Pantry cleanout week: Results

About a week ago I challenged myself to a Pantry Cleanout.

The plan was to assess what food I had in house, make a meal plan around it and only shop for the bare necessities that we needed, mostly making meals focused around the food we already had in house.

Then, I came down with the flu and everything went awry.

I posted that I had the flu on Tuesday, but I really wrote that post Monday. By Tuesday night I was totally back to normal. But Monday is the day I do all of my meal planning and grocery shopping and I didn’t get to do any of that. I did run to the store for the essentials for curing the flu on Monday, but that was it. I didn’t have a meal plan or any clue of what we were eating last week.

As I revealed last week, shopping without a list and a meal plan that makes me very uncomfortable.

So I winged it… for most of the week, and by Thursday I was done winging. I was at school until late, Matt was supposed to make dinner (but it somehow got burned…) and we ended up ordering pizza. Eating out continued several times until I finally went to the store Saturday to buy some damn food.

The issue wasn’t having food, because we did – it was not having all the essentials. We were out of fresh vegetables, we didn’t have any meat (which honestly should not a problem but after 5-6 days can become one with a meat loving companion) and I got really busy. When I get busy and I don’t have a plan, eating out just happens, as much as I don’t it to.

But I was pretty pleased with myself that I made the meals I did make and had to get a little creative in the kitchen. Next time I do this I am definitely going to make sure I have a plan and shop for the necessities – like fresh vegetables, etc. We ate relatively healthy under the constraints but we didn’t eat as healthy as I would like given that I was just putting random things together.

I will say that a few of the “unhealthier” items we ate like the fried okra and mashed potatoes were so damn good and made me feel satisfied enough from dinner that I had no desire to snack after or eat sweets. I also had no desire to eat out those nights because I was going to eat something that is a “treat” for me. We honestly never eat these foods in combination with an otherwise very healthy meal and I definitely think I might start throwing something more “decadent” into the meal plan from time to time.

Here’s what we ate for dinner:

Monday: whole wheat tortilla with a banana and honey, plus sweet potato fries. We both had the flu, so I really wasn’t very hungry. And I’m sorry, I have no picture of this meal!

Tuesday: Black beans, fried okra, squash and cornbread. I made black beans in the crockpot. I added some spices and a can of green chilies after they were finished cooking. I made cornbread from scratch and used the last squash we had. There was a random bag of fried okra in the freezer that I used part of for dinner. Honestly, this okra was incredible and such a treat compared to what we normally would eat. This was so far from a typical meal for us and I loved it!

Wednesday: salmon patties, mashed potatoes and broccoli. Again, this meal was incredible. I made the salmon patties using a pouch of salmon I had in my pantry. The mashed potatoes were actually made from that can of new potatoes I showed you guys in the original challenge post. I heated them, added some butter, milk, dried dill weed and cheese for “glue”. They were so so good. Seriously!

Then of course, Thursday we ordered pizza.

I will say that leftovers and other random food were eaten as well for breakfast, lunches and snacks and so I really made a good amount of meals for 2 people out of the food we had in the house.

Even if this challenge didn’t really work the way I wanted it to, it was a great experience for me and really pushed me out of my comfort zone. It also taught me that sometimes having a more “indulgent” part to dinner will actually keep me from eating out or blowing the day by snacking at night. Noted.

Going back to the original challenge I had five food items that were in my pantry I wanted to use. I ended up using 3/5 which I consider pretty great not having a plan at all. The new potatoes made the mashed potatoes, I had the green beans with lunch one day and I used a different package of salmon for the patties. So I actually still have that package of salmon, the bean sprouts and the muffin mix in my pantry that I will be sure to use in the next few weeks!

What do you guys think about these meals I pulled out of nowhere? Did anyone else participate in this challenge or plan to have their own soon?