Healthy & Delicious Meals From My Pantry #5

 

Last month I started my first pantry challenge this year and I had a lot of fun with it.  My first task was to eat up all of the leftovers in the refrigerator before they had a chance to go bad and then I got busy cutting up a ham I had bought on sale for 75¢ a pound just before Easter.  I sliced it into thick ham steaks and vacuum sealed those in recipe or meal size portions.

 

After trimming the meat around the bone I was left with a nice pile of diced ham that I then vacuum sealed in three individual packets.  What remained was the bone for soup, a small pile of ham scraps, mostly fat that I gave to the chickens and some smaller bits of ham meat that I used to make a Hawaiian pizza along with leftover bacon and pineapple I had in the refrigerator.  That pizza was delicious!

 

Hawaiian Pizza

While my pizza baked in the oven I vacuum sealed the ham bone to use in a future batch of split pea soup and then I took the chickens their treats.  Nothing about this ham will be wasted.  So many meals to be made.  The entire ham cost me $6.24 and after being cut into fourteen portions plus the bone that makes it come in at 42¢ a portion which in this economy is a screaming good deal!  I am rather pleased.

 

The jar of tomato sauce I opened and use part of to make my pizza sauce morphed into spaghetti and meatballs.  I used the remaining sauce with basil and garlic and added that to my small slow cooker with a half dozen large homemade meatballs and allowed that to simmer all day.  Then I served it with spaghetti noodles to make myself three separate meals.  I ate salad as my side.

 

Spanish Rice

A packet of Knorr Mexican Style rice became a delicious supper option.  I wanted to experiment with it and added a half pint jar of beef stew meat, a pint jar of drained black beans and a half cup of frozen corn.  I also added a half cup of cooked frozen rice from the freezer to extend it further.  It made six delicious servings and was so tasty topped with sour cream.  I served it with the remainder of a bag of frozen green beans that I buttered and seasoned.

 

Eggs On Toast

Egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches and eggs on toast was something I made quite a bit last month for a quick and satisfying early lunch on the days I worked in the afternoons.  I made a point to enjoy it with some of my canned fruit or a glass of V8 juice to complete the meal.  Very good and very economical.

 

Minestrone Soup

Chili Con Carne

Home canned soups and a jar of homemade chili were other easy and quick meals I enjoyed, along with homemade corn muffins, and a nice salad on the side.  Delicious, nutritious and very satisfying.

 

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Chicken Pesto Pasta

I was able to clear out the fresh produce in the crisper drawer.  I finished up an open bag of homemade frozen French fries, an open bag of frozen peas & carrots, an open bag of frozen green beans and some older cans and jars of fruit and vegetables as well as some bacon bits and some extra eggs.  An open jar of pesto was used to make a small batch of delicious chicken pasta.  I also used up some other open condiments and homemade salad dressing.