Thursday, April 9, 2009

Thrifty Thursday: Cleaning Out the Pantry


I've been quite clear about my blog-envy for Stephanie over at A Year of Crockpotting and Totally Together Journal.

I know. Envy is bad.

And yet, how can it be bad when the result from my blog-crushin' on her is so, well, good?

I've already shared the good that has come from practicing her Daily 7.

So, I decided this week to attempt to cook a meal from items currently in my pantry. For I am beginning to reinvent my pantry - stocking it full of staples so that in a bind I can, indeed, just whip something together. Turned out, after taking a quick inventory, that I had all the fixin's to make Stephanie's recipe for Poor Man's Chili.

Delicious.

And talk about thrifty. I had all the simple ingredients on hand, plus some leftover diced chicken and roast that I also dumped in - making it not so "poor". However, it would have been just fine had I not included the meat. It was hearty.

George loved it.

Harper loved it.

Zane had pasta.

Our freezer is happy to be taking care of the leftovers for us. Our freezer feels so important.

My goal is to continue working at keeping a well stocked pantry to assist with my weekly meal planning as well as with emergencies. I do not have the desire to do a monthly meal plan, nor do I desire to once a month cook, but I do desire to have the ability to shoot from the hip should the need arise.

Is your pantry well stocked? Stocked well enough to pull something together at a moment's notice?


2 comments:

Christi @ Writing the Waves said...

Yea for you! I'm getting better at pulling from what I have on hand, but I have a long way to go! Sometimes I get lucky, but frequently I produce total flops. Today I tried out a toasted banana sandwich that "carpool queen" raved about in her blog...because I had the stuff on hand, and thought that Corey and Carson might love it since they like bananas...no such luck. Two perfectly prepared banana sandwiches went down the drain...literally! Oh well...I'll cross that one off of the list...on to the next meal! :)

TropicGirl said...

My pantry is so well stocked that you'd think I had a family of six, instead of just little old me! I'm working on whittling it down and rather than making what I want (thus usually involving a grocery store trip), making do with what I HAVE. When I get down to the can of beans and a bag of flour, I'll reconsider my pantry philosophy!