Pantry Challenge ~ Week 8 #threeriverschallenge

Week 8 of a pantry challenge – using up items from fridge, freezer, and pantry. I decided on a $75 per week grocery budget, but combined the week 7 & 8 budgets and did all the shopping last week. Four people at home and we eat a mostly vegetarian diet with fish. Also, this is just some of the food we prepare and eat – not everything. I don’t follow many recipes, but hope there are some inspiration/ideas in this video for you! I did clean up the subtitles if you like to use those. Thanks for watching!*

#threeriverschallenge #pantrychallenge #cookingathome #vegetarian #homemaking #groceryhaul

Inspiration for pantry challenge:

ITEMS
Y-peeler: https://www.amazon.com/OXO-21081-Grips-Peeler-Black/dp/B00004OCIU/

Kettle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072DWYBL7/

Jar pour lid: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C23LCZTH/

RECIPES
I don’t use recipes much or don’t follow them exactly, but any recipes/similar recipes I could find are below.

Acre Homestead inspiration video

Cornbread
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cornbread/8990e15c-fc1d-4a8d-b8b3-4b37f45eca49

Peanut butter pie & graham cracker crust
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9174/peanut-butter-pie/
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/12254/graham-cracker-crust-i/

Blueberry muffins
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/blueberry-muffins/c9df6932-999f-4072-82b9-79bd8d5c5037

Oatmeal raisin cookies
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/oatmeal-raisin-cookies/8a07726c-0056-4953-bd57-5fbb7b285bd9

One Pot Garlic Parmesan Pasta

One Pot Garlic Parmesan Pasta

Pasta with garlic butter sauce (just fyi, there were loads of ads on this website)

Pasta with Garlic Butter Caper Sauce

Risotto (I think this is the right book, but not positive. I borrowed it from the library.)

*The content of this video is for entertainment purposes only. I am sharing my personal experience and opinions. This is not professional advice. I am not a health professional, so some of these meals may be terribly unhealthy for you. Please be safe and follow manufacturer’s instructions, professional recipes, safe food prep and storage practices, and do your own research (what I do may not be the correct thing to do!). Also, sometimes the prices, ingredients, best by dates, ‘product of’ locations, and other details are shared, but those won’t be the same at all locations, change over time, or be inaccurate (and I may say the wrong thing). Please check your labels as they may be different.

Hi and welcome, this is Homebody Rundown and  I’m HR. This is week eight of pantry challenge.   Link in the description to the YouTube channel  that inspired me to do this – it’s called Three   Rivers Homestead. In this video, I am sharing  some of the food I prepared over the last week.

Right now at home, it’s my husband and  two younger kids age 16 and 18. We do   eat most of our meals at home. I gave  myself a smallish budget for February,   so that I would focus on using up food we  already had in the pantry, refrigerator,  

And freezers. In my mind, I was planning on Pantry  challenge for 8 weeks and didn’t look at the   calendar. There are 5 days left in February after  I post this video, so I think I will do one more.

Today I’m going to make an egg casserole with  spinach and sourdough bread – the bread has   been in the freezer for two or 3 weeks.  A couple other items from the freezer are   roasted garlic and some diced feta. These  roasted red peppers are from the pantry.

I was inspired to make this  after watching a video from   Acre Homestead YouTube channel. I’ll  put a link to that in the description,   but I am not making any recipe from that  video. This is just using up items that I  

Already have available. And this is real life,  just trying to get eggshells out of the eggs. First up, the last vegetarian sausage  that we have – there isn’t much here,   but it’ll still add a nice flavor to the  casserole. Here are some of the seasonings  

That I’ll add and dried chopped onion. I  did run out of onions. You can see to the   left here I had some Parmesan cheese from  last month. I should have put it in the   freezer. I thought it was still good,  but on closer inspection it was not.

I like to mix up the eggs with a meat  serving fork – it just seems to work  well. This sourdough bread must have gotten really  dried out before it was put in the freezer – it   was incredibly tough and it wasn’t very easy  to get torn or cut into pieces. It’s so dry  

I’m going to soak it in some mushroom  broth – that should make it easier to   tear up the last big pieces and also add some  flavor. The broth is from the pantry as well.

