Eating from the pantry, fridge & freezer: February's belated result

Okey dokes folks, before you ooh and ahh over my massive pantry slim down, let me start by confessing the above is not my pantry.  Nor would I want it to be!  My  new pantry resembles my old pantry, but just with a few things missing.

I had high hopes for the challenge.  I envisaged myself cutting a swathe through the pantry, emptying the fridge and freezer and inventing some highly exotic and appealing recipes.  I also thought I'd save heaps of dosh and be a transformed shopper at the end of it all, shunning wasteful purchases in favour of a more sustainable existence.  So how did I fare against my own expectations?  Let's see.....

1. Cutting a swathe through the pantry: Semi-fail.  Or if the glass jar is half full, perhaps that's a semi-win?  Our pantry was so out of control that there were only so many lentils and beans I could add to my almost daily lunchtime salad without turning into a hippy.  And apologies to all the bean fans and hippies I just offended.  I did create a rather tasty home made baked bean dish and added them to salads but sadly I still have some left. 
   
   My other challenge was that strangely, during February, we ate out a bit, so the opportunities for gobbling the contents was actually reduced rather than broadened.  And I'm also embarrassed to admit that the preserved lemons I preserved last year which would have ROCKED in an invented quinoa salad recipe remained hidden behind all manner of cupcake baking materials.  Never to worry, I'm gonna use them up very soon.
   
   On the win-side, to end on a positive note, I did use all our cans of tinned fish, most of the piles of pasta I definitely reduced the bean count.
   
   
2. Emptying the fridge and freezer: Semi-win.  I bought less and used more of what was in both.  I cooked with most of the frozen meat & fish.  I even used up some of the condiments and experimented with using Relish This beetroot relish on a salad instead of salad dressing, with delicious results.  And I definitely bought less.  But I didn't use up the frozen soup. Not yet anyway, will wait until the weather gets colder.
   
   
3. Inventing some highly exotic and appealing recipes: Mostly fail. Although in doing the recipe count, I found I did cook quinoa, home made baked beans, crab & lemon pasta and some wilted grape tomato & anchovy pasta which I otherwise would never have cooked had I not been on the challenge.  But they're hardly exotic recipes. Luckily the ones I did cook were all appealing! My problem is that perhaps I don't have enough imagination when it comes to cooking and am slightly risk averse when it comes to flavour.  Basically I'm a bit of a pig, so would rather wolf down something scrumptious than try to cook something which might not be.  Meh.  There are worse things I guess.
   
   
4. Saving heaps of dosh: Mostly win.  I definitely cut back on shopping and only bought what was necessary.  And I resisted the urge to "just get another tin of beans" if I wasn't sure how many hundred I already had in the pantry.  I must say, I found this the most liberating part of the exercise. Not only was my wallet lighter, but so was my shopping trolley and my conscience.
   
   
5. Becoming a transformed shopper: Mostly win.  I must say the month's challenged definitely changed the way I think about shopping at the markets AND the supermarket.  Unless I need something now I just don't buy it (except, perhaps, for loo paper).  I've reduced the amount of self-saucing veggies and walls of cans in the pantry AND the amount of money I spend (and waste) every week.

So: whilst I didn't meet all my unrealistic expectations, I would say that the challenge was definitely a success, if only from the perspective that I'm now quite conscious of not over-buying. I may shop a little more often for the ingredients I suddenly need, but once I get organised and plan the week's meals (yes, pigs can fly) then I'll well on the way to getting my pantry, fridge & freezer constantly under control.

What about you?  Would you consider the challenge? Could you do it for a month? If you've done the challenge, what were your experiences?

Eating from the pantry, fridge and freezer: Winner Dinner!

This was my first off-piste recipe so I was a little nervous. Particularly using crab meat. Not really sure how, when or why that made itself into the cupboard, but it was my mission tonight to eliminate it. Forthwith.

But after polishing off my second bowl, I proudly declare this pasta dish to be a double-thumbs-up WINNER!!!

Tomato & crab spaghetti with caperberries and lemon zest

Ingredients

500 grams spaghetti
1 clove garlic, thinly chopped or minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
170g tin crab meat
I 400g bottle tomato passata
2 tablespoons caperberries, halved & stalks removed
Zest of 1 lemon
Parmesan or grana padana to taste

Method

Boil water for pasta.

Heat oil in pan & sautee garlic until light brown. Add tomato sauce, crab meat, caperberries & lemon zest. Heat through on low heat.

Cook spaghetti according to instructions.

Serve pasta with sauce on top. Add a few shavings of parmesan and zest.

Serves 4.

If desired you can forget about the crab meat, particularly for Meatless Monday. The combination of tomato, caperberries & lemon zest adds so much flavour and ZING that it would work regardless.

