Pantry Purge: The End!

My bean stash at the beginning of the Pantry Purge has now been cut in half!

I can hardly believe I'm almost done done with my Pantry Purge!  Woot!

I've learned a lot of lessons: self-control, humility, creativity, giving generously and being thankful, just to name a few.  I could write a blog post a day on how humbling it is to eat what is in your pantry, and not buy all the nice cheeses that you want to!

I've noticed that we have saved a lot in our budget, and our freezer is almost halfway empty!  Perfect, just in time for making some freezer jam once strawberries are in season this summer!

The first half of the month was pretty difficult because of my husband's busy schedule, but we have made up for it and seem to have a good groove going.  I plan to continue eating mostly from our pantry stash. 

I've made tuna fish, soups, tilapia, rice, black bean brownies(since I used up my chocolate stash in the first, um, few days), hummus, shrimp, guacamole, homemade mac 'n cheese, and a roast. I've used up lots of frozen fruits and veggies, eggs, canned soup, chicken sausage, couscous, one box of Hamburger Helper (blech, I know some people love it, but I bought it at a weak moment while shopping with my husband and I'm GLAD it's gone!) and tortillas.  Even when I made food for others, like my piano and voice recital and Norwex party, I purposely used recipes that called for ingredients I already had on hand. 

I donated about 4 bags of groceries that I know we won't use, but could still bless others, so my pantry is definitely looking more bare, which is a great thing!  It's a lot easier to eat healthy when you have room for healthy food.  In my case, some of that stuff just sat there, like the Hamburger Helper, because I don't normally cook stuff like that.

I've spent less than $10 on groceries this month!!  No doubt though, it has taken creativity.  We were out of milk when I made the mac 'n cheese, so I used half and half.  I didn't have one of the spices for my tilapia recipe, so I used another.  I didn't have lime juice when I made the guacamole, so I just omitted it.  Normally I would have went to the store and bought what I wanted or needed. 

I do have a list of things that I need to buy come June 1st, but I've kept it to the minimums: apple cider vinegar, whole fat yogurt (soon, I WILL make my own!), butter, chocolate chips, cream cheese and lime juice. 

To all that joined me, in some way, shape or form: THANK YOU!  In a few weak moments, when I was tempted, it was great knowing that there were many others out there doing the same thing. 

How did you do with the Pantry Purge?  What lessons did you learn? 

Pantry Purge: Days 9-15

Oh my, what a week and a half it has been.  The last ten days have been so busy, I didn't even have time to get out a Wordless Wednesday post, typically the easiest blog post of all time!

Between a retreat, confirmation, Mother's Day, trying to get my garden in, preparing for a recital for my piano and voice students, trying to run regularly (did I mention I'm doing a 5k, and I signed up for it really late in the game and I haven't been exercising AT ALL for the last 7 months?), Blogger being down, internet lost on my computer, Dallas working like crazy and then, a sick, sad, teething, little girl, I feel like I haven't even had time to breath, let alone blog!

Enough excuses!  Here's a Pantry Purge update!

You can read about the Pantry Purge here, read about days 1-4 here and days 5-8 here.

Day 9: I honestly can hardly remember this day....Dallas had a can of soup from the pantry when he got home from work at 9, so I consider that a success.

Day 10: I made a venison sausage soup with barley, cajun seasoning, onions, garlic and yellow peppers.  We have yet to eat it because Dallas ended up not being home that night (I made it for him because I don't eat venison) and I had a girls night out. I still consider it a success because I did use up stuff from my pantry, and it will soon be gobbled up by my husband. 

Day 11: Church day.  Dallas doesn't get home until after 11pm, and he eats out with the kids.  I can't even remember if or what I ate because India was a whiny fusspot all day.

Day 12: My poor baby was SO sick this day!  I went running in the morning at the gym, and Dallas watched her, and he said she sat on the floor and cried "Mama, Maaammmmaa"!   She was very effective at breaking me down - I held her all day long, and she still screamed and cried all day.  I couldn't do anything because the more I moved, the angrier she got, so Dallas got me my favorite splurge food: a McDouble with medium fries.  I didn't care how unhealthy it was, I was starving!  I lost 3 pounds through India's sickness; I wasn't joking, I couldn't even get up to eat without her crying.  She even had to sleep on me for the most part.

Finally, asleep around midnight!

Day 13: Dallas worked late again officiating, India was still a screaming mess, I don't even know what I ate.  LONG day, again.

Day 14: India was doing better, but still very clingy.  I did manage to use up some chicken sausage and some frozen tortillas and made scrambled eggs for brunch!  Yum!  And we ate the venison soup.  Yes, we.   It was actually pretty good!

Day 15:  Brunch at church, Dallas had a lunch meeting, I was too busy working in my garden to eat a big lunch, so I had lots of lactation cookies to help boost my supply after 3 days of India not nursing more than twice a day.  We snacked on leftovers at Dallas' mom's house supper.