I have a mediocre sense of taste, so I add roasted  red peppers to a lot of foods because they have   a strong flavor and it’s one that I really  like, but they do add a little bit of sodium.

I try to check the sodium on items I’m adding  to dishes, so I don’t over salt because I   can’t always tell. In the end, if anything, I  probably under salt most of the food I make,   but I think that’s fine because people can  just add some more salt if they need it.

Adding milk and grated Parmesan cheese,  but not too much of either one. I don’t   want this to be really heavy on the  dairy. The bread is easier to tear now,   but it absorbed all of that mushroom  stock so I’m going to add some more.

Mixing in the roasted garlic. I make large  batches of this and keep it in small jars in   the freezer. Bought fresh spinach last week. I  do prefer to rough chop this. I just don’t like  

To get a super long piece of spinach in a bite.  I coated this 9×13 baking dish with avocado oil   spray – putting in a layer of spinach and then  the sourdough bread pieces. Doing a quick check  

For any really large pieces and cutting those with  scissors – that ended up being the easiest option. Roasted red peppers – decided to not add all of  them – cut up more spinach and added another layer   of that. Sprinkling on the sausage crumbles  and then the diced feta cheese – this did sit  

Out a while to defrost. Pouring over the egg mixture using this 8 cup   measuring cup works really well for  this purpose since has a pour spout. Covering this with aluminum foil  and will bake for about 30 minutes. After that bake time, I uncovered it  and put it back in the oven for maybe  

Another 10 or 15 minutes to get it crispy on top. While the casserole is baking, I’m going  to do some food prep starting with with   getting this pink salt into a jar. I do  keep this on the counter. I buy it at  

Costco and I like to use this salt to salt  my pasta water – it’s very affordable. This   is a fine grain. I like to use these  Ball brand wooden lids with a plastic   rubber seal – they look really nice and  they’re pretty easy to take on and off.

This is my last pack of goat cheese. I’m going  to open up one section to use this week – the   best by date on this one isn’t until May.  This brand does have a little tab on the  

Corner to peel back the plastic, but it can  be a little challenging to get started. I   like to use these Pyrex rectangular glass  dishes – they are just the right size for   this amount of goat cheese and I use a fork  to break it up into more bite-sized pieces.

Slicing up the peppers I got at  Whole Foods last week. These are   to snack on and I will dice them up as  needed for different recipes this week. The casserole is done. I did turn the  broiler on for the last couple minutes.  

I almost always do this with casseroles –  just for the color and crispiness. This was   in the oven for at least 40 or 45 minutes, but  I am checking a few spots with a thermometer. Finishing slicing the peppers and  now prepping some cucumbers. This  

Is my favorite peeler. I will link  it in the description below. These   will also be for snacking on or adding to  a salad. I don’t mind leaving the skins on,   but I prefer to peel off at least some of them  and then I’m just going to slice them up. I’m  

Not going to prep the whole bag because they  do not keep very long before they get gross. Here are the prepped items. I just find that we  are more likely to eat foods that are ready to go.

I wanted to show you how the casserole turned  out – this was pretty perfect. I’m really glad   I soaked the bread in broth because wasn’t  dry at all and the flavors were excellent. For lunch today, I’m going to make a  pasta sauce with garlic, white wine,  

And capers. These capers have been in the pantry  for a while and I have two jars, so it’ll be good   to start using these. The mushroom broth is also  a pantry item and the garlic is from the freezer. Melting a couple tablespoons of butter in  an enameled cast iron pan and adding the  

Garlic – let that cook for a few minutes and  adding white wine. Make sure to be careful if   you’re using wine or alcohol near open  flames – know what you’re doing. I let   this reduce for a few minutes, now I’m adding  the mushroom broth, the capers, and I decided  

This is probably too many capers after I saw how  much sodium is in a tablespoon of these things. Now some black pepper and decided to use a  little more butter – also didn’t show it,   but added lemon juice and let  this cook a couple more minutes.

