We’ve vowed to use up the last of our pantry stockpile to start off the new year (which I’ll admit is pretty meager at this point) before we buy any new groceries.  The exceptions to this off-limits grocery shopping are milk, baby food, baby formula, and diapers.

Most of the time we only do a pantry challenge for about 2 weeks, but other times I challenge both my family and our readers to see how many weeks you can go without doing grocery shopping and just living off of the food in your cupboards.  This is one of those times, especially because we have a deep freezer we’re planning to sell and we can only do that once it has been emptied of all the food inside.

Ice-Simmons Pantry Challenge 2012: Week 2 Update

I plan to take it all the way this time and really empty the fridge, freezers, and pantry before shopping again.  Can my family really bear with me through these menu plans to the very end?  I really think we’ve got at least 3 more weeks on our current supplies.  More empty packages keep hitting the trash can as we use up little bits of this and last crumbs of that.

My family is truly a strong group of troopers, that’s for sure, because we’ve now gotten into the ingredients that most of us don’t like eating with very little complaining.  Tonight for dinner we had:

• A very tough cut of pork chops that I got on discount (and have been sitting unused in the freezer for quite some time).  I got them to be more “edible” by offering ketchup to dip the meat in, which did make it better…
• Hamburger Helper (without the hamburger) as a dinner side (because I have about 20 more boxes to use up that I got on a coupon/sale matchup).
• Cooked shredded spinach that had been frozen (my husband got a good deal on it and bought about 5 bags).  We have yet to use up even 2!  This spinach is honestly a better ingredient than stand alone veggie, but we powered through it tonight as the veggie on our plates, and jokingly made our Popeye impressions and muscles as I tried to keep my spinach from coming back up!

Pantry Challenge 2012: Just Do It!

We all have those food items hanging around at the end of the pantry inventory that we keep passing over.  We might even go buy new groceries just to avoid cooking those things that we wish we hadn’t bought in the first place!  If you’re not a big fan of food wasting, which I’m not, because it’s just not frugal, it’s time to get over your taste buds and just cook the food you have.

So knuckle down and join me in using up what you’ve got.  Can you imagine the nice little savings in your monthly budget if you don’t have to do grocery shopping for 2 weeks?  Or 4 weeks?  If you’re not sure how you’re going to pull this off, read How to Use up Food in a Pantry Stockpile and Recession Proof Your Pantry and Food to get you started.  You’ll love the feeling you get from seeing your shelves dwindle as you use what you’ve got and start over fresh for a new year!

If you’re joining Pantry Challenge 2012, feel free to leave a comment below and let us know your strategies or how your challenge is going along the way.  We’d love to hear from you!

Why pay a bakery to make and decorate a pink princess castle birthday cake when you can do it yourself?  The bakery won’t even put love into it like you will for your little princess or prince!

In just 6 minutes, you’ll know exactly how to make and decorate the princess castle birthday cake.  Grab a cup of coffee and watch in amazement at how easy this cake is to decorate.  The video below shows you step by step directions for how to make and decorate a pink princess castle cake.

(Subscribers will need to click through to this article to watch the video.)

Want more? We’ve got lots of How To videos and instructions! 

How to Make and Decorate a Pink Princess Castle Birthday Cake is linked to Works for Me Wednesday, 11th Heaven, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Ultimate Recipe Swap, and Tasty Tuesday.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of GravyMaster. All opinions are 100% mine.

Our same family favorite dinners can get boring after being on the menu plan rotation for a while. That’s why it’s up to you, the household chef, to add interest with new “secret” ingredients to your dishes every once in a while! Our Savory Stroganoff recipe is a twist on a basic stroganoff to give it a kick that will have your family begging for seconds!

GravyMaster is a wonderful multipurpose ingredient which can be used as your secret ingredient in all kinds of cuisines to punch up the flavor. It can be used for caramelizing, marinating, and of course, flavoring gravy!

The taste of GravyMaster is like a mix between a soy sauce and a sweet caramel sauce, but also has a little aftershock like a steak sauce. It really is such an unusual flavor that’s not exactly savory, not exactly sweet, but just right for so many uses.

Although GravyMaster sent me their ingredient to use, the Savory Stroganoff recipe is an exclusive Home Ever After recipe crafted by Danelle Ice.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground turkey or beef
• 1 13oz. can of sliced mushrooms
• 1 10 oz. container of Philadelphia cooking crème cheese (original flavor)
• 1/2 T. of minced garlic
• 2 cups of uncooked egg noodles
• 1 1/2 tsp of GravyMaster
• 1/2 tsp of sea salt

Directions for Savory Stroganoff

1. Boil egg noodles in a saucepan until tender.
2. Drain noodles and set aside.
3. Brown the ground turkey or ground beef in a skillet until fully cooked.
4. Drain ground meat.
5. Next, transfer the meat to a casserole dish.
6. Add in the cooking crème cheese, mushrooms, and garlic to the meat and mix well.
7. Gently stir in the cooked egg noodles to the casserole dish.
8. Lightly sprinkle sea salt onto the stroganoff, followed by drizzling the GravyMaster evenly over the top of the dish.
9. Stir in GravyMaster until the color is evenly distributed.
10. Put the casserole into a 425 degree oven, uncovered, for about 5 minutes to help the crème cheese melt.

Serve hot and enjoy! We dare you to try our Savory Stroganoff recipe on your family and see what they say to the difference that GravyMaster makes in a regular weeknight stroganoff.

