Pantry/Fridge Clean Out Week

I said I could post whatever I want to on my blog but that most would be golf related. Here is an unrelated blog post (that was inspired due to the rain delay at the Wyndham tournament on Sunday). If you've never done this, it can actually be fun: clean out your pantry and fridge week.

The goal is to pretty much empty out your cabinets and refrigerator and freezer of stuff that you forgot about (microwave popcorn). Stuff you bought but haven't used (microwave popcorn). Stuff that you've bought too much of (for some reason, I like to have lots of cream of mushroom soup).

Yesterday inspired me to do this. Don't know how much we'll eliminate this week, but we're determined to purge the kitchen. This can be a challenge if you want to create a meal and not a hodgepodge.

Sunday night dinner resulted in us using up the frozen ground beef (adding Lipton's French Onion Soup mix, Panko Crumbs, Worcestershire Sauce, Eggs), hamburger rolls (two in the fridge we discovered) and Canned Baked Beans.

Tonight we're having "Thanksgiving," consisting of roast chicken tenderloin (marinated in something from the pantry), cranberry sauce (had a bag in the freezer, along with a solo orange), mashed potatoes (boxed -- note to self, Tom Thumb's brand is not as good as Hungry Jack if you're opting for the boxed mashed potatoes), and Stuffing Casserole (featuring fresh broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, herbed stuffing, mayo, and egg).

Tuesday we'll have Flank Steak, baked potatoes (plus sour cream and shredded cheese). An freezer made cole slaw (forgot I made that so we'll give it a try).

Wednesday, I think we'll be having chicken thighs with some sort of "rice product" and use up one of the final cans of vegetables left (since signing up for the Urban Acres produce coop, the idea of canned veggies is unappealing.

Thursday or Friday may be spaghetti night with homemade sauce from the freezer and pasta from the pantry. We can't do without garlic bread, which may be the challenge since we're running low on bread. Bisquick may be calling our name in that department -- or, the refrigerated pie crusts or frozen phyllo dough. For a veggie, may be making some sort of salad (which will also use up some of the random salad dressings we have in the fridge).

You're thinking, this doesn't seem pantry cleaning enough. Well, we can add that I took out a loaf of zucchini bread from the freezer for breakfast. Have taken some broccoli soup (homemade from the freezer), chard, sausage and white bean soup (homemade from the freezer) for lunch, along with the Plucots from the fruit drawer, granola from the pantry, and the fruit sorbet freezer things that have lived in the freezer for at least a year.  Some almost finished boxes of crackers (note to self: check to see if they are stale). No buying lunch for me this week.

Are we going to completely empty the pantry and fridge? Not exactly. But, if we can use this as a good time to especially clean out the freezer of all of the soups and such I've been making and freezing and then not using. And a way of eliminating at least a few canned items. And using up a few random bottles of stuff bought (e.g. salad dressing and other condiments). And a few almost used up jars of seasonings in the spice drawer.

During the week, Tony fends for himself breakfast and lunch wise, so I know he'll be able to put a dent into any bacon, sausage, eggs, bisquits, sandwich meat, cheese, along with loose end veggies that might be good in an omelet. Doubt I'll be able to talk him into using up any of the cans of soup that have accumulated. Maybe if I leave them strategically on the counter...

The two boxes of microwave popcorn? Determined that we'll use up some of it. May have to have "movie night" this week. The eight cans of "cream of..." soup? Well, have a plan for one of them. But may be donating the rest at a canned drive if one is going on.

At the end of the week, officially ending on Saturday/Sunday, when I have to go to the grocery store (and we pick up our Urban Acres produce co-op share), I will let you know how the "purge" goes. There may even be an "after photo."

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