Pantry Challenge Wrap-up

January is over and technically the pantry challenge should as well. I confess that my pantry challenge mojo was weak this year. Having to purchase groceries for the recipe testing, then having to make and eat the recipes, which weren't dishes we normally would have made kind of threw me off a bit. No complaints, the food was fine, just not anything we'd have normally prepared.
I also let some time crunches get the better of us, and rather than planning and prepping ahead, just got take-out. I was sick for a week as well, though was able to grab some of the test recipe dishes for lunch one day when the kids were home from school for weather-related reasons.
Greg resisted the challenge and picked up some of his own groceries. He never really likes when I do this anyway, but is a good sport and eats what I make, but then he purchases his own snacks or meals while I'm at work.
All that said, I have made a dent in our food stash, especially in the house frig freezer. That is always where I toss the extras or small bits of leftovers that we haven't finished off. It's always crammed full, it seems. There is some wiggle room now, anyway.

What did I use up?
There was a lot of oatmeal. That was used for homemade granola, oatmeal cinnamon waffles, and in meatloaf.
There were several jars of homemade chicken stock in the freezer and we've used most of those. I used a small jar of soup from the freezer along with a big jar of broth and a handful of sliced carrots from the frig, and the last handful of noodles from the cupboard, and made lunch in the Instant Pot. Delicious chicken soup that had enough leftover to put a jar in the frig for the weekend.
Two gallon freezer bags full of Spanish rice are gone. Each time I mixed in some cooked ground beef and shredded cheese for an easy and tasty casserole.
For snacks, the kids have been working on the cracker stash we had left from the holidays. Last week Bradley made some fluffer nutter fruit dip using the last package of cream cheese, one of the jars of marshmallow fluff, and peanut butter. We served it with sliced apples and crackers.
There was a stray baggie of fresh green beans in the freezer leftover from a previous recipe-testing endeavor, and a couple of almost-questionable potatoes, so we had "hobo" meals made in the IP with a couple of hamburger patties. I think we prefer them on the grill, but they were tasty enough.

So now it's February and I'm heading to Aldi and Sam's Club tomorrow. I don't plan a huge stock-up, but there are a few basics that we're not inclined to make from scratch right now. Tortillas are a good example of that. I also have another freezer menu to cook and need a few things for that. Plus, we're going to give sourdough a try and I need some quality flour to feed it.

All in all, yes, we used up some of our food stash, and yes, we did save some $$. I could have done a much better job, but am not beating myself up over it.
January was, well, ...

How did your pantry challenge go? I'd love to hear about it! At our house, we're moving on for the moment.