Though late, here is an update!
30-Day Challenge Official Food List
- chickpeas (2 cans)
- vegetable broth (2 can)
- refried beans (1 can)
- black-eyed peas (1 can)
- sweet corn (1 can)
- baked beans (humungo can)
- jasmine rice (1 large bag)
- light red kidney beans (bag - 16oz)
- white albacore tuna (3 cans)
- pasta sauce (2 jars) (1 jar)
- orzo (1 lb)
- spanish flavor boxed rice (2 boxes)
- tomato sauce (8 cans, size 8oz) (4 cans)
- corn muffin boxed mix (1 box)
- flame roasted peppers (used, approx. 4oz)
- diced jalapeno peppers (used, approx. 9oz)
- buffalo wing sauce (used, approx. 14oz)
- Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (used, approx. 12oz)
- SBR's Hickory Brown Sugar (used, approx 9oz)
- SBR's Hickory Brown Sugar (18oz)
- Texas toast (6 slices) (3 slices)
- chicken tenderloins (6 pieces)
- chicken tenderloins (full bag, 32oz)
- salmon (1 fillet)
- green peas (18oz bag)
- cut broccoli (16oz bag)
- Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamer (1 bag)
- peaches (29oz can)
- fruit cocktail (15oz can)
Meal BreakdownA. Using the
last can of vegetable broth (and some newly purchased orzo), my husband made some more of the basil-parmesan orzo. This stuff was even better the second time around, and if you guys are interested in the recipe let me know. The orzo accompanied some fresh salmon and the whole meal was the yums.
B. Using the
refried beans,
sweet corn,
black-eyed peas, and
last box of spanish flavor boxed rice we had a great [vegetarian] burrito night a few weeks ago, which replaced our typical Moe's Monday venture (saving us about $15 we would have normally spent).
C. The
white-albacore tuna has been supposedly consumed by my husband during work lunches. I say supposedly only because sometimes he's out of his "tuna sandwich" mood; whatever, it's out of our pantry and may or may not have been in his belly.
D. The rest of the
chicken tenderloins were used one night along with the
buffalo wing sauce to make Crockpot buffalo chicken sandwiches (to diiiiieee for).
E. The hotness of the above meal is too much for JP's delicate tongue, so the same night he cooked up the last
salmon fillet (also using some pesto that we have way too much of).
F. The
two cans of chickpeas were used as a substitute for our homemade falafels -- sounds funny because they traditionally made using chickpeas, but my recipe uses pinto beans which are more pliable for the patties.
G. The Thursday before we left for vacation, I made a special meal of Chicken Parmesan. My brother ended up hanging out with a friend while we ate dinner, so it was nice to spend time alone together on our porch enjoying one another, the food, and a glass of wine. To aid in the making of the sauce, I used
two cans of tomato sauce.
H. Tonight I am making mashed potatoes with grilled chicken to use up the last of the
SBR's Hickory Brown Sugar BBQ sauce. To accompany our meal, we will finally be eating the bag of
cut broccoli. This meal is also fun because JP gets to use his early-birthday-gift grill!
I know I should have taken before photos, but this is what our pantry was looking like as of June 29th, prior to cooking the Chicken Parm:
last of the Great Value Lemonade used; two of those cans of tomato sauce + crushed tomatoes used; spaghetti used; dried cranberries & blueberries + rolled oats used for homemade granola bars; andddd I totally caved and bought Near East boxes of couscous to be used later -- they were B1G1 @ Publix!All in all, I think we're doing great. I am just 3 days away from the end of our 30-Day Challenge, so I would say this was a success considering we pretty much emptied our pantry, and aside from the one sad bag of peas (which I plan to make soup out of this week), we completely devoured our frozen foods.
I have plans for using a large portion of our pesto reserve (again, not mentioned on the original 30-Day List) with a great recipe my best friend K forwarded me today. I will share that this week. Otherwise, I plan to make a meal out of the leftover pasta sauce and Texas toast. I think I will have to hang onto the cans of tomato sauce past this week, and the large bag of jasmine rice is here to stay for now. We'll eat up the Green Valley Steamer this week as a side item to one of our meals, and perhaps the fruit cocktail can will be a small dessert for us.
Have you made use of the food that has been sitting in your pantry for months?
P.S. This is the big Southern meal we had with friends a few weeks ago:
