Pantry Purge: The plan

I've decided to take the entire month of May and do a Pantry Purge.  Yes, the entire month of May. :) To go along with spring cleaning, I need to to use up some of the food in my pantry.  I have a huge pantry, which I'm very thankful for, but it's way too easy to accumulate too much in there and forget about it.  The following reasons are why I need to do this Pantry Purge:

• When I see things on sale, I buy them.
• I go grocery shopping whilst hungry and I buy too much.
• When I have really good intentions to cook, but go out to eat instead and I'm left with extra food.
• I buy things from the bulk bin, but don't use it all in the called for recipe.

The Pantry Purge Objective:

In order not to waste what I've been blessed with I want to use up as much of the stuff in my pantry and freezer as possible, and to buy as little as possible from the grocery store.  This is a way to be held accountable and eat the things I don't always feel like eating. I plan to save resources and money!

The Pantry Purge will take careful thought, sifting through my deep freeze, incorporating excess ingredients, trying new recipes, donating items we won't use and throwing out old or expired food.  Searching for creative recipes, not Facebook & blogging, ahem, will have to become a new online passtime.

I want to be clear though, I will not empty my entire pantry!  To give you a better idea of which foods we plan on consuming, I will explain how I classify my pantry into three different areas:

1. One time foods - Organic fruit snacks, chips, licorice, etc.  This is mostly junk food.  I don't buy it that often, but it's nice to have on hand for a craving or if I need to bring something to a friend's house.

2. Staples - I always like to have a decent amount of staples in my pantry, because like I said I don't grocery shop very often - a few jars of spaghetti, a several of pounds of butter & cheese, tortillas in the freezer, different pastas, flours, sugar, several cans of various beans, tomatoes (diced, paste and sauce), frozen meat, etc.  I buy a lot in bulk, and stockpile.

3. Excess - These are things (mostly staples) that I just have too much of (like 30+ cans of different beans), need to move them out of my pantry, stuff we'll never eat (Jell-o), or things that are going to expire (last summer's frozen zucchini).  These will either leave through donation or my kitchen table.  The excess items are what I will target through the Pantry Purge.

Excess items (to purge items are in bold):

Grains - Quinoa, Couscous, frozen tortillas (2/3), rice

Meat - Tilapia, half a fryer chicken, venison, 1 pound ground beef, frozen shrimp, a lot of canned tuna & salmon (some will be donated because my husband refuses to eat it), turkey sausage, chicken sausage (I had NO idea that I had that much meat - we don't eat meat that often, so I suppose I was saving it for 'special occasions').

Fruits and veggies - Frozen zucchini, frozen strawberries, beans (use 10-12 cans), frozen stir fry veggies, frozen basil

Miscellaneous - Coconut milk (5 cans?)

CRAP food - half a lump of Velveeta (I know, trashy, but it was imperative for one of my husband's recipes a ways back, I think it might end up in the trash, that stuff isn't good for anyone!), cake mix, CRACKERS (NINE unopened boxes!!!)...

These are just some of the items I have excess of!  The items that I have the most of are beans and crackers and meat (weird). I can tell you right now, crackers are an impulse buy while shopping when I'm hungry.  Obviously, I get home and eat, and don't want them any more. 

I don't plan on using up all of our beans, because Glenn Beck thinks it's the end of the world so I need to save them.  I joke, I joke!  For real though, I like to have 8-10 cans of various beans on hand because I LOVE LEGUMES!  I will keep a couple boxes on crackers on hand too.

So, what can I buy???

• Dairy products (milk, sour cream, whole milk yogurt and cream for cooking - because I'm a snob and want full fat - are the only things that I think we will *need*)
• Eggs
• Fresh fruits and vegetables (if I don't have them on hand, like onions and sweet potatoes and any that we need for our daughter)
• Food for others (I'm going to make a buttload of hummus for my nieces)

I'm undecided about going out to eat.  In our house, I run the kitchen, and what I make will be ate, but when it comes to eating out, my husband has a big say in that.  I highly doubt I could convince him to forgo eating out, but I am sure we will cut down and be more aware.  However, when traveling, we will eat out.

I will update my blog regularly with meals and I will also let you know what I have purchased.

Join me!

I would love for you to join me in this endeavor!  You don't have to follow my rules, you can make your own that work for you and your family!

1.  Post a link to your Pantry Purge blog posts, with a short description of your blog post.  It can be a recipe, a story of how you did the Pantry Purge, or before and after pics, whatever - I want to hear from you!  If you don't blog, just post a comment stating your intentions with the Pantry Purge.
2. Come back to this blog post and post additional comments with new and updated ideas.  Tell us how you are progressing, how much money you have saved, if you've failed at all, and again, share any helpful links!
3. I will try to link your blog post into other Pantry Purge posts.

Happy Pantry Purge, my friends, can't wait to get started on May 1st!