There are so many dishes you could add GravyMaster to this month in all the holiday cooking you’ll be doing. You could use it for sealing the juices in all kinds of meats and fish before cooking, or as an extra ingredient to mix into unsuspecting holiday sides like green bean casserole. What would you use GravyMaster in for your holiday cooking? Master the meal and let us know in the comments!

If your Christmas baking lineup has gotten a little stale, it’s time to jazz up the cookie menu with Betty Crocker’s holiday cookie recipes! 

I know you can get as excited as me about a cookie of the day recipe during the month of December, right?  Take a look at the scrumptious holiday cookies you can make right now.

Wacky Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Do you ever find yourself wondering what to do with bits of broken pasta that have ended up at the bottom of the spaghetti, macaroni noodles, and other pasta containers?   I created this homemade chicken noodle soup recipe to help make use of these leftover pasta noodles that often get thrown away for lack of a good purpose: Wacky Chicken Noodle Soup!

The name “wacky chicken noodle” comes from the fact that the directions call for Wacky Mac, a brand of veggie pasta noodles that are all different colors, types, shapes and sizes.  Of course, this means your kids will love them because they look so crazy!

If you don’t have or want to use Wacky Mac in your chicken noodle soup recipe, you can use the leftover bits of pasta you have or just mix several types of pasta (some bow tie noodles, macaroni noodles, large and small pasta shells, linguine, etc.).

Right now, you can also use this e-coupon when you buy 1 WACKY MAC Veggie Pasta, save 0.40 at SavingStar!

The Wacky Chicken Noodle Soup recipe is an exclusive Home Ever After recipe crafted by Danelle Ice.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, cooked and cubed
• 2 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 cup frozen okra
• 2 cups of uncooked Wacky Mac colored pasta (or any mix of leftover uncooked pasta noodles)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 15oz. can of corn

Directions for Wacky Chicken Noodle Soup

1. Fill a stockpot with potatoes, okra, pasta, and corn.
2. Add broth and water and set heat to high.
3. Bring the contents to a boil, then reduce to medium heat.
4. Add chicken breast pieces and stir well.
5. Cook over medium heat until pasta and potatoes are tender, stirring frequently.
6. Salt to taste, then remove from stove.
7. Let the soup sit for 2-3 minutes before serving.

This Wacky Chicken Noodle soup recipe goes great with homemade biscuits cut into fun shapes with cookie cutters!

Love trying new recipes? Find more at Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and 11th Heaven!

Nessa is a mother of two living the small town life in rural Texas. She loves cooking everything from tried and true recipes to her own wonderful creations. Catch her blogging at Ramblings of a Texas Housewife and on Twitter @Nessa_TX.

Editor’s Note:  Nessa brings us 4 fabulous recipes to use turkey leftovers from Thanksgiving.  Do you have turkey leftover recipes to share?  Leave the links in the comments below!

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful day of food, family, and fellowship. The day after is often the day of turkey leftovers. So, I decided to share some of my favorite ways to use up all those delicious bits you have left after the big meal is done.

There are so many things you can do with cooked turkey leftovers! A good rule of thumb is that if you can use chicken, you can most likely use turkey instead. I’ve done everything from turkey salad to turkey enchiladas with great results. Here are a few more turkey leftovers ideas for you. Enjoy!

King Ranch Turkey – Leftover turkey is fabulous in place of the traditional chicken in this Texas casserole favorite.

Turkey Tetrazzini – This is a great dish that my family loves when it’s cold outside. There are lots of good recipes available on the web for this. I make mine by making a simple white gravy with lots of onions, garlic, and black pepper.  This casserole is great when topped with bread crumbs and/ or cheese before baking.

1. Cook a pot of pasta while you are making the gravy.
2. Add a bag of frozen mixed vegetables to the pasta right before you drain it, the heat from the pasta will help defrost the veggies.
3. Add shredded up turkey tot he gravy once it’s done, then mix it into the pasta veggie mixture.
4. Pour all into a greased casserole and bake at 350 degrees until heated through.

Next, you’ll want to read Nessa’s  Cowboy Brunch.  Make sure you subscribe to our free updates so you don’t miss any of our recipes!

We originally published The Day After Thanksgiving – Recipes to Use Turkey Leftovers on November 23, 2009.  Find more cooking articles at Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.

The video below demonstrates how to thaw a turkey quickly.

(Subscribers will need to click through to this article to watch the video.)

Want more? We’ve got enough How To videos and instructions to keep you busy all day!

Make sure you also read our article on How to Cook a Turkey in case this is your first Thanksgiving being in charge of the bird.  We won’t leave you on your own to figure it out!  You can cook a prize-winning turkey dinner with no experience at all.

(Subscribers will need to click through to this article to watch the video.)

Want more? We’ve got lots of How To videos and instructions.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Carapelli. All opinions are 100% mine.

I recently had an opportunity to do an olive oil tasting, which is kind of like a wine tasting or coffee tasting, only with olive oil as the subject being tested.

An olive oil tasting can actually be a fantastic occasion for entertaining! You could create a Night in Tuscany event, during which you can teach your guests how to do a proper olive oil tasting, followed by a food showcase with olive oil (think bread dipping with a variety of breads, olive oil sautéed veggie skewers, and more).

However you choose to present your olive oil tasting, you’ll have to know how to do it properly first.

