Take the Pantry Challenge - Rules and Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How to do a pantry challenge? ›

It's called a pantry challenge, and it's definitely within reach for most families. Simply organize your pantry, make a meal plan, and pledge to eat everything you buy. You'll save money, you'll save on waste, and you'll probably benefit from healthier eating habits while you're at it.

Some of my favorite meals have come from getting creative to use up what I have on hand. You can go for a week, two weeks, or a month. Most of the length of your challenge will depend on the size of your pantry and how many mouths you are feeding. You can also give yourself a limited budget every week to shop.

A no-spend grocery challenge can help you go at least a week, if not longer, without spending a dime on groceries. That can equal hundreds of dollars saved. If you go longer than a week, say a month, you can probably spend very, very little, if anything at all.

What is a pantry challenge? A pantry challenge is a focused time when you use up what you have before buying more food. In doing so, you waste less food, spend less time shopping, and save money by not overbuying. It's a great way to save money and be a better steward of your kitchen resources.

The key to training for an eating competition is 'stomach expansion'. The majority of eaters accomplish this by consuming a substantial amount of water and eating a great deal in the days leading up to the competition. DO: “Eat as much as you can three or four days before a contest.”

Stomach elasticity is usually considered the key to eating success, and competitors commonly train by drinking large amounts of water over a short time to stretch out the stomach. Others combine the consumption of water with large quantities of low calorie foods such as vegetables or salads.

People who experience food insecurity are more likely to experience malnutrition and chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

How long human beings can go without food is an open question. Estimates indicate that starving people become weak in 30 to 50 days and die in 43 to 70 days. Individual factors including sex, age, starting weight, and water intake all play a role in how long someone can live without food.

It's believed that the average healthy person can survive approximately three weeks without eating, with more or less time depending on the above factors.

What is the $3 a week savings challenge? ›

In this case, you'll start with $3 on week one and increase each deposit by $3 increments. So, you'll deposit $6 on week three, $9 on week five, $12 on week seven, and so on. At the end of this challenge, you'll have saved $1,053.

It works like this: Gather 100 envelopes and number them from 1 to 100. Each day, fill up one envelope with the amount of cash corresponding to the number on the envelope. You can fill up the envelopes in order or pick them at random. After you've filled up all the envelopes, you'll have a total savings of $5,050.

Begin expanding your stomach one week before the contest.

During the beginning of the week, eat one extra large meal during the day, then keep your other meals normal. On days four and five, you should have two large meals only. The actual meal sizes will depend on you and your typical portions.

If your pantry space is large enough to walk in and have three walls of shelving, think about using deeper shelves on one side for small appliances, serving dishes, baking dishes and such. Then shelves on the other side not so deep to store food, like canned goods, cereal boxes, dry foods and such.

Obviously toss anything expired, but also consider things like spices you bought a while back for that one recipe you're never going to make again, or other pantry items that you haven't used in the last 6 months. Also, separate the items that you don't need, aren't open and are still well within their lifespan.

Competitive eaters practice by eating and drinking vast amounts in order to stretch out their stomachs for competition. For six weeks before the 2015 Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, Matt Stonie trained by eating up to 60 hot dogs in a sitting … three times a week. (He won with 62 dogs in 10 minutes.)

Organize the pantry.

Pare back the contents of your pantry until you have some open space on each shelf. Organize what's left into a set of matching food storage containers or open baskets. This may mean removing a bunch of food — just remember that a staged kitchen is not necessarily a practical kitchen!