Well, we’re halfway through with the Pantry Challenge and it’s beginning to get a little more challenging but I’m confident we can make it through the next 2 weeks and stick to the “rules” I established!

Here are the “rules”:

1. I can purchase milk, eggs, cheese, sour cream & produce.

2. Spend $50 or less during the month of January.

3. Put the remaining $110 of our grocery budget into our home improvement fund!

Here are the meals I created from my pantry last week:

Monday I didn’t cook dinner, my husband had a Men’s Ministry event at church and ate there and I had leftover pizza!

Tuesday Chicken Tacos

Wednesday & Thursday Vegetable Soup

So easy and so good and the best part there was enough for dinner Wednesday, leftovers for lunch Thursday and dinner Thursday! This vegetable soup has 2 quarts of tomatoes/tomato juice (that I canned), a pound of deer (my hubby killed), green beans (from my garden), purple hull peas (from my parent’s garden), corn (from friends at church’s garden) and potatoes (they are store bought!) It was really easy and delicious!!

Friday Loaded Baked Potatoes

I went to church with my husband Friday afternoon and we got home late and I was crunched for time so we had loaded baked potatoes again, but they were good!

Saturday Meatloaf with Sweet and Sour Sauce, Shells and Cheese and Crescent Rolls

The best meal of the week! And we had enough leftover for lunch Sunday! (I just love coming home from church to a good leftover meal!)

Sunday Cheese Quesadillas

I taught a class at church on “The Frugal Lifestyle” and we got home at 8:30 so we had a light dinner of cheese quesadillas that my wonderful husband made!!

Last week we had $27.41 remaining in the grocery budget and the only food item we purchased was a gallon of milk which was $3.10 which means we’re starting this week with $24.31. I think we’re right on track since we’re halfway through the month and have spent just half of our “budget”.

This week’s meals will come from the Pantry Challenge Plan (the list of 23 meals I came up with at the beginning of the month!) I am planning on going to the grocery store to pick up dairy and produce tomorrow!

We’re completely out of “snacky” foods like tortillas & chips but we’re making do with the items we have! This past week I baked homemade granola and peanut butter cookies (since I had all of the ingredients on hand!) And I must say that my husband is being absolutely wonderful and supportive about this pantry challenge…he has no tortillas, Cheetos, or ice cream and he’s not complaining at all! He is committed to stick it out with me for the next 2 weeks! (And then of course on February I will show him how thankful I am with his Cheetos & icecream!)