happy at home

EATING FROM THE PANTRYYesterday, I was looking at my (semi-long) grocery list and dreading going to the store. On a whim, I decided to take EVERYTHING out of both freezers, pantry, and fridge and make a list of everything I had on hand. After filling 5 (!!!) notebook pages, I decided to jump on board Money Saving Mom's Eat From the Pantry Challenge for the rest of January. There are no hard and fast rules but my personal goals for the remainder of the month are:
1. To make good meals out of what I already have on hand.
2. To spend as little as possible at the grocery store from now to the end of January.

I don't want to get to the end of January and have to do a massive re-stocking. The goal is more to use up foods that are getting close to being past their prime, make room for foods that will be coming in season in the next few months (strawberry season is just two months away!), and to challenge myself to be creative in the kitchen. I will keep a running tally on the side of my grocery spending too. I didn't keep my receipts but I think I have spent about $60 this month at the store so far. However, I am just keeping track from today through the end of January, since I am not sure.

So far, I have come up with about 20 meals that I can make without buying anything from the store and I know there are plenty more things I can come up with once I peruse some of my favorite cooking blogs.

On another note, I don't really make big resolutions at the beginning of the year but I do love the idea of having a word that really sums up your aspirations and focus for the coming year. I am still working on what I want my word to be but I do know what my main focus is going to be (I will save that for another post). I also have a list of things that I want to incorporate (or re-incorporate, as the case may be) into our year. One of them is regular blogging. I really miss it and am hoping to carve out regular time for it 1-2 times a week this year.