I tasted Carapelli’s Premium 100% Italian extra virgin olive oil, which is imported from Italy. This is a cold pressed intense olive oil great for cooking, baking, and dipping.

The Correct Olive Oil Tasting Method

During an olive oil tasting, you’ll use the 4 S method: Swirl, Sniff, Slurp, and Swallow. Note that most olive oil tastings are done with a blue glass (so you can’t see the color of the oil), but if you don’t have one, a clear glass will work just as well.

First, I filled my glass with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then I warmed the oil with my hand (cover the glass with one hand and hold the other on the bottom).

The swirl is done to release the oil’s esters (you’ve probably seen this done during wine tastings). I swirled it and felt like a real professional taster!

The sniff comes next. I took a deep breath in from the glass but had a hard time identifying a real aroma. To me the scent just smelled like familiar olive oil, which I use a lot in cooking.

Next, you finally get to drink the olive oil. The next 2 S words go together: slurp and swallow. To slurp the olive oil you have to suck in a little air as you drink so that it makes a slurping noise. Slurping is done to emulsify the oil.

Right now the oil will be in your mouth and you should be noting the flavor, texture, and taste. My olive oil tasted bitter, a little peppery, and very much like sunflower seeds.

When you swallow the olive oil, it should leave no aftertaste in your mouth but in the back of your throat you may notice feelings. My oil had no aftertaste but felt very peppery in my throat and was stinging. It reminded me very much of when I used to have to drink olive oil before performances when I was a singer and had a sore throat from too much practice.

The 3 characteristics you want to look for in your olive oil are fruitiness (which tells you the fruit was unspoiled), bitterness on the back of your tongue (which tells you the flavors are balanced), and pungency (which tells you that the oil is fresh).

It’s Time for You to Try Tasting Olive Oil!

I know you’re so inspired now that you’ve just got to try out an olive oil tasting for yourself (or your guests). Lucky for you, Carapelli has provided us with a coupon to try their fantastic extra virgin olive oils.

Carapelli is Italy’s market leader in extra virgin olive oil and have their office in Florence (time to daydream about a trip to Italy after the olive oil tasting is over!) Enjoy your tasting and have fun with the Italian theme for your event!

Right now, you can click here to get a $1.00 OFF coupon at www.CarapelliUSA.com.

A few days ago I shared about the Sunkist S’alternative Quiz on facebook. Their helpful quiz allows you to see what your sodium style is, that is – how much you know about your salt consumption!

We shared a fantastic low-sodium recipe called Lemon Seafood Paella. Today, I’ve also provided a Home Ever After original recipe to help cut down on the high sodium dishes on your menu plan. Try our Zesty Lemon Green Beans Recipe below on next week’s meal plan!

Try Our Zesty Lemon Green Beans Recipe

Our zesty lemon green beans recipe is a nice alternative to using canned green beans as your dinner’s vegetable side. Canned green beans can be loaded with salt. Try our fresh approach for a zesty, but lower sodium, side dish.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Green Beans (fresh)
• 1/4 cup Italian Dressing
• Juice from 1 fresh Sunkist Lemon

Instructions:

1. Prepare fresh green beans by washing thoroughly.

2. Add green beans to a wok or sauce pan and add in dressing over medium heat.

3. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

4. Add lemon juice.

5. Put on a lid and reduce heat to medium low for 7 minutes or until green beans are tender.

Enjoy Sunkist lemons in your recipes today!

The S’Alternative

Sunkist has been working hard to develop a way to help people with their sodium consumption. Their alternative, or S’Alternative, is an all natural option that you may not have thought of. Fresh Sunkist Lemons!

The Sunkist S’alternative is to use lemons as a sodium-free alternative to salt. Fresh squeezed Sunkist lemon juice is a wonderful substitute for salt because it provides potassium but doesn’t add more sodium!

Sunkist has a Sodium Style Quiz on their facebook page that allows you to answer quick but telling questions about your eating habits to discover how much you know about salt. Some of us who have been keeping a food log or food diary for a while know how much hidden salt there is in so much of our processed food ingredients.

Take Sunkist’s sodium quiz and see how knowledgeable you are about sodium as part of your bigger nutrition and diet picture! The sodium categories you may fall into are:

• serial salt offender
• shaker & baker
• sodium smarty
• mover, not a salt shaker

My quiz my result was a “Mover, Not a Salt Shaker”. Go take the Sunkist Sodium Quiz to find out your sodium style!

Creepy Halloween Brain Cupcakes

The  Halloween Spooky Brain Cupcakes recipe is hideous and straight out of a horror film’s scene of the mad professor’s experimental laboratory! 

Make your own evil lab this Halloween that will have your kids squirming with delight.  The satisfaction from making truly creepy Halloween food is fantastic!  See our full list of eerie Halloween recipes here: 12 Scariest Creepy Halloween Food Recipes.

These Halloween cupcake brains look very hard to make, but trust me – they’re easy. 

MAKE IT: Creepy Halloween Recipes: Green Monster Eyeballs (Mini Donuts)

You’ll get the hang of it after 2 practice cupcakes (and if you don’t, scrape the frosting off with a butter knife, put it back into your piping bag, and re-frost them again for more practice).

Below, we show you how to make the Halloween Spooky Brain Cupcakes with our easy to follow step by step instructions.  Make sure you have all you materials ahead of time and start when you have the patience to learn a new skill!

MAKE IT: Creepy Halloween Recipes: Lifelike Rabid Rats (Twinkies)

Our Halloween brain cupcakes not only look professional and expensive, but they also taste scrumptious.