On the horizon:  Tilapia!!! I've been waiting to make this forever! 

Meals from the pantry this week (not including leftovers): 3

How about you?  Are you cleaning out your pantry?  Have you come across any great recipes that you want to add to your rotation?

Pantry Purge: Days 5-8

I'm back from my quick little rendezvous yesterday!  I had a great time getting my hair did, fixing my phone, looking at some running shoes and doing some secondhand shopping.  The only thing I ended up getting was some secondhand shoes for $5!  They still had the original price tags on and I've been wanting shoes like this forever, but I'm way too cheap to spend $25 on them.

It was a successful day.

OK, back to the Pantry Purge.

You can read about Days 1-4 here to get up to speed.

Day 5: Papa Murphy's had a special on a large taco pizza for $5.55 and you have NO idea how badly I wanted to buy it.  But I didn't.  Yay me!  Well, since I was out of town all day, I had fast food for lunch, and my husband didn't eat all day.  Once I got home, he had to go to work for a bit, then had a meeting, so he didn't get home until 9:30pm.  He had the last of the leftover Black Bean Soup, which became even more AMAZING after it sat for a couple of days!

Days 6 & 7: We are going out of town today for a youth retreat, so we will eat at the camp that we are staying at.  No cooking, again.

Day 8: It's Confirmation Sunday at our church, so we will be busy visiting all the confirmants' houses and eating all their yummy food.  It's also Mother's Day, and I've literally seen my husband for one hour total this week, so I have NO idea what we'll be doing.  I imagine we will be visiting our three moms and eating with one (or maybe all three of them) at some point in the day.  Ooof, that's going to be a lot of food!

Additional foods:

• I made black bean brownies because I needed something sweet!  They are pretty good and fix my chocolate cravings. They are also packed with protein.  I used up some more black beans. :)
• I made some guacamole for India and I, and let's just say I already ate about half of it - breakfast, lunch and dinner, baby!  My mom had bought us some avocados, and instead of eating them whole like I usually do, I thought I could use up some of our canned tomatoes and chips.

Purchases: I made my first grocery purchase this month - organic half and half for $1.88.  Mama needs it for her coffee and tea. ;)

Week 1 recap: Well, if you are keeping track, you will notice that I've only made one meal this week.  Only one.  Rather disappointing if you ask me, but that's our busy life. 

And now you know why my pantry is overflowing.  We're not home that often, my husband goes out to eat for work about 3-4 times a week, he doesn't eat much during the day, and he's typically only home about one night a week, so that's when I cook meals. 

I was hoping to make at least 10 meal this month, but at the rate I'm going, it'll be four meals the whole month.

It looks like Pantry Purge could last until May 2012.  Ugh. 

Total spent on groceries: $1.88

Upcoming meals: Venison something (shrimp for me), and tilapia.

I'm really hoping that next week I'll have a few more meals to make.  I might just start cooking grand meals for myself and India! :)

Pantry Purge: Days 1-4

I've officially started the Pantry Purge for the month of May. 

After I posted my intentions, I became so excited but yet, very nervous at the same time.  Maybe it's the point of documenting my resourcefulness to the world that might have me a little nervous! :)  We decided that it's impossible for us to skip eating out because of ministry meetings, etc.  However, if it's just the two of us, we will make food and not go out to eat, unless we are on the road.

I plan on updating a few times a week, maybe more, maybe less, to share recipes and ideas.  I may or may not update breakfast and lunch.  I normally just eat leftovers, and Dallas doesn't eat either that often, so that's kind of boring.

Here's what has happened so far, and what I plan on doing!

Day 1 - We ate brunch at the local fire station, as they were having a pancake fundraiser.  For supper, we had a small group potluck in which everyone brought Papa Murphy's pizzas.  So, no cooking on Day 1, which wasn't exactly a good way to kick off, but it is reality.

Day 2 -  Dallas had breakfast at a restuarant with a men's leadership team he's on, and I ate breakfast and lunch at work.  He then had his weekly afternoon meeting at a restaurant with another youth pastor to discuss an upcoming mission trip, and now he's gone until 7pm.  I made a variation of Spicy Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup (one of the first of our many bean soups, I'm sure), which Dallas will have once he gets home.  It was simple and very tasty (I guess there's a reason almost 21,000 people have saved this recipe), although not as spicy as I'd hoped.  India loved it too!

Photo courtesy of violetgrr, All Recipes

 Day 3 - Dallas works late again, but we will have leftover pizza.

Day 4 - This day is a Wednesday, which means Dallas isn't home until 11pm, so I probably won't cook at all.  We'll eat dinner at the church or go out to eat with the youth group.

On the horizon... venison loin roast, black bean brownies, and maybe, just maybe if it's nice out some grilled tilapia!

How are YOU doing in the Pantry Purge? Tell me some of your recent kitchen creations!

 

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!