It’s the last week before our EBT re-loads which means we are doing a Pantry challenge this week. Personally, I feel like some of our best meals come from these Pantry challenges! It forces me to dig deep in cookbooks I don’t usually pick first to find recipes using only ingredients that we have on hand. I also really utilize Pinterest for these challenges. There, you can find endless recipes & ideas for meals using only a few ingredients.

We are an ingredient house – so we tend to keep a stocked Pantry of items to make meals from (including random things I have no idea how I accumulated 😅), but we don’t have any ready to eat or snack/junk food type items on hand hardly ever unless it was given to us, so if we want to eat, we have to make it ourselves.

I’m very good at meal planning, but I’m bad at planning meals using the ingredients that we already have on hand. This has led to an abundance of items that I don’t even know I have and a lot unnecessary spending. It’s time to fix that & get creative with what we currently have.

Even though a majority of the items are processed/canned instead of fresh, I still tried to keep the meals as healthy as possible. I really try to stay as far away from processed foods as possible (which is why they have ended up in Pantry storage rather than being used), but this challenge is all about using what I have and I’m honestly pretty proud of the meals I ended up throwing together & I had a fun time doing it. I tried to keep it interesting & exciting instead of meals like Spaghetti & Sauce that everyone is sick of.

Most of all, I’m grateful that I have these items available to me to prepare for my family. After our last issue with EBT, I learned the importance of building a food pantry and having items stored & available for emergencies. It has proven very useful.

On to this week’s meal plan:

👩🏼‍🍳 Sunday

• Breakfast: Lemon-Poppyseed Cake

• Lunch: Leftovers

• Dinner: Dad Choice – Mom working

👩🏼‍🍳 Monday

• Breakfast: Custardy Popovers

• Lunch: Stovetop Yogurt Mac & Cheese

• Dinner: Roast Pork + Glazed Carrots

👩🏼‍🍳 Tuesday

• Breakfast: Cream Cheese Omelets

• Lunch: Leftovers

• Dinner: Pan-Fried Catfish + Green Bean Casserole

👩🏼‍🍳 Wednesday

• Breakfast: Danish Puff

• Lunch: Cheesy Bean Burrito Copycat

• Dinner: Chicken Piccata with Spaghetti & Sourdough Bread (1 of 2 Loaves)

👩🏼‍🍳 Thursday

• Breakfast: Homemade Sourdough Bagels with Cream Cheese

• Lunch: Leftovers

• Dinner: Slow Cooker Broccoli & Cheese Soup with Day-old Sourdough Bread (2 of 2 Loaves).

👩🏼‍🍳 Friday

• Breakfast: Egg Muffins

• Lunch: Crockpot Buffalo Wings

• Dinner: Tuna Pie + Creamed Peas with Swedish Braided Bread

👩🏼‍🍳 Saturday

• All meals are handled by Dad on this day while I am at work.

Hopefully you were able to find some inspiration from my Pantry challenge to now start a Pantry challenge of your own! Also, an important reminder that shelf stable items are still good past the date on the box. Here is a helpful guide for using up Pantry items!

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov