The 7 Day Challenge: Day 3 (FRIDAY)
Posted on September 10th, 2009 by Jodi and Julie
Your spouse calls and announces their boss is coming over for dinner (or your boss invites themselves over for dinner TONIGHT!). You have no WAY to go to the store, and you have to come up with an impressive meal from what you already have in your home.
THESE LIMITATIONS AND TASKS ARE ALL NEW, THE FIRST 2 DAYS LIMITATIONS DO NOT APPLY!
- For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
- You can use whatever food you have in your house (includes fridge, freezer)
- The meal has to have an appetizer
- The main course can’t use meat because the boss is a vegetarian (your meal CAN use milk, and dairy)
- You have to have at least 2 side dishes for the dinner
- The meal has to have a dessert
- You have to get other family members to help you make the meal and or set the table “NICELY” (share your pictures on facebook)
- Your house probably should be clean (even though that’s not a “food storage” thing)
- Brainstorm what other types of “everyday” emergencies you may have, and how you could better prepare for them
ADVANCED “FOLKS” (for anyone who feels up to it)
- You only have 1 hour from when you start to finish making the meal
REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S LIMITATIONS AND TASKS WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. How long would you have lasted under these conditions?
Each day we will be giving a prize to someone who provided feedback to that day’s challenge. *Click here to see who won DAY 2′S PRIZE. To provide feedback on today’s challenge, do one of the following:
To be filled out at the END of the day.
Remember this is for us all to learn so fill it out honestly!
Remember this is for us all to learn so fill it out honestly!
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Tags: Emergency Preparedness, food storage
Filed under: 7 Day Challenge, Giveaways
I like to see what the gifts are. I have gone to their web pages to find out more about the product.
Thank you,
Mary Edgerton
What type of vegetarian are they; vegan, ova-lacto or pescitarian?
This sort of thing happened every so often when I was growing up. Fortunately, we had a big freezer and we always had some things prepared ahead of time. For example, wild rice takes a long time to cook. It should be cooked until the grains break open (kind of like popcorn). But it freezes really well. So my mom would huge batches in a stock pot, aliquot it out, and freeze the aliquots. Then she could defrot and heat it in the microwave.
We planned a camping trip this weekend – to begin Friday after lunch – so, I will have to 'pretend' what the dinner would have been, had we been here. I would start with homemade tortilla & cheese rounds with (fresh from the garden) Basil leaves, sliced into wheels & grilled on bbq. (Dinner would have meat, because we are meat eaters.) Smashed potatoes with thick gravy – one with & one without meat. Broccoli with cheese sauce, Green beans with onions and a fresh garden salad. Dessert would be brownies with strawberries. Everything would have been cooked on either the bbq grill or on the propane stove/oven. Everything would have come out of my food storage pantry or my garden.
I will continue to follow the challange, even though we will be camping – which by the way – all the foods we take camping comes from our freeze dried food storage. Way easier to pack and just as easy to 'cook'.
I''m excited for this one. I love cooking, however I haven't been to the store in a while so this should prove to be interesting as I become creative.
This is funny, we do have some surprise guest coming over tonight. I think the dinner part will be easy. The problem is that we are in the middle of painting and putting in a wood floor in the living room and dinning room. Any ideas on how to make it look nice in a pinch?
Just make sure it is tidy. If they are people who know and love you it will not be a problem. I once had a large dinner party planned when my dishwasher broke and flooded the wood floor. The floor guy came out and removed the damaged wood, but told me that we had to just live on the sub floor for a couple of weeks while it dried out completely. We just swept the subfloor really well and threw down a couple of area rugs and had our party anyway. No one minded.
An additional idea is to make a point of getting the table set and the appetizer made first. I would offer the boss a drink to go with the appetizer as well. Some non-alcoholic options are fresh lemonade (from a homemade concentrate I keep in the fridge at all times in the summer months), Grape juice mixed with lemon-lime soda, or in winter some hot apple cider (all items that can be kept in the pantry or freezer.) A drink with the appetizer will by the hostess some time to finish getting the dinner ready, and having the table already set gives the impression that the dinner is ready and you are not rushed.
This is hilarious because I was going to skip today's “disaster” because we do have dinner guests coming over for dinner tonight. It turns out that they are the “disaster!!” I was trying to figure out what to make because my shopping day is usually wednesdays and I am unable to shop this week. I thought for a second about going to the store to pick something up and breaking the spending no money rule, but decided that it will be a good challenge not to. (We are definately using pantry and food storage!!! Sounds like Spaghetti!!) My husband was complaining that the house wasn't as clean as he wants it for guests and I told him that I wasn't going to clean much because I have school work to do, but looks like that will have to be put on hold! He made the comment last night that he didn't want to set the table anymore for dinner because he has his own school work to do. It looks like he will have to help tonight!! What are the chances!!
You mentioned that your house should be clean, even though that is not a “food storage” thing. I think it is, however, very much an emergency preparedness thing, even though most people don't think about it. During the ice storm here in AR, we lost power for 4 days. My house was a mess and I hadn't done laundry in a few days. We didn't know there was going to be an ice storm (we didn't have cable or get out much) so when it hit I was completely off guard. We had to leave our house and I had to rush around to find clean clothes for my whole family. Later my husband had to come back to the house along with the person we were staying with to get more supplies. He got a nice good look at my filthy house. I vowed to never go to bed with it dirty again. Not only is it really embarising to have others see that, but it's a lot easier to grab the stuff you need and go when everything is picked up and organized.
Ok; after I killed my husband for being so inconsiderate (just got home from the hospital at 9:00 pm last night from sugery). I looked in the fridge and storage to see what I had. Since I am not up to cookinig today and the sisters at church are bringing in dinner, I just pretended and made sure everything was there. I would have started off with a warm Artichoke Hearts dip with crackers. Next I would have served a potato and cheese soup and a salad (only had fresh lettuse and tomatoes so that will have to do). For the main dish I would have made a Vegie Lasagne (I had canned spinich, broccoli, tomatoes, pasta sauce, parsley, spices, cheese and noodles). For desert I would have made a peach cobbler always have stuff for that, because its my husbands favorite. After putting my husband to work cooking and cleaning (he won't do this again soon). We were ready for company.
Thanks for the imput. I think we will just make it our conversation starter. “Oh, I didn't notice the floor is missing!” It could be fun.
I love this one.
Made an appitizer of a relish plate with celery sticks, carrot sitcks, zucchunni sticks and thin slices of cheese and crackers. bowl of ranch dressing in the center for dipping.
Went to the garden for a couple med. zuc's, some fresh carrots, an onion. Went to my pantry shelves for powdered sour cream, freeze dried chedder and cream of celery soup mix. And I make up a big dish of “The Best darn Zuccunni cassarole Ever”. I also need some stuffing mix which I don't have on hand so I cube some bread and sprinkle with poultry seasoning and toast in the oven for a few minutes.
Side dishes are green beans with onion slices and of course a nice big garden fresh salad of tomatoes, chard leaves instead of lettice, cukes and a baby zuc all chopped up together. If it weren't for guests I would also chop some onion in but will leave that out this time.
Dessert will be a “mock apple pie” made with zuc. slices instead of apples. No one will know the difference if no one tells them.
This sounds like something we would eat at our house any time during the summer.
Lemonade will be served, as I have it in food storage. I am doing meatless lasagne, using my own spaghetti sauce, and I always keep ricotta, and mozzy cheese in the deep freeze. Add a salad, and homemade bread. Then I can do a carrot cake using my dehydrated carrots. The appetizers I will take from my garden i.e. tomatoes, cukes, carrots, strawberries.
I will have to clean up my kitchen, and mop the floor, as I just did 9 quarts of spaghetti sauce from my garden tomatoes, so it is quite a mess in the kitchen. Table is not hard to set up. We are getting low on milk, and the fridge is becoming bare, but it is a great challenge.
We are having pasta and sauce, veggies and I found a box cake mix for dessert. I need to add more comfort foods and desserts to my food storage.
The only other thing I had was a couple boxes of instant pudding. That would do in a pinch, but I would rather be able to present a homemade apple pie.
My hubby is always bringing home surpise guests – so this one was an easy one for me. We are having steamed rice and a stir fry of fresh veggies from the garden. For dessert we'll have some yummy, fresh baked brownies with a drizzle of carmel sauce and sprinkled with nuts. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!
I would make a nice fettuccini alfredo, with breadsticks and fresh green beans and fresh sliced tomatoes. Appetizer could be a nice relish tray with dip, and/or nachos, which my youngest daughter likes to make. For dessert, ice cream is in the freezer, and I have home-bottled pie fillings to top it with, or I could make a nice fudge sauce. Dinner is no problem, I often have my adult children show up and ask, “What's for dinner?”, so I can wing it pretty well. It helps a lot that there are lots of nice veggies in the garden. The biggest problem is that my house is a mess, because this is the busiest canning week of the whole summer, I am getting ready to teach a canning class tomorrow and again next week, and there is a primary election next week I have to prepare to work for the entire time. My living room and family room are usually pretty decent, but the company might have to excuse some of the mess in the kitchen.
This is great. I have choosen crackers & belba toast with cream cheese & choice of homemade blackberry or grape jam or hot pepper jellie. for the meal I make a mean fried rice with lots of veg available. Home grown corn on the cob. For the meat sub we have cajun purplehull peas. For desert we have Amish friendship brownies topped with ice cream ( choice of chol or neop.) I told hubby not to take anythng out for dinner & that I will be cooking it. Hope he likes it.
this one was easy and got me to stay home and cook. but the cleaning was stressful to get all done in time. having a garden saved us.
for dinner we had:
appetizer:bruschetta on homemade bread (tomatoes and basil from our SQUARE FOOT GARDEN)
mushroom fettucini
caramelized onions and mushrooms, zucchini (from the garden) with butter, or fresh tomato slices
homemade ice cream and brownies.
appetizer Olive Crisps
grilled portobello mushroom with sweetpotato fries and corn on the cob
dessert – Winter crisp with whole grain crumb topping
we had spaghetti with tomato sauce( we are meat eating dairy farmers so our non meat dishes are not so fancy. WE had fresh cooked bread , and tomatoe and cucumber salad with vineger from the garden. for desert the only thing we had was pudding mix so we mixed that up made it a little richer topped whipped cream ( dairy farmers remember) drizzled melted choco chips on top added a slice of strawberry on each one as a garnish ( we only had two strawberries left in the fridge hahaha ( I have 4 teenage boys) but it worked family loved it inspite of having no meat they survived so I think theunannounced guest would have liked it to.
I have been doing food storage for a while; but, it is interesting to see that I have had the needed supplies on hand and to be sure I have enough for a decent amount of time. I am aiming for a years supply. I need to be sure to keep my stock varied and rotated.
This one was fun and easy thanks to those baby steps I've been following
Since we are empty nesters the house stays fairly straight now.
Olives, celery and carrot sticks with crackers and (I hate to even say it!) spray cheese! HaHa.
I am serving a spinach lasagna – prepared sauce and pasta from the emergency shelf
Green Salad with lettuce from our garden and homemade vinegarette
French Bread (from the deep freeze; I bought ten loaves a few weeks ago on sale)
Peach Crisp (Peaches and oatmeal from storage)
todays disaster would never be a problem I always have plenty of stuff on hand to make a company meal. My meal menue was
cream cheese pinwheels for my Appetizer, potato leek soup, red and black bean and rice stuffed pepers ,broccoli and cheese stuffed jumbo pasta shells, and a large bowl of colorful mixed vegetables butered with sea salt and chocolate spice balls and coffee for desert.yummy
We decided we would have lentil bean taco mix made into taquitos for an appetizer with a garden chowder dinner. The side dishes would be corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, or honey carrots. For desert we would get out the raspberry coffeecake that is in the freezer.
That was my question too. I went ahead and planned as if they were vegan. Bruscetta on toast and hummus for appetizers, Quinoa Pilaf (very yummy!) for the main dish, spinach salad for one side, garlicy green beans with dried cranberries and almonds for the other, and peach crisp for dessert. I don't think it would make the one hour prep time in the advanced version, but it wouldn't be too much longer. Its nice to actually have all this food on hand AND figure out how to use it.
“For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants. “
Had to buy gas– and a sympathy card (funeral tomorrow), both on the way home from work.
“You can use whatever food you have in your house (includes fridge, freezer)
The meal has to have an appetizer “
Little pepper halves stuffed with hummus. Peppers are out of the garden– not sure what kind, but small, ripe and not hot.
“The main course can’t use meat because the boss is a vegetarian (your meal CAN use milk, and dairy) “
Spaghetti squash (garden) with pasta sauce (home made, in freezer)
“You have to have at least 2 side dishes for the dinner”
Vegie and cheese plates; sourdough bread.
“The meal has to have a dessert “
Sorbet– lemon, pineapple and/or papaya whirred in the VitaMix with a bit of sugar and ice cubes.
“You have to get other family members to help you make the meal and or set the table “NICELY” (share your pictures on facebook) “
I'm “home alone” again, and not at all hungry– it would be a complete waste to make dinner. May make “sorbet for one”, though.
“Your house probably should be clean (even though that’s not a “food storage” thing)”
THAT would take several hours to manage– since hubby is gone for a while, I'm going through “stuff”, and it is spread out all over the table, and the living and dining rooms….
“Brainstorm what other types of “everyday” emergencies you may have, and how you could better prepare for them”
Our “expected emergencies” here are earthquakes and wildfires– we've been “prepared” for those for a few years (need to go through and check things to see if they still work). Both would require leaving, so “food storage” wasn't part of those preparations (other than having coolers and ice packs that could be quickly packed and loaded). We already experienced an evacuation a few years ago (fires), so we got a bit of “education” then.
