Pantry Challenge: Week 1

Feeling exhilarated as we end the week, coasting on the fumes of what’s left in the fridge, freezer and pantry. It’s been a minute since I lived this simply, and wow, I forgot what a high it can be. And the amazing thing is that there is still a good bit of food left. Not a ton, and it might make for some unusual meals, but still.

Here’s what the week looked like:

Monday: pasta Bolognese

Tuesday: “scrounge night”; some of us had eggs and hash browns, some had other things like tuna fish.

Wednesday: roast chicken with Rice a Roni and corn.

Thursday: Leftover chicken plus stuffing and sweet potato fries

Friday: Chicken soup with tortellini

Now, this isn’t exhaustive. Some nights, the boys were off chowing down on Taco Bell or Chipotle on their own dime, and one night my husband got himself a personal Wawa pizza. But generally, these meals were available to all who wanted them on those nights.

The chicken was really a lifesaver. I roasted it Tuesday night and used the carcass to make the soup on Thursday night. It’s cheaper per pound than buying cutlets. Of course, I’ve always known this, but I tended to take the easy route.

Saturday morning, Nicky and I had challah French toast. For lunch, I had leftover soup, and we ate dinner at my parents.

The only things we had to buy during this past week, after I shopped on Sunday, were dog food, butter and milk. I used an Amazon gift card I received for the dog food. I brought lunch to work twice (tuna; leftovers and an apple) and bought soup one day at the cafeteria ($1.69).

Tomorrow I have to do a new inventory and a new meal plan and shopping list.

Saturday, I needed to bring a birthday cake to my parents’, but we had run out of eggs, and after driving around all afternoon in the rain on Fiona-related tasks, I didn’t feel like dealing with another store parking lot. Eggless chocolate cake to the rescue.

It was quick and easy to make and came out really good! I do think that using my scale to measure flour is making a difference in my baked goods. Note: the cooking time on this recipe was wrong. These nine-inch tins took 25 minutes, and eight-inch pans would take longer.

I had just enough sugar and vanilla extract to make the cake. Now, how to frost it? I didn’t want to make chocolate frosting, but couldn’t make vanilla buttercream without vanilla. After searching the Internet for a bit, I realized I could make caramel buttercream with the caramel syrup we had in the fridge.

Chocolate and caramel… a delicious combo.

Making a delicious cake from scratch and without buying anything — a great win to cap off the week.

Today, I put away the last of the Christmas stuff and had dinner out with a friend, thereby avoiding most of the Eagles playoff game agita. Just now I melted some old candle wax and poured around a short taper to make a new candle. Hoping to keep this scent going for longer.

So happy to have off tomorrow, especially since it is currently snowing and the temps are dropping. Excited to meal plan tomorrow — I have some ideas — and to bake bread.