Yield: 2 dozen (24) cupcakes

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: As directed on cake mix package

Decorating Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients for Halloween Spooky Brain Cupcakes

• Chocolate cupcake mix
• Vanilla or cream cheese cake frosting

Tools needed:

• Cupcake pan
• 2 dozen cupcake papers
• Piping bag
• Cake decorating tip, size 12

Directions: How to Make Halloween Spooky Brain Cupcakes

Check out our snazzy slideshow below which shows exactly how to create a brain on top of your cupcake out of white frosting.  Subscribers, click here to watch the slideshow of how to do the icing of the Halloween Spooky Brain Cupcakes.

	1.  Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.  2.  Bake chocolate cupcakes as directed on package. 3.  Allow cupcakes to cool completely.
	4.  Lightly frost each cupcake with a thin layer of frosting.  This can have cupcake showing through since it is just a quick crumb coat. 5.  Cut the tip off of a disposable piping bag and insert a size 12 tip.  Fill the bag half full of icing.
	6.  Begin to pipe slow and steady.  Start in the middle of the cupcake and draw a straight line from front to back.
	7.  When you get to the back of the cupcake, round the corner and draw the outside of the circle.
	8.  Bring your frosting line back to the starting point, but don’t stop there.  You’ll now be making small squiggly lines up and down all the way across the cupcake. 9. When you come to the end, slowly stop squeezing and lift the bag away from the cupcake to end the frosting line.
	10.  When finished with the first half, repeat the same process for the second half.
	11.  Finally, you have your finished Halloween Spooky Brain Cupcakes!

Our Halloween Spooky Brain Cupcakes are frighteningly fantastic!  Not only that, they also look difficult and expensive (everyone will think you either hired a professional cupcake decorator or purchased the brain cupcakes from a specialty bakery). 

VIDEO: How to Carve a Halloween Pumpkin into a Jack o Lantern

Now enjoy your freaky festivities and don’t forget to take plenty of pictures of your melon brain before your guests devour it! 

If you can’t wait to cook more of our disgustingly horrible Halloween munchies, read our full list of Halloween recipes here: Scariest Creepy Halloween Food Recipes.

Love printable recipes? Find more at Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and 11th Heaven!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sunkist S’alternative. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you’ve ever counted calories with an online food diary tool, you were probably as surprised as I was by one unexpected thing: sodium.  Yes, by logging in the normal foods I regularly eat each day, I found that most days I was over on my recommended sodium intake.  I wasn’t just over by a little bit either – I was sometimes at close to 2 times what the recommended amount is for a woman my age!

That was when I really started looking into just how much sodium there is hidden in foods we normally eat.  I started paying attention to the labels when shopping and comparing foods by how much sodium was in each serving.

The hidden salts were everywhere, and it seemed like even in unprocessed foods it was hard to find low- or no-sodium ingredients to cook with.  (Plus, then I remembered how we sit at the dinner table and salt our food!)

Most of us know by now that eating high levels of sodium can contribute to health problems such as high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, osteoporosis and many more (Bibbins-Domingo, 2010 study).  We want our food to taste good but not have dangerous levels of salt that can hurt our family’s health.  What’s the solution?

The S’Alternative

Sunkist has been hard at work on this issue for concerned parents.  They’ve come up with an alternative, or S’Alternative, rather, that has a substitute for salt that’s all natural.  Lemons!

The Sunkist S’alternative is to use lemons as a sodium-free alternative to salt.  Fresh squeezed Sunkist lemon juice is a wonderful substitute for salt, because it not only reduces the overall sodium intake in your diet, but it also increases your potassium!

Sunkist has a Sodium Style Quiz on their facebook page that allows you to answer 7 questions about your eating habits to discover your sodium style.  I love the sodium style names (and cute cartoon lemon characters for each one – your kids will beg to do this quiz with you)!

You’ll either be a:

• serial salt offender
• shaker & baker
• sodium smarty
• mover, not a salt shaker

When I took the quiz my result was a Mover, Not a Salt Shaker.   Go take the Sunkist Sodium Quiz to find out your sodium style!

Top Salt-Savvy Tips

1. Read labels.  Look for “low sodium” and “no salt added” on food packaging (especially on canned vegetables, which can unknowingly add a lot of salt).
2. Don’t salt during cooking.  I know it goes against the way a lot of us cook, but you can skip the salt in many of your recipes and serve lemon slices with your plated food so each person can season to taste.
3. What’s in your water?  Call your water company to find out how much sodium is in the water.  You may need to opt for a store-bought drinking water.
4. Plan well.  If you have one salty food in your meal, add other no- or low-salt foods to complement.

