Freezer Pantry Challenge – Day 18
January 19, 2010 by christine
Filed under Freezer / Pantry Challenge
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, Sausage Links & Peach/Strawberry/Cider Smoothies
Lunch: Chicken Noodle Soup (out of cans)
Dinner: Frozen Pizza (cooked of course)
This afternoon I also made a big batch of Blueberry Muffins – which served as snacks today and will serve as breakfast tomorrow. My husband is out of town, so I am trying to think ahead a little bit to make things easier in the morning. At any rate, my oldest son (also known as my picky child) ate a muffin and then went on to proclaim that he could eat those for breakfast, lunch and dinner they were so good! YEA! A hit! The other kids devoured them just as happily. I had bought lots of blueberries in the summer when they went on sale super cheap, and so this was a great way to use some up. (of course a couple of the kids ate their fair share frozen while they were waiting to be folded into the muffins too!) We do have a couple blueberry bushes in our garden… Maybe someday they will produce some berries for us! Oh, so did you want the recipe? Here you go!
Blueberry Muffins 
1 c. butter – softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 c. milk
1 t. vanilla extract (I always just dump a bunch in)
4 c. flour (I used King Arthur’s white wheat)
1/4 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 cups fresh of frozen (do not thaw) blueberries
Beat butter until smooth. Cream with sugar until well blended. Add eggs, beat well. Add milk & vanilla, beat well. Add flour, salt, & baking powder, beat until blended. Fold in blueberries. Fill paper lined muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until light golden brown. Makes 24 muffins.
Annika was willing to do her part to help.
This afternoon we did head to the grocery store as well. First time I have been all month! I sent my husband the other two trips this month. I wasn’t planning on going today per se… but I had to run to town for a couple other things, (we live in the country, so it is a 20 min. trip to town) so I decided I may as well since we were there. This is the first time I have taken all 4 kids to the grocery store with me, by myself, for quite some time. It just isn’t the easiest thing – even though they are fairly well behaved. But since my husband is out of town this week, and since we were there… in we went! (and then I remembered why I don’t do this very often… They were pretty good – it was just the can we get this, can we get that chorus that makes it a bit rough when you are trying to not buy much. I’m such a softie in this department, that we did probably end up with a couple extras…) The kids were BEGGING for tortillas, but there weren’t any good deals on those, so they had to live without those.
Here’s what we ended up with:
Milk $2.99
18 ct. Eggs $2.79
5.10 pounds of bananas – $3.52
4 boxes of those Quaker Granola Bars that are on sale for $1 each (I just couldn’t let that one go by!) $4.00
1 box of Quaker Oatmeal Pancake Mix – $1.00 (yes, I know I can make pancakes without mix… but for $1 that is actually cheaper than from scratch)
Apple Juice – $1.99
Juicy Juice Juice Boxes (2 packs – $1.99 each) – $3.98 (not a necessity… but a good sale and I prefer only 100% juice juice boxes)
Canola Oil $3.99 (we are close to out)
Romaine Bagged Lettuce $2.00
Total: $26.55 (Saved $20.24)
Grand total so far for January: $45.42 – But for a family of 6 for 18 days? No complaints there! We would normally be around $200-$250 by now, and we won’t be going back to the store at least for the rest of the week, so that is really $45.42 for probably close to 23-24 days.
C-
You did so much better than I. $23.69,Toilet paper and again Dog food.
I made a huge batch of pancakes on Sat. The kids loved them and they’re all gone now. The muffins are a good idea. they could eat them in the car on the way to school.Well, maybe not the baby!
We have eggs and toast often.I make english muffin sandwiches for DH to take to work.When I do those as with a lot of other breakfasts I make a big batch and freeze.He just pulls it out ,takes off and microwaves when he gets to work.
Yesterday we had corn chex for breakfast,PB and honey with oranges and milk for lunch.We are out of jelly.And taco soup for dinner with tortia chips,those are all gone now also.
This morning will be oatmeal.The rest to be determined as I go along.
This eating out of the freezer has not been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I went to the store yesterday and bought a 10 lb. bag of sugar and some tortilla chips. That was $7 for both and I bought store brand! The chips are for school lunches and to go with the taco soup we are having for supper.
Yesterday was my mother’s 70th birthday so my father took us out to Olive Graden. That was a nice treat and now we are ready to get back to eating at home. We were treated to dinner after church Sunday night as well so we really feel like we have eaten out a ton! Ha!
I went out and dug around in the freezer yesterday afternoon to get in mind what next week’s menu may have listed on it. For now, we have 7 new meals listed on the fridge that we must start on tonight.
On Sunday we were blessed with 4 loves of bread, and 6 dozen eggs ( I had just bought 1 1/2 doz the day before) I did make a rather large batch of cube steak in mushroom gravy and we did eat it all in 4 days. Usually I would have tossed the leftovers after the second day, but we held tough!
I am making a large batch of 3 meat spagetti which will last a few days too, the whole family LOVES it.
The most things I have bought is baby food for Sailor and diapers. We are still way below my budget of $100 I have set for the family (6) I usually spend $300 a month.
Okay so I went to the grocery store today. I needed gogurts (well didn’t need them but needed yogurt for the kids and it was on sale and had cpns) and lettuce. I spent $6.59. Rounding up that brings me to $13. I made up some snacks , banana muffins, banana peanut butter muffins, and pumpkin bread. The kids are doing good with this challenge. I had picked up some snack packs in the store and they both said “No mom, we don’t need them and we have other stuff to snack on!” I was sooo proud! Course the snacks were what I wanted! But when a 12 and 9 yr old are getting in the spirit of saving money I couldn’t be the one to be bad! I am glad that this challenge also became an opportunity to allow me to show my kids that there are even more ways to be thrifty. My son who has a heart of gold, even made up a bag he wants to take to the mission with the clothes we always take. Made a mother proud!