I am a follower of  Moneysavingmom.com  and this week Crystal Paine challenged her readers to cook from the pantry with the exception of bread, milk, and eggs. I accepted the challenge, but cheated a little.  In addition to the milk and bread (I didn’t need eggs), I bought a package of 12 tortillas (that’s Mexican bread, right?),  some produce (1 head of  lettuce, 2 tomatoes, 2 lemons, 5 bananas, 1 cucumber, a personal size watermelon) and orange juice (my man of steel doesn’t drink milk; he drinks orange juice with calcium).  I also bought a 24 oz package of bacon and got a package of shredded cheese free and found 3 cans of tomatoes with green chili’s marked down to $.33 each.  So I spent $24.66 at HEB and $1.69 at Wal Mart for a grand total of $26.35 for the two of us.

Most weeks I spend between $65-$75, so this shall be interesting. I usually stock up on sale items but this week I only purchased the 3 cans of tomatoes and the bacon along with the free cheese. The biggest challenge is that I did not buy any coke zero.  We will drink tea, crystal light and water this week.

Here’s what we ate yesterday:

Breakfast:  Fried egg sandwich, cantaloupe

Lunch:  Leftovers (Keary ate a pork chop and baked  beans and I ate a baby back rib, deviled egg and beans.

Supper:  Leftover baby back ribs/sausage, beans We finished the beans, yeah!!!!

 

Today we ate:

Breakfast: Fried egg sandwich and glass of milk

Lunch:  Keary-left over baby back ribs and peas.  I had a sausage sandwich and a celery stick with cream cheese.

Snack: Peanut butter crackers and spiced hot tea.

Supper:  Lemon chicken with carrots, green beans and potatoes, bread, and watermelon.

I found the lemon chicken recipe on pinterest:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pan-roasted-chicken-lemon-garlic-green-beans-10000000780291/index.html

I did make a few changes to the original recipe. I  used frozen green beans because I did not have fresh, added 2 carrots (trying to use up some produce), used creole seasoning instead of salt and pepper, and added a little more olive oil and lemon juice when I marinated the chicken.

So far this challenge has been easy with all the Easter leftovers, but the week is young.  We’ll see how it goes.

Have you ever done a pantry challenge?  If so, how did it work for you?