Recipe for Sunkist Lemon Seafood Paella

(Makes 8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1- 32 oz can low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 teaspoon saffron threads
• 1lb. of firm, fresh pieces of whitefish such as tilapia, bass, halibut and swordfish, cut into 16-21 pieces
• 1lb. or 16-21 mussels, cleaned and de-bearded
• 1lb. or 16-21 medium sized clams, rinsed
• cup chopped fresh parsley
• 3 Sunkist® lemons, zest and juice
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 _ cups minced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 3 cups uncooked short-grain rice such as Valencian, Arborio, or Calrose
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1- 8oz jar of sliced, roasted red peppers

Instructions:

• To prepare broth, combine all the ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer (do not boil). Keep warm over low heat.
• To prepare paella, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large paella pan or large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add fish pieces to pan and sauté 1 minute. Remove fish from pan, reserve and keep warm.
• Add onion to pan and sauté 5 minutes.
• Add the lemon zest, garlic and crushed red pepper and cook 5 minutes.
• Add rice and cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly. Stir in broth, bring to a low boil and cook 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Stir in the peas and red pepper slices.
• Add mussels and clams to pan, nestling them into rice mixture. Cook 5 minutes or until shells open; discard any unopened shells.
• Stir in the reserved fish and chopped parsley and cook 5 minutes.
• Remove from the heat, stir in lemon juice and check for seasoning.
• Cover with a towel and let stand 10 minutes before stirring

Take control of the sodium intake in your diet today!  Take the quiz to find out how salt-savvy you are, then use Sunkist’s tips to make some basic changes to the way you cook and meal plan.

Our menu plan this week features recipes from our other favorite celebrity homemaker, Martha Stewart! Her recipes may be easy to prepare, but are a little more exotic sounding than regular dinner menu fare. Tap into your adventurous side this fall and try out these new Martha Stewart dinner recipes. 

Our free printable Take and Make Menu Plans contain everything you need for an entire week’s dinners and all you have to do is the shopping and cooking! Print out the menu plan each Sunday, which includes:

• A printable grocery shopping list of ingredients.  Print out the list, check off what you already have on hand, then take your shopping list to the store.
• A dinner meal for each day. Click the name of the meal to print the recipe and directions.

Take And Make Menu Plan #1:

Martha Stewart Dinner Recipes

Menu is planned for a family of 4.  Please adjust ingredients and recipes up to accommodate extra people.

Printable Grocery Shopping List:  Click the button below to view, download or print the shopping list. Grocery shopping checklist is divided into sections by type of food to make your shopping trip faster.

Dinner Menu Plan with Recipes:

Monday

Dinner:  Martha Stewart’s Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Mustard. Light and fresh, but with a twist, this grilled chicken sandwich is perfect for summer.

Tuesday

Dinner:  Martha Stewart’s Grilled Chicken Tostadas. This recipe is a great summer version of the Tex-Mex favorite.

Wednesday

Dinner:  Martha Stewart’s Chicken Fried Rice with Bok Choy. Feel free to substitute fresh greens from your garden or farmer’s market in place of the bok choy.

Thursday

Dinner:  Martha Stewart’s Pork Chop with Pineapple Salsa. Homemade pineapple salsa is a sure-fire way to lighten up the dinner time staple, the pork chop.

Friday

Dinner:  Martha Stewart’s Rigatoni with Spiced Meat Sauce. Makes 4 servings.

Saturday

Dinner:   Martha Stewart’s Open-Faced Egg and Tomato Sandwich. Only makes 2 servings, so take care to adjust the ingredients for your family.

Sunday

Dinner: Leftover Love. Spread out a buffet table of all the leftovers from the week’s meals.  This means a day-off for the chef!

Pantry stockpiles are the best- especially when they’re filled with free and nearly-free food.  Do you know how to use up a pantry stockpile and only spend $20 a month on groceries?

I have to admit I get a strange happiness out of being resourceful, and watching my grocery bill dwindle as I fill up the pantry makes me ecstatic. 

However – this month I spent only $20 on groceries for an ENTIRE MONTH, which makes me even more ecstatic!  Want to know how?  Keep reading.

Like many frugal homemakers, I use coupons and combine them with items on sale to buy them for $0 or almost nothing.  Sometimes, there are just too many good deals. Then the unthinkable happens – *gasp* – you run out of room to store your free food!

Of course, this doesn’t apply only to food.  Stockpiles for household goods and other products can expand as well.  Are you nodding your head?  Example: I haven’t bought toothpaste since June 2008 (yes, that’s 9 months ago) and I STILL have unopened packages.  I got so many toothpaste samples, then purchased tons for 20 cents a tube, that I thought I’d never need to buy toothpaste again.  My storage area was overflowing – a little too overflowing.

At a certain point, you have to stop stockpiling, no matter how good the deals, and make a determined vow to use up the food in your pantry stockpile.  This is exactly what I’m doing right now.

How Do You Use Up a Stockpile?

When my husband and I were hardcore into frugal grocery (we’ve been a bit more lax lately), I would make a game out of seeing how long I could go without going to the grocery store.  The goal is to use up the food you have in your cupboards, freezer, pantry, cabinets, etc. as much as possible.  (Not expired foods! Please, if they’re past their prime, just trash them and vow to do better at watching expiration dates in the future.)

• Take everything out of the cabinets.  Foods get pushed to the back, hide behind bigger packages, and attempt to disguise themselves in the shadows to avoid being consumed.  Don’t let the food pull one over on you!  Pull out all items from cabinets, shelves, lazy Susans, and put them out on a table or countertop.
• Take inventory of your food.  Make a list of what ingredients you have and the quantity of each, then put them away.
• Put the food away in reverse order.  You know the drill, newest foods in the back, oldest foods in the front.  The strategy is to use the oldest food up first, before it expires.
• Make a menu plan without looking at anything in the kitchen.  You’ve already seen all the food, so you should have a pretty good idea of what’s in there.  This is the point where you use your inventory papers and plan meals to use up those specific ingredients.  Plan your menu, day by day, by writing down a meal then crossing off the ingredients it will use.
• Don’t buy any more food!  Try to not purchase anything from the grocery store except for perishable items that you need for the week (milk, produce, baby supplies, etc.- you need those).

