And Now The End is Here

I will be the first to admit I am glad this pantry challenge is over. The 60 dollar budget for the month was a very difficult thing for me, not because it made our meals any less tasty than they would have been anyway, but because it kept me from impulse buying, which has been my single shopping joy since Covid restrictions began. I allow myself only 15 minutes in the store to minimize my contact with others, but I always came out of the store with something new  that caught my eye. That did not happen this month until Saturday afternoon when all of my February purchases were done and I was starting March's budget. Prior to that I flew into the store, bought the things on my list and left without even looking at other things. It bummed me out a little. Not enough to stop the challenge, but it did make shopping much less fun.

This is what I had planned for the week:
1. Spaghetti sauce over pasta or noodles, tossed salad

2. Italian sausage with peppers, onions and tomatoes,  green beans

3. Lamb chops, tossed salad, mashed potatoes or caulimash

4. coq au vin, rice or caulirice, brussels sprouts

5. Cottage pie, coleslaw

6. Steak, tossed salad, broccoli 

7. Takeout

This is what really happened:

Monday: Label, label, label and use a black Sharpie! I used to be guilty of putting leftovers in a freezer bag thinking I would  remember what was in the bag.  So I have been diligent (or so I thought) about labeling the bags. I did learn that I need to make sure I label them using the black marker rather than the medium blue one, because the blue ink becomes unreadable after a couple of flattened bags are stacked on top of each other. Monday morning I took a bag from the freezer and planned on having a spaghetti dinner. I already knew I had no spaghetti noodles but that was ok. I could still serve it over penne pasta and it would be fine. I had the water boiling and the pasta cooking when I put the thawed spaghetti sauce in a pyrex dish to nuke. Funny! I did not remember putting carrots and peppers in the sauce. Thats because I pulled out the wrong bag. 

Goulash with penne pasta or cauliflower bits, cuke tomato and onion salad

Tuesday: TheHub called to say he was going to be working late. No problem. I had taken out a frozen bag of lamb chops which had thawed and were ready for the grill. A couple of minutes cooking and they would be great, Then it got later and later and later and there was no way I would be firing the grill that late. Instead the meal changed slightly.

Pan seared lamb chops with a red wine glaze, instant mashed potatoes (subtle passive aggressive moment) or cauliflower bits,  3 bean salad over lettuce shreds (another passive aggressive moment)

Wednesday: This time I thawed the correct bag for a very fast meal. Again, TheHub worked much later than normal: additionally we were planning on watching the Alabama basketball game at 8. Since he did not get home until a few minutes after 8, we ate quickly and listened to the game while eating. I am glad I had everything ready and it just needed a quick warm-up, or I would have been a little teed off.

In the summer we do eat very late because we often swim before dinner.  But we eat a lot of salad meals or just throw something on the grill and have a salad with it and I am ok with that because it is still light after 8 and the meals require little prep or cook time.. In the winter cooking seems to require pots and pans   along with longer cooking times and more prep time.  I like to be through and have the kitchen cleaned  by about 7-7:30 and that is not happening right now. 

These long, dark  nights at work are wearing on both of us,  

Spaghetti sauce over spaghetti or spaghetti squash,  chopped salad

Thursday: One of us had to meet banker's who are so appreciative for business that they had to take one of us out to a white tablecloth meal, while the other stayed at home. Understandable, since it was a business dinner and only one of us conducted business with said bankers. The one who stayed at home was evidently supposed to be happy that the one dining out brought home a doggy bag filled with meal remnants.  The one who brought the doggy bag said they thought it would be good for the other's dinner, but at 9:45 the other had already eaten their meal. One of us was neither amused nor particularly appreciative.)

Delicious food while dining at a restaurant or 2 slices of keto bread toast with a smear of cream cheese, pecan bits and sliced olives. (or what I like to call the dinner of disappointment)

Friday:  The day was mostly uneventful but Friday is always date night, even if the nights out have changed considerably since Covid.

Take out Super Chix  Nashville Grilled chicken salad or House salad with fried chicken

Saturday: We had a pretty simple but very enjoyable day. Since we watched the ballgame until later I wanted a quick and easy meal. I actually felt like Clemenza in The Godfather who cooked dinner for the "family" when they "went to the mattresses". (Mob term I understand slightly but can't explain it).

Italian sausage, with peppers, onions and tomatoes, side of coleslaw

Sunday:  We went out riding around to check out a couple of neighborhoods to see if they might be a good fit when we scale down. Nope, neither of them were for us. We got home and ate a late lunch which created a late dinner. I had thawed chicken so I had to cook it, but I did scale down our planned meal.

