Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Uncluttering

Since we are on the countdown for selling our house, (we set a date today! May 22 it goes on the market!) I made the decision over the weekend that I was not going to go to the grocery store until May 1. We need to unclutter and use up the food that we have in our pantry and freezer.

It has been quite the exercise in discipline.

Because we have NO produce, no bread, no milk. How do you craft healthy meal options without those items?

Hmmm. Well, last night I defrosted chicken and sauteed it with taco seasoning. I had spanish rice, black beans, green onions and garlic. I threw them all together with some cheese. Yummo! It was delicious, filling and I had already paid for it!

For breakfast, the kid have eaten oatmeal for the last two days with a half a mini-bagel each.

Lunch has been a little bit more a challenge since we ran out of pretzels, goldfish etc. But I did have lunch meat, with popcorn made on the stove and applesauce from the fridge.

For snacks, all we have (literally) is popcorn made on the stove. We have rediscovered this since we had it in the pantry.

Making due, cleaning out and eating what we have already spent money on is HARD. We are not used to saying "no" to ourselves, especially when it comes to food!

For tonight?
Frozen ravioli with sauce and frozen garlic bread. I also have a bag of salad that I bought last week. I have sweet potatoes that I will feed the kids for dessert with cinnamon sugar on top. Will that work as dessert for the grown-ups? Probably not.

I have no coffee for the morning:( That might be the breaking point and I might just have to go to the store tonight. But I am going to try to stick with this!

How about you? Have you looked around at the excess that you have in your house lately? I have taken for granted just how much we have, that even when we are going "without" we have plenty!

3 comments:

Michelle said...

No milk? No problem? Adjusting breakfast for the kids? No problem? Same with the snacks? Again, no problem. No coffee????????? You have got to be kidding. That would definitely be my breaking point. After hearing about this exercise yesterday, I felt such guilt as I purchased 5 bags of new groceries at the store today. But...I was a little more conscientous as I went through the store, so you're rubbing off on me little by little.

Anonymous said...

we would eat pudding pops, frozen talapia, old ham, crusty salsa, bread & easy mac.

don't think so.

but yay for y'all!

Anonymous said...

hey, how exciting about selling your house. We just sold our place in SE Portland and I'm actually closing on our new house today! We've had some pretty "crafty" dinners too. But I owe it all to my mom...military wives can really make great meals out of random stuff. Good luck on the sale.