Thursday, March 31, 2011

Thrifty Strategy- Grocery shopping in your pantry (and fridge and freezer)

As I looked around our kitchen on Sunday, I realized that we were very well stocked. It was also near the end of the month and I was hoping to come in under on our March grocery budget. So on Monday I only grabbed milk and some fruit at the grocery store and decided to try to make it through to Friday without buying any other food. So far so good!

Sunday: Spaghetti. I had sauce and pasta in the pantry. Also served a spinach salad.

Monday: Tacos. We had a package of ready-made carne asada in the pantry (free sample from my husband's work), tortillas, spinach, salsa and cheese in the fridge. I also served black beans from a can we had in the pantry.

Tuesday: Frozen (homemade) Pizza. We had made and frozen an extra the last time we made homemade pizza, so I just baked and served with a spinach salad.

Wednesday: Chicken. Crock pot applesauce chicken thighs, sweet potato fries, and peas. Chicken, fries, and peas were all from the freezer. (if someone comments on this post asking for the crock pot recipe I will post later this week)

Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner. We are going to have baked eggs, homemade waffles or pancakes, yogurt, and fruit for dinner.

Throughout the week our 14-month-old ate from our plates as well as eating mixed vegetables I steamed for her, rice cereal, mandarin oranges, whole wheat bread, etc.

Lessons Learned:
1. It helps to keep a well-stocked kitchen. I think I'll do a post in the future outlining the key items to always keep on-hand.
2. I spent very little on groceries this week, but also avoided using gas for multiple trips to the store as well as those impulse purchases that always seem to end up in my cart.
3. It was fun to look around and figure out what I could make from what we had.

While we certainly won't use this strategy every week, maybe it will become a new end of the month tradition!

3 comments:

  1. I thought of you last night. I also made a pantry meal out of chickpeas, lemon juice, parsley, parmesan cheese, garlic and olive oil. Yumm! I think you would like it. Let me know if you want the recipe. Yay pantry shopping! :)

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  2. Ladies, I would like both recipes....while I find my will to cook very infrequent while pregnant (I just can't seem to feel well in the evening time yet), I have high hopes that second trimester will bring a renewed sense of energy in the kitchen, both for cooking and eating.

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