Pantry & Freezer Spring Cleaning--Part 2

I have written down everything on my pantry shelves and in my freezers.  It took me about an hour to get the lists made and some what in categories so that I didn't have to look through the whole list to see if I had an item on hand. 

I have come up with at least 16 dinner meals that I can make from my lists.  In order to finish off those meals, I will need more veggies in the house.  As for breakfasts and lunches, I am pretty sure that I have enough items to match the 16 dinner meals.   

Most of the items that are on my list are things that I need to make homemade goodies, like yeast bread, quick breads, cakes, cookies, etc.   Now the next step is making a list of different goodies to make and making those items over the course of the month.

Next step is writing out the menus for next 2 weeks!!  Stay tuned those will be coming at the beginning of the week! 

The Pantry & Freezer Spring Cleaning Event

My hubby asked me the other day if I would work at spending as little as I could for groceries during the month of April so that we could pay down some lingering debt and get our budget back on track.   I agreed and I see that I am not going to be alone in my endeavors, as I found that Stephanie is going to be doing a month's worth of eating out of her pantry and freezer for April and last week Crystal aka MoneySavingMom did an "eating out of the pantry challenge" .

In order to keep me on track, I thought that I would work at blogging about the "Spring Cleaning" that is going to be occurring in my pantry and freezer. 

I will be purchasing milk, eggs, fresh fruit and veggies during April as I like to keep a fresh supply of these items on hand.  I will also need to get some meats as well because meatless meals just do not go over well with my meat lover family. 

I have bulk staple items like flour, oatmeal, and rice that I need to be using up along with other odds and ends of canned goods, like fruit and pumpkin.  I also have plenty of cake and cookie mixes that I have stockpiled from previous sales that I need to use up as well. 

I will be taking inventory of everything in the freezer and pantry in the next week along with making up meal suggestions for menu planning.  Updated: You can see the inventory results here.

It should be an interesting month!

Anyone else looking to do some spring cleaning???

New Kitchen "Servant"

A couple of weeks ago, I found that I had many reward points on my credit card, so I decided to redeem some of those points and get myself a new kitchen "servant".

It is a 6.5 quart roaster!  I am loving it!  I have been using lately for meals rather than using my oven or my crockpot.  

I did my roast, carrots and potatoes in it earlier in the week.  The roast was done just right, the potatoes were just starting to split to show that they were done, the carrots were not mushy either!!  

When I did this meal in my crockpot, I would do it different each time trying to get rid of my dried out roast and really mushy carrots.  I think it has to do with the fact that my crockpot was running hot or something!  Cause I put the food in the roast at 300° for the day and it was cooked in about 6 hours just right! 

I am looking forward to working this "servant" more in the days to come.  I just have to remember to put more liquid into it than what I did my crockpot because the roaster boils/steams as it cooks so liquid disappears faster than in a crockpot. 

Menu Plan Monday 3/29-4/4

Last week's menu planwent pretty smoothly despite the fact that I moved dinners around to different days to fit what our schedule was during the day. Even though I plan three meals and a snack daily, I write the plans down in pencil so if something comes up during the day or plans just need to be changed I can change what is written down with just an eraser and pencil.

This week’s shopping trip was purchasing items that I need for meals along with starting my spring/summer entertaining stockpile. My hubby and I love to have friends over during nice weather for barbecuing so I start working at making sure that I have things available for those events. My hubby has a tendency to call people at the last minute(day before wanting them over) so having a stockpile of drinks, snacks and paper products on hand makes those times less stressful for me.

This week’s menus are going to be some of my fix and forget it or less labor intensive meals because it is a busy week with LOTS of extra-curricular items on the agenda. This week starts spring soccer practice for two of my boys on two different nights! My hubby is starting to be involved in a men’s mentoring group on alternate Monday nights which starts this week! Also four out of five kids go in for their every 6 months dentist appt this week on Thursday. On Saturday this week we will be having friends over as to whether they are going to be here for lunch or dinner has yet to be set so I am leaving those meals open for more discussion.

Lunches listed are for the kids & me. Unless we are having leftovers, our lunches are served with apple slices or baby carrots along with fruit juice or water. Hubby usually takes a dinner leftover along with various snacks for his work lunch.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check the over 400 other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie’s site or look down in my right sidebar for my menu suggestion lists!

Sunday (3-29)

Breakfast: eggs, sausage or bacon, hash browns, and cinnamon rolls

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: Arby’s after church

Snack: snack basket

Monday (3-30)

Breakfast: cereal, toaster strudel

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: roast, carrots and potatoes

Snack: snack basket or yogurt

Tuesday (3-31)

Breakfast: waffles and sausage

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: homemade pizza

Snack: cookies & milk

Wednesday (4-1)

Breakfast: bagels, eggs and yogurt

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: oven fried chicken served with pan fries and corn

Snack: snack basket

Thursday (4-2)

Breakfast: French Toast(from freezer)

Lunch: Bob Evans--out to lunch with Grandma

Dinner: spaghetti served with garlic toast and a fresh veggie tray

Snack: snack basket

Friday (4-3)

Breakfast: cereal and toaster strudel

Lunch: sandwiches & chips

Dinner: chicken club sandwiches served with french fries and corn

Snack: ice cream night

Saturday (4-4)

Breakfast: “Cook’s Choice”

Lunch:

Dinner:

Snack: snack basket or popcorn

Singing Sunday

By Your Side

by Tenth Avenue North

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

(Chorus 2x)

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

(Chorus 2x)