Been just eating from pantry and freezer here at home...its only me so nobody is complaining. I'm pretty happy with how its going - even did a meal plan for next week! Yay me!
Just tired today , it’s cold rainy and just gray out, hubby is sick so put on a pot of Elk stew, our carrots, spuds, veggies, onion scapes, 10 minute pull, added in a slice of homemade bread, it made him a touch better, love my pantry!!
Leisa, you are such a good teacher, I feel like I won the food planning lottery! I implemented the colored stick dot labeling that one of your members uses. Each sticker color represents the year the product expires. This is SO much more doable than writing dates with sharpies. And I finally understand the concept of shopping from your pantry vs. putting food away for hard times. Thanks so much how sharing information so generously. Gratefully, Eileen.
Thank you so much for all your help on filling my pantry. It's just me, but I have many grandchildren and 6 great grand babies. So I have so many to provide for. I do for all my babies and my inventory reflects that.
I just cleaned up my pantry yesterday. Reorganized, condensed areas, and found where there are shortages . Today, I have been working on my restock list. Trying to identify what I really NEED, not just want.
I told my husband today that the first week of every month, we are eating from our food storage. It’s not massive; it’s emergency. I did the inventory for the long term storage. Mostly Dried and canned and forever stuff like salt. I have a cabinet in the garage that supplements what is used daily that’s in the kitchen. At the end of the week I will take our average food budget amount and transfer it to savings. That will go towards replenishing what we consume. Biggest challenge will be running out of fresh vegetables, but I told hubby he can do it for a day or two. He’s a big eater, even though he is older. So I hope he can do this and humor me.
I live alone so I have prepare my meals ahead and portion them in the freezer (soups, stews, burritos, taco meat, etc.). Most nights I pull out something and warm some bread or make a little salad to go with it... or maybe do Brinner...I love Brinner! I keep Loaded Mashed Potato Mini Waffles in the freezer as well, one of my go to favorites with a poached egg from my Peepers on it and some fruit is perfect after a busy day.
Having studied Nutrition intensively for years, my meals always involve plant-based protein, veggies, a little fruit and/or nuts & seeds (for the fat component). I recovered from a stroke with no loss of faculties years ago by switching from a standard American diet (often called S.A.D.) to 100% whole-food plant-based, and once I adjusted to leaving animal products out of my diet, it got easier and easier (and wildly less expensive.)
Being a single senior I find that two meals a day (breakfast and dinner) consists mostly of protein and carbs with a veggie thrown in the one pan meal! If I snack which is not daily I find it’s canned fruit or popcorn! Of course sometimes I grave something sweet and chocolaty so have a jar I can access!
I started to only keep in supply is my garden food from year to year. Then watching you. I know keep a little bit of everything that I use a lot of from the store. I can sit back and not worry when I'm snowed in for days or weeks. or in the summer when the electric goes out for days or weeks. This girls will survive.
Being a senior I don’t like cooking every night any more. I could live on leftovers! Adding things to my pantry, getting containers and get things to can! Looking forward to that!!
You nailed it with us. When we were raising kid's, we had the full balanced meal. Now that they are grown, some nights we may eat a bbq sandwich and potatoes or spaghetti. We still have bigger meals, but they tend to take place on weekends or when the family comes over . My biggest issue with our pantry is people moving stuff around and hunting it down.lol
We are older too, but our children all have large families. We all work together to make things work. Each of us has our own pantries that are always a work in progress. As always, thank you!
Almost finished with my inventory. Too much (if possible) of some items, not enough of others. I do it in stages, commercially prepared items, spices and salt, home canned goods, and dry goods. Make sure the oldest is in front or on top of the bucket/tote. I sometimes just sit in the pantry area of my basement and meditate. It is my happy place.
I am currently working on my inventory list. After completing a week of meal planning, I have begun my second week. I was surprised by how much I had on hand, and I've found that using the inventory list has made meal planning easier. Thank you!
I am working on my can food right now. Putting the newer ones in the back and pulling more recent dates to the front and dating the cans. I Love cooking with my Crock Pot. I am only one, but I make a big pot of food, keep some in the fridge and freeze the rest.
We decided to pantry challenge in February. Our son is here until mid month and we like to have special things when he's able to visit. We usually give up fast food for lent and decided to combine the 2.
