Cooking From the Pantry

• She is like the merchant's ships, she bringeth her food from afar
• She rises while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens
• She looketh well to the ways of her household

Last week I posted a recipe and linked to the Pantry Party at The Thrifty Countrywoman. This week she has a really good post about her challenge to herself to feed herself and her husband using the budget they had when they first married--$17.50 a week!

Now I didn't do anything nearly that dramatic, but as I already mentioned, we are working on tightening our budget and really holding ourselves accountable to stick to it, which I thought I was already doing, but discovered that I'd been nickel and diming (or more realistically, $5 & $10) myself right outside the boundaries I set each week. Last payday we made a concerted effort to set an amount and stick to it--we drew out what we wanted to spend for the next two weeks and put it in envelopes, which we labeled--gas, groceries, etc. As we spent, we put the receipts inside the envelope and kept a decreasing running total on the outside of how much we had left to spend.

Let me tell you, knowing that you have only $xx.xx amount left to spend on groceries will stop you in your tracks when you start cooking and decide you need to run to the store for "just one or two more items". As a result, I've been creative and much more serious about using what I have on hand in my pantry, fridge, and freezer. And to make it even more challenging, we've only been back in Georgia about three weeks, so my stockpile is not what it usually is.

And yet....we ate quite well, with just a little forethought and planning.

Day 1, I baked some chicken--boneless skinless thighs with a little lemon-pepper seasoning. We had this with some oven roasted asparagus, peas from my parents garden this summer (via the freezer) some leftover mashed potatoes that I had in the fridge.

Day 2, Tacos--1 lb of hamburger meat, seasoned with a packet of taco seasoning, taco shells, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers. I forgot to buy grated cheese last week, so we used sliced American cheese that I had on hand.

Day 3, Baked chicken again, along with the leftover asparagus and peas, and some au gratin potatoes (nothing exciting, I admit it, these were from a box that I got on sale for about $.40 (with a coupon, of course!)

Day 4, I cooked a package of pinto beans, adding the leftover taco meat. Because I'm from Louisiana and we eat everything over rice, I made some rice and a pan of cornbread.

Day 5, Leftover beans and rice and cornbread

Day 6, I made chili with 1 lb of hamburger, 3 small cans of tomato sauce, chili seasoning, and the rest of the pinto beans. We ate this also over rice, and the last of the cornbread.

Day 7, We had chili dogs, using the leftover chili from the day before

And for a treat this past week, I made the Crumb Cake recipe that I got from the pantry party last week! It was delicious, and from basic ingredients, so I can make it again anytime I need a little lagniappe to round out my menu.

This week's menu holds smothered round steak, baked chicken, and stove-top barbecue, breakfast for dinner and probably hot dogs again for the weekend--and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up for that little something extra!

This post is linked to:

Meal Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie

Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home

Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

Until next time...

Three or More--Cabinets I've Re-Organized

• She looketh well to the ways of her household

Our house at home in Louisiana is an older house, built in 1962. I always say that it's just old enough to be lacking many of the "modern conveniences", but not old enough to be really interesting. No high ceilings and architectural details for us, just a cute little three bedroom one bath house in the country.
I have a fairly large eat-in kitchen, but because of the lay-out, not much countertop or cabinet space. Little by little over the years we've worked on updating what we can, and learning to live with what we can't.
Since we've been home the last few weeks, my dear sweet worker bee husband has been trying to do months worth of home maintenance and repairs, but somehow in the middle of his doings, he found time to convert the broom closet into more usable shelf space for me--and not only that, he painted it and put down the shelf paper, too. (I am from the eye-ball it, cut it, stick it the best you can and fix it afterward with a box cutter school of shelf-papering--he is from the get out the tape measure, builder's square and exacto knife and cut it perfectly school of shelf-papering. I just buy the stuff and get out of his way).
Then he painted and papered the dark hole of a cabinet under the sink, at my request.
And since I had to move stuff around away, I've taken this opportunity to clean and organize several other of my cabinets, too.
Our beautifully converted broom closet--the broom and mop can live in the utility room, this gives me more kitchen storage right where I need it--in the kitchen! Right now the larger bottom area holds my canner, cookie sheets and odd cake pans.

Upper cabinet above the broom closet--my pretty plates and serving dishes--close enough the the food action to be used more often, but easier to get to and put away.

And the keys are various door and vehicle spares, hanging on cuphooks. One central location for keys has been a time-saver--no more pawing through drawers and looking 27 different places for a set of keys that may have not been used in weeks.

More food storage--cleaned out and reorganized--now I have room to stockpile a few more of those sales items!


And last but not least--the "hole" under the sink is dark and dank no more! Isn't it amazing what a coat of white paint and new shelf paper can do?

My new storage is easy to use, easy to keep organized, and easy to clean. That works for me!

This post is linked to:

Three or More Tuesdays at the Gypsy's Corner

Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family

DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

Until next time...