Pantry Challenge-Chicken Soup

Did you see the Seinfeld where Kramer & the car dealer guy are test driving a car & Kramer wants to see how far they get before they run out a gas? This is kind of the same, only with food!

Its Thursday and I STILL haven't been to the grocery store to shop for the week! Secretly I'm challenging myself to create real meals without going to the store for as long as I can. I thought today was the end of me. Brian's sick and wanted chicken noodle soup. We didn't have any canned or boxed or in the freezer, so I thought I'd have to go. But then I spied 2 boxes of chicken stock on the bottom pantry shelf -I might be able to pull it off!

I used to have a really hard time with homemade soups, but I'm getting better. For this one, I really scrounged for ingredients. There no carrots in it, but peas instead. I also used a secret ingredient-vegetarian chicken gravy mix! I admit, I was nervous dumping that in, it could have ruined it all, but I was willing to risk it. It turned out to be a great addition and made the stock rich and velvety-unlike canned soup that can be all watery looking. I really lucked out to find an almost empty bag stuffed in the back of the freezer of grilled chicken pieces. Clearly a Brian purchase. But its his soup, so good for him. I added some celery on its last legs, small onions still hanging around from my garden and a ton of dried seasonings from the spice cabinet. I gotta say, I was pretty impressed with myself, its good! BabyGirl cannot get enough and Brian likes it too. That's all I can ask for!

I was also informed that we were out of bread for the kids' lunches. I thought I was done for again, BUT I found a bag of hamburger buns in the freezer. Saved again.

I'm not sure how much longer I can last, but tonight night is pancakes & I have everything I need. I might make it to Saturday! As for Friday night, there's still stuffed cabbage soup in the fridge-I might make them eat it!