The Clean Out My Food Rations #Challenge

Next week, I'm starting a new challenge. It's called the clean out my food rations challenge. Sounds fun, right? Well, it might be.

Every time we hit up the grocery store (or Target), it winds us costing us a butt-load (yes, that's a real denomination). I wind up with all this food in my pantry and fridge that, sometimes, goes off before its expiry date. I hate being wasteful and, as an American, I know we tend to waste A LOT. So I'm challenging myself. I'm headed back to work on Monday and I want to see what we can use up before I start buying more, so I decided to give us $25 to pick up 'essentials' from the grocery.

Essentials are:

• Bread
• Yogurt
• Fruit
• Vegetables

Seems easy to do, right? Exactly.

I'm no stranger to doing challenges. We've successfully completed a few rounds of 'No Spend' challenges and I even did a weight loss challenge that allowed me to lose about 15 lbs. I had to stop it, though, because I became pregnant with Yoav.

This challenge will be no different.

Here's what we currently have in our rations:

• 3 salmon filets - prepped and ready to be put in the oven
• 4 portions of chicken legs
• 1 box of frozen mini-quiche
• 1 box of frozen cheese tortellini
• 1 box of mac and cheese bites
• 1 box of breaded (and frozen) green beans
• 3 bags of frozen potatoes
• 1 bag of frozen yams
• 6 bags of frozen veggies (all varieties)
• 1/2 salami
• 1 package of pastrami
• 12 eggs
• 8 bagels
• 1 package of tuna
• 3 bags of shredded cheese (all varieties)
• 1 block of special cheese
• 1 1/2 boxes of pasta
• 1 jar of tomato sauce
• 1 can of mushroom barley soup
• 1 package of matzo stuffing
• 1 jar of Israeli coucous
• 2 boxes of rice pilaf
• 1 package of mjadra (sp?)
• 1 package of latka mix
• 1 canister of matzo meal
• A few bags of chips, pretzels, popcorn, granola bars, snacks, cereal bars, and other oddities that make up our cabinet.

Holy hell. That's a lot of stuff. And I plan on using all or most of it.

My goal: use it up and make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for nearly every night this week starting Monday.

So, I gave myself $25 -- which may seem a bit excessive to pick up bread, yogurt, fruit, and veggies. Well, I also need toilet paper and a few other household essentials.

I think this challenge will be fun, though. I'll do my best to post Yoav's lunches after I make them for daycare, as well as Craig's lunches (which are vastly different from Yo's lunches). I may also post pictures of dinner - but don't hold me to that.

Wish us luck and send in some creative recipes using the stuff listed above!