Eat from the pantry challenge: week 4

It was last week of the challenge and we were still going strong. After a tough week with Dan being sick, I was happy to be cooking meals again. He's good about not complaining while he's sick, but he did have some funny dinner requests. We spent roughly $180 on food for the month. I'd say that's pretty good. And we still have lots of pasta, boxes of rice, meat, and other staples stocked up so we won't have to spend a fortune next month to restock the pantry.

Here was our menu for the last week:
Monday - creamy pasta with peas and italian sausage, asparagus
Tuesday - pizza, salad
Wednesday - homemade chicken nuggets and fries
Thursday - steak, salad, rice a roni
Friday - baked seafood cataplana pasta
Saturday - BBQ chicken, cauliflower, corn bread, salad (fun dinner with friends)
Sunday - hmmm, I can't remember... sad. it was only 2 days ago :)

We're going to try to do a similar challenge for the month of March, but I'm not going to be as strict about it and I'm not going to blog about it since, quite frankly, it's pretty boring :) At least I can say we did it and cut our food bill significantly.

Eat from the pantry challenge: Week 3

this week was off to a rough start. We're a bit off schedule since Dan's sick (again!) and Avery went back on her antibiotics for a day then back off (she had bacteria in her urine on her follow up visit, so she was supposed to do another 10 days of antibiotics but then the doctor's office called and said it wasn't an infection so we could stop it again). I'm pretty sure all the girls are close to cutting teeth and I wouldn't be surprised if Brelynn does before this week is up.

Monday - homemade chicken noodle soup
Tuesday - scallop and clam chowder (yummy!)
Wednesday - cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes
Thursday - blueberry pancakes, bacon (at Dan's request)
Friday - chicken and dumplings
Saturday - grilled cheese sandwiches
Sunday - Texas hash

bought: I splurged when I took Avery to the doctor's and got a tall caramel machiatto for me and then stuff to make sandwiches for lunch (hoagie rolls, pastrami, provalone cheese). I didn't "need" any of this, well maybe the latte, but sometimes you have to break the rules a bit to make life easier. I'm okay with this. I also bought some fruits and veggies and more baby food. These girls eat a ton! I bought cauliflower, asparagus, carrots, salad, oranges, ice cream, coffee, baby yogurt, and a few different kids of baby crackers.

spent: $44.51

Valentine's Day

Dan brought me these beautiful flowers for Valentine's Day.


Oh, and all our new appliances arrived just in time for our fancy dinner. Aren't they pretty? There's a new dishwasher, too. It just didn't want it's picture taken.

Eat from the pantry challenge: Week 2

After last week's shopping trip to stock up on things, we really didn't need anything this week except for milk and stuff to make a fancy Valentine's dinner. For Valentine's dinner we had pan seared sea scallops, brussel sprouts, shrimp salad, and french bread. Not including this dinner, we bought milk, heavy cream, half and half, some frozen scallops (impulse buy!), baby yogurt, and baby food and spent $14.71 plus the cost of milk from Costco (Dan kept the receipt). Our fridge, freezer, and pantry are still stocked so I don't think I'll need to get anything this week.

our menu:
Monday - enchiladas, spanish rice, green salad
Tuesday - grilled shrimp salad
Wednesday - lasagne, cauliflower
Thursday - whole chicken, risotto, green salad
Friday - steak, asparagus, green salad, french bread
Saturday - spaghetti, french bread
Sunday - sea scallops, brussel sprouts, shrimp salad, french bread, chocolate amaretto pie

quick Avery update

Avery is doing fine, she's about halfway done with her antibiotic and she's fully back to normal. Yeah! We went to Children's yesterday and she had an ultrasound of her kidneys and a VCUG (x-ray procedure looking to see if the urine is backing up to her kidneys, a different kind of reflux). Based on the preliminary resluts, both were normal. She didn't have vesicourethral reflux which is a huge relief. Not sure if there will be anything else we have to do for this, her pediatrician should call in the next day or two with the results and anything else we're supposed to do. thanks to everyone for all the thoughts and prayers!

Poor Avery

We finally figured out why Avery was so grumpy last week and why she was running a fever. It was a kidney infection! It started last Tuesday when the girls all got a few shots. Wednesday and Thursday Avery had a low grade fever that I attributed to the shots. No big deal. Then Friday and Saturday it started going up into the 101-102 range and she wasn't eating very well and definitely not sleeping well. By Sunday her temp was around 103 but of course the dr's office is closed on Sundays so Monday morning I called and we got her an appt that afternoon. She was a trooper and saw the doctor who got a urine sample, blood sample, and gave her a check up. Her urine culture showed that she had a pretty serious infection. The doctor actually considered admitting her to the hospital for IV antibiotics, but she was still smiling and acting pretty normal so he let us come home after Avery got two shots of antibiotics. We had to go back the next day and her fever was already down and she was doing quite a bit better so now she's just on oral antibiotics for 10 days. We do need to figure out why she got this, so Monday she and I will spend most of the afternoon at Children's where she'll get a renal ultrasound and a VCUG to make sure there's no anatomical reason for the kidney infection. She is back to her happy, smiling self already. How stressful!!!

Eat from the pantry challenge: Week 1

I love this challenge so far. Dan has embraced it whole-heartedly and is trying not to spend a dime on food all month. I think we've eaten better this week than we usually do since I can't just grab pasta and chicken at the last minute. I'm actually planning meals which as been fun. We even have a few desserts thrown in there for good measure. Lunches have been left overs for the most part, but I did thaw a soup that was in the freezer (pork posole, yum!). Here's our progress so far

2/1: pulled pork sandwiches, green beans
2/2: BBQ beef short ribs, rice a roni, peanut butter bon bons for dessert
2/3: cheesy chicken broccoli casserole
2/4: honey glazed teriyaki chicken, rice, stir fried veggies
2/5: bowtie pasta with italian sausage and peas, pumpkin bread for dessert
2/6: steak, rice a roni, green salad
2/7: enchiladas, spanish rice, green salad

I splurged a bit this weekend and stocked up on a few things, but I'm hoping that this will save us money later in the month. I bought 2 gallons milk, 2 coffeemate creamers, 1 pound Starbuck's coffee, sour cream, gorgonzola, 3 pizzas, 2 bags tortilla chips, 9 cases pop, 4 bags salad, 2 avocados, 6 bell peppers, cauliflower, apples, asparagus, 10 boxes of rice a roni, 12 tubs of baby food, baby yogurt, baby wagon wheels, baby puffs, and one grande caramel macchiato for me! Grand total: $118.73 (saved $63.44 with coupons and sales). This was my first time using coupons and it wasn't too bad, although it definitely took some planning and a great deal of time since I'm new to it. The way I see it, I just paid myself $63 for a few hours of work and I should get much faster as I figure this stuff out.