Most meals are protein and vegetable or protein and carbs. I am learning so much from your pantry guidance. For the first 70 years of my life, groceries have gone into the kitchen cupboards and the 'excess' has gone into the pantry. I am embracing the change, Thank You
I've always liked a protein, starch, veggie approach to nightly meals. Our goal this year is bread from wheat berries. I have the aero gardens started this year. My problem is fresh salad ingredients like cucumber and tomato. Pantry preparedness, unknown to me 35 years ago, is something we've been doing all this time. Since watching your videos for the past several years we inventory and use our pantry every day. Like you our trips to the grocery store our for fresh produce and dairy. We also purchased a freeze dryer last year and that has been a game changer to preserve our fresh fruit. Thank you so much for your videos and safe canning practices!
I use Ugly Chicken (which is Beautiful Chicken to me) the most from my pantry also. I love having it in my pantry. Thank you for teaching me how to can meat.I had canned for 50 years and had never canned meat. I always thought it was to hard to can meat.Boy was I wrong. It is one of the easiest things to can. Thank you for making these videos. They are so helpful.
Well Lisa I have so much ugly chicken I have been sorting and cleaning my pantry and so for now I am not bragging but I don't need to stock anymore meats, beans, soups ,veggies ,baking products, Pasta, Rice, milk, or other things but I do need to stock more oils, shortening, and water but really I am so blessed to have so much on hand . I am only going to the grocery store once a month and I dehydrate a lot too. My fruits and jams/jelly all good. Thank you for all of your reminders and good advice!!
I have a bad cold and with it being in the 20 ‘s I already know I won’t be working next week, gives me time to organize my pantry, and clean out my sheshed, incase anyone is curious Russian tea and blackberry crown goes down smooth and you sweat that sickness right out, god bless all my prepper peeps may you all be healthy and have prepped your homes 😊
I love your videos. You are the sweetest lady and I love your wealth of knowledge. Thanks so much. I have always had a garden and preserved food but it wasn’t till the Y2K fiasco that i started my first serious pantry stacking. Later, around 2007, I discovered the Backwoods Home magazines and learned so much. I love having enough supplies so I don’t need to be concerned about storms, lockdowns, and more. It’s just so much easier to live like this. Thanks again for sharing your journey with us.
Leisa, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the inspiration!!! Yay me this is the first year I did a complete inventory. And I mean complete! Every freezer what is on each shelf and even each shelf on the door!!! I was getting ingredients for dinner this morning, I looked on my inventory sheets and knew exactly where each one was. What an amazing thing!
Went through the freezer and inventoried it today and meal planned at the same time. Our pantry consists mainly of home canned veggies, fruit, jam/jelly and condiments like pickles and salsa etc. I am most happy when I’m prepping things to fill my pantry. I try to make from scratch where I can. I don’t like buying processed anything. Thank you for putting Canuary together. I learn so much.
I am so proud to say that I canned 4 or of pineapple and 7 pt cranberry orange sauce. Would have been 8 but one jar broke. Back to work on Monday so that's probably it. Just had to share.
I’m all in 3rd year in a row with Canuary no spend January. This has been the best game changer for me. I used to slog my way through January and February until I stumbled on Suttons Daze 4 years ago. I was depressed every winter as I’ve been diagnosed with SAD. Vitamin D3 and a few minutes outside every day is the ease along with these challenges for me. I now look forward to it and start talking about it before Thanksgiving. Thank you for this whole experience Lisa… it truly has changed my winter life tremendously.
Thank you for the inspiration to tidy up. I cleaned, checked dates and labeled, sorted and put like with like. I have all my ‘use me next’ in my kitchen cupboard to meal plan around. I am pleased that very little was lost to aging. I tossed some stuff that we didn’t like. The birds and critters will feast ! Thank you again!
Even though I live in zone 6B, we tend to eat more fresh food than canned. From the outside winter garden bed, there is cabbage, spinach, and parsley. And yes, we have snow on top. In the grow room, I have lettuce since the last planting outside finished up. The mouse ate the last pumpkin. I checked my own inventory today before I even saw your video. As to diet, growing up in meat and potato-land, I always have a protein, starch, and a vegetable for supper. We get our fruits with breakfast. Either jelly with yogurt or canned fruit on pancakes. Canned syrup goes great in oatmeal too. Frozen blueberries and raspberries get pulled as needed - wish I had the money for a freeze dryer but a regular freezer is what we have. During winter power outages, I toss freezer stuff in a cooler and stick it outside. Where I live, the grid isn't always stable.