This is spaghetti that I already  had cooked in the refrigerator,   so just need to let it absorb some sauce  and warm through. It tastes pretty good,   but it’s so plain looking and  just not very interesting to me,  

So using a couple ingredients I prepped earlier  – the goat cheese and diced roasted red peppers. Making a couple type of muffins today starting  with blueberry muffins. Finished the box of   paper liners, but I still have plenty.  I had stocked up on these last year.

I have a blueberry muffin recipe that  I have been making for years – it’s   just a bit of a modified Betty Crocker  recipe. I will link the original in the   description. It’s what I consider a real  muffin. I’m not sure how to describe it,  

But a lot of muffins that I buy at the  store seem more like a cupcake to me. Mixing in the blueberries by hand – if I do  it in the mixer, the blueberries tend to get   stuck inside the whisk. I almost exclusively make  blueberry muffins because everybody in the house  

Will eat them and, when we are not doing a pantry  challenge, we always have blueberries in stock. The second type of muffin I’m making today  is an experiment – these are poppy seeds   and I have never baked with them. I was  going to find a new recipe and make that,  

But thought I would just use my  blueberry muffin recipe and replace   the cinnamon and the blueberries  with lemon juice and poppy seeds. Just a pantry note – I’m using the last of the  flour I had when pantry challenge started at the  

Beginning of January. I did pick up a 5 pound bag  of white flour at Whole Foods last week. I prefer   to buy 5 pound bags because it fits into this  storage container I use. I got it at Walmart.

I think this is too many poppy seeds – I  mean it looks like too many poppy seeds. Okay, the blueberry muffins are done, but  they look weird. I mean some look normal,   but the ones that are this deep brown  color on top – that’s different than  

Usual. I did use whole milk instead of  2% milk, so maybe that’s part of it,   but they are still soft on top  so I don’t think it’s a problem. Got the blueberry muffins out of the pans  and will get the lemon poppy seed into the  

Oven. I will reduce the bake time on these  because they don’t have frozen fruit. Yeah,   I don’t know – it looks like a lot of poppy seeds. So I am thinking you really need to use fresh  lemon and lemon zest when you’re baking – only  

One kid in the house likes lemon flavor baked  goods, so I don’t have much experience with   it. Anyway, the poppy seed muffins are good  and soft and you can taste the poppy seeds,   but I could not taste the lemon, so I’m  making a lemon glaze and while I’m at it,  

I’m also going to make a vanilla glaze for  the blueberry muffins which normally I just   leave those plain. Gave it a taste and  can really taste the lemon in the glaze. This is a separate bowl of milk and  powdered sugar and I mixed in some   vanilla to this one for the blueberry muffins.

I did not make much – maybe a couple  tablespoons of each glaze. I didn’t   want a really thick layer of sugar on  these, although if I had made more,   I would just dip these into the  glaze which would be a lot quicker.

Here’s what the inside of the muffins  look like – maybe this isn’t too many   poppy seeds. I’m thinking it pretty  much looks like what they have when I   buy them at the store. Both muffins  turned out texture-wise fantastic,   great taste, just not enough of that  lemon flavor in the poppy seed muffins.

I’m going to refill this canister of cocoa.  Typically, I put the hot cocoa mix from Whole   Foods in here – that is a milk chocolate  type mix, but I’m getting tired of having   this separate canister of Starbucks hot cocoa  out. The kids are not a fan of the Starbucks,  

So I’m going to mix the two together and this  Whole Foods stuff really settles by the way. I already put some of the Starbucks mix into  this glass jar. I was able to get the new  

Can of 365 cocoa mix and all the rest of the  Starbucks cocoa into this glass jar – got them   mixed together and both of the kids had cocoa  tonight. We had a fire outside and nobody said   anything. I don’t even think they noticed  that the darker chocolate mix was in there.

I’m going to make a bean soup for dinner  with some white chili flavors and a lot   of the ingredients are from the pantry. The  beans are some I cooked last month from dried   beans we had on hand. I labeled them as navy  beans, but I honestly don’t know what kind of  

Bean they were – just some sort of white  bean. This is the only item not from the   pantry – these are fresh orange and red bell  peppers. Mushroom broth that I’ve used for a   couple things over the past few days and these  chilies were originally from a jar I opened  

From the pantry. I only needed part of them to  make some black bean burgers a few weeks ago and   had put the rest in the freezer. I did run out  of onions, so I’m using dried chopped onions,   some cumin, black pepper, garlic, and onion  powder blend. For more flavor, I’m adding part  

Of a jar of green salsa from Trader Joe’s and  more mushroom broth to cover the ingredients. Putting stuff away in the refrigerator  and I forgot I had found a little jar of   frozen black beans which I defrosted, so I’m  throwing those in as well just to use them up.

