Eat The Pantry Challenge - Week 2

Week 2 of eating just the pantry / freezer / and refrigerator is well underway! We're doing really well so far with no grocery purchases. See week 1 post here.

Pictures from this week (not too much change yet, but a little bit!)

This is the inventory list we came up with when we pulled everything out from the chest freezer:
Bags of Green Beans (2)
Bags of Edamame (2)
Peas (1)
Mixed veggies (9)
Corn (1 large bag)
Chopped spinach (4)
Broccoli (1)
Shrimp (2 bags)
Turkey burgers (1 bag)
Faux chicken (2)
Salmon (1 bag)
Whole chicken (1)
Turkey lunchmeat (3)
Lean Cuisine (14)
Lean Pockets (3)
Ravioli (2)
Bread (4)
Hot Dog Buns (1)
Bagels (1)
Frozen Pizza (2)
Eggos (2)
Mozzarella Cheese Sticks (1)
Chicken Sausage (2)
Butter (4 pkgs)
Cool whip (1)
Mozzarella shredded (1)
Bacon (1)
Ground Beef (7)
Sausage (1)
Pork tenderloin (3)
Beef roast (1)
Taco Meat (1)
Beef short ribs (1)
Chicken breasts (2 large bags)
Pie crusts (6)
Breakfast sandwiches (1 large box)
Faux beef crumbles (1)
Steaks (4)
Roselle (1)
Turkey neck (1)

In the upstairs freezer:
Semisweet chocolate chips
Mini chocolate chips
Dried cranberries
Walnuts
White Chocolate Chips (2.5 bags)
PB chips
mini M and Ms
Toffee Bits (2)
Dried Mixed Cherry Berries
Coconut Flakes
Reeses Pieces
Butterscotch Chips (1)
Milk chocolate chips
Bakers Chocolate
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Parmesan Bread Crumbs
Pancetta
Breakfast sandwich (1)
Okra
Burger patties (veggie)
Cherry Berry Pie
Boca crumbles
Cheddar cheese block
Prosciutto
Spicy chicken patties
tamales
OJ (2)
Margarita mix (1)
Ice Cream sandwich (2)
Texas Toast
Banana Ice Cream
Vanilla Ice Cream
Wheat Bran
Wheat Germ
Chia Seeds
Flax Seeds
Trail Mix
Mixed Vegetables
Coconut Ice Cream (2)
Bananas
Cauliflower
Tofu
Raw Milk
Stir Fry Vegetables

I have lots of ideas for ways to use these freezer items, combined with pantry and refrigerator ingredients! It's a fun challenge to figure out how to use JUST what we have on hand. The grocery list continues to grow, as we use things up, but I'm determined to make it through the next couple weeks with no shopping trips to restock.

I had some canned goods stashed in a couple other places in the house as well for overflow, but we went ahead and combined everything into the pantry so it's all in one place. I still have boxes of cereal in the basement, but I think everything else is now either in the chest freezer, the pantry or the fridge/freezer.

I feel like we've barely made a dent in everything, and yet we've done really well with eating at home and not buying new groceries! Maybe next week I'll start noticing a difference in how full things are... maybe...!

This week's meals included:

Smoothies (I think we finally used up pretty much all the fruit we had left in the freezer - except for a few bananas I'm saving for baked goods, and of course Lindsey's fruit purees.)

Turkey and Black Bean Burger

Hot dogs with buns

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Sweet and Sour Meatballs with rice and broccoli and the frozen mixed berry pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert

Creamy Cheesy Chicken and Pasta (slightly adapted this recipe) with Caesar salad and Texas Toast and brownies with vanilla ice cream for dessert

Maple Glazed Salmon, mashed sweet potatoes, and edamame

Chorizo Tacos