How's the Pantry Challenge going, you ask ?

 

Quinoa,Corn and Edamame Salad

Happy Family Fried Rice

Taco Salads

Ribs 'n Taters 'n Green Beans

Aloo Patak

  Then there was smothered chicken last night, with smashed potatoes and glazed carrots. The night before that was Caribbean stew, made with home canned pork loin. Tofu burgers for Meatless Monday. Chili on Saturday and still plenty of that leftover for omelets, lunches and whatever else. 

  It's been an interesting  [almost] 2 weeks of the Pantry Challenge. Have not felt any kind of a squeeze yet, which is good. Making more one pot kind of meals than normal, but I have been trying to do that anyway, to cut down on the amount of meat we consume. Still eating it, but less quantities and less often. Very helpful in this time of sky high prices. My little local market has  Porterhouse steaks on sale right now for 6.99/lb.  Boy, am I tempted to go buy a couple ! But... once I start cheating a little on this challenge, it will happen more and more often. And that defeats the purpose of the whole shebang. lol I have already decided that tonight's supper will be a healthy Egg Roll Bowl, a recipe of cabbage and onions and carrots and ground sausage and bean sprouts. That reminds me, I want to start my sprout jar today too. The fermented carrots are about done. Have had a problem (?) with Kahm yeast growing on it, and have cleaned it out twice. This time it will go into the fridge for snacks and salads. I'm done fooling with it.  The Kombucha, on the other hand has been going well. I have 2 bottles in the fridge now and the 3rd batch since I started brewing it again is on the counter. Now that it's so much cooler, the process is taking much longer. Gives me time to drink the stuff that's already made.  lol 

  

  The weather has finally cooled down here, we're having 40 degree nights and  65-70 degree days.  Almost good soup weather. You can feel the changes in the earth's energies as the world begins to slow down a little.  I find it a relief, although the past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic for me. Today I am home all day, with no commitments and time to do whatever I choose.  That has to include a little householding, as the dog hair is rolling down the hall like tumbleweeds in a Sonoran desert. The Galloping Goofballs (new twin kittens) are wreaking havoc with any and everything, now that they're finally healthy and old enough to jump and climb and run. They are a constant source of amusement and fun. 

  OK.  I am going to get dressed and eat some breakfast. Then I'll start some hard boiled eggs in my little Egg Wizard machine. I like having hard boiled eggs to munch on or use with salads.  I have 4 dozen eggs in the fridge right now.  Cooler weather means himself is eating more oatmeal and less eggs. Healthier for him, more frugal for me. I'm going to check the cupboard and see if I have any sugar free jello left.  That makes a better dessert option for me and my blood sugar than the leftover orange bundt cake.  lol   My numbers are staying very good, so I'm not too worried.

  

  Off I go...

Days 1 and 2 of the pantry challenge.

 

  Been a bit of a snafu here.  As usual, Annie makes plans and God laughs. I have not been feeling well since Wednesday and now it has erupted into a full blown bit of buggery.  Went to the dr yesterday and am starting antibiotics today, after himself picks them up on his way home. I have felt horrid, have had to cancel plans twice this week and may have to cancel tonight.  I didn't sleep well and am in a lot of pain. So...that being said, I have not been able to do the shopping I had planned to round things up before starting the pantry challenge on the 15th. (yesterday).  But by the time I got out of the clinic yesterday, I was running out of time to make supper. I got home about half an hour before he did. I seriously thought about stopping and getting a rotisserie chicken, something I could make a quick easy meal around.  Then I thought-- no, I have stuff at home.  It had been a hot September day, and I had salad greens that needed using, so I just came straight home and got busy. 

  I had some leftover hummus from Meatless Monday, had some cukes and odds and ends of vegetables.  Had some little instant soup packets I had picked up at Big Lots, a Pad Thai soup. So I set to work and before he got home, I had supper on the table.  All made from things I had here at home. It looked like this: 

 Home made hummus. Edamame from the freezer.  Canned (home again) baby carrots. Onions, cukes,black olives,radishes.  Yum.   And those little soup packets (all natural ingredients) were really quite good.  If I see them again, I will buy them for quick use. Mix, 1 c water.  2 minutes total in microwave. It's from the UK.  

Might check and see if Amazon has them by the case. They'd be a handy lunch for cold winter days.

  Anyway.  Today is Friday and I am not terribly motivated to work too hard at supper.  I just had a bowl of multi grain Cheerios for breakfast/ lunch.  Supper tonight will be fish cakes made with canned tuna. I keep that stuff super stocked at all times. It's a cheap and easy to make a lot of things with source of protein. We really like the tuna croquettes, made with cracker crumbs and egg and onion and some spices.  I'll open a jar of my home canned applesauce and heat up some leftover potatoes and maybe open a can of peas.  Voila. Supper.  Out of the pantry. Day 2.  

  I've had a lot of practice making meals out of what I have on hand. We live just far enough out in the country that I can't run to the grocery easily, and the 2 small mom and pop grocery stores close to me are much more expensive than Aldi or the bigger box supermarkets.  Our country road is never the first to be plowed and cleaned up during winter snows, so it can be an issue getting out to the main road from here.  Hence, making meals out of what's in the house.  It's exciting sometimes. lol

  Tonight's supper will look like this (more or less) :  

  With sides.  lol  Have some cut up watermelon for dessert.   Life is good on Honeysuckle Hill.

Circumstances... Time for a pantry challenge.

 

"The Time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things..."

 Especially the cabbages part. lol

  This is an interesting time we live in. And by interesting, I mean downright terrifying at times.  I have been caught in  web of  sticky wickets of late. We have more money going out than coming in, like a lot of Americans. Having had an onslaught of medical bills, his OT at work has vanished, gas prices through the roof (and when I say gas prices, I mean petrol for the car and truck as well as propane for the furnace and stove).  We are about out of propane, I expect, and the last time the tank was filled it was over $750.00.  In the meantime our [another] small company bit the dust and was bought out by a bigger national company.  I tremble to think what the next fill is going to be and if we can afford it. I just paid off the last one. Utilities are on the rise and the general cost of living has skyrocketed.  This isn't news to anyone with half a brain.

That brings us to the cost of eating, as it always does here.  lol  I have been tucking away bits and bobs of stuff when I can and trying to prepare for a rough year. Not easy when everything is such a struggle already. I have tried to focus on things like meats I could can, already canned meats like tuna and salmon and mackerel.  Staples like rice and beans and flour and sugar and salt.  Spices for cooking. Olive oil and vegetable oil, grapeseed oil and sesame oil. Cases of canned vegetables. Meat for the freezer. 

This isn't my first poverty rodeo, lol   Those of you who are new here may not remember this:

https://dragonwomansmysticalmeals.blogspot.com/2014/06/eating-from-my-pantry.html

It's that time again. So, starting September 15th, I am going to do another pantry challenge, to try and get through this rough time.  As soon as I have a little extra money Wed -Fri (hopefully) I am going to buy a few more items like oatmeal and some other staples. I think I can do it for under a hundred dollars. I haven't bought any groceries for 2 weeks. Then I will not buy any food related items. We will eat what we have. Creatively.  The last time (see link above) in a 3.5 month period I spent less that 38 dollars, and that was only because I had to buy rice, toilet paper and olive oil.  The pantry was completely bare by the time it was finished and he went back to work. But the gardens were going and the hens were laying. No hens or gardens this year. So there's that. But I have the confidence to believe that we can do it again. It may look a little different, but I will make it work. 

Wish me luck.