Coq au vin with broccoli cooked as a one dish meal

Possibilities for this week:

1. Broiled or grilled fish, coleslaw, keto hush puppies (TheHub has been asking for either grouper or snapper)

2. Big salad meal, peanut butter mousse

3, Leftover pork chops, turnip greens, corn bread, applesauce or none

4. Chili, cornbread, coleslaw (weather dependent, it's been kind of hot here lately)

5. Cottage pie, with either coleslaw or tossed salad

6. Something cooked on the grill (possibly tuna steaks or T-bone) over couscous or caulirice, tossed salad, rolls

7. Take out

About the pantry challenge:

What was left from my $60 February budget: 24.94

What I actually spent this week:26.93* 

I had budgeted for several things this week but I did have one surprise item I did not realize was completely gone. It was not in the budget but I had to bit the bullet and buy it because I use it every day when I make tea. Curses! I went over the 60 dollar budget by almost 2  dollars. 

Bought

lettuce

mushrooms

2 cucumbers

3 avocados

coleslaw

sliced ham

celery

grape tomatoes

3 pack bell peppers

1 pack mini peppers 

spring greens mix

spaghetti noodles

bag of Aldi brand Splenda

Used from freezer:

quart bag of Hungarian Goulash

4 lamb chops

quart bag of spaghetti sauce

pack of Italian sausage

pack chicken thighs

bag of cooked spaghetti squash

Used from fridge:

cucumber

cherry tomatoes (previously purchased)

lettuce (remnants from the previous purchase)

radishes

mini sweet peppers (new purchase)

cherry tomatoes (new purchase)

parmesan cheese shreds (finished the package)

bell pepper (purchased for the week)

cherry tomatoes (Purchased for the week)

coleslaw mix (purchased for the week)

mushrooms (purchased for the week)

broccoli (remnants from last week)

butter

lettuce (purchased for the week)

lemon

cream cheese

olives

Used from pantry:

onion

oil

vinegar

spices

herbs

salt

tea

coffee

splenda

instant potato flakes

canned 3 bean salad

red wine

powdered milk (We use almond milk for cereals, and either evaporated or powdered for cooking)

tomato paste (bout 3/4 of the can remain)

chicken broth (1/4 carton)

spaghetti

wine

pecans

What did I learn from this challenge? That I am a serial over-buyer. My freezer and pantry are still full, though I have used the majority of my frozen ground beef. 

 I learned that I need to cook enough slow cooking foods for at least two meals, and I need to prep them for freezing using only a black sharpie to label them. I will continue to cook a little extra with each meal for my lunch the next day, and will keep frozen keto cornbread and keto rolls all the time.

I also learned to buy the biggest heads of broccoli and cauliflower I can find, to have for multi meals.

I need to keep celery washed and ready to eat because it is at least a crunchy keto food, plus it is a pretty good vehicle for keto friendly dip. 

I am going into March and plan on a semi pantry challenge. If I find stock up prices on anything I use regularly I will buy it, and I am going to Trader Joe's for a few indulgent purchases. Other than that I will shop for produce at Aldi and cherry pick Publix (Only if they have a super buy on something we really want or use regularly). The Pig is where I buy all my meat and if they have some super sales I will stock up, but even if I do stockpile meats I will only use those  currently in the freezer for our meal preps.

The one exception is either grouper or snapper from the fish market.

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan, or with no plan at all!

* I did buy a few additional stock up items which I was allowing myself as long as we did not use them during the challenge month. I only go to the store twice a month now (thanks Covid) so I bought extra produce for next week,  Additionally, I found Aldi seasonal coffee that I love and bought 4 bags of it to add to the storage. I bought 4 cans of tomatoes (Aldi limit and I like to have tomatoes on hand all the time), frozen tuna steaks (I actually had 2 steaks  in the freezer, but the availability at Aldi is hit or miss and they had them the day I was shopping so I grabbed them) I also bought a 24 count box of frozen sausage patties that was a great buy, a pack of frozen hash brown patties TheHub wanted, a can of corned beef hash (another Hub request) a pint of heavy cream, a pint of sour cream, 2 packs of cream cheese (I had used one during the week and they were on sale so I replaced one and added one additional to storage). I bought 2 pounds of Conecuh sausage for the freezer. Aldi had a limit of 2 and it was the lowest price I can ever find it. I also picked up 3 bags of frozen Brussels sprouts. I had not seen them in a while and bought them for freezer storage. I don't think I purchased anything else other than toilet paper and a bottle of wine, (another Hub request)  which was not included in my food budget anyway.