Prep Genrl No Spend November

[moldy]

Yesterday was my day off - and I can't even remember what I ate!

Today: breakfast was potatoes and eggs that DH made for me (I was working from home and he was up and about)
Lunch: chicken tortilla soup with a spoonful each of pimento cheese and sour cream, milkshake, smoothie with fruit and yogurt.
supper: raisin bread with peanut butter and eggnog.

Like I said, my diet is less than optimal right now. If I can gain another 3-5 pounds, I"ll see if I can't get it more straightened out. I work at work tomorrow so my plan is:
Breakfast: oatmeal with chopped pears, 'coffee'
Lunch: Bruschetta tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, crackers, cookies
Supper: bologna and cheese, applesauce or some cake

I pulled some pineapple that I had re-canned (if you leave it in the can too long, it tastes like tin) and it was just gross. The crushed and tidbits did fine, but the spears were brown with a really off smell. the chickens didn't care. I plan to freezedry all the pineapple and freeze the juice. I have a batch of pineapple herbal cough elixir simmering as I type. I need to get it finished as a couple girls at work are buying it from me.

 

[Toosh]

yogurt, a frozen banana and chia seeds. half and half.
fried bologna with pimento cheese, raisin bread toast

Congrats on getting organized. It's a full time chore around here. Looking at your menu, there are a lot of items that don't seem to be pantry items. Challenge yourself to dig deeper into that pantry.

The good news is that I buy very little other than meat from the store.

I too had problems with tomatoes - I only home can them now - garden harvest. Also canned peaches have been a problem - they destroy their cans - what a mess. And, those canned pie fillings always taste "can-y" to me after a few months, now I home-can those. So, yea, there is a learning curve on what to store and how to store it.

I use the "recipe" method - 10 recipes for b-fast and dinner. (We only eat twice a day) I only store ingredients for my recipes. I always know what I need and can shop sales. I know if I buy 3 of the same thing I have a month's supply of that. Also, rotating is easy because I rotate fixing those recipes each week to keep things reasonably fresh. It also assures we still like it. We've changed our diets several times in recent years so some recipes have undergone severe tweaking.

Sorry I can't join in the no-buy November. Too many great sales for me to restock with. Let's try the no-buy thing again - sometime in the spring. Good luck!!

 

[moldy]

I consider my freezers part of my pantry - and that is probably the biggest thing that needs to get used up/cleaned out. If the zombie apocalypse happens, I will be a in a world of hurt with all the work saving what's in it. The bruschetta was much better than I thought it would be (it was canned a few years ago), but pretty acidic. The crackers helped cut that. Thank goodness I only have about 1-2 more jars of it to go thru (I don't think it would freeze dry well). It may get served as an appetizer at Thanksgiving!

Going thru pantry #1 (let's see - I have several different pantries - the whole 'dont' put all your eggs in one basket thing), I found some items I had bought at an Indian grocery a while back. In it, was some powdered chai without milk and some powdered milk/almond milk stuff. Mixing them together and adding a little honey made a decent chai, so I will use that up before making up more. There's enough there it may get me thru the winter - and the tea is MUCH better than the Lipton instant stuff if I was making a mix (the kick from the caffeine is noticeable - which is nice).

Tomorrow will be pulling up more pineapple to get into the freezedryer and doing more organizing. I am putting together my lists for Thanksgiving dinner (I need to buy 3 oranges and that's it) and Christmas goodies (not sure what I'll need for that, but probably not much).

 

[moldy]

Finished up the pineapple today. I had to throw more to the chickens than I was happy with. I also gave them some peaches I canned in 2012 that were dark and gross. They had gotten put somewhere where they weren't supposed to be!
Breakfast: cereal (finished the box), chai
Lunch: Made a couple new recipes to use up stuff - sauerkraut balls with mustard sauce, three bean salad, rolls, and caramel pudding. will keep the recipe for sauerkraut balls (somewhat like a croquette), but the caramel pudding was very underwhelming. I'll eat what I made, but I won't make it again.
Supper: chicken tortilla soup (I think there is only one more serving and that will be lunch on Monday) and a shake.

I've reloaded the dishwasher with empty jars. Tomorrow, breakfast will be biscuits and gravy and tea. We are going out of town to see friends for lunch - supper will probably be just a couple spoons of pimento cheese and a smoothie. I will use the pineapple juice drained off what I am freeze drying, a frozen banana, yogurt, and chia seeds.

 

[ivantherussian03]

The Veterans free meals were not really free, just a scam to get me to spend money when I otherwise wouldn’t Taking family out.

Texas Road House in the past would give free vouchers, that worked better for me. I used when taking family out for normal occasion.

 

[Meemur]

Not doing "no spend November" when we're on the edge of war. My goals are to finish paying off my cataract surgery bills (almost there!) and to continue to acquire space parts, tools, and building supplies. The house continues to need yearly maintenance, whether we have a war or not. More deck repairs and a re-designed (safer!) front porch are on the list.

 

[feralferret]

Kathy, my wife has been doing the Premier Protein drinks for several months now.

I have a couple of packages of turkey breast tenderloins that I bought last year and froze. I suspect that I will fix some of those in the slow cooker to have for Thanksgiving as my wife will be at her eldest son's house. I'll eat instant mashed potatoes. My wife won't. I also have a jar of turkey gravy and several packets of turkey gravy mix on hand. I have canned veggies that need to be used also.

My wife is a fantastic cook. I cooked for myself for many years as I didn't marry until I was 35 years old. My mother started teaching me to cook when I was 12. I still have the iron skillet that she gave me when I moved out around 50 years ago. I don't go hungry when my wife is away visiting family. I do sometimes get lazy and pickup a burger or chicken strip dinner. The $7 three strip dinner with drink, fries, gravy, & sundae at Dairy Queen isn't bad or a bad deal.

 

[moldy]

Using things up, but bringing more stuff in. I just can't turn down turkey at 75c/lb and Core Power drinks a lot cheaper than I can get on Amazon. I also bought a bunch of hinged totes (IDK - 15 gallon size or so) for $4 each to store stuff in. I just need to get it all organized.

Breakfast (shhh) donuts from a new local shop - they were good, but expensive. I'll just put it down to supporting a local business.
Lunch: bruschetta with crackers, caramel pudding, banana, milkshake
supper: pimento cheese, smoothie