Cook from the Cupboard - Week 3

From the cupboard:

• vegeta vegetable stock (replaced)
  
• last can tomatoes
• last red onion (will replace)
• another can of chickpeas
• last of the basmati rice (will replace)
• finished pkt of walnuts and pkt of pecans
  

From the fridge:

• Finished satay sauce
• fennel
• baby spinach
• philly cheese (still have another pkt)
• baby bok choy
• asparagus

From the freezer:

• green beans (still plenty left)
• chicken nuggets
• light lemon fish
  

Cook from the Cupboard - Week 1 and 2

My aim with this cook from the cupboard challenge is to reduce the number of packaged/non used food items that seem to have accumulated in the various places around the kitchen, reduce the number of packaged foods that I buy and encourage us all to use what we have. This will make it easier to know what is needed and how much or little to buy.

Due to technical difficulties (read there is too much going on), this report covers week one and two. I will try to report on this weekly from now on.

Things eaten from the cupboard:

• Spices - not so much eaten as thrown out - anything that was out of date (how does that creep up to quickly) - approximately 12 vials of herbs and spices out the door.
• Three of the four cans of tomatos
• Two out of three cans of chickpeas
• Finished pine nuts
• Finished crunchy nut cereal
• Used but did not finish oats, golden syrup and rice bubbles (made a slice and some anzac biscuits)
• 300g white chocolate in a white brownie mix
• Finished dried cranberries in the above brownie mix

Things eaten from the fridge:

• Butter and copha - some odds and ends of butter and some elderly copha (who knows when they were out of date) again not eaten but thrown out of the butter keeper.
  
• Several packages of cheese that were not edible were also disposed of, including some bococcini which I bought from the deli (its cheaper) had not got round to eating and found it had gone horrible (its a technical term), not a great saving in the end as had I bought my usual stuff (more expensive) it would have been happily sitting in brine and very usable.
  
• Finished off the parmesan in a frittata along with the cream and the last three eggs - have replaced eggs and I still have block parmesan.
• Used but did not finish the ghee.
• Finished the bacon
• Two fresh tomatos
• Three fresh carrots
• One and half bunches of corriander
• Milk - replaced
  

Things eaten from the freezer:

• Finished the frozen pies and sausage rolls
• Finished the spinach and cheese triangles
• Used a parcel of mince in a spag bol
  

June Challenge

For those of you following yesterday's story, I will report weekly on what I have sorted from what remains of the "stuff" in the garage.

Having been inspired by the feeling of accomplishment from finding the garage floor, I thought I need to continue the challenge. For the whole of June I am going to try to "cook from the cupboard" - that is I will only buy things that are not processed so that I am reducing the amount of food I seem to hoard in the cupboard. The guidelines for this are -

• Allowed to buy fresh fruit, veg, bread and meat, milk, margarine, toilet paper and tampons when current stocks run out.
• Not allowed to buy processed or convenience foods or convenience groceries (have to buy bread as there is no chance of me making it daily or even weekly).
• Each non-food purchase will be evaluated in terms of need versus want as well as environmental effect.
• I can still go out, just not indulge in convenience foods. So I can go to the movies but must take my own drink with me, for example.
  

The biggest challenge is going to be the snacks for the kids lunch boxes - no more instant snacks, so that is going to be tricky. I will need to do a lot of baking on the weekends and even during the week to make this work.

Also not sure how I will manage for wine. Is it cheating if I ask JR to buy it?

Also addicted to pasta, so not sure if we will survive without pasta in June (we only have three packets of pasta in the cupboard) - we will see.

I will report regularly about how I am managing this. Hang on to your hats it is going to be an interesting ride.

If you click on the link in the title you will see that I have "borrowed" this idea from Taph, thanks Taph.

Cheers,
Mondo