I guess I have been somewhat prepping since 2015, I was a coupon queen. My co workers used to rib me a lot about it but I was the first one to make up a care package and donate goods when the need arose. They ALL stopped kidding me about it in 2020 when the doody hit the fan. Also we moved my mom in with us in 2014 when her health started failing, so I made sure we had emergency supplies at the ready for her care too. It’s just me and my husband now and I’m learning life again after being a caregiver for 9 yrs, so I took up gardening, preserving, and taking our health more seriously with what we put in our bodies. This is the first time I’ve really done a challenge to see what I could improve on. I’m pretty sure if we tried really hard it could last quite a few months. I guess I’m about to find out😂
I had a stock of peanut butter. My family doesn’t like it only me. But recently I have developed allergies to peanut butter. 😢 now I’m gifting it to family and restocking with something else. Time to go through the pantry and purge. With the storm coming in it will give me a project to do inside.
We’re on it! Pulling out primary cupboard cans to stash away 2026 and make sure 2024 are used up first and 2025 earlier year dates are ready to be used. Love the inventory idea! 😊👍❤️
We make a full meal every night. Lunches are always leftovers or pb&j. Breakfast is muffins, breakfast burritos, oatmeal, smoothies, cereal, pancakes, French toast. We are foster parents so we always have littles that need that well rounded diet.
When I went through and did the inventory I found several home canned food the lids came unsealed. So it’s definitely a good idea to go through at least every few months.
I can't tell you how much I love my new Project Pantry Planner. Totally obsessed. Even considering buying one for next year, just to be sure to have it. Thank you. ❤❤
I have the hardest time keeping an inventory. I write things down and never can keep track of the lists. I like having a fully fleshed out pantry, just keeping track of it is a pia.
@@TracieL1234 maybe place a clipboard or something like that on a hook inside your pantry? Just a quick thought. My "pantry" is not all in one location, but I do keep my inventory on a clipboard I can hang up inside my revamped broom closet turned food storage.
That is why I went from paper to spreadsheet. I take laptop to the pantry. With the next inventory I am going to reorder the list to be in roughly the same order as my shelves.
This week I've been reorganizing and inventorying my pantry. It's a LOT of work going through everything and finding places for it all. It will be worth it though when it's done and I can FIND everything!
We are about to go through snowmagedon. Am I worried? Not at all. Thanks be to you and those that have taught me to be prepared!! We are ready!! My pantry is on an excel spread sheet. Listed by year of expiration and type of food. When I shop I add each item...when I use something I take it off. We have 4 freezers and everything is listed on a separate spread sheet. When I need something I immediately know where to find what I am looking for, I just look in my notebook. It is great!! I also inventoried wine, alcohol, snacks, TP, medical supplies, cleaning and laundry supplies, It keeps the waste down to 0. If the house is on fire We need to grab pictures and my notebook. I have an inventory of everything. I am not nuts, just very organized. We just had a SHTF event....my husband had surgery for colon cancer. He is doing well and a full recovery is expected but we didn't have to worry about meals. Thanks to all I have learned about prepping!!
My husband decided to add more installation in my pantry, he moved, mixed boxed, re stacked my pantry goods. So all my stock has been so mixed up. So,not reorganizing it till he is done. Lol!😅
Wanted to get a year's worth of staples. (It's just me and the dog right now) I will get about 6-8 months before my self-imposed 'stop shopping' date in mid January. I made a weekly meal plan for the next several months and inventoried the freezer. Can't actually fit much more in there. 😂 Three sale items needed for the meal plan and I am done there. The list of pantry items I think I still need is getting smaller as well. Part of the money I save will go to restocking for next year.
