Because we were gone for 5 days, I didn’t make much progress this week on clearing out the pantry. When we got home on Wednesday, I made some scrambled eggs, sausage, and toast for dinner, so even though we ate at home, I didn’t use anything out of the pantry.
On Thanksgiving, I cooked a small ham, some rutabagas, some potato salad, and a home made pumpkin pie. The only things I used out of the pantry was a small can of evaporated milk, and the frozen pumpkin out of the freezer. A small bit of progress, but progress just the same. We ate leftovers on Friday, to which I added a can of baked beans. 1 can used up! Then yesterday, I made meatloaf and green beans. The only thing used up was a package of ground beef from the freezer.
Today, we are having leftover meatloaf with rice and gravy. I’ll use a can of chicken broth to make the gravy. I am also making a dessert using a gluten free lime dip mix from Mixes From The Heartland, two 8 oz packages of cream cheese, a small box of lime jello, a can of crushed pineapple, and a box of gluten free graham crackers. It will be a divinely lime confection, and will use up 6 things! I’ll let you know how it turns out, and will post a recipe if it is any good.
I am down to almost no veggies in the house: I have one package of frozen creamed corn, two carrots, half a bunch of celery and a package of frozen pumpkin in the freezer. We will definitely need to go grocery shopping this week, but I WILL shop the pantry first and only get what I need! Really, I will.
I’m with you on this cleaning out the cupboards. Thanksgiving was a little setback for us too! Although T-day I did use a can of pineapple, package of pistachio pudding, and coolwhip from the freezer. But then I bought 2 cans of cranberry sauce and we only used one so I didn’t make much progress!
Ha — I see I was reading too fast when I thought you were on your roadtrip to spend TG with your family! (Catching up after being away for a few days myself.)…..
I really appreciate your updates on your pantry cleaning project and you arei helping me. I need to shop the pantry first so that I don’t end up with stuff when we go back to Florida next month. You give me the encouragement I need! (It’s too easy to just stop at the grocery store>)
Good work reducing the pantry items! I’m still working on it, too.
FYI – check out the pics on my blog of the Jellystone park off I-20, near Bremen. It’s a pretty good option, near Douglasville.
I’ve been trying to do this, but I’m not very good at planning out things so it ends up all finishing at once. I’ll either run out of pasta way before the sauce, for example, or have no butter left but need it for certain dishes.
Nothing like someone else cleaning up to make you motivated! I’m linking your blog so I stay motivated, too.
Whew, I just did a quick catch-up of your past few posts. I don’t know how I get so far behind, but congrats to FabGrandpa on 10 years, kudos to you for your fundraising efforts, and I know how you feel about not seeing anyone when you go to your hometown. Weird, isn’t it? But how cool you bumped into your old friend! Oh, good luck on your pantry – I did a major clean out of ours a few months ago!