Now, I’m going to add one cup of soy sauce, four cups of water, and some chicken bouillon to make chicken broth. I’m going to add salt, pepper, ginger, onion powder, and garlic powder. I also added a little bit of brown sugar.
Now, I’m going to add one pound of thin spaghetti. That’s what I had on hand. The original recipe used linguine. I’m breaking it in half so it fits in the pan.
I’m going to put the lid on it and let it simmer for fifteen minutes on low. Now that it has simmered, I’m going to make a cornstarch slurry. I just eyeballed the amounts of cornstarch and water that I poured in the cup. Pour it into the pan and in a minute you’ll see it gets nice and thick like it’s supposed to.
This was my favorite pantry challenge meal of the week. It was so good.
Saturday night
On Saturday we tried out another new recipe for cowboy beans.
I started out by cooking one pound of great northern beans in my instant pot and then added barbeque sauce. The first bottle had just a little bit left, so I added a little bit of water and about a third of the newer bottle.
Then, I added in some ground beef that I had browned up, some pasta sauce, brown sugar, salt, and some bacon leftovers from breakfast that I chopped up.
I added an onion, a bell pepper, and cajun two step and this is what it looked like. We put crispy jalapenos on top. We didn’t have to buy anything to make this meal.
Pantry challenge
We made delicious pantry challenge meals this week and we barely had to buy anything to make them. Which of these meals was your favorite? What are your favorite pantry challenge meals? Leave a comment and let us know.
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the pantry challenge is a great way to save on your grocery bill, and use all the food you have in your placard and freezer. At times i stretch my leftovers from restaurant into a meal for two, with other items i have around the house.
Great job, i hope you can inspire others...