I saw a post recently at Keeper of the Home about the benefits of eating down the pantry every so often, and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me. I have a LOT of stuff in the pantry, and it's time for some of it to get eaten up, especially since I found so many duplicates during the move.
Since graduation last May, most of my college stuff had been in storage, including lots of dry goods and non-perishables, waiting patiently for me to get my life out of limbo. When I was renting a room in someone's house from November through mid-February, I couldn't move my stuff out of storage, and I really felt the loss in the kitchen. The place I was staying had a very nice kitchen, but it was clearly not mine--I didn't really feel comfortable taking over the kitchen to do more than a quick stir-fry, quesadilla, or pasta dish. I still needed some staples for that kind of basic cooking, though, so I ended up with some rice, pasta, lentils, and the like. Before leaving Massachusetts, I had done a lot of canning, and managed to bring about half of that bounty with me (half was about 10 half-pint jars, 40 pints, and 6 quarts full of assorted home-canned food from the garden and the farm). There was no chance of that fitting in my pantry space at the rental (one crisper drawer and one shelf on a narrow pull-out pantry) , so I kept the jars in cardboard boxes in the back of my truck and ended up mostly forgetting about them. I also brought with me a large crate of winter storage squash, a small box of sweet potatoes, and a fair number of assorted onions, the farm's parting gift to end-of-season help.
Suffice to say that when I moved into my own place in February, I discovered that I had quite a forgotten bounty of pantry items: several unopened or barely touched bags of rice, black beans, cranberry beans, lentils, and steel cut oats; all of my dried herbs and spices (oh, how I'd missed you!); honeys, vinegars, oils, jams and jellies, and a few random canned goods (sweet potato puree, for example). After I was moved in, I'd also begun stocking the freezer whenever I saw freezable goods on sale (like organic spinach at the dollar store!), and in just one month, had amassed enough to almost fill my half of the freezer. Time to make some room, which is where the pantry challenge comes in.
I am doing a pantry challenge this April 1) to save on my food budget, 2) to actually USE the food I put by, since that's what it's for, and 3) to free up jars and space for more preserving this spring and summer, when food is plentiful and cheap. I would love to be in a financial position to donate all the money I save to an anti-hunger organization, but that's not in the cards for me right now. Hopefully next time though! The rules I came up with for myself are these:
1) During this challenge, when I cook at home I will eat exclusively from the pantry and freezer, with the exception of a small amount of fresh produce and fresh dairy.
2) I will limit the spending on the fresh produce and dairy combined to $15 or less per week (Tricky when trying to keep these categories organic much as possible).
3) I will not buy any dry goods, convenience foods, packaged foods, or anything that is not included in the produce and dairy category. No meat or fish, besides what I have saved up, and no wine! Luckily, I have a bit of a wine reserve to work off as well...
4) I will not eat out to escape cooking at home using what I have on hand, but may still choose to go out infrequently as a treat if it stays within my entertainment budget.
5) Each meal will center around something in the pantry or freezer, rather than just peripherally involving those items--no cop-outs. I'm looking at you, pasta with all my produce and dairy for the week.
6) Foraging for wild edible plants is allowed, if it is done legally and safely.
7) Eating fresh produce I grow at home is also allowed (right now all I have growing is herbs though).
I did a few trial days, starting on Friday the 28th, and my last trip out was this morning for the one thing I really needed before starting this challenge: coffee. Everyone has their vices, and I am one cranky, miserable hippie if I don't get my cuppa joe in the morning. I also considered springing for a whole chicken while I was out, but felt like that was not really in the spirit of this challenge, so this month will also be largely meatless.
So far I've made beet gratin with my canned beets and bread from the freezer on Friday, recipe adapted from this one, B and I did butternut squash and chickpea curry on Saturday (we used coconut oil in place of canola and dry garbanzos instead of canned), and an ad hoc crockpot version of Red and Honey's amazing maple baked beans on Sunday--great for after a long afternoon hike!
I'm looking forward to really digging in to my pantry and my creativity in the next month, and seeing what happens! I'll be using the hashtag #pantrychallenge2014 on Instagram and Facebook to keep track of the process. Happy April!
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