Pantry challenge, week 1: so far, so good

I started the pantry challenge one week ago tonight, and so far it's going well.  I didn't realize how much stuff I had!  Or, at least, the variety of different things I have.  It has made this week a pretty fun one, and so far this challenge doesn't feel very challenging, but I'm sure that will come soon.  

I've had to think a little more about meal planning, since I can't just run out and get whatever it is that I "need" to make some particular recipe.  I see a lot of recipes with beans in my future, but this week there were only two.  Here's what went down this week:

Beet gratin with goat cheese, yum!

     

Friday: 

I started this at dinnertime, but I hadn't been shopping in a while, so I'm pretty sure the other meals adhered to the challenge as well.

Dinner: beet gratin (home canned beets, shallots I had lying around, walnuts, homemade breadcrumbs from the freezer, fresh thyme from the porch, goat cheese)

Saturday:

Breakfast: poppy seed cake (use up some of that powdered milk!  This is the only recipe I really ever use it for, and I also had some poppy seeds and lots of flour around.  I like this because it's delicious and high-protein)

Lunch: leftover turnip, radish, and chicken vermicelli salad at B's place--I think this counts even though we made it before this started, since it was using stuff we just had lying around on a weeknight

Dinner: butternut squash and chickpea curry with brown rice

Sunday:

Breakfast: poppy seed cake and half a bagel (my freezer is STUFFED with bagels.)

Lunch: grilled cheese on sourdough

Snack (on a hike): dried apple slices, cocoa dusted almonds

Dinner: maple baked beans and baked potatoes

Monday:

I was bad and skipped breakfast.

Lunch: leftover beet gratin

Snack: homemade yogurt with home canned pears

Dinner: pasta puttanesca

Tuesday:

Breakfast: the rest of those canned pears

Lunch: rice bowl with the leftover puttanesca sauce and fresh basil from the porch

Snack: cheese and crackers

Dinner: date night out with B--taco Tuesday!

Wednesday:

Breakfast: the last of the poppy seed cake

Lunch: leftover beet gratin

Dinner: big bowl of air-popped red popcorn, since I wasn't super hungry

Thursday:

Breakfast: sourdough toast 

Lunch: maple baked beans and a baked potato

Dinner: yam and bacon soup (yams from the faux root cellar)

I tend to only plan dinners, since lunch is often leftovers in some form or another, and there are a lot of options for breakfast that I just don't need to plan since I'm the only one eating: oatmeal, yogurt, toast, bagels, fruit smoothies, biscuits (a weekend treat).  Also, since I missed the farmers' market on Friday, I didn't really have any fresh produce to speak of, so I focused pretty hard on produce I had home canned or frozen.  I did buy goat cheese and feta on Friday, and spent $6.48--couldn't find either organic, though.  (Side note: does anybody know where to find organic cheese?  I haven't seen any at the Laguna Hills Farmers' Market.)  So far, so good on the less than $15 per week budget.  

This week has been fun, thinking of new recipes and playing what my mom calls "the dust in the cupboards game."  I've also had to adjust some of my typical meal planning axioms, like pasta night--I don't have that much pasta, and I'm not buying more until this is over, so I'll need to change that habit.  However, swooping in to take its place is soup night, which is typically much more economical and, I think, just as tasty, especially if I can have some bread with it (I'm a big fan of the Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain stuff!).  

My plan for this upcoming week is a tomato lentil soup with frozen spinach and olives, squash and black bean tacos with homemade tortillas (guys, I'm drowning in winter squash here), bean chili, tofu and eggplant stir-fry over brown rice (made up on the spot this minute looking at the sauteed eggplant in my freezer), and butternut squash with quinoa, spinach, and walnuts based off of this.  It's only 5 meals, but sometimes B and I eat at his place, and sometimes I get last-minute inspiration.  We'll see what else this week holds.

I did my shopping today (not missing the farmers' market this week!), and bought one tomato (for guacamole with some frozen avocados, taco night), a 2 lb bag of onions because I was O.U.T. and use them in everything, 2 lbs granny smiths to snack on and generally have around, 4 jalapenos and 4 habaneros (a few for pickling some carrots B had that were getting pretty long in the tooth, most for chili later in the week), and a dozen eggs.  All of this except the peppers was organic, and I spent $11.46--yay price book!  (Post on that coming sometime this month.)  So far this $15 per week thing is doable, with some planning and willingness to substitute or ad lib when I don't have the exact right ingredient. On to week two!

Have you ever done a pantry challenge?  Would you ever consider doing one?