I have take the leftovers. I have put them in bags and popped them in the freezer for a couple meals , instead of putting them in the refrigerator. It's been only me for years now, and it's just easier on me to grab my home cooked meal out of the freezer pop it in the micro wave and heat it up. Poof dinner is served. I didn't always do this when the girl's were younger and it showed on my waist 😅 I ate all their left overs. In fact, i would take some of them to work for lunch the next day. Waste not , want not. And yes, I check the cans ect and write the dates on them. Though I heard you say on one of your videos that someone used different color markers and just put a color code to tell what month, etc. To tell when they canned them or when buying can foods at the store. This idea I love and have decided to use it in my pantry . I have RA, and it's hard on my fingers and wrists to write it all out. A color code dot is just the ticket . Less pain as well. It is a good thing. Oh , if you bought something that will most likely last for years and you have a printer , type up the date , year, and month and slap a label on it just in case. Because even though the people sometimes think it will last forever - truely it doesn't. Because it was made by man , and we all know that when make makes anything it doesn't last forever. 😅😅 it just seems like it does. Love your video's and the great ideas I glean from them. This ole bird always learns something new every day, and yes, food is grown and is a lot different than when I was growing up. Grandma and Mom used celler's to keep things at a safe temperature. I do not have one . And I can't use Grandma's. Sadly, the houses and other buildings were torn down years ago. My meals vary from season to seasons , winters are stews , soup, chili's, and gravy's ,and my biscuits vary rarely buy breads from the store's. Spring , Summers , and first part of fall is salads , maccaroni with a ton of chopped up vegetables tossed in for good measure and what ever fruit i can buy at local farmers markets. 😊
My meals are mostly protein and low carb. I just did this with my pantry the other day because there is an ice storm heading my way and I needed to know. Was surprised that I didn't actually really need to run out and get anything.
Just stocked up on cooking wines (for slow cooker), various pastas, flour, and canned goods. As we get low on something, the shopping list for the following pay day is created.
Not only shopping my pantry and using up things that have been here a while, but planning a big cooking day to prepare meals so that I can continue to work on decluttering and reorganizing my home! Thanks, L!
I have a special three-ring binder and every time I can something I put it in it how much I did and if I like the recipe I write the recipe underneath it. I can refer back to it later on
I was just doing inventory today. I had to move stuff from my storage pantry to my working pantry. What a great time to inventory. Canned some blackberry jelly and I’m clearing the rhubarb from the freezer to can some rhubarb sauce. Canuary and pantry challenge.
Being as it's just me most if the time, I cook 2 or 3 times a week and have left ivers the rest of the time. Today I made a big pot of bacon-cabbage-potato soup that Ill eat for the next few days with homemade bread. The cabbage was some I had dehydrated and wanted to try, it was delicious in the soup.
You still just bring it Leisa. Thank you for bringing content with VALUE! Such a refreshing break from the firehose of regurgitated daily "news" content. They TALK the talk, you WALK the talk. Bravo Leisa!
I am 61 yes old and lives alone.. I am more of a food person. I do have a food allergy to beef and pork, so I do try to make sure I get some kind of protein every day. When I stock, I write the expiration date on the front. Another thing that I do is when I do my inventory, I put all the used by date for this year in a separate area. That way I know that I really need to use them up and don't forget. I have found out I do better with meal planning around those items then.
You are absolutely spot on with this pantry thing 🙂 I was battling lots of visitors in 2024. This year is going to be different. We just put in some new shelves so now I am following your guidance and getting everything in order. Also trying to keep in mind some space for all the garden goodies I'm dreaming about. Meals for us usually are a protein, carb, and veg. Preferably in as few pots as possible.
I was in the middle of doing inventory (I use a spreadsheet that tracks location, price, quantity, size and cost per unit) when I saw that most of the ingredients for my gardiniere recipe were on sale. So today I cut up everything for 5 batches (appx. 25 pints) of gardiniere, which I will can tomorrow. I made a batch this fall and gave jars away a Christmas. Everyone who got a jar opened it and immediately finished the entire jar - some in just one sitting - so I knew I needed to make more.
@@denisewilson8367 definition copied from google Giardiniera typically contains a mix of vegetables that you might find in an Italian garden: carrots, cauliflower, celery, green beans, peppers, and onions. I haven’t canned it myself but I keep 2-3 jars in my pantry all the time. I have one or two recipes that use it. And we like pickled items also.
@@denisewilson8367 It's pickled cauliflower, carrots, celery, onions, zucchini and bell peppers. I follow the recipe from the Ball book (the green one.) It's also spelled Jardiniere.
I am doing some inventory but also filling in gaps. Ran out of homecanned chili and baked beans. So have both going. A crock pot full of baked beans and my large kettle of chili. Keep a little to eat soon and can the rest. Found hamburger yesterday on sale for $2.98 a pund!! Got enough to make chili and either can or freeze the rest. Caught the sale by chance so that worked out great! Single grandma and dont want to cook every nite. Love canning soups and other meals as well as ingredients so I can just warm something up some nites!