Keep in mind that while you are in the using-it-up phase, you’ll probably be using the same inventory sheet for more than one week’s worth of meal planning.  Just keep crossing food off as you use it up.  When planning your meals, don’t think about what sounds good for dinner. Instead, think of what meals can be made with the ingredients you are trying to use.  A free tool I use to help with this is Recipe Matcher; you type in the ingredients you want to use up and it gives you recipes that use those ingredients.

Huge Savings

Use it Up phase around my house forces me to get more creative with the foods I’m cooking, and really challenges me to stick to the menu plan.  The benefits are many: 

• Older foods get eaten because they’re not being pushed to the back of the cabinet by new groceries.
• You’ll clear out little-used foods and know not to buy them again, even if there’s a really good sale.
• You’ll spend next to NOTHING on groceries during this time, since you’re using food you’ve already paid for (in some cases a long, long time ago!).
• You get a clean kitchen and pantry with lots of room so you can start bargain hunting again.  What’s not to love?!

I have been using up my stockpile for close to 3 weeks now, and during that time have spent only $20 on milk, fruits and veggies.  There are still about 3 weeks to go in my case, so I’ll be steadfast in my goal to use up the stockpile.  You can do the challenge right along with me and cut down your spending as you Use It Up!  In the meantime, are any of you using up your pantry contents?  Do you periodically go on a grocery shopping fast? Let us know your methods in the comments. 

Check out Kitchen Tip Tuesday and Homemaker Mondays at 11^th Heaven.  How to Use up Food in a Pantry Stockpile ws originally published on Home Ever After on March 2, 2009.  Pantry photo by evelynishere.

It doesn’t take a master chef at a fine restaurant to produce a delicious side of asparagus. Don’t be fooled by the fancy appearance of this luxury vegetable, it can be prepared with minimal effort in the comfort of your own kitchen. Even if you don’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen, you can learn how to cook asparagus in no time.

Asparagus is considered a super-food, high in antioxidants and loaded with folate, vitamin C and vitamin B6. In addition to the well known green variety, asparagus is available in shades of white and purple, with either thick or thin spears. All offer the same nutritional benefits and share the same taste.

How to Choose Asparagus

Fresh asparagus is at the height of it’s flavor during the months of April and May, but will begin to pop up in produce aisles by late February.

When choosing asparagus, keep in mind that the different size and color varieties are not indicative of quality. If you want to decrease preparation time, opt for the thin spears to avoid having to trim down off the tough ends on the thicker spears.

Regardless of the size you choose, be sure to select spears that are firm and straight with unopened tips.

How to Store Asparagus Prior to Cooking

Asparagus deteriorates quickly, so to preserve freshness and maintain high antioxidant levels it is important to keep spears refrigerated and use within 2 days. By placing the spears in a bowl filled with cold water in an upright position, you will help to keep the stems hydrated and prevent drying.

How to Cook Asparagus

Always begin by washing the spears in cool water. Asparagus is versatile and can be cooked in a variety of ways.

Steaming Asparagus.  Steaming is a popular choice for traditionalists that enjoy their spears with a simple drizzle of olive oil. Start with a piece of kitchen string to tie the asparagus spears together at both the bottom and just below the tip. Add the bunch to 2 inches of boiling water in a large pot. Cover the pot and steam for 4-8 minutes. The bottoms of the asparagus will boil while the tips are steamed, resulting in crispy green spears.

Boiling Asparagus.  For more tender spears, asparagus can be placed lengthwise in a large skillet and boiled for 5 minutes in an inch of water.

Blanching Asparagus.  For dishes that call for cold asparagus, you can blanch the spears by placing them in iced water immediately after removing from hot water to halt the cooking process.

Cooking Asparagus in a Microwave.  If you are wondering how to cook asparagus in a microwave, you should know that it will take the same amount of time as steaming or boiling.

• Place asparagus lengthwise in a microwave-safe baking dish.
• Angle the spears so that the tips face the center of the dish and cover with ¼ cup of water.
• Cover the dish and microwave on medium for 4-5 minutes.

Baking Asparagus.  For crispy, baked asparagus, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place asparagus lengthwise on a nonstick baking sheet and drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil across the spears. Roast in center of oven for 8-10 minutes.

Sautéeing Asparagus.  Asparagus works well in sautéed and stir-fried dishes.  Cut spears into 2 inch diagonal pieces and add to skillet or wok with one teaspoon of olive oil. Sautee for 3 minutes.

Barbecuing Asparagus.  Asparagus can be an addition to any backyard barbeque. Preheat your grill and spray with olive oil spray. Add spears to center rack and grill for 5-8 minutes or until tender. For best results, turn spears every 2 minutes.

As my husband and I were looking for quick and easy healthy meals, I stumbled upon one of my greatest kitchen tips yet.  Today’s healthy meal teaches us how to make Ready-to-Go Salad Bags.  These portable salads are made to eliminate dirty dishes, save time, keep you healthy and losing weight!

For me, making salads every time I want to eat one can be a deterring factor, since it takes a lot of prep time to prepare the salad.  First you have to get out all the veggies, wash them, cut each of them up, then combine the ingredients and add dressing.  In the process you also dirty a cutting board and knife every time you make a salad.