To go along with the soup, I am making cornbread.  This is a Betty Crocker recipe. I will link it in   the description. The only difference is that  I add two eggs instead of one. In the past,  

I used the whites from two eggs instead of  one whole egg and when I stopped doing that,   I just started adding two eggs instead.  I bake this in a cast iron frying pan. I   melt some butter in the pan first and spread  that around so that the batter doesn’t stick.

I forgot to pull this out a couple minutes earlier   than what is printed on my recipe.  Since we got a new oven last year,   I’ve had to adjust bake times, but it wasn’t  burned or anything, just a little extra brown.

I do make cornbread once or twice a month  – it’s something that everyone in the house   will eat which is very convenient since we are  all fairly picky eaters. This tasted great. Soup is done, so turning off the crock  pot and got out a few toppings – the  

Pepper jack is from the freezer and  this green sriracha sauce has been   in the pantry for a few months. I had  never tried it before – the brand is   Sky Valley and it’s really good. The soup  was good too and it was super easy to make.

Going to make some iced tea using this loose  leaf black tea that I’ve had for a long time.   The electric kettle I’m using is an Amazon  Basics product that I’ve had since 2018. I   love using an electric kettle – it’s really  nice when we go on vacation, camping or in  

A cabin with electricity but no stove. I filled  the jar the rest of the way with cool water after   the tea had steeped and I’m using this pour top  Mason jar lid. I’ll link it in the description. Making whipped cream to use in a  peanut butter pie – this is Horizon  

Organics heavy cream. I’m adding some  four-fold vanilla and powdered sugar.   I’m adding a little more sugar than I  usually do since it is for a dessert. After this is mixed for a minute, I gave it a  taste and it needed more vanilla – this four-fold  

Stuff is stronger, so I start with a lot less.  I made way more whipped cream than I needed. Need to make a crust for the peanut butter pie,   so melting this butter. With pantry challenge,  I realized I had way too many graham crackers,  

So that’s what made me think  about making a peanut butter pie. I am using the food processor to break down these  crackers, but it is probably not ideal because it   makes such a fine crumb which may lead to a drier  crust. I will link the recipe I’m looking at,  

But it does not say to use the food processor. I  need a cup and a half of graham cracker crumbs,   but this is probably too many  since it’s ground so finely. The crust is crumbs, white  sugar, and melted butter,  

And I am also going to use the food  processor to mix these together – mostly   with the pulse function. I did need to  scrape down the sides a couple times. instead of a pie plate I’m using a Pyrex baking  dish – this has to go in the refrigerator to  

Set up and it’s just so much easier to use a dish  with a lid and none of my pie plates have a lid. Yeah, the crumb mixture is a little dry. I  should have added more butter. I will link  

The recipe that I looked at for the filling, but  I’m not really following it at all. To start with,   I don’t have enough cream cheese. We  had already opened the last block and   I didn’t want to use it all so that  we could still have some for bagels.

The mix is cream cheese, peanut butter, and  powdered sugar. I tasted it and it was just   lacking something, so I’m adding some Greek  yogurt – if I had full fat, I would use that,   but this is non-fat yogurt. I really like the  addition of this – it added some tanginess.

Need to add in the whipped cream. I’ll let  the machine mix some of it in and then I’ll   do the rest by hand. I could not figure out  if I was supposed to use a baked crust or  

An unbaked crust, so I went ahead and followed  the directions for a baked crust – it was fine. I scraped off some of the graham  cracker crumbs to sprinkle on top   of the filling when I’m done. Added in  the peanut butter filling and then put  

A layer of whipped cream on top of that  and into the fridge for a few hours. Put the last of these Trader Joe’s  graham cracker squares and one package   of this Amazon brand graham crackers  into a jar to keep out for snacks.

