Pantry Challenge January

 

There's a thing called Pantry Challenge January, where you try to spend as little as possible at the market and work with what's on hand.  AKA, this entire blog for the past 10 years.  The purpose of it is to discover creative new ways to use commonly stocked items and learn what you don't really use so you don't buy it again.  It's a time for evaluating expiration dates, doing inventory, and maybe defrosting the freezer.  I do all of that second part in March to get ready for Passover, so my January is just working with what I have.

I'm still miffed that there weren't any turkey leftovers from Thanksgiving.  I've been wanting turkey divan for over a month.  So I baked up two chicken thighs from the freezer and opened a small can of chicken for the white meat to make the chicken version.  It used up a can of cream of broccoli (instead of mushroom), some breadcrumbs, frozen broccoli, and half a bag of shredded cheese.

Next up was a much healthier (and vastly lower in salt) curry that will be in the next post.  Also made entirely of dry pantry, fridge, and freezer ingredients.

It is clearly going to take longer than just January to make a significant dent in my storage.  I might not use up all the frozen vegetables and meats.  I did finally get all the canning jars out of the pantry, but it meant moving them into an unused closet not near the kitchen.  I'm trying to purge excess stuff again this year, so it's possible I'll make enough space in a cabinet closer to the kitchen at some point.  I refuse to store them on the top shelves of the kitchen cabinets, which are intentionally kept empty.

Between the pandemic and current events, I think I can get away with only shopping for dairy and bananas for the near future.  The less time spent in public, the better.  And I don't have to worry about runs on products, like last March.  Prepping isn't all bad, but I refuse to do years when four months feels like too much.  It's all about a personal comfort level.