Day 2: Quinoa Enchilada Casserole

Welcome to Day 2 of our No/Low Spend Challenge!!

I am SO sorry we are a couple days behind, we have been sick but are getting much better at casa twelveOeight…

A large part of our budgets each month is food.

Since we have just started our No Spend/Low Spend Challenge for the month of January I thought it would
be the perfect time to first take stock of exactly what is in my pantry, freezer and refrigerator before I make my
next grocery list.

And a funny thing happened, I was able to come up with 7 dinners on what I already had on hand.
I may need a little more milk, bread or cheese by the end of 7 days, but I was pretty stoked to see that I had so much
already.  And I am loving the recipes I found/already make to use up some of my supply!

A couple things you may be wondering, why would you want to restrict yourself in this area?
For me it’s not about not spending any money, it’s about changing the way I shop and take a different approach
to my budgeting and spending.

Have you ever had a college student stand in awe of your refrigerator or pantry before? I realized how much I truly
had when my younger sister visited after being away at school for a while years ago.
I wasn’t doing any radical stock piling, I just had what I considered a well-stocked pantry.
And so much of it stayed at the back, and expired.  Because I never got that far back on the shelves, but kept topping
off my supply just in case.

Here is my menu plan for the next week, using the free printable list that I shared earlier this week.  Click here for
that post, and also here to read the no-rules rules to this challenge.
It’s not budget-shaming, it’s a project we can do together to recycle more, use more of what we already have, and
perhaps find ourselves far more blessed (and creative!) than we ever thought we were.

Our menu for the next 7 days in no particular order:

• Cheesy Tuna Casserole and Sauteed Green Beans
• Mexican Chicken Soup and fresh fruit
• Fried Rice with Eggs and Waldorf Salad
• Hash Brown Farmer’s Casserole and fresh fruit
• Baked Spaghetti and Spinach Salad with Cranberries and Poppyseed Dressing
• Potato Soup and Shredded Cabbage & Apple Salad
• Quinoa Enchilada Casserole and fresh fruit

Since I work from home, I don’t pack a lunch each day or need to buy lunch out etc…
So leftovers become dinner the next day on a busy day, and lunch for a day or two if I have time to make dinner
two days in a row.  I had gluten free Chicken Pot Pie with Homemade Biscuits for lunch today with fruit, dinner
from two nights ago, and it was good.  

Tonight I made a recipe I saw a few months ago on one of my favorite foodie sites, Damn Delicious.
It is like the mother ship for all things that taste good and don’t take forever to make.  If you
are not already following, you will want to.  I made a couple changes to the original recipe to go with what I had on
hand, and the crowd loved this dish.  Quinoa is a gluten free grain that is high in protein, fiber, and holds quite a bit
of water once it is cooked, so it’s good for you!  I use it to make stuffing each year at the holidays, and now I have another
awesome recipe that uses a wonderful grain you will want to get to know.  If you do not have quinoa on hand, feel free to
use white or brown rice instead! 

[yumprint-recipe id=’23’]Thank you so much for reading friend, and I hope you can join me for all or part of our challenge to save money, purge clutter , make and reuse this month!

See you back here tomorrow for another thrifty idea!!