In true 4 Hour Work Week style, I batch as many tasks as possible in my life.  Yes, this applies to cooking as well.  Our handy Ready-to-Go Salad Bags are made all at once in large quantity, which allows you to use as many ingredients as you want and have healthy salads all week, while only having to spend time to make the salads and dirty the dishes once!

My husband takes the portable salads with him to work and doesn’t even use a bowl; instead, he pours his dressing directly into the bag, zips it closed, shakes it well, and gets flavored salad while not having to use as much salad dressing.  He also eats the salad right out of the bag so he can close it up whenever he’s full and go back to it as a snack later in the day. 

I love the bag option because it saves space in the refrigerator.  We pack all the salad bags into the crisper drawers (pictured at left) and they are ready to grab and go for a healthy meal!

How to Make Ready-to-Go Salad Bags

You’ll Need:

• Ziploc bags ( I use quart size bags, which turns out to be 2 bowls of salad)
• Cutting board
• Sharp knife
• Salad veggies of choice and toppings (I used tomatoes, lettuce, purple cabbage, spinach, cucumber, white mushrooms, shredded cheddar cheese and sprouts)

1.  Prep all your foods first by washing each one thoroughly, then cutting up into bite-size pieces.  For lettuce and other greens, tear pieces by hand instead of cutting (to avoid brown edges).

2.  Lay all of your foods out on a long counter or table top so that you have your salad assembly line ready to go.  Remember, we’re going for quantity in this production!

For greens, I prefer to use bagged salads since they are already washed ahead of time.  This saves me the time of washing and spinning all the greens before tearing into pieces.  This method can be especially handy for spinach, which frequently is very gritty unless washed very well.

4.  Take a bag and start at the end of the counter that has your greens.  Put greens into the bag first, then move down the line filling it with veggies.  End with toppings (not dressing), then squeeze any extra air out.  Zip and put into the refrigerator.

What a great finished product! 

Our version of the spaghetti taco is called southwest spaghetti tacos.  They’re a little spicy and are made with chicken and green chiles.  The southwest spaghetti tacos recipe is an exclusive Home Ever After recipe crafted by Danelle Ice.

Ingredients for Southwest Spaghetti Tacos

• Spaghetti
• 1 can green chilis, chopped
• Philadelphia Cooking Crème, Santa Fe Blend flavor
• Foster Farms southwestern chicken breast strips
• Taco shells of your choice (hard or soft)

Directions for Southwest Spaghetti Tacos

1.  Boil spaghetti and prepare noodles as you normally would.

2.  Drain water from spaghetti.  Return to pan on medium heat.

3.  Stir in Philadelphia Cooking Crème until noodles are well coated.

4.  Dice chicken breast pieces and add to the pan.

5.  Add chilis and stir well.

6.  Heat mixture until warm.

7.  Add spaghetti mixture to taco shells.  Use either crunchy shells or soft tortillas.  For adults you can leave the mixture plated (as pictured at left) instead of as taco filling.

8.  Serve and enjoy! 

This spaghetti tacos recipes goes great with a side of Spanish rice as well.  Thanks so much to Kraft foods for providing us with samples of the Philadelphia Cooking Crème to try out.  More about my relationship with Kraft Foods is here and here.

*****

Did you make this recipe?  If so, we’d love to hear your feedback!  Did you make any adjustments to the recipe, or add your own twist?  Tell us how your turned out in the comments below.  Love printable recipes? Find more at Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays!

How do you get your kids to eat their veggies?  By making them a Seymour Smiles salad!  This kid friendly salad is a great side to any meal, lunch or dinner. 

Recipe: Seymour Smiles Salad

Here’s how to make a Seymour Smiles Salad:

1. Start with a small salad of chopped greens in the middle of a plate.
2. Peel and slice a cucumber into very thin slices.
3. Peel a carrot and slice into “chips” at an angle.
4. Form the mouth and nose out of cucumbers. 
5. Place 2 cucumber slices for eyes, then on top of each one place a carrot chip.  On top of the carrot chips, place 2 small pieces of cheese rolled up inot balls.
6. Top with “hair” of bean sprouts if you have them on hand.

This fun kid food is quick to make and a great way to make healthy food fun for your little ones!

Fun Kid Foods: Seymour Smiles Salad is linked to 11th Heaven, Kitchen Tip Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays.

The point of the challenge was to live off your pantry stockpile for at least 2 weeks, making your menu plan to contain meals from all ingredients you already have on hand.  However, this sounds a lot easier than it is. 

A lot of us frugal shoppers and extreme couponers end up with pantries full of surpluses of condiments and deodorant, but a lot fewer cooking ingredients and meal items.  When I go into my pantry right now, most of what is left is breakfast cereal and bbq sauce!

It was difficult, but I did my 2 weeks of menu plans using up the ingredients I had on hand.  Some of the meals were odd combinations of food, but that’s okay.  Plus, I’ve made sure everyone is taking leftovers for their lunches during these 2 weeks.  This means that not only will the pantry get used up and cleared out, but the refrigerator will too.

A clear pantry is a great way to start off a new, fresh stockpile.  If you have a little more inventory to clear out, feel free to keep the pantry challenge going until you use up more of your food stock on hand. 

Remember to use up the food in your freezer too- yes, dig to the back to get out the roasts and other forgotten meats!  My family was able to recover some pork ribs yesterday forgotten in our big freezer, and we had a great bbq ribs dinner cooked on the grill.

Let us know how you did with the pantry challenge in the comments below!