My meals have become just “something to eat”. I am a one man show so my meals don’t have to be fancy or gourmet. I have found that I have canned pints of soups or meal starters and lately it is about what can be done quickly.
There seems to be a lot of us that are single person homes. But having our pantries stocked and buying in bulk save us so much money. And meal preps are quick and easy. The fancy stuff can be saved for holiday get togethers.
In some things, I grab my protein and veg and left overs in for either lunch or dinner tomorrow. I keep veggies I cannot can fresh. Since I got serious about trying to stock my pantry, I find eating from it saves me from thinking I don’t want to cook tonight. I am eating better, and since I live by myself, the only pallet I need to concern myself with is mine! 😊
I found the pressure canned meats, potatos & beans, home canned tomatos and a crock pot are the dependable methods of a home cooked 'dinner', a batch of chili is generally 3 meals. A sandwiche.for lunch, and egg(s) for breakfast -typically 2x per month I make a quiche or oven fondue which can be divided & frozen usually 4 breakfasts with other days being an egg + toast or a dish with yougurt, fruit and granola...no time for complicated 4 course meals at my house except at the holidays.
Such good advise. We had a real medical year in 2024 and found I had to gift a very large amount of my pantry. Wheat in chicken broth?? Seriously? Now this wasn't all bad. My inventory was shot though. I learned to pressure can, thank you. I have much more confidence this Canuary, again, thanks to you.
Our meals always have some kind of meat item in them and maybe a vegetable or two. Sometimes we will have pasta or potatoes with those meals. I plan on doing inventory in my freezer again and use up some items in my freezer to make more room. I mainly inventory the meat, but need to inventory my frozen veg, etc, as well. I just put in a bunch of fresh bell peppers from my container garden, into the freezer.
Tonight we were having a salad and baked sweet potato with pesto, eggs and avocado on top, but the baked sweet potatoes were rotten inside, so I substituted with refried beans, hubby said it was great for last minute!
Like you I like food. Sometimes it’s a nice steak and vegetable with a potato for my husband he eats anything and everything except good things. Sometimes it’s soup and sometimes it’s a tuna sandwich or something. I limit myself to two meals a day low carb as much as I possibly can. I fell off the Keto wagon which I was on for over two years so trying to get back on slowly.
Still recovering from a major illness. I am going through a kitchen cabinet a day. I am not doing the January challenge. I am on a high protein diet and am trying to stock as much protein as i can while i am trying to pay off bills. I do not have the bandwidth for anything else.
You do whatever you have the ability to do. There are times in our life when doing nothing is ok. Get well soon and I hope the rest of this year will be happy and healthy for you.
Thank you for the pantry calendar. I’ve already started working on mine. I’ve already started stock piling food, but this will help me organize a little more. Thank you for taking the time and doing that for us. I printed it out for myself and for a friend keep doing what you’re doing. I’m glad you never talk about politics, except telling people to prepare no matter who wins or who loses there’s gonna be problems thank you.
Sometimes I like to have a meal with sides. Something a person might consider "Sunday Dinner ". We might have pan fried pork chops, dressing (boxed for those days), corn or beans, some applesauce and bread of some sort, maybe a Lasagna with garlic bread and veg. Other days we might make something easy like pita pizzas, tacos, chili or grilled cheese and tomato soup. There's been due days in the summer I just eat summer sausage, cheese, fruit or such. I've made potato or macaroni salad and had that. Really just depends with us.
My biggest gap is medical supplies. I've inventoried the storage room, kitchen pantry, and both freezers. Oh, and I've decided that the lids to the tupperware have gotten out of control and no longer match a darn thing!!
My husband loves the old school protein, starch, veg and fruit, and I make that probably five night a week. Other nights is a salad with protein or a soup. I still work part time and if I get a late shift he is on his own for dinner and when I get home I have grapenuts with fruit/ yogurt or possibly a grilled cheese.
I tend to only cook one meal a day. Most time that is only thing I touch all day. It normally contains 1 protein, starch, and veggie side. My hubby like his starchy foods. So I always include that. Any left overs he get for his lunch the next day. He eats 3 meals a day. Thankfully he cooks his own breakfast. He gets up 2 hrs before I ever do. I will grab freeze dried fruit, pickles or cheese during day if I’m absolutely hungry. Where I know I will sit down with hubby everyday at meal time to enjoy it with him.
