Eat From The Pantry Challenge: My Plans

I am excited to be joining up with Life As Mom and Money Saving Mom in their month long challenge for January: Eat From Your Pantry! You can read more about this here or here.

I've already posted my month long meal plan, which you can read here, although I'm going to be adjusting just a couple of items from what is listed.


So my plan for the month will be this:

1. Freezer Cooking Day(s), beginning on January 1st, hopefully ending on the 2nd. I'll be using a lot of the items I purchased during my shopping trips in December and also using what we already have in the pantry and freezer.

2. Spend no more than $225 for groceries in the month of January. This is BIG goal for us. We are thrilled with the amount of savings we were able to accomplish in December by really cracking down on spending and shopping wisely, so I'm setting this goal with a lot of confidence that we will be able to reach it. I still plan on going out for my weekly trip to Rainbow Foods on Wednesdays to help me stock up on items I will need for February's menu or fresh items during January.

3. Find a really, really good casserole recipe. I have a big aversion to 'cream of anything soup' and nearly every casserole, or as we Minnesotan's say... "hot dish" recipes call for some sort of canned cream soup, and I just can quite get my head in to that cooking method. I did find a really neat 'universal casserole' recipe this week, so my hubby and I have been brainstorming our own ingredients to come up with something healthy and tasty. I really only need one good recipe, to fill two nights in a month long menu. I like to have what I call "pan food" for Tuesday nights, since we are busy and usually rushing to leave the house. I want to serve up something healthy and delicious, but also something that requires nothing more than 'freezer removal, oven insertion'.


I'm eager to get starting with my freezer cooking for January and to see if we are able to stay on track for the month. I plan on posting weekly what our meals are and how we are doing on our grocery spending goals. What to join in the fun? Click here to link up your goals!