A WEEK OF LESSONS...

What have I learned this week?

Several things have stood out to me as I spent the week *shopping* in my own house for groceries:

CREATIVITY IS AN INGREDIENT!!

This really wasn't as hard as I made it out to be, but a dash of creativity was a key ingredient to making this week work for me. An ounce or two of encouragement tasted pretty great, too!

ANYONE CAN DO THIS!

I didn't plan ahead - I just jumped in and did it. It would have been way too easy to just make a grocery run, but it honestly was not that much harder to use what I had in my house.

YOU CANNOT FAIL IF YOU DON'T TRY, BUT YOU CANNOT SUCCEED, EITHER!

I already knew that, but this week was a great reminder. :)

WE CAN LIVE WITHOUT SODA COMPLETELY!

Milk and water are virtually all a person needs to drink, in my opinion. My kids could spend all day drinking juice and soda, but not eat food. This is just a waste of money and tooth enamel for us. Tea, coffee, sweeteners, etc. - aren't they really just flavorings added to water? ;)

WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH SO MUCH!

This may be a common statement, but after going through an entire week without buying groceries, that statement's impact was deeply felt. We have plenty of food sitting in our house day after day, expiring, while others may have empty cupboards, vacant refrigerators, or may even be digging through our garbage can looking for their next meal. Yes, we are blessed and I don't want to forget it.

Lastly:

We REALLY need to keep more apples in the house!

~Missy~

Thanks for eating my house with me!

I originally started posting about this challenge so that if I said it out loud, or typed it rather, I would have more accountability and maybe pull some willpower from other women stronger than myself to be able to complete this challenge. What I didn't know was how much encouragement I would receive!

I may be full of something, but innovation probably isn't the word to use to describe that something. I have a good idea once in a while, but I love to get ideas from others! This challenge wasn't a new idea, and I am sure it has been done at least a few thousand times before. One thing I do know for sure is that I am just one person who has a completely different stash of food, recipes and thoughts than the next person. This challenge forced me to add my creative juices to my recipes, even if those juices WERE a little bland.

Talking about this challenge to others outside my home was exactly the push I needed to keep me going, so thank you for that! I hope this has inspired just one of you to EAT YOUR HOUSE! :)

~Missy~

DAY 7 - Saturday

IF I HAD SPAGHETTI, I COULD MAKE SPAGHETTI

I wasn't going to cook today. The house feels empty with only four of us here, and only three of us can eat this stuff, anyway. We have leftovers we really should be eating. But my son asked me what I was making for supper. He agreed to eat it as long as I didn't make something weird. (Why would I do that?)

One of my family's favorite meals is a shepherd's pie. It contains ground beef, onion, green beans, tomato soup and cheddar cheese, topped with mashed potatoes. There are some leftover mashers from earlier in the week and I surprisingly have the rest of the ingredients to throw this together. Alright, okay, uh-huh, woohoo!


The preschooler would only eat one bite of it. Apparently it makes her "barf and throw up". (The two combined is worse than just one?) If I make a meal, the chillins' are required to at least try it. It took 10 minutes of drama to swallow that one bite, but she did it. :)

I was hoping to end this week with something spectacular. (It is illegal in my state for me to set off fireworks.) If I were more imaginative and less blah today, I probably could have done that. (No, not the fireworks). But I also need to tell myself that it doesn't really matter - I cooked every single night this week and only ate what was in my house!!
I REACHED MY GOAL!!!
HOW ABOUT NEXT WEEK?

It was SO hard for me not to buy groceries this past week. You just don't know!! Our local grocery store had awesome BOGO deals and 10/$10's. I had coupons, too! Wahh!! It would have been a great week to save money on groceries. I couldn't have reached my goal if I gave in though, huh? :)

It is now Sunday evening. We ate leftovers all day, as you can imagine. :)

I sent my awesome husband to the store after 9 whole days of no groceries! He was so happy with what was accomplished this week that he and I decided to keep our grocery bill under $2 per person for the next 7 days! (Excluding the family member who has no teeth.)