Current “planned emergencies” we're trying to prepare for in addition to the above: quarantines; widespread loss of power (can't use gas pumps, ATMs, cash registers, credit card machines; most appliances– including our gas stove because it has electronic ignition, if there is no electricity); “civil disorder” and/or roads closed– stores would be unaccessable and/or store shelves would rapidly empty.
We had previous stuff to do today, which broke all the rules. we went to the state fair, only bought food though. However, tonight we are making what I would probably make if I had unexpected guests, we made homemade subs, with homemade bread (cracked wheat) and sprouts (which I grew), and went to the garden to pick fresh corn, fresh squash, and potatoes. We are having mashed red potatoes, steamed corn, and squash sauteed with mushrooms and onions. All grown in our garden! Dessert? Cherry cobbler, made with my home canned cherries and homemade buttermilk biscuit mix!
This challenge went smoothly. We had vegetable lasagna, rolls, corn, and apple pie for dessert. The appetizer was fresh vegetables with salad dressing to dip into. We had it outside on our deck because our floor in being torn up and replaced. It was a nice day so everyone enjoyed it. I was better prepared for this one because I did canning last week and used the items for the dinner. Can't wait for the next challenge.
This was a fun one. We really didn't have to scrounge around too much, mostly because this challenge let us use refrigerated (and frozen) items.
I'm not too clever wtih vegetarian dishes-too bad they couldn't eat fish because I have salmon and halibut in the freezer. I do need to put in a small garden for fresh greens though, it would really have helped. My hubby and I own our business so this would not be a good scenario for us, but my in-laws do pop in every once in a while. I got lucky, my cleanming lady came today!!!
I made a one dish meal since I had little time after a long day at work. We also had cornmeal muffins which are easy to make and take little time to bake. Finished the meal with raspberry jello and whipped topping. Easy but yummy.
I was able to choose from several different themes. I chose to go with the mexican theme because that used my beans, rice and ability to make tortillas that are part of my storage. This is always a good challenge because it has happenend to me more than once. I made a bean dip with chips for an appitizer, We had Mexican lasagna with confetti rice and mexican corn for dinner. I served tortillas that were coated with cinnamon sugar and filled with a cream and peaches.
We did very well on todays challenge. We prepared dinner and dessert from our freezer and had dinner on the table in no time ready for quest. But my family is frowning now, watching me make powered milk. We had a choice of only juice or water for dinner. Everyone's choose water and vow to only drink water tomarrow too!
I chose to have an Mediterranean night, we had bruschetta for an appetizer, and pesto covered pasta with sundried tomatoes and as a side we had spinach and white aspargus, instead of wine like I planned (my husband had to go to work and hes a police officer, after dinner) we had pineapple juice with sprite and for dessert we had baked apples filled with sugar cinnamon and pecans it was a wonderful way to have a nice romantic dinner with my husband!! thank you!!!
Appetizer – had frozen vegetable spring rolls in freezer
Main course – braised tofu
side dish – quinoa and steamed broccolli
Dessert – Brownies w/frosting
I felt right at home with this challenge, I have last minute visitors on a regular basis. While we are not vegetarians, I did have tofu in the house b/c we like it. I make braised tofu on a regular basis.
I ALWAYS make sure that I have cake and brownie mix in the house. You never know when you need to make an emergency batch!
Fun Challenge, thank you! Bring it on! I love this!
I did not like this challenge. I am horrible at fixing meals for guests even when i have notice. It was a mediocre meal. This gave me the idea to just have a high class meal always ready or maybe a few that i will always have available for such a situation.
I guess this opened my eyes. thanks
worked out okay, but wednesday and today has taught me to have more recipes that our family likes that includes food storage items!
This was a difficult challenge for me because of my health (I have MS) and my husband works for himself so he would never bring a boss home unless he was the one cooking. I have been waiting for my food storage to arrive from the cannery (a ward sister who works there was bringing it to me this week sometime) and she brought it over about an hour before dinner time tonight. I elected to do mexican food- I did not get any appetizers done and only one one side dish. We had combo burritos and would have made my own tortillas but no energy and had some in the fridge. I made taco meat for anyone that wanted it since my husband always wants meat in his burritos and corn. We did not have much of a desert tonight but we dished out a few peanut M&Ms each.
This was a good opportunity for my family to try the refried beans from the cannery. We are just beginning to get a food storage together and my husband is so so picky that I was not sure if he would like them or not. He liked it and went back for more!
Hopefully tomorrow will be better for me so I can do more, this is an eye opener…
I happen to enter your blog with the help of google search. To my sheer luck I got what I was searching for. Thanks
regards
charcoal grill