Eating from the pantry, fridge & freezer - Day 2

I can proudly claim Day 2 of the Pantry, Fridge & Freezer (PFF) challenge a resounding success.  Breakfast was the breakfast of champions, home made berry bircher muesli.

Lunch was Morroccan Quinoa Salad (using lentils instead of black beans) with rainbow salad (above).  After I ate it I felt dangerously healthy.  Dangerously.  Which is kind of ironic since I am fighting a sore throat.

As the mercury soared to more than 37 degrees today, the thought of cooking was as about appealing as sticking my sweatty face in a hair dryer.   So after peering into the pantry,  I discovered a pristine packet of rice paper roll wrappers hiding behind the mountains of pasta (but more on that below).  That packet had been nestling there for at least 12 months. 

My rice paper rolls were stuffed with leftover chook from the kids' drumsticks dinner.  Other ingredients?  Peanuts, coriander, mint, bean sprouts, carrot, rice paper rolls, fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, carrot, cucumber and tofu (tempeh).  And sweet chilli dipping sauce.

During the day I snacked on my obsession, Emma & Tom's Cacao & Orange Life Bars.

Since I am so in love with these bars *swoon* and can't bear the thought of not having one in my handbag for those mid-afternoon emergency hypo-glycemic moments, I have 2 boxes of 12 in the pantry and don't doubt, with or without the PFF challenge, that they will be consumed.  They ROCK!

Tomorrow's breakfast of bircher is soaking in the fridge and as hubby is going interstate for a few days I suspect the next few days will play host to a few rounds of salads, incorporating some of those pesky and numerous cans of legumes.  How DID I end up with so many???

After the cans, I will tackle the pasta.  Sheepishly: I can now admit to 10 packets (yes, 10) of spaghetti and 7 packets or boxes of short pasta like fusili and penne.

But don't even get me started on the relishes, pickles and condiments!

Eating from the pantry, fridge & freezer

I have an embarassing problem.

If you're a foodie like me and have touches of the hoarder within, your pantry, fridge & freezer resemble those that would furnish a bunker.  I often find with dismay, that when I return home from grocery shopping that there is stacking-room-only for the newly purchased cans of chick peas & kidney beans beside all the other cans of chick peas & kidney beans (they're healthy in salads, right?); that a complete audit must be conducted on the fridge only to find those beautiful new green beans for the nicoise salad I never made have been hiding at the back of the vegetable crisper and are now self-saucing; and the cooked brown rice in the zip lock bag that has been in the freezer for 7 months needs to be turfed to make room for more important things like meat and fish.

But there is a solution.

It's called "Eating from the pantry".  Or if you want to get more serious: "Eating from the pantry, fridge & freezer".

This is a great idea to clear out the mountains of cans in your cupboards and also save money.  There are websites devoted to this practice and whilst others have implemented differing reasons and rules for taking on the challenge, its a great way to spring clean your kitchen, save money and save the planet a little by minimising food waste.  Some bloggers have reported losing more than 5 lbs and saving hundreds of dollars.  Me: I just want to be able to see into the cupboard.

If you're interested in reading more, just google "eating from the pantry".

I'm going to take the challenge in February, and not because its the shortest month ;-)  However just to break my own rules I'm going to start today, being Monday 31 January.  Apart from starting one day early, my rules will be that I may buy meat, fish, poultry, dairy, fruit, veggies and eggs when they run out, but I must use everything in my fridge and freezer before that happens.  And when I buy these things I must use them.  I'm not sure how I will punish myself if I don't adhere to my rules, but perhaps the public embarassment of reporting the results on this blog will be enough to motivate me to do the right thing.

Anyone care to join in?

A word of warning however.  We have a pretty healthy pantry. We've always shunned junk food in favour of healthy options, but if your pantry looks more like the party aisle of the supermarket, I suggest you actually bring your bin over to the pantry and tip all the rubbish into it.  I'm sure Michelle Bridges fromThe Biggest Loser and the 12 Week Body Transformation would endorse this: and let's face it, you don't want to eat crap for the next month and during January, your waistline could probably do without it if you're planning a trip or two to the beach.  So bin the bikkies; melt the icecream in the sink and donate the extra packet of tim tams to your skinny next door neighbour and concentrate on the food in your pantry.

Tonight's dinner happens to be a Meatless Monday dinner but I'm a little worried it won't be enough for Mr Sixfootfour.  We already happen to have goats cheese, walnuts, a tin of baby beets and heaps of rocket in the house so that will be a yummy and meatless salad for tonight, but it may not fill hubby's hollow legs, so I'm planning a side of quinoa salad as well.

So.... watch this space.  Posts detailing innovative pantry recipes and photos of declining walls of food pending.