Welcome to week one of our no grocery shopping challenge! I shared in my January’s No Grocery Shopping Experiment post about why I decided to do this with my family. Aside from it being a great lesson and experience, I also noticed how much we were spending on groceries, which made me want to try to grocery shop only once this month and use up food in the freezer, pantry and fridge. It’s also a great way to use up ingredients we may often overlook.
The first week of January is filled with fun like family visits and Orthodox Christmas (also known as Ukrainian Christmas) and of course taking down Christmas decorations, playing games and cleaning. My brother was visiting on January 3, so I made a large meal so not only would we have leftovers, but he would be able to take some leftovers home with him as well. January 7 we celebrated Orthodox Christmas although we are not traditional, we do like dishes like Borscht. This week was filled with leftovers and a mish-mash of yummy meals.
Let’s get to Week One! The week for our meal plans are running from Monday to Sunday.
Week One – This week is January 1 to 7
January 1 — Leftover Rice, Sweet and Sour Chicken and homemade Spaetzle
January 2 — Pork and Cabbage with Roasted Potatoes
January 3 — Homemade Perogies, Natchinka (is a Ukrainian baked cornmeal…recipe coming soon), Ham, Carrots, Scalloped Potatoes and Broccoli Salad. We had chocolate cream pie, coconut cream pie and banana cream pie for dessert. So delicious!
January 4 — Cheese & Ham Biscuits, Baked Beans, Meatballs & Gravy, Mashed Potatoes and Salad. I made the meatballs like my gramma did — saute some onion, add meatballs (this time we are using precooked meatballs from the freezer) and cook. Add a bit of flour and beef broth to make a gravy. I add in a bit of water if needed so the gravy is not too thick. I also season with fresh cracked salt and pepper and dried dill. My gramma often made hamburger gravy in this same manner — instead of making meatballs, the ground beef is cooked, flour and seasonings added and then the beef broth and water to make a gravy. Once bubbly, serve with mashed potatoes. So good! It is a taste of my childhood.
January 5
Lunch — Leftover Rice Scramble, Leftover Beans and Ham & Cheese Biscuits. For the rice scramble, I cook the veggies first like onion, carrot and cabbage. Then I add soy sauce and any seasonings I want to use then I add the cooked, leftover rice with some water and a splash more of soy sauce. Mix around and serve. Sometimes I add green onion or broccoli, corn or even eggs. Really, these rice scrambles use whatever I have on hand that would go with the rice. It is simple and easy to make.
Supper — Quick and Easy Buns with Simple Parmesan Rice, Leftover Baked Beans, Leftover Meatballs & Gravy and Potatoes.
January 6 – Potato & Onion Soup and leftovers
January 7
Lunch — Borscht and Toasted Buns
Supper — Homemade 3-Cheese Pizza with homemade pizza crust. I always use this delicious recipe for pizza crust which I have been making for many years — Pizza Crust
And that is this week’s meals. The first week always goes smoothly! My daughters have meal planned for week two and I have marked items off our ingredient list although there is not much that we have used up yet.
I am looking forward to week two of our no-grocery shopping and more yummy meals.
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