Done, But Not Finished! 31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero Challenge

We ended the 31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero Challenge. I looked up to see when we shopped last, it had been about 45 days. No wonder we had food fatigue symptoms. 

I realized that my calculations were off when I looked into our freezer and pantry and saw the empty spaces. I did make one last great pantry meal before we decided to head into the city. We needed fuel, so we were debating if we wanted to spend almost .50 cents per gallon more or drive an extra hour one way into the city. We chose to go into the city for fuel and a freezer restock. We purchased a few pantry items too. 

Before we left, I was hungry, and I wanted a taco salad. I didn't have any tortillas or tortilla chips, and it would have taken over an hour to make homemade ones, so I decided to make corn cakes instead. 

I thawed out a 10-pound roll of ground chuck
that we paid $1.98 a pound for. It is now $4.28
a pound.

It's basically thin cornbread batter cooked
in pancake form.

They were really good. We ate the first one hot off the griddle.

I added the rest of the Mexican rice from the day before
to the cooked ground beef.

I cooked more corn cakes.

I added water and taco seasoning to the beef mixture.

I simmered it for 15 minutes.

I prepared the toppings.

Time to start layering the toppings
on top of the corn cakes.

This is my creation.

Number One Husband made his pretty plain.

They were quite good. We will add these to our menu.

While we were shopping, we were overwhelmed by the sharp price increases on food and other necessities. We had planned on replacing a few other things that we had used during the challenge, but many of the items were not available. We placed a pick-up order online for Sam's, so we didn't go inside to see if they had shortages. We stopped at two Walmart stores in different cities, but they were both out of the majority of items we wanted to replace. 

Here's what we bought from Natural Grocers, Sam's and Walmart after the challenge ended:

Chicken Thighs 

Cajun Seasoning 

Butter

Romaine Hearts 

Gas ($100)

Orzo Pasta 

Rotini Pasta 

Bell Peppers 

Milk 

Tomato Powder 

Ramen Express

3 different types of OTC medications 

That's it, no candy bars, chips or fancy fare. As you can see, we just needed to make it through to our next shopping haul. We didn't even grab a slice at Sam's. Our next Azure Standard drop isn't until the end of August. We will have to shop closer to home until then.

Number One Husband's favorite grill.

This is the kind of grill that his dad
used. Number One Husband found this grill at a yard sale
here in Colorado. What are the chances? 

Number One Husband fired up the grill and cooked 20 hamburgers that I had pressed out using the defrosted ground chuck, 6 Cajun chicken thighs, 3 seasoned chicken breasts and he roasted some peppers. Most of it went into the freezer. I will use the other 5 pounds of leftover beef for freezer meals. I made an anti-pasta salad using two of the grilled chicken breasts. We ate the third breast hot off the grill. It was so good! Number One Husband is a grill master!  

The smoke from the Canadian fires is supposed to blow
out of here on Friday. 

It's funny to me that we didn't buy a bunch of food after the challenge. I certainly was not prepared to do a full grocery haul, but I will calculate what we used during the challenge from the list I kept and make a master grocery list with substitutions in case we find ourselves in the same boat as last night. 

I forgot to buy potatoes! I guess we have gotten used to not having them. I'm thinking that our needs have changed since doing this challenge. We will see how we have changed, what we have learned and how we have benefitted from the last 31+ days of Living Well and Spending Zero. 

Mrs. Smith