The Junkyard of My Life

Really this post should be titled “Pantry Challenge – Week 2.”

Not gonna lie, I feel like I knocked it out of the park this week. The pantry/freezer and my meal imagination powers just kept coming through for me.

When last I left you, I had gone out to eat with a friend and the rest of them had Ellio’s pizza. That was Sunday. Saturday, Tom picked up some minimal groceries.

So Monday, we had chicken parm with chicken he had bought and everything else from here (breadcrumbs, mozzarella, etc.). For maybe the first time ever, I made marinara sauce from scratch (tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, onions, spices, a little wine). Very good, very popular yet I still was able to take leftovers to work for lunch.

(I guess I could have used more cheese.)

Tuesday, Tom bought roast beef and gravy and we had hot sandwiches plus what we call “grandmom noodles” since we had them at her house first (Knorr creamy chicken noodle packet, a pantry staple).

Wednesday — bad news. The ground beef Tom bought went bad. Should have used or frozen it sooner, I guess. So we had a meatless, use-it-up night of Rice a Roni, steamed broccoli and cheesy garlic bread made from leftover roast beef Italian rolls

Thursday — spaghetti Bolognese from the freezer (a mix of different pastas to USE THEM UP) and more garlic bread.

Friday — Tom went shopping again, so I would call that the end of the Pantry Challenge streak. He bought nearly all convenience stuff (probably because he wasn’t feeling good) and everyone had various things. I had a Newman’s Own white pizza that was heavy on the basil and ricotta and really tasty.

Saturday — more of the convenience stuff for them while I got to go out again, muhahaha. But I worked on my plan for the coming week and will food shop today (and only buy real food). I also whipped up some banana bread with chocolate chips.

AND… I made bread on Monday (I had off for MLK Day). I used the same recipe as before but this time it, ya know, worked. So that was my breakfast every day this week and I still have some in the freezer. So go to hell, expensive supermarket bread!!

Dough is so fun. Love the yeasty smell, the way it rises.

For work lunches, I had the leftover chicken parm; tuna and crackers; and cafeteria chicken noodle soup ($1.69).

In other pursuits, I dug around in the junkyard of my life and salvaged some more candle wax. I had quite a few candle jars with wax remnants in the downstairs freezer. These were mostly in the gingerbread/pumpkin family; some were a vanilla mint. So I melted the G/P ones into new candles, using some old melted down tapers as new wicks.

So today’s plans are going to the grocery store (perhaps during the Eagles game, when it should be empty), cooking something good for dinner, and starting my new book, borrowed from a friend. Maybe a walk with Rocco.

Tried to capture a pretty winter sunset last night.

We’ve had a lot of them lately. I have an especially good view of them when I’m crossing the Delaware on the train. Still… I’m ready for spring.