Eating From the Freezer and Pantry Challenge: Week 1

That’s it. No more shopping for you.

Or me, for that matter.

It’s time to begin our “Eating from the Pantry and Freezer Challenge“!

What I’ve spent so far

I had about $230 remaining for the rest of May out of my $450 budget (the other $220 had been spent at the beginning of the month).

I’ve set aside $150 cash for my savings, which I’m not allowing myself to touch.

The other $80 is being used for:

• Raw milk, free range eggs, sour cream and yogurt: $45 (I already spent this on the weekend)
• Fresh fruit and vegetables: $25
• Just in case: $10 remaining (this will probably go towards more eggs and possibly sour cream, because I didn’t buy enough before)

When June 1st arrives, I’ll set aside another $150 for savings, and give myself about $80 for fresh foods again for that 2nd two week period of the challenge, before finishing up on June 18th, at which point I’ll let myself use the remainder of that month’s budget, if I need it.

What our family will be eating this week:

Monday

• Breakfast-  Soaked oatmeal with raw milk or cream and honey
• Dinner- Bierocks (beef and cabbage stuffed pockets). We like to dip them in organic mustard.
• Prep- Soak muffin batter. Thaw short ribs in fridge.

Tuesday

• Breakfast- Soaked blueberry muffins (a variation on this recipe)
• Dinner- Crockpot BBQ Short Ribs, brown rice, cauliflower (the Mediterranean way– yum!)
• Prep- Thaw whole chicken.

Wednesday

• Breakfast- Scrambled eggs and toast (options of butter, peanut butter, or homemade jam from last summer)
• Dinner- Roast whole chicken (in crockpot), rice, and this Pear & Bleu Cheese Salad (but I use Feta cheese instead). The extra chicken meat will be packaged in bags and put in the freezer for later meals.
• Prep- Soak large pot of dry chickpeas (garbanzo beans).

Thursday

• Breakfast- Pumpkin Walnut Bread and fruit smoothie.
• Dinner- Chickpea Wraps (fried chickpea patties, wrapped in a tortilla with lettuce, mayo, cheese, etc.)- these are from The Everything Beans Book, which has so many creative ideas.
• Prep- Soak baked oatmeal.

Friday

• Breakfast- Baked oatmeal with raw milk 
• Dinner- Piled High Chicken Potpie (I’m going to use as many dried veggies from last summer or frozen veggies as I can in this recipe)
• Prep- Soak pancake batter and thaw blueberries.

Saturday

• Breakfast- Pancakes with homemade honey butter syrup and fruit (my pancake and syrup recipes are both from Sue Gregg’s books)
• Dinner- Quick French Onion Soup, possibly with fresh crusty bread- we’ll see if I have the time or inclination, otherwise we’ll just have a slice of regular bread. I got this recipe from a friend on Plan to Eat. I have no idea if my kids will eat it or not. I guess we’ll find out!

Sunday

• Breakfast- Yogurt or milk, homemade granola (I’ve been using the Granola Bar recipe in Healthy Snacks to Go and making it into granola instead), fresh or frozen fruit. This is becoming a standard Sunday morning breakfast, since it’s so quick and easy before church.
• Dinner- Roast beef, made with this recipe (later in the week, I’ll turn it into shredded beef for fajitas, etc.), with a recipe I’ve made for roasted root vegetables like carrots, beets and sweet potatoes (you can get some ideas from this post— but is this a recipe people would like to see, even though it’s spring?)

You’ll notice that I don’t plan lunches. Basically, that’s because I like to keep them really free and simple. If there are leftovers, we eat those. Otherwise, we make quick basics like sandwiches, yogurt, fruit and veggies, smoothies, quesadillas, etc. The thing with meal planning is that it has to serve you. There are so many different styles and ways to do it, with something to suit every family!

Don’t forget…

During this month-long challenge, all of my ebooks are on sale. Use the coupon code CHALLENGE25 to take 25% off any single ebook, OR use codeBUNDLE50 to buy all 3 of my ebooks at 50% off!

It’s your turn to share your money-saving meal plan with the rest of us.

We would also love to read your savings goals and your progress with those goals as the challenge goes on!