Pantry Purge 2011 has Come Down to Hot Dogs

I have done a terrible job of keeping track of the days over the last week. I know that we have been doing this for 19 days and we still have a long ways to go!! We have been very creative and the kids are even on board with it, which I'd say is a testament to the meals being as tasty as they are unique.

Here are a couple of highlights from the last couple of weeks:

Last week I posted about the pork tacos. Well that meal left us with some leftovers that made it easy to make some black bean and rice burritos. I threw some cilantro, tomatoes, a jalapeno, 1/2 an onion and some salt into a food processor and made some faux salsa. I set that aside and heated up the griddle. Once heated, I laid some whole wheat tortillas on the griddle and covered them with grated cheddar cheese, a scoop of the leftover cilantro lime rice, some canned black beans, a little of the salsa and some cilantro. Once the cheese was melted, I rolled them up into burritos and covered them with a little more salsa and cilantro. They were really good and SUPER easy!! I served them with some left over cabbage slaw from the pork tacos and some of the leftover rice.

Tonight the Pantry Purge cleaned out some hot dogs. I was really intimidated with what to do with them, but the dinner has earned the name Haute Daug Delight and it was really yummy.

Haute Daug Delight

4 medium tomatoes, processed in food processor
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
4 hot dogs
1/2 package egg noodles, cooked according to package

Heat olive oil in wok. Add onion and season with red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, celery seed, and italian seasoning. Once starting to turn translucent, add garlic. Cook until fragrant. Add celery and red pepper. Cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes from food processor. Bring to a boil and then add hot dogs. Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. Add cooked egg noodles. Simmer for 5 more minutes and serve.


Who knew hot dogs could taste so good!? My next challenge is to turn a bag of frozen hash browns into dinner. This one is going to take some creativity! Wish me luck! :)

Pantry Purge 2011, Days 3 & 4

Day 3:
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. As I struggle with a cold that is quickly kicking my ass, I have gotten a day behind in blogging. So to recap yesterday, we spent breakfast with our wonderful friends, Terry and Patrice, to celebrate his birthday. His wish was to leave it up to the boys and somehow we ended up at the airport Waffle House. Honestly, it was perfect. The food and the service was fantastically tragic. Now when I say breakfast, I should really say it was more of a brunch since we didn't eat until after noon.

Due to the lunch-time breakfast, we skipped lunch and focused on dinner. This proposed a new challenge Pantry Purge dinner with guests!! Terry and Patrice were coming over!! Yikes! What started as a mission to clean out a couple of jars from the fridge turned into a pretty great dinner.

Pork Tacos with Red Slaw and Cilantro Lime Rice:
(Tacos)

1 Pkg. 12 hard taco shells
1 boston butt pork roast
1 jar green salsa
1/4 bottled jalapenos, sliced
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp pepper jelly
5 cloves garlic
5 dashes jalapeno Tabasco sauce
1 medium white onion
salt and pepper to taste

Season pork with salt and pepper on all sides and place in a small roaster. Put the rest of the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Cover pork roast and place in preheated oven at 350. Roast in oven for about 2 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile....
(Slaw)
Combine:
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded,
1 green pepper, chopped,
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
salt to taste

To assemble tacos:

Shred pork and place back in sauce in roaster. Once combined, place small amount in the bottom of each taco. Cover with slaw. We also topped ours with crema and pepper jack cheese.

YUMMY!!

Cilantro Lime Rice:
Cook rice according to package directions. Once cooked, add juice of 2 limes, 1/2 cup cilantro, 1/2 cup frozen corn, 1/2 chopped adobe pepper, 1/2 cumin, and salt to taste.

It sounds far more complicated than it really was! It easy and delicious and again, the family gobbled them right up! In this meal, I was able to get rid of a box of taco shells, 1 jar green salsa, 1/2 head of cabbage, 1 partially used onion, 3 limes that had been saved after being zested, and the rest of some crema from fish tacos.

Day 4:
Today was an easy day and as crappy as I feel with this cold, I am VERY thankful. I met one of my favorite people for lunch today. (That's you, Courtney!!) Luckily for me, lunch provided just enough dinner for my under the weather appetite. Brent had a couple of things to choose from and ended up eating the rest of the Jalapeno-Corn Chowder from the other night (The last pre-challenge meal) and the soba noodles with chicken and veggies. While it's not very exciting, it does help keep the fridge empty and us from needing to go grocery shopping for one more day!

