Both my pantry and freezer need a good cleaning. They’re unorganized and jumbled, and despite my best intentions, I’ve simply let them both go.

I know myself well enough to know that I can’t even begin to clean either one until I use up much of the food I’ve been storing. So before the hectic holiday season begins, I’m going to challenge myself to eat mainly out of my pantry and freezer—use it up, create some space, and enjoy the bonus of making Zero Dollar Dinners along the way.

After the challenge, I can give everything a good scrub. But October is going to be for cooking and eating what I already have, not for shopping. Want to do it with me? Please say yes! Read on to see how we’ll do it.

The Zero Dollar Dinner Challenge

Let’s start October 1st and plan our meals with the intention of making Zero Dollar Dinners—also known as Pantry Clean-Out Dinners—for all our dinners, and go as deep into the month as we can. I’ve done this for a week before, but this is the first time I’ve tried it for a full month.

We’ll give ourselves a pass to shop for anything needed to complete a pantry or freezer dinner. For example, I have two cans of chopped clams, but to make chowder I’ll need to buy potatoes, clam juice, and half-and-half. Of course, I’ll still need to buy basics like apples, lettuce, and milk—but shopping for anything that goes into the pantry or freezer is off-limits.

The goal is to use what we already have before freezer burn or expiration dates force us to throw food away—something I really hate doing.

The Key: Meal Planning

The key to this challenge is meal planning. Start by assessing what you have and creating a dinner list. I’ve already done this and came up with about a dozen dinner ideas to get us started:

• Canned clams → clam chowder

• Canned salmon → salmon patties

• A slice of ham from the freezer → lentil soup (two nights!)

• A single frozen steak → broiled and sliced for steak salad for two

• Frozen brats → an easy sheet-pan dinner (perfect for busy days)

I also discovered three boxes of muffin mix I bought with grand plans to bake when my grandson was here… and never did. October will be the month we finally make those muffins.

And then there are the little European sauce packets I picked up on a recent trip to World Market. I’d be embarrassed to show you how many there are. What was I thinking? My bad—and now I need to figure out how to use them. This could make for some interesting dinners.

Join Me?

I hope this strikes a chord with you. Let’s make some interesting Zero Dollar Dinners together! I’m pretty excited about this—especially if you do it with me.

I haven’t explained this plan to my husband yet, but I know he’ll get on board once I tell him my reasons… especially if he thinks we’ll be saving some money.

And don't forget Crazy Soup! My most recent concoction ended up being southwest in flavor and was a real hit! Mostly made from a frozen container of sliced tomatoes and summer squash and something else I didn't recognize or remember--I whirred it together with stock, then added salsa, corn from two cobs, ground sausage and then topped with crushed tortilla chips and snipped chives, all leftovers. I usually make a salad but this week I had leftover bread and I always have cheese, so cheesy bread made a nice compliment.

I know so many of you come here for the knitting and I do have several knitting posts planned for the future. I have 3 test knits either finished or close to it, but I can't share until the patterns are published. Sit tight for knitting content--it's coming!

Please scroll down to leave a comment. I love to hear from you anytime, but especially interested in knowing if you are going to join me in October. Just imagine how wonderful it will be to face the holidays with a clean pantry and freezer, and just how nice it will be to save some money. Send this to your friends, your mom, your aunt, let's do it together!

Photo source from the top of page: Lacademie

Now it’s time for the easiest part: the cooking.

Empty the entire frozen contents of your container into a saucepan with a little water. If I have a lonely carrot or some other small vegetable in the refrigerator that doesn’t have a future plan, I’ll toss that in too. Cook everything on low heat until it’s fully thawed and heated through.

Next, blend the soup with a stick blender and give it a taste. It will almost certainly need to be thinned, so add chicken or beef stock, water, or milk—whatever you think will work best with your particular mix of ingredients. Let it continue to cook gently and season with salt and pepper.

Taste again, then add one interesting complementary flavor: curry, dill, an Italian herb mix, chipotle seasoning—whatever feels right. This is also the point where you can add a small amount of leftover meat, rice, or pasta if you have it. Chopped pork chop or a sliced chicken cutlet works beautifully (though most of the time, I don’t have those leftovers either).

Taste once more and make one final creative seasoning choice. Then dish it up and add your toppings.

For toppings:

• For color: chopped parsley, chives, or finely diced tomato

• For a nutty crunch: toasted sesame seeds or pine nuts

• For a flavor boost: a swirl of pesto or sour cream, grated cheese, or diced bacon (a little goes a long way!)

• For freshness: grated carrot or cucumber for a crisp contrast

Top it with whatever you have in your pantry and whatever you think will be great. That’s the beauty of this soup.

This is a fun, frugal soup and it’s different every single time. Honestly, we’ve never had one we didn’t love. Sometimes the soup turns out orange or red, sometimes green or white—and occasionally brown (like the time it leaned heavily on grilled onions and sautéed mushrooms). No matter the color, it always tastes good. But if it does look a little brown, I recommend a quick sprinkle of cheese or something colorful so no one notices… lol.

CRAZY SOUP RULES:

This was a beauty queen of my Leftover Soups. There must have been a lot of tomato, carrot and red bell pepper in it.

This one I purposely left slightly chunky. It was mainly leftover  enchilada casserole and potato. At the end I added some leftover taco meat  and topped with toasted pumpkins seeds.

This was the one with the leftover cauliflower au gratin casserole, half baked potato, and tater tots of all things, then topped with crispy bacon and pine nuts.

This had a suspicious color of greeny brown. I'm blaming the grilled onions. I quickly topped it with cheese, sour cream drizzle, chopped chives and shredded red cabbage. It was delicious despite the color.

This one was mainly chard casserole, asparagus, potato and broccoli. I topped it with grated Parmesan, chopped garlic chives and some beautiful purple garlic chive flowers.