Eat Out Of The Pantry Week

Welcome to eat out of the pantry week! The budget has been a little (or maybe a lot) tight around my house this month. I normally go grocery shopping every week and stock up on meals for the whole week. Well this week it's just not in the budget to do a big grocery trip. So I've decided we are having Eat Out Of The Pantry Week. I picked up the basics that we couldn't go without like milk and well that's pretty much it, I didn't even splurge on eggs. I got this idea from one of my favorite cheap meal sites $5 Dinners. If you haven't before check out some of Erin's recipes, she has some good tips & ideas!

SUNDAY

Pizza bagels - top bagel with normal pizza stuff, bake in oven. Serve with side of fruit. For dessert (because it was still the weekend) we I had strawberries & chocolate.

MONDAY

Grilled ham & cheese with carrots and grapes. Not super inventive but that's not the point here; we didn't have to do any shopping for this meal!

TUESDAY

Slow cooker ground beef stew with biscuits -- of course I only used what I had on hand and made a few substitutes

WEDNESDAY
Ok we may have cheated. My MIL invited us over for dinner (ham, potatoes and carrots). We technically didn't buy anything so this is close enough to eating out of the pantry -- it just wasn't our pantry.

THURSDAY

Asian night - chicken & noodles in a sweet sesame sauce (ok it was from a box and the picture does the flavor ZERO justice)

Luckily Friday is pay-day so I can do some real shopping over the weekend. It was nice not to have some of my fresh produce go to waste since we were only eating at home. Give "Eat Out Of The Pantry Week" a try, you'll be surprised at how much money it can save you. We will be doing this again for sure!

Linking up with 30 Handmade Days and The Answer is Chocolate