Pantry Challenge - week 2

In my second week of the challenge...I felt a little bit more prepared.  I sat down with hubs last week and we worked out a menu
Sat - if you remember from the previous week was up in the air
Sun - Superbowl party
Mon - Gnocchi and salad
Tues - Stir-fry
Wed - Red beans and rice
Thurs - Black eyed peas - hubs request
Fri - we were traveling so some fruit and reception at the hotel

My menu ended as follows
Sat - Caribbean Rice mix and avocado
    - I was hungry on Saturday and the hubs was taking the boys to his mother because she was having a dinner for something - I found this rice mix I had in the pantry that came with the rice and all the seasonings in a packet but not like a rice a roni it was bit more sophisticated...anyway I put it on and added a can of pigeon peas and in 30 mins I had a meal with some tomato and avocado...delish. 
Sun - for lunch - more Caribbean rice
Monday - for lunch and dinner - the last of the Caribbean rice...it really lasted ...I was impressed and happy.
Tuesday - Gnocchi and a salad
Wed - We ordered pizza with some money I had left from my grocery shopping - $15
Thurs - the rest of the pizza
Fri - sandwiches until we get to the hotel.

Ok...so I didn't clear as many things out of my pantry as possible.
Originally I budgeted $50 a week for food, fresh fruits and veggies and complement for my cooked dishes.  I have spent 82.05...not to bad and with the extra cash I had left over I put gas in my car today. 
That being said since I didn't do all the things I anticipate this week...next week we should be ok the first few days so I may not even need to go to the grocery... we shall see.

I am think the menu will be as follows

Sun - taco salad
Mon - Black-eyed peas/ rice/ sauteed cabbage
Tues- Pasta salad ( I have some vegetable pasta I really want to try)
Wed - Stir -Fry ( brown rice or whole wheat couscous
Thurs - Mediterranean rice mix and some kind of veggie
Fri - either leftovers - some red beans.
Sat - lunch at church - I will probably take come rice and peas to share

 As part of my shopping last week I picked up four boxes of cereal so that will be breakfast for a while.  I just need to get some more almond milk.  I purchased some hemp milk to try but it was ridiculously expensive so I may take it back. Also, for breakfast I have been using the fresh fruit some days and just some frozen fruit the other days and the hubs has been taking lunch and eating carrot sticks and celery as a snack...so we are one the right track.

Along with this pantry challenge I am doing a financial fast so I am only spending money on necessities and trying to only spend cash no debit or credit cards.  I will have to fill you all in later...I know...I know I got too many things going on...but I figured they went well together so we shall see.

Pantry Challenge Menu

So in order to save money and to clear out my pantry I joined the pantry challenge.
I started cautiously last week and worked on a menu with the hubs for the coming week.

last week the menu was ad hoc but went something like this -

Wed - some cornbread mix I had in the pantry and a can of bush backed beans on Wednesday. 
Thurs- I had some quinoa in my pantry and cooked the rest of that to go with a PF Chang's frozen Broccoli and Chicken from my freezer.
Fri - I cooked up some red lentils ( for next week - these came out delicious) and I made some chili probably for Saturday - from some red and black beans I had in my pantry and some soy protein also from the pantry.

The Coming week Menu is as follows:

Sun ( today) - Pizza - hubs requested this as he gets no junk food in February
Mon- Red Lentil Stew and Quinoa
Tuesday - Chickpea and Couscous Salad
Wed- Sesame and Ginger Veggie Stir Fry and some Quinoa or Couscous
Thurs - Left Overs
Fri - Taco Salads (with chili)
Sat - not sure

We will see how close we are able to stick to the menu but I think we will be ok.  Breakfast will always be some fruit ( we have grapefruit and frozen peaches and cherries) and oatmeal  or a smoothie for now and lunch for the hubs is usually whatever is leftover from the day before and I usually have some Ezekiel 4:9 bread and a salad or something from the cafe at work ( I have credit there that I am trying to use up)  Friday is payday...so I will be able to replenish my fruits and veggies then.  Wish me luck..

Winter Wonderland

So it snowed here last night and it wasn't a lot of snow but for the Mid-Atlantic it was more than enough.

We woke up to about 6 inches on the ground, which for me as a native New Englander and then going to college in the Midwest is nothing but for the people here it's all a rage.  Apparently, on the way home last night the traffic was bad because of the thunder snowstorm that cars got stuck in the snow and people ended up abandoning their cars.  This of course made it a hard and inconvenient to plow so the roads are not plowed as great as they should be.  However, the highway was all clear, which I found out on my way to work after my lovely 2 hour delay.

The news said there was a sheet of ice so bad on one of the roads yesterday that cars couldn't make it up a hill to get onto the main highway without each others help.  People said they were stuck on the 8 mile stretch for 12 hours because traffic was so bad...can we say Torture!!!!!

Luckily I was home by 2:45pm...I picked up the wee one late because I wanted to run to the grocery store so I could make dinner and then home we went.  The hubs was able to get off of work at 3:30 so he left work early and missed lots of the rush hour traffic home...even my workplace let out early... One of my coworkers who lives way north of the job didn't get home until 3am this morning because of traffic due to the weather...I can see why some people abandoned their cars.

All in all in the wee one's household things were quiet.  I made cornbread (vegan), bush baked beans ( I would have made chili but I am trying to do the Pantry Challenge I know I am a month late).  I figure I would do it anyway, since the month of February we are doing some strict budgeting and seeing how it goes so that I can further explore my stay at home option.  Along with beans, I made some seasoned potatoes (I only had two potatoes left and they needed to be cooked) and I made a salad.  It was delicious my corn beard was good...I forgot to take a picture before we cut it open...we ended up sticking it back in the oven to dry up a little more but it was still very delicious.

Then the hubby went down for a nap and the wee one and  I hung out and had some tummy time then I fed him and hubby put him to bed, which allowed me to finally finish the book The Help, which I mentioned here ( more on  the book later).

Then off to bed I went hoping for a snow day...which I clearly did not get since I am at work today.  However, I got a delay and it was nice to sleep in with the hubby and hang out with Ben.  Turns out though that daycare is closed due to lack of power...so the hubby had to telecommute this morning and I still had to come in.