Join me in the homestead pantry challenge!

This month I’m participating in the house and homestead pantry challenge. This is the second year Anna from the house and homestead is doing this challenge. Her challenge to all of us, if you’d like to join in, is to eat out of your pantry/freezer for the month of January. I know this may seem unrealistic for some but for those of us with 3 freezers I think it’s going to be great. Even if you can do a couple nights a week it could help with your grocery shopping budget and food rotation.

First, I used my freezer and pantry inventory sheets to take stock of what I have. I found some veggies and chicken bones I was saving to make broth so I have planned that into my schedule next week. I also noticed we had frozen some shredded zucchini so guess who is making zucchini bread next week? (Kyra! – my youngest – she makes the best zucchini bread!)

Now that I know what I have I’m going to make a list of meals we could have and schedule them for the different weeks in January. Chicken Pot Pie and Shepherd’s Pie are on the list. Along with Country Fried steak from the girls’ deer they tagged this fall. I have also planned to use up the leftover ham from Thanksgiving and Christmas along with the extra beef tenderloin we smoked at Christmas (can’t let that go to waste) I also found a couple packages of chicken drumsticks that need to be used up so I’m planning to have my honey chicken legs in the crock pot at least once this month. So good and easy just need to plan to “thaw the meat” ha ha.

Then I found some leftovers which will be great to use for lunches such as a little bit of roast and steak will make some great quesadillas for lunch or some awesome grilled cheese sandwiches.

While looking through my pantry I also found some salsa and salsa verde that I canned back in September from tomatoes from our garden. So maybe a roast with the salsa and some chicken breasts with the salsa verde for a couple of mexican style meals.

I also canned quite a few jars of bread and butter pickles so I need to remind the girls to have them with their sandwiches. We also have plenty of jam so we may have to make some cheese danishes with jam and fruit.

So as you can see it will be pretty easy to make quite a few meals from both the freezer and pantry this month. Let me know if you’re joining in. I’d love to hear about your freezer inventory and meals that you are making this month!