Dinner tonight. I’m going to roast some frozen  root vegetables that have been in the freezer way   too long and some fresh Brussel sprouts. Will make  a rice and bean dish with these two pantry items. The Brussels sprouts package did say to wash them.

Here are the seasonings that I  will use on the roasted vegetables. Cutting the ends off of the brussel sprouts,  taking off any discolored outer leaves,   and then cutting them in half and putting  them on a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Adding a fairly generous amount of olive  oil and spraying them with avocado oil,   adding mushroom Umami seasoning,  garlic powder, and salt. Making sure to mix everything thoroughly and   get the sprouts coated and then moving  them into a single layer for roasting. I highly recommend the Jovial kidney  beans – they always taste fantastic  

And they are not mushy. However, I  did not like this packaged rice – it   seems dry to me. This is not how you are  supposed to prepare it, so there’s that. Adding seasonings and to help with that  dryness, I’m adding in mushroom broth. Also  

Some cilantro that I had washed and chopped  and put in the freezer. I think the mushroom   broth helped a lot – this ended up tasting  pretty good and it was so incredibly easy. The peanut butter pie ended up  tasting pretty good, however,  

My husband said he prefers it to be thicker.  I think I added too much whipped cream and if   I had all the cream cheese that would  have made a difference. Oldest child   will be home for spring break in a couple  weeks, so I’m going to make this again,  

But omit the whipped cream. I will still use the  Greek yogurt and I’ll see how that turns out. Here’s dinner – the roasted vegetables  were fantastic. I do have a convection   roasting feature on my oven which I  used – it really gives the Brussels  

Sprouts some crispy edges. The  beans and rice were also good,   but I did add some of that green sriracha  sauce I just opened. It is so excellent. Tonight for dinner I’m going to make  salmon cakes or salmon patties. I have  

Made these in a previous video, so  I won’t spend too much time on it.   Using two cans of Deming’s pink  salmon. I buy this at Walmart. To go along with it, I’m making a mushroom risotto  and this is utilizing several pantry items and a  

Bag of frozen sliced mushrooms. I have never made  a mushroom version of this risotto, so I got ahead   of myself. I needed to sauté the mushrooms first  before adding the rice, so I had to dump the  

Rice out and cook the mushrooms with some olive  oil, then I added the rice and butter back in. I’m using the sauté function on the  instant pot – almost every ingredient   in this risotto is an item I’ve had since  before January. Adding in the white wine,  

Let that cook for a few minutes, then the  mushroom stock, and will pressure cook   it. This is a recipe I got from a book which I  will link in the description if I can find it. I don’t have a recipe for the salmon cakes,  but I always include the same flavors like  

Dill and lemon juice. To bind it together, I  use an egg and some breadcrumbs and after I   stir everything in, if it still seems  too wet, I will add more breadcrumbs. I think the things we made for dinner tonight may  be the strongest smelling things I could possibly  

Have made. Youngest child was really not a fan  of those mushrooms cooking, but I am going to   cook the salmon cakes outside on the grill, so I’m  using this cast iron Lodge brand griddle. I added  

Olive oil so that the patties don’t stick. The  most important thing I have found is to get these   the same thickness so that they will cook in about  the same amount of time – kind of like cookies.

Making a sauce for the salmon utilizing most  of the same flavors – this is sour cream and   mayonnaise, adding black pepper, garlic, and  onion powder mix, and salt, a little lemon juice,   and dried dill. Had just a few jarred  roasted red peppers in the refrigerator,  

So I diced those up and added them in. Gave it  a taste and it seemed like it needed more lemon   juice. I think these days I tend to make things  with stronger flavors. I lost a decent amount of  

My sense of taste after I had Covid, so I really  rely on my husband and kids to taste stuff and   let me know how I did or I’m just working  off memory – things I know will taste good. The risotto is done, so letting that  vent and starting the spinach. I’m  

Going to cook the rest of this enormous  contain container which barely fits in   this pan. Put some olive oil and  butter in here and a little salt. The recipe says to check the rice and  add liquid and sauté it a little longer  

If it’s not quite done, but I’ve always  had really good luck with the rice being   perfect. Tasted it and it was good, so I’m  going to add in some grated Parmesan cheese. I forgot to do this in the house, so I came out  to the grill to add salt and seasonings to the  

Top side of these salmon cakes. After  I flip them, I turn the heat down, but   before I take them off the grill, I do check the  temperature to make sure they’ve cooked through. The spinach has cooked down to about two servings.   I’ll leave the lid off and let  some of the moisture evaporate.