Remember that being prepared with a sensible stockpile is NOT the same thing as hoarding.  Will we use up 50 pounds of flour? Probably not.  What about 100 bags of beans?  You get the point! 

In a practical pantry stockpile we want to have about 3 months’ supply of foods we will actually use, even if there is no disaster.  Check out our list Emergency Preparedness for the Pantry: Checklists To Get You Ready to get started putting together your pantry supply. 

2 Week Challenge: Use Up Your Pantry

Over the next two weeks, I challenge you to live of of our pantry groceries so that you can 1) save on your grocery shopping and 2) start your stockpile over fresh with new foods.  My family will be doing this pantry challenge too.

During the use-it-up phase, you may be putting together some strange meal combinations. That’s alright!  We had frozen pizzas one night with roasted asparagus on the side as our veggie! 

Use up  the oldest foods you have in your pantry first.  Use up the foods you don’t like to cook and therefore, keep getting pushed to the back and forgotten (just get them out of your pantry for good). 

So whip out your menu plan template and start filling in meals using the inventory in your pantry.  You should have enough on hand to only buy minimal ingredients, fresh produce, and milk during your grocery shopping trips during the 2 week pantry challenge.

Let us know how you do in the comments below!

How do you compare to the average consumer according to the list below?  I feel like this would be a perfect “shopping list” for a newlywed couple to set up house with or for a college graduate moving into their first place on their own. 

Well, how did you do?  I had 80 out of the 100 most common foods / ingredients on the list.  Mostly what I am missing are dried herbs.  Some of them really surprised me, like the iced tea bags.  It was a little surprising that the top 2 items were ketchup and salt! What did you think about the list?  Let us know in the comments.

100 Most Common Foods: How Many Are in your Pantry? is linked to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes 4 Mom, Works for Me Wednesday and 11th Heaven.  Disclosures about my relationship with Kraft Foods are here.

The flip flop cake shown in the video is pink and purple and designed for a girl or woman, but you can easily tailor this to a boy’s or man’s party by just changing the icing colors.  The flowers on the flip flops are not edible- they’re silk flowers.  If you want to spend the extra time, you can either make or buy edible flowers to put in their place.

This short video below shows how to make and decorate a flip flop cake.  (Subscribers will need to click through to this article to watch the video.)

Want more? We’ve got lots of How To videos and instructions!

How to Make and Decorate a Flip Flop Cake is linked to Works for Me Wednesday, 11th Heaven, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Ultimate Recipe Swap, and Tasty Tuesday.

This got me to thinking:  how many of these 25 items do I have?  How many do you have?  Take a gander at the list below and count up how you compare to the average consumer.

Well, how did you measure up?  I had a whopping 23 out of the 25 items in my kitchen!  Now that’s some accurate market research.  What would you add to the list?  Let us know in the comments below.

25 Most Common Kitchen Items: How Many Do You Have? is linked to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes 4 Mom, Works for Me Wednesday and 11th Heaven.  Disclosures about my relationship with Kraft Foods are here.

Believe it or not, this fabulous cake is quick and easy to make and decorate.  The blue jean cake makes it easy to give the boy or man in your life a special treat that’s not girly!

(Subscribers will need to click through to this article to watch the video.)

Want more? We’ve got lots of How To videos and instructions!

How to Make and Decorate a Flip Flop Cake is linked to Works for Me Wednesday, 11th Heaven, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Ultimate Recipe Swap, and Tasty Tuesday.

No super bowl party is complete without a stunning menu of appetizers and game foods that will keep your guests munching happily during the big game.

We just found a free super bowl party cookbook called 39 Appetizers and Party Pleasers.  This recipe is a good way to start the recipe planning early for your superbowl party.  We’ll be bringing you plenty more super bowl recipes before the big game also, so be patient!

For now, make sure you grab this free superbowl cookbook before the freebies are gone.  It has 60 pages of appetizer recipes to choose from.  These appetizers will be a great addition to your collection, even for different types of parties and entertaining. 

Click here to get your free super bowl cookbook – 39 Appetizer Recipes and Party Pleasers.

Disclaimer:  HomeEverAfter.com contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when affiliate links are used.

This free Valentine cookbook is called Sweets for Your Sweet: 22 Cute Dessert Recipes for Valentine’s Day.  It’s loaded with 36 pages of dessert recipes to make your holiday as scrumptious as it is romantic!

Dress up your holiday menu this valentine’s Day with some of these desserts.

Click here to get your free Valentine’s Day dessert recipes cookbook.

Disclaimer:  HomeEverAfter.com contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when affiliate links are used.

Well, we’ve got a little treat for your inner cupcake maker today.  We’re going to show you how to make cupcakes in ice cream cones. 

That’s right, not only will your children be amazed, but the other adults will be wondering how you come up with this oh-so-creative cupcake idea.  You don’t have to tell them you watched it here, but you can if you want!

Easy to eat, easy to carry around, I’m pretty sure these cupcakes are the perfect alternative to birthday cake.  The 2 minute video below shows you how to make cupcakes in ice cream cones.  

(Subscribers will need to click through to this article to watch the video.)

Want more? We’ve got lots of How To videos and instructions.  What’s the coolest thing you’ve made with cupcakes?  let us know in the comments below!

How to Make Cupcakes in Ice Cream Cones (Video) is linked to Works for Me Wednesday, 11th Heaven, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Ultimate Recipe Swap, and Tasty Tuesday.