We could probably spend that amount just on fresh fruits and vegetables. :)



Oh, and that little girl that lives in our house - she went along. I can imagine her wanting to dive into the apples like a toddler in a ball pit...




And then...

Hubby spent $94 at the store. WHAT?? But he bought enough groceries to last us for at least 2 weeks! If we don't run out of milk or apples (and I am not going to supplement my kids with calcium and vitamin c if we run out...), then this means we will have spent just a little over $30 a week for 3 weeks worth of delicious sustenance! (or $.90 a day per person (not including baby) after doing the math!) This is even more impressive to me since 2 of those people are HUNGRY TEENAGERS!! :)

Gonna keep going, we can do this!

Thanks so much to all of you who followed along with me this week, cheered me on, sent emails, left comments and posts and gave me more ideas. You have all been incredible supporters!

IT'S NOT OVER...

I will be posting a few things I have learned this week, some recipes and websites, so stay tuned!

CHEATER, CHEATER, CELERY EATER!!

Well, you tell me...

My parents were getting ready to leave for a two week trip to Florida. We are dogsitting for them. They brought the dog over Friday night, but that wasn't all they brought! They didn't want some of their perishables to go to waste, so they brought them to us.

There were blueberries, celery, (which I broke down and ate as this is crunchy and stickish, but sadly not carrotish), squash, hot dogs, and a big hunk of balogna. Oh, and two oranges.

Guess who ate the oranges?

I really have to say, this lack of fruit thing is the pits. A body needs fruit! The apple lover pouted all day Friday. She opened the refrigerator door at some point in the day and sighed as she stared at the empty drawer that should be holding apples.

"Mommy, we ARE going to buy apples again, aren't we?"

I get it, I do. I really want carrots, baby girl. (But she did eat some applesauce today!)

Technically, I used what was in my house and did not purchase anything, but it still kinda feels like cheating.

So tell me, was it?

Day 6 - Friday

I just realized how horribly I write. I'd like to say it is lack of PROduce in the house since I cannot seem to keep my PROnouns straight, but it's just plain fact - I am not a PRO! :)

My *own* challenge isn't over yet, but it has actually been an entire week since any groceries have been bought for this family of six! As you can imagine, this is getting more and more difficult. Just take a look inside my refrigerator! (Mostly leftovers from my recent cooking and a turkey I've been thawing for the past few days.)

** I asked my son (17) if he had any idea how I could shrink this since I have no idea how to do it. His response: "Well, that would be really hard to do. Just get another fridge."**

Seriously?

OK, back to what's on the menu. Slightly more creative today. Oh, and I didn't mean to, but I lied to you all. We have jelly, jam and apricot preserves. I suppose they count as fruits, huh?

Anyway, I pulled pork chops out of the deep freeze. Believe it or not, it was actually pork this time! I wanted to slather them in barbecue sauce, but you already know I'm out of that, so I used apricot preserves. I browned the chops first in cooking spray and then topped them with the preserves, setting the stove's burner to low for a couple of minutes each side. Should have baked them instead of frying as I burnt some of them. :(

So, I was going to bake some potatoes but my oldest daughter heard *fried* and started cutting them into chunks. (She's a great help, by the way!) I have some salsa con queso on my refrigerator door and was going to use that as a topping on the baked potatoes. We didn't get to try that, but maybe next week? Steamed a bag of frozen mixed veggies with these. (Broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.)

This lack of fruit is the pits and I'm not counting the preserves on the chops as *dessert*! Man, I could go for apple crisp again, but you do realize I don't own an orchard by now, right? Aha! I'm going to attempt to substitute the apples with applesauce.

Nothing crisp about this, but it was rather good, although very sweet. (Wished I hadn't accidentally bought sweetened applesauce.) In fact, my 15 year old anime-lover had 3 friends spend the night and they scarfed it down! (They are going to an Anime convention with poor Mr. W. in the morning.) They even ate the burnt pork chops...and ENJOYED them! :) They really wanted popcorn and my daughter begged me to let her go buy some at the dollar store nearby, but I refused! Aren't I mean?

