Vittles, In Retrospect

I'm a third of the way into my July pantry/freezer/garden challenge, so I thought I'd share what we've been eating during that time.  We all kind of do our own thing for breakfast and lunch and it would be too confusing to try to account for everything, but here are the supper details for the last 10 days:

July 1:  Beef hot dogs on buns, steamed fresh green beans with carrots with herb butter, cold veggie platter of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and black olives, crab dip (leftover from a previous meal), tortilla chips. 

This meal was inexpensive, but I made it mostly because it was a busy day and I didn't want to fuss with anything more complicated.


July 2:  Chicken and Dumpling Bake, steamed green beans with carrots with herb butter (leftover from night before), crab dip (leftover from a previous meal), lettuce salad, Amish creamed beets. 

I've been making this casserole every other week for a couple of months now.  It's definitely a family favorite.  This time the meat and stock came from some meaty chicken bones I had saved in the freezer from previous chicken meals.  I subbed in homemade chicken gravy for the canned soup/broth mixture, and because I don't buy self-rising flour, I mixed up a sub for that as well.


July 3:  Lunch Out for Kat's Birthday. Supper at Clay's mom's house.

Mmmm....Chinese buffet for lunch; meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. for supper.


July 4:  Southern Red Rice with Shrimp, lettuce salad with tomatoes and green onions, pickled beets, red grapes. 

Since Kat was at her mom's house, it was a good night for a spicy shrimp dish.



July 5:  Waffle sandwiches with PBJ and bacon, eggs, grapes

The PBJ and Bacon waffle sandwich idea came from one of those little checkout stand recipe booklets.  I'm not a PBJ fan, so I put eggs and bacon on mine.



July 6:  Smoked Sausage and Potato Casserole, pickled beets, cantaloupe, fried zucchini slices, lettuce salad with tomatoes and cucumber slices.

I adapted a soup recipe into a casserole by making a thicker sauce for it.


July 7:  Tuna Starfish (star-shaped patties), potato salad, steamed zucchini ribbons, pickled beets, salad with tomato and cucumber slices.

A tasty recipe for tuna patties, also from one of those checkout stand booklets!  They were fun, but next time I'm making plain round patties.



July 8:  Stovetop pasta, French bread garlic toast, collard greens.

I had hoped for leftovers from previous nights, but there weren't any.  Instead I made a really simple pasta meal on top of the stove.  It was thick, like a boxed "helper" dish, but I used homemade pasta sauce and left out the meat.



July 9:  Stovetop pasta, French bread garlic toast, collard greens, lettuce salad, green grapes



Now there are leftovers.  I added a couple more things to round out the meal.

 
July 10:  Beef and Italian sausage hamburgers, beef hot dogs, New Potatoes and Green Beans, buttered corn, green grapes, fresh peaches.

We had Shane's mom and step-dad over for supper at the last minute, so I added a package of hot dogs and some grapes to our meal plan to make sure there was enough food on the table.

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July Grocery/Pantry Challenge:

Items Purchased Today (store brand unless indicated):  None


Amount Spent Today (including tax):  $0.00

Amount Spent To Date in July (including tax):  $73.80