So…What the heck is a 14 day pantry challenge? Well, I’ve been reading a lot of blogs in my copious free time (huh?) and came across the March Pantry Challenge which was apparently inspired by this blog and this challenge. The goal is to eat what you have in your pantry, fridge and freezer for a set period of time. Some people do it to see how long they could survive if the end of the world hit, some people do it to save money, some people do it just because they can. Most of the challenges I’ve seen are also for 30 days, however, we are going to start with 14 days.
So, where do we fall? Somewhere in between.
We spend about $250 every 2 weeks (we only shop every other weekend), so if we don’t go shopping for 2 weeks, we should save some money! Plus, we tend to have way too much food in the house! For real. So, we’ll start for 2 weeks and see where it takes us. It will take some creativity, but I think we’ll be just fine.
Keep in mind that I did not bother to straighten up any of our food storage before taking the pics below. This is how it all looks, in real life…
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| Pantry, side one. Lots of grains & peanut butter. |
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| Pantry, side two. Canned & dried beans, soup & veggies |
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| The deep freezer in the garage. Lots of green chile, veggies, beans and misc. |
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| The messiest fridge in the world. Total misc. Remember, it’s been 2 weeks since we did our regular shopping. Normally the fridge would be full of fruits and veggies and cheese. |
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| Freezer. More beans (if you can believe it), berries, veggies, homemade ravioli and ice cream. |
We went shopping on Saturday but only spent $30 on milk, almond milk, yogurt, oatmeal, coconut water and almond slivers. Not all necessarily needs, but definitely helpful.
The exception to this no-grocery-shopping challenge is our CSA which we pick up each Thursday and is valued at $30/week (a $25 veggie share and a $5 meat share). Maybe this is cheating, but if we continue to get the massive amounts of onions we’ve been getting over the past couple of weeks I won’t consider it cheating at all! Also, we have our chickens which lay about 4 eggs a day, so I have a feeling we’ll be eating a lot of eggs!
Oh, also, we’re not allowed to go out to eat! Now that’s going to be a challenge! We are allowed, however, to go to the coffee shop!
Now, what do I see as our biggest challenge? Fish Girl! She is 16 and eats like she has a hollow leg! Plus, she doesn’t really eat meals…she grazes all day every day! So, I’ve started telling her what she can and can’t eat…For example, “Please don’t eat these tortillas, I’m going to make fajitas and I’ll need all of them.” Given her grazing, it might also be a challenge to track what she’s eating as I intend to track what Tool Lady and I are eating.
Here’s what we have so far! Wish us luck!
Sunday, May 8
We spent all day in the yard yesterday plant, plant, planting so we didn’t eat very well, but we did alright 🙂
Breakfast = 2 boiled eggs each
Dinner = Stew (chicken, rice, carrots, onions
Monday, May 9
Breakfast = Yogurt and cereal and 2 boiled eggs
Lunch = Salad (greens, chicken, pears, almond slivers)
Dinner = Veggie fried rice (rice, eggs, random veggies)
Tuesday, May 10
Breakfast = Protein shake (milk/almond milk, protein powder, frozen bananas & strawberries)
Lunch = Leftover chicken stew
Dinner = Fajitas (tortillas, bell peppers, onions, shrimp, green chile, cheese)
