This Week's Menu - Pantry Cooking

I decided a couple weeks ago that I should do one whole week without grocery shopping. I did make sure we had things like apples and milk around, but I wanted to push myself to think outside the box and use what I had wisely. I think it's a fun challenge! I always have things in my pantry that last a long time, such as dried beans, rice, lentils, other grains/seeds etc., which I am happy to have in stock but I can also get in the habit of not using. So this week I am making all of our dinners (well, actually everything we'll eat) out of things we have around that I had no plans to use. Some items are in the fridge and need to be used, others have been sitting around in the pantry being neglected.

Here's what I came up with for the week without grocery shopping:

Tuesday - Breakfast burritos - breakfast sausage, potatoes, onions, cheddar cheese, eggs, salsa/chipotle sauce, sour cream/creme fraiche -- Yum!

Wednesday - Very simple and fast pesto pasta -- won't be getting home until 8:40ish tomorrow, so quick dinner it is! Literally just cooking pasta and tossing it with Trader Joe's quinoa pesto that I talked about in this post.

Thursday - pesto chicken sandwiches with apple and smoked Gouda -- I haven't decided if I will heat these up grilled cheese style or if we'll eat them cold. This will also be very simple. I'll use more of the quinoa pesto, lay out sliced chicken, and top with the apples and cheese.

Friday - bacon lentil pasta -- Remember the bacon black bean pasta I talked about in this post? I am going to make a very similar dish with green lentils instead of black beans and probably no parsley. I love simple pasta dishes like this.

Saturday - fiesta pasta -- Never made this but it looks like it must be pretty good. It's also one of those dishes that I almost always have all of the ingredients to make.

The veggies I have on hand which will probably make appearances are roasted sweet potatoes, roasted carrots, and sauteed cabbage.

I still have several meal ideas I came up with from what we have in stock that aren't on this menu, so even though I'll have to pick up some vegetables, fruit, and peanut butter for next week, I probably still won't need to buy too much. I guess I'll be saving on February's grocery budget! Hopefully it doesn't mess me up for March.

Here are some of the things we'll be having for breakfasts and snacks that I basically always have everything to prepare:

Chunky Chocolate Buckwheat Granola

Peanut Butter Oat Cereal

High Protein Energy Balls, Carrot Cake Energy Bites, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Bites

Have you ever done pantry cooking weeks? Was it fun and challenging, or did you find yourself at the grocery store halfway through? 

Happy cooking!