Pantry Purge 2011, Day 2

Well today was our first day to provide 3 meals for all for of us. After having a tasty dinner last night the boys were much more excited about the challenge. We decided that since we won't be buying anymore cereal for a while that we should save that for week days when the boys have school. Brennan has become quite the little pancake maker and volunteered to make us all breakfast. (That's right. I did say volunteered!) To go along with that I used up the last of the oranges that my parents sent us and made some freshly squeezed OJ. It was quite tasty!!

For lunch, we had to cheat. Brennan had soccer tryouts and we had a bazillion errands to run so we grabbed sandwiches while out. I think that's allowed sometimes.

Dinner was great. That makes us 2-0 for dinner. I decided to try to space out the meat that we do have in the freezer to make it last longer. I knew I wanted to do something vegetarian, but my go-to for that is to always use something with beans in it for protein. Since we didn't grocery shop before deciding to do this challenge, there were no beans in the house. To make up for it, I used a package of soybean spaghetti noodles. The consistency of them takes some getting used to, but they are so healthy it's easy to look past.

We ran to the co-op and grabbed some tomatoes, fresh basil and a zucchini. I grabbed a few ingredients from the cabinet and here's what I came up with:

6 tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 small zucchini, shredded
1 red pepper, shopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup kalamata olives, halved and pitted
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 cup shredded romano cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
Feta cheese
fresh basil

Bring olive oil to medium heat in large sauce pan or dutch oven. Add onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Add zucchini and cook another 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, red pepper, olives, wine, vinegar, red pepper flakes, oregano, & romano cheese. Cook 10-15 minutes until tomatoes start to cook down. add mixture to food processor and puree until smooth. Add back to pot and add fresh basil. Cook another 5 minutes. To serve: Add over cooked noodles. Top with 1/4 cup feta cheese and garnish with fresh basil.


It was well received by all. Brennan, of course, would have preferred less cheese. Brent, wasn't a huge fan of the noodles. And Drew, couldn't decided which meal he like better between day one and two's dinners. I was pleased that I was able to again mix in a large portion of fresh vegetables and they go unnoticed thanks to the food processor.

I emptied a container of romano cheese and a package of soybean noodles. Bring on day 3!

Pantry Purge 2011

After ditching cable earlier this week, Brent and I discovered that the Show Hoarders was available to stream on Netflix. Who doesn't love a good train wreck to watch?? After watching a couple of episodes, including one that featured a woman that was a food hoarder, we were motivated for a challenge. How many times have you gone to the grocery store only to return and struggle to find a place to house your new 'necessary' goods. I came to the realization that I honestly don't know what is on the top two shelves of our pantry. Now we're not hoarders by an means, but we are certainly guilty of having far more than we need to. So here's the challenge: We are going to see how long we can eat at home without having to go grocery shopping. The only exceptions are for fresh vegetables and milk. I am sure that it is going to be difficult at times, but I am really excited about it. I love being creative in the kitchen.

Tonight was our first night of this experiment. It went really well. Here is what we whipped up:

Chicken and Soba Stir-fry:

16 oz chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch strips
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tsp 5 spice seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 4-oz package soba noodles
3 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped,
10 radishes, chopped
juice of 1/2 lime
1 cup vegetable broth
olive oil
1 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tbsp water
2 tbsp soy sauce

Ok...mix the chopped onion and chicken in a bowl. Season with 5 spice, salt, and minced garlic. Set aside. cook noodles according to package. Add 2 Tbsp oil to wok and stir fry for 3 minutes. Remove and set aside. Add 2 Tbsp olive oil to wok. Add chicken mixture. Cook 3 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Mix in soba noodles and serve.

It was tasty and quick. Tomorrow could be more challenging considering we have the boys and 3 meals to prepare. I'm both glad and worried that we didn't grocery shop ahead of time to prepare for this. I'm pleased to say that today we used up several packages of things that were partially used. It feels really good!

Cute Comic!

Zombies Vs. Supermodels

What's your state good at?

It is almost the third of January and my hopes of this being the year to end procrastination seems to have dissipated! I'd hoped to have this posted on the first, but well, I didn't. Here is a list of my resolutions for 2011: (By posting them, I hope it will keep me honest all year long)

1.) No more texting while driving. Here is the inspiration for this resolution! WATCH IT!!

2.) Paint one canvas a month

3.) Read 15 books by the end of the year

4.) Take more time for myself, even if it's just 15 minutes to paint my toenails.

5.) Remind those that I care about how I feel.

Seems easy. They always seem easy.