There are a couple boxes of cereal out there with your name on them, girls. PRETEND you're eating popcorn. :)

DAYS 4 and 5

WEDNESDAY - DAY 4

We are out of fruit entirely. I am not counting the pureed avocado or apples I made for my 5 month old, nor the applesauce hanging inside the refrigerator door. There is no fruit, and my apple eater isn't happy about that. I think her sweet tooth was aching.

I want something sweet as well, but the only things I can find are 3 out of a 4-pack of pudding cups, chocolate morsels and graham crackers. Hmm...

I pull out a bag of frozen peas. They are in a giant frosty lump. I believe these must have been used several times as an ice pack and they smell a little old, but it's food. Along with this I made dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and some packaged spinach-flavored noodles. Um, yum? Probably a kid's dream meal? Well, maybe some kid, but none of mine.

Junior Mr. Wonderful (17) prays over our food asking God to please let us enjoy it and feel full. We start eating, but everyone wants barbecue sauce. Guess what we are almost out of? There was just a little in the bottom of the bottle, so I add water. My oldest daughter (15) just about freaks - this is UNACCEPTABLE! She is making faces and whining about everything on her plate as the male teen tells her that he has learned a LONG time ago not to say negative things about the food that has been cooked for him. (Who is this kid?) They continue their conversation by arguing over barbecue sauce, while the 4 year old eats, looking back and forth at her older siblings, probably pretending everything on her plate is made of apples.

And what about the pudding, chocolate morsels and graham crackers? Well, Mr. W. made me promise not to tell the entire recipe because he wants me to publish it some day. But the apple thief and I prepared them together with lots of love and she named the dessert "Dizzle Wizzles". Yep, they were yummy and the highlight of the meal.

No mention of going to the store! Hubby keeps telling me he is proud of me, so there is no WAY I am backing down now!

THURSDAY - DAY 5

Not really too much to say about this day. I was so excited that I made it so far into the week, that I hadn't thought much about what to make. So, I just start grabbing whatever I can find, literally, and threw it together.

I REALLY need to start labeling things before I store them in the freezer. I thought I pulled out pork chops. It ended up being chicken. I cooked 3 chicken thighs in a can of chicken noodle soup (add one can of water). Cut up the chicken, put in casserole dish along with the liquid. Yes, including the noodles in the soup. I had some instant rice - about 2 cups - left in the box. Dump that in. OK, can of peas, can of corn, can of cream of chicken soup (add another can of water), about a cup of leftover shredded cheddar. Mix it all up, top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Yep, that will do.

IT WAS GREAT!

But there is a little girl in the house wondering when there will be more apples in the refrigerator. And, Mr. W. is the devil trying to tempt me. We are out of carrots and I am addicted to eating the crunchy sticks every night before bed. He comments that he should go to the store for some.

Get behind me, Satan! I'm not breaking!

Days 1-3 OK, so I'm eating what's IN my house...

