Eat From the Pantry Challenge Update

We've been doing really good about Eating from our Pantry so far this month. I have made some purchases but they have been the items that I said I would purchase...dairy, bread, produce, freebies...and the deals that are just too good to pass up.

I have to admit that earlier this week, I was stressing out a little bit about the fact that I am using a bunch of stuff out of my pantry...and my grocery list keeps getting longer and longer with things that I am getting really low on. This concerns me a bit because I wonder how it will all play out next month with our grocery budget...if we'll be able to stay within our limits. I think it will probably be okay but it does concern me a bit because the little stuff all ads up....sometimes all too quickly. After shopping on Wednesday I did start to feel a little better when I came home with bags and bags of stuff...and spent very little. I came across a post today at Life as Mom...read it here. If you are doing the pantry challenge, maybe this will help you with some questions, concerns or doubts.

I thought I would be using a lot of our freezer meals while doing this challenge but I've only been using about 2 per week and coming up with the rest of our meals from what we have on hand.

Here are a couple of yummy things we have eaten this week:

I had some plain, cooked, cubed chicken left over from our big cooking day that I had froze. I pulled that out and we are going to be getting 3 meals from this container of chicken. I did not realize we would get this much from the container. I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing this weekend with the remaining chicken.

My sister gave me a recipe for Chicken Rolls quite a while ago. I used to make them A LOT. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I had not made them in a very long time. I had some crescent rolls that needed to be used up and this was the perfect recipe for that.

You will need:
1 tube of crescent rolls
Cooked, cubed chicken (about 2 cups or so??)
About 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
2/3 c. milk

In a small pot, combine soup and milk. Heat on low till heated through and well blended (I whisk mine every so often as it warms up). While soup/milk is warming, take crescent rolls and press 2 triangles together to get a rectangle...you will end up with 4 rectangles. Spread chicken and cheese in the centers of each rectangle and roll up and place in lightly greased 9x13 dish. If you have leftover chicken & cheese, throw it in the soup mixture. Pour soup mixture over the tops of rolls (cover tops lightly otherwise they end up doughy). Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Delicious!!!

*If you have older children or bigger eaters, you'll probably want to double the recipe. This is JUST enough for our family of 5 (3 of which are young children and 2 of those are picky eaters...therefore eat little).

And...do you have one of these?


I made Chicken Quesadillas in it tonight for dinner. YUM!!!

You will need:
Burrito sized flour tortillas
Shredded cheese (we prefer a mexican blend)
Cooked, cubed chicken
Tomatoes, chopped
Cilantro, chopped
Green chiles (I used canned--chopped & peeled)

I place the cheese on the tortilla first and then layer all of the other ingredients. I place a second tortilla on top and then put in the quesadilla maker and cook for 4 minutes. So easy and good!

There are so many options for quesadillas. My kids would prefer JUST cheese but I make them eat some chicken in there too. I was also able to get away with cilantro tonight in theirs and NO ONE complained...pretty amazing! ;)

Are you doing the Eat from the Pantry Challenge? What have you been making?