Pantry Challenge Planning

It’s time for the Pantry Challenge at Good Cheap Eats. I’m an accumulator of ingredients. When I go to the supermarket, I see all sorts of interesting food that I’d like to try cooking. I buy things and they go into the pantry, never to be seen again.

I’m also a fan of buying meat in bulk and keeping the freezer well-stocked, to save trips to the butcher and make it easier to find something to cook for dinner. But once again, there are a few things that get pushed to the back of the freezer and are forgotten.

So to start this pantry challenge, I’ve taken stock of what food I have. Oh my, do I have lots of options. Let’s just start with rice: I have brown rice, white rice, Arborio rice, sushi rice. Move on to noodles: rice vermicelli, Singapore noodles, Pad Thai-style rice noodles. Other dry ingredients include chickpeas, red lentils, green lentils, yellow split peas. Not to mention the different sauces, curry pastes and canned foods. This is getting embarrassing, so let’s just stop there!

After writing a list of all the staples I have, I’ve realised I can go hard-core with this challenge. The only thing I’m allowed to buy this month is fresh fruit and vegetables, and bread (I’m not doing my bread challenge this month!).

So here is my first week’s menu plan:

Monday:  Turkey and salad (yep, we’re still getting through our turkey!)

Tuesday: Chicken Stir-Fry

Wednesday: Beef Rogan Josh

Thursday: Cold Meat and Salad (again!)

Friday: Homemade Pizza night

Saturday: Steak and Salad

Sunday: Sushi hand rolls

It’s a simple menu plan to ease me into the challenge and the New Year (except for the sushi hand rolls). I’ll have to get more adventurous later in the month!