OK, so I challenged myself to buying NO groceries this week and only cooking/eating things we have in the pantry/freezer/refrigerator. I started Sunday. Mind you, I did not stock up on groceries the week before. In fact, we had just purchased a new refrigerator which was delivered Thursday. The fridge was nearly empty! We only bought a few items at the grocery store Friday night, and REALLY needed some basics, so it is making this challenge much more difficult!! SUNDAY - Day 1 I made a pasta sausage bake. I usually use a ziti noodle with this, but didn't have any, so macaroni it was. No sausage, but alas, DH got a deer a few weeks ago and had some of it made into yummy sausage. (MEMO- MOMMY HATES, STRONGLY HATES, DEER MEAT! But you can't tell what it is if made into sausage. Maybe it is the spices. Don't know and don't care.) And although the white sauce called for grated parmesan cheese, I was out of that too, so I just omitted this ingredient. Turned out just as great as the original recipe! We always have a lot of apples on hand, but I made the mistake of using all but one to make an apple crisp. (Well, except for the two that my 4-year old decided she had to eat behind my back that day.) I can do this no grocery thing, sure. MONDAY - Day 2 We ate steak, fried potatoes and broccoli. No *wow* meal here, but we had it to make. What have we been eating for other meals, you ask? Well, we are low on cereal, but there IS oatmeal, but NO eggs, a few frozen meals, no snacks, and boy am I glad my kids eat lunch at school. Oh wow, there was a little apple crisp left over today. That never happens. Shovel it in... Not thinking about what to make for Tuesday, nope. TUESDAY - Day 3 OK, it is getting much harder. I made a grocery list. Yes, I sure did. But then I pulled out 2 cans of sauer kraut, a pork roast and a partially eaten box of instant potatoes. (Not the box, but the potatoes.) Hmm, I cut the roast and well, it didn't look like pork, but who cares, right? Too late now - it is defrosted and ready to go! Toss in crock pot with sauer kraut, a tad of water and brown sugar. I usually cook this with beer and since we don't drink or keep this on hand - well, is this considered going to the grocery store? I say yes, so, no beer. I'm lucky I have butter to go in the mashed potatoes or I might have called this quits.... DISCOVERY OK, so we are chowing down on our rotten cabbage and mashed potatoes and we bite into the pork. What is this? Hmm, I dunno, but this isn't pork, that is for certain. Hubby doesn't remember cutting up any beef, although it kinda tastes cowish, but suddenly remembers... THIS IS DEER MEAT! Uh oh, Mommy might pass out right into her shredded rots and taters. What now? Let me tell you something: The best way to disguise a deer roast is to cook it in sauer kraut. You will never know what it is! Anyway, Mommy actually ate her protein while the two teens in the house decided venison was not on their menu for the evening. After supper, my darling husband decided to make pumpkin cookies with the little apple eater while I sat down at the computer to key out thoughts about my day. We just happened to have ALL the ingredients in the house to make pumpkin cookies! To be honest, he wasn't on board with me during my challenge. But he looked at my grocery list and smelled supper cooking, then looked up at me and said, "I think this list can wait for another day". Tomorrow is going to be much tougher. Wish me luck!! UM, YEAH, WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT? I'd be happy to answer that. Let me start off by telling you just a little about me and my life, and then I'll get to that point. I've been married to Mr. Wonderful for 21 years. We have 4 children. When Mr. W. and I were first married, we lived on a teeny tiny income. I was great at budgeting, and we may have had squat, but our bills were paid and we ate just fine. The apartment we lived in was right next to a supermarket. Every week I would get the store circular and see what was on sale. Yep, that's what we were gonna eat. Sometimes I had coupons, but most times I did not. I budgeted $40 per week for food. I usually spent $30, unless we had run out of staples. (Not the kind that holds paper together, either.) We never went hungry and I even packed my husband's lunches for work every day. We didn't have old canned goods lurking in the back of our cupboards, and our frozen foods never stuck around long enough to get freezer burnt. We had enough for the week, and that was it until my husband got another paycheck. It isn't so often that I think back on those days. But recently, I had been. Add that to the fact that we had to get a new refrigerator since the old side-by-side decided to switch sides and freeze the freshies, thaw the freezies. And while talking to my mother about what to do with the food, she mentioned something she read about a woman going a week without buying groceries and eating what she already had in her house...hmm... Kinda sounds like a good idea, but I think I'll pass? We have another freezer in our laundry room, and I needed to rearrange items in there to be able to store what was in our refrigerator's freezer - well, until the Home Depot delivery guy brought us a new fridge. I get my gloves on and start pulling things out of the freezer. I can't believe how much meat is in that thing! Well, besides my son's palomino trout and my husband's albino squirrel that both need mounted, yep, there is so much we are not eating just piled up in that thing! That was it. I didn't even think about what we needed at the grocery store. I just decided that moment that we are not buying groceries - nothing - for an entire week.