Sunday, September 23, 2018

What to Cook When the Cupboards are Getting Bare

I was pretty spot on last week in my menu plan. Some careful shopping, a minor rogue purchase by DH, and I am left with only $12.50 in the September budget. Pup will need food before the month is over, and there will be a need for some things to stretch next weekend. Considering I started the month with a holiday weekend where I tend to let a little loose with my purchases and DD1 joining us for two weeks, though she bought much of her own food, I think I am going to finish the month under $375-for all household and grocery. I had cooked and thawed hamburger so ended up making a hot dish Friday night instead of burritos and those are moved to this week.  There is leftover Daal for the girls as well.


  • Sunday-Pork loin, potatoes, apple sauce, steamed veg
  • Monday-Pasta fagiole soup 
  • Tuesday- Veggie or pork fried rice
  • Wednesday-stuffed peppers + leftovers for DD2 who eats before going back to school for show choir practice
  • Thursday-Spinach and cheese ravioli with red sauce
  • Friday-tacos, burritos with rice, beans, and cheese rice hotdish with vegetables
  • Saturday-Red lentil Daal (for the girls) Cauliflower Rice/Fried Rice because the red lentils went bad and DD1 improvised DH and I met friends out for dinner
On my Friday off, I baked several mini loaves of Oatmeal-Pumpkin bread, with a very old can of pumpkin, bought after Christmas 2016 on clearance but dated to October 2019. I am now down to just a few cups of flour, hardly any vegetable oil, and the sugar is very low. time to stock up baking supplies next month. Three of these loaves went into the freezer for the week ahead. I mentioned a careful shop. I spent $19.67 at Aldi's and bought the following to create the menu for the week ahead.

1 gallon milk
1 jar marinara sauce
1 28 ounce can tomatoes
10 pack flour tortillas 
8 ounce brick cheddar 
1 dozen eggs 
3 pounds apples
2 large sweet potatoes 
Saltine crackers
Honey Nut fake cheerios
loaf of bread
microwave popcorn


My creativity is working overdrive to stretch what is in the house. I'll let you know how successful things were next week. I'm not planning any leftover nights as I think anything leftover will go in lunches. 

Sunday-Turkey breast roast, steamed carrots, cous cous 
Monday-Bean, cheese, and rice burritos with sweet potato wedges
Tuesday-Spaghetti and marinara, meatballs for DH to go along with it
Wednesday-Three bean vegetarian chili and crackers
Thursday-Tuna noodle hot dish and macaroni and cheese
Friday- Homemade pizza with cheese, olives, and onions (this may end up being the last Papa Murphy's coupon for a freebie)
Saturday- Hamburger patties in gravy (like Salisbury steak) rice, and vegetables

DH is sort of with me on this challenge, so I don't think he will go off on a shopping tangent, though came home yesterday with two bags of potato chips and ice cream. I'm calling those entertainment as they are for his football watching. There is a reasonable amount of variety, but even I, a rice lover, might be getting a little weary of rice. Perhaps I'll find some little goodies tucked away to  pep the menu up a bit. What's in your cupboards and on your table this week?

14 comments:

  1. Good luck with the grocery stretching!
    I really do like the end of the month, trying to stretch what we have. I usually come up with some of our better meals, probably because I give it more thought. But then I like games and it becomes an odd sort of game for me.

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    1. I've found some of our preferred meals by being creative-combinations I might not otherwise put together.

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  2. Clever! I admires those who can look into their larder and conjure up a meal made from what's on the shelf.

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    1. After living so lavishly, not really cooking for two weeks on vacation, it feels right to not rush immediately to the store to fill in a missing ingredient, but rather figure out what to do with what we have.

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  3. I am trying desperately to get our cupboards bare, in preparation of our upcoming move. Today will see us with a later roast lunch/early dinner, with a blackberry pie from the last of the berries on our bushes. Monday is chili, and beyond that, I've no idea! DS starts college work, with English 101 2 nights/week, 5 p.m. - 7 p.m., so I will take that into account as I plan dinners. The campus is 30 miles away, and if he's tired, he refuses to drive at all (a good thing) which means DH will step up and drive him, making meal planning a bit trickier. I actually enjoy eating down the stores, so to speak. Some of my greatest successes in the kitchen have come about from being low on supplies/short on time. It really inspires creativity!

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    1. My husband would gladly take a cleaning out the cupboards meal if it meant pie at the end. Hopefully the chili might stretch for him to reheat after class or before class different times than the rest of you. We have that with youngest daughters choir schedule and need reheatable meals that still taste fresh.

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  4. I think 375 is an impressive number. Good luck with the rest of the month. Hey, we had hamburger patties with gravy last night for dinner (and a side of broccoli), very filling.

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    1. It is a challenge month, so trying to be creative. I think October I will continue this goal, leading up to the holidays when things seems so decadent even when trying to be simple.

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  5. I've busted my grocery budget for September so October is going to be austere in terms of spending more $ on food. All the larders are stuffed full so it's time to eat it all down!

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    1. I figure since I do not do super shopping like folks with your skills do, I have to make up for it with more cooking form scratch, more creative use of the food we already have. I actually get overwhelmed with too many groceries. While my cupboards and freezer are lean, it is less stressful making meals than when jam packed.

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  6. Our pantry & freezer are so full, I need to focus on using up what we have. I've been trying to avoid dairy due to some stomach difficulties, which has wreaked havoc on a bunch of our normal menu plans & meal items. Now that I'm back from my trip, I need to make sure I'm rotating through leftovers, and reducing our inventory in the freezer. It's packed!

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    1. I would be hard pressed to not use dairy. At times I think an entire plant based diet woudl be great, and then something like a pasta dish, covered with cheese seems like the only thing I can get everyone to like.

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  7. You are doing great! It is hard to overlook the grocery adds for me. But I am still working on eating down the pantry. We leave in a few days so no more shopping for us until we get back.

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    1. Last night we ate until stuffed and I doubt anyone will go hungry all week. Not counting DH's snack splurge as I've decided that is his entertainment, I have $10 left but pup needs food, I need dishwashing liquid, and we will be out of bread and eggs by the weekend. $375 should do it perhaps.

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