We’re eating from the pantry (my daughter lives with me) and doing pretty good. I’ve already spotted a couple of sparse areas and will be allowing $20 a week as a grocery budget when needed. I didn’t can anything today but I did make 3 casserole freezer meals!
I used up some pinto beans that "expired" in 2022. They cooked up just fine and now I have a couple batches of refried beans in my freezer for taco/burrito night. Meals are simply whatever food is on your plate. On Sundays I try to have a meat/potato/veggie/bread type of meal, other days it's anything goes. Tonight we are having a frozen pizza I bought from the clearance bin, doctored up with whatever odds and ends are in the fridge. If we are super hungry I can fluff this meal out with homemade garlic bread (home made and prepped in the freezer) and a can of home canned peaches.
I try to serve a protein starch and vegee or fruit. Sometimes it is a simple breakfast of homemade cottage cheese and grapes though. Sometimes my vegee is carrot sticks or a small amount of pickles. Protein is so expensive so I prefer to add other items to help fill us up.
Told hubby we are eating out of the pantry and freezers to rotate the food better. Meal planned and went shopping on Saturday - spent $25 on food!!!!! (spent $20 on OTC meds we were out of). I normally spend $100/week - I would say that is a WIN!!! Thanks Leisa! Our meals are like yours - but hubby loves carbs, but mainly protein and veggies!
I am doing a major inventory of pantry and prep since I moved. I am using a dry erase board as I take inventory and sort. My brother saw an old box of canned meats with use by date from a few years ago and went nuts. I just reuse boxes and flats to help contain cans.
We typically do a protein, starch, veg. We are a family of 4. Im a type 2 diabetic, we have an almost 18 yr old, she had adhd, and an 11 yr old, she's on the autism spectrum, adhd, severe anxiety, tourettes. I've been working to cut dyes and processed food out.
Having stocked shelves, I can say that older product does at times get pushed behind new stock. I worked with some lazy turds who did that regularly. Irritated me beyond words. Yes it's more hassle to move the older stuff aside to stock from the back, but that's how it's supposed to be done. As always first in, first out.
I started my challenge last month. And continuing this month . I have been learning to get really creative with my cooking and the only things I had to buy were a few fresh veggies.
Stores are having beef for under $5 a pound. Looking at beef stew and beef, onions and mushrooms. Dehydrating peas to add to stews as well. And will do my first go at dehydrating eggs.
I still need to do my inventory. I am pretty good at knowing what I have, it’s finding it when I need it that is the problem. Christmas baking I went to get the peanut butter, my daughter had gotten one. I knew I had bought 2 more jars from Sams just in case she ate it, I hid it so I knew I would have what I needed for baking. Couldn’t find it. She picked up more for the baking. Found the 2 jars I knew I had yesterday. 🤦♀️ I knew I had them. Well, now she has plenty of peanut butter.
I always tell my husband I’m going to the grocery store , then I go down in the basement and get food!! He always laughs at me!! Then when I actually go to the store I replace what I took!!
Really helpful video thank you. its only me and husband now, but I have found a few gaps in my inventory which I can now address ( need more canned veg). Even though we are older, we like the Protein, Veg and Carb and a fruit each day. However, this video has made me think.. so really appreciate your time doing this. ps its great knowing I am doing this with a like minded community xx
From the pantry. Potatoes into fries, baked beans, hamburger Patties from the freezer. Ooops no buns. Pulled out artisan dough out of refrig made buns sprinkled with everything bagel on them. Yumm dinner was served!
Using beef stock for gravy,and some potatoes to smash out of the pantry,should go pretty good with our elk steaks for dinner tonight!! Great information!! Use the pantry before the grocery store!!!
Great tips! Right now I'm doing my year end assessment of stores so i can put together my 'laundry list' of what and how much to plant in the garden this spring. Otherwise I do a quarterly assessment prior to shopping.
I don't have an inventory, i rotate and store by category. I pay attention to nutrition balance in my pantry and daily food. Fresh greens+ from my garden in summer, but powdered veg most days. I have a few winter greens and buy more at the grocery. I am dehydrating turnip greens this week. I don't seem to