This was a very fragrant dinner, but it was  worth it and I used up a lot of pantry items. This morning I’m going to make oatmeal raisin  cookies – almost all of the ingredients are   from the pantry. I do add chocolate chips, so  I was happy to find these white Ghirardelli  

Chocolate chips. I thought I was out, but  they had just fallen behind some stuff. Whenever I’m making something that requires  getting out a lot of items, I like to prep ahead   of time if I can, like get stuff out the night  before or, for this, I got out the ingredients and  

Got the sugar and the shortening into the mixing  bowl when I was making my oatmeal for breakfast. I also got out the butter earlier,   so that it would soften, although it’s only  been about an hour so, it’s not super soft.

I know a lot of recipes say to mix dry  ingredients separately and I’m sure that   does make a difference, but I do not take  the time or make the dishes. Typically,   I add in the flour and then I will add add  the other dry ingredients like baking powder  

Or baking soda and salt on top of the flour  and mix it together at the same time. I’m not   sure if that actually helps disperse the  ingredients better, but I keep doing it. There’s plenty of sugar and fat in this recipe,  

But at least it has three cups of oatmeal  and I got to think that’s worth something. I’m about to do something that you probably  should not do in your Kitchen Aid mixer and   that is adding in a bunch of chocolate chips  and raisins. Stuff like this is probably a  

Contributing factor to why I’ve had to have this  thing serviced. I think they had to replace the   motor. I don’t know – it was very expensive, so  do your research and don’t destroy your mixer. I have been thinking about getting  a Bosch mixer. I was happy to see  

That they had a stainless steel bowl. I run  everything through the dishwasher possible,   so I would prefer that over plastic. However,  if I read this correctly on the website,   it said that the stainless steel mixing attachment  cannot be used with a stainless steel bowl and I  

Want to put everything in the dishwasher,  so I’m not sure if I’m going to get it. I don’t know why the cookies on the  right are larger. I’m guessing it’s   just from its placement in the oven. I do  bake all three cookie sheets at one time.

I’m leaving a plate out for the family to see  and put the rest into these half gallon jars. This is the salt dispenser I keep  by the stove. I needed to refill it,   but I went ahead and washed it because  it does get splattered with stuff. I do  

Have this labeled as salt because I have  the exact same dispenser for sugar, but I   keep that in a different place in the kitchen  and so far I have never used the wrong one. I’m going to make One Pot Garlic Parmesan  pasta that I’ve made before. The recipe is  

From Dam delicious.net and I will link it in  the description. I’m using some roasted garlic   that I had in the freezer instead of fresh  garlic and mushroom broth instead of chicken   broth. I didn’t have enough mushroom broth.  I emptied that box and it was my last one,  

So I am adding water and half of this not chicken  bouillon cube. Also added in one cup of milk. I thought it would be nice to break the  pasta into bite-sized pieces, but please   don’t do this – it was a mistake. These pasta are  really sharp – you could easily cut yourself. I  

Just wish I had a slightly wider pan so the  whole fettuccini noodle would fit in better. For a vegetable, I am reheating  the brussel sprouts that I roasted.   Adding a very tiny amount of olive oil and  some black pepper and roasted red pepper.

I forgot I was supposed to simmer  this uncovered and I put a lid on it,   so I turned the heat up to boil off  some of the liquid and didn’t pay   enough attention – it got a little brown  on the bottom, but it still tasted great.

I’m glad I already did my grocery shopping  and didn’t have to go to the store a single   time this week. I think the biggest hits  of the week were the egg and sourdough   bread casserole, the peanut butter pie, and  the risotto. Like I said at the beginning,  

I am going to do one more pantry challenge  video for a partial week and then kind of   a wrap up of my thoughts on the  whole pantry challenge thing. Thanks for watching!