Wednesday, January 28, 2009

A Challenge and an Award

I've issued a challenge to myself to spend only $20 this week by eating from my pantry, fridge, and freezer and utilizing my library card. I started the week with a full tank of gas and $20 and currently have $14.46. What did I buy, you may ask? A loaf of bread and a bag of cat food.

Last week I froze a lot of the white bean soup, so that has been my lunch twice this week with a salad. It has taken quite a bit of planning to come up with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for a full week but I think I'm doing okay.

Of course, my friends may not agree Saturday night when I show up with pantry fare for movie night.

I had in the freezer thin sliced chicken breasts and in the pantry some whole wheat spaghetti and a jar of Trader Joe's pesto. I dredged the chicken in a mixture of Good Seasons Italian Salad Dressing mix, fresh grated parmesan, garlic powder, and Italian seasoned bread crumbs and put on to bake at 350 while the pasta was cooking. I had a mixed green salad with this and can't help but being pleased with the results. It's also my lunch today.

Breakfast has been Applesauce Cake, a recipe from the Contessa's Kitchen board that I love and can feed me for a week. And I've even been bringing my own iced tea, sweetened with Splenda, from home.

I CAN DO THIS!

My friend Becky at Random Musings of a Decolady gave me an award, but I can't post it right now. I'll do so soon, and pass it on to some other lovely people.

Have a great Wednesday!

5 comments:

Suzie said...

Good for you! Thrifty is nifty, I keep telling myself!

Becky said...

You are doing great with the $20 challenge! As I don't get to go out shopping much myself, I'm going to see how well we can do similarly. The freezer and pantry are full of food. Plus the veggie box is prepaid and arrives every week.

I love that applesauce cake, too. Have you tried it with apple butter? That's really how I make it most often with my homemade crockpot apple butter. Yummy!

webbie said...

No applebutter but I may give it a try. But this last time I had a little cinnamon left in the jar and tossed it into the batter...It really made it better, I think.

PhantomMinuet said...

That's a great idea. I might try that challenge, myself.

Caribbean Dreamer said...

My friends used to laugh at me because I could hold on to $20 in my pockets forever!! I love being creative and using what you have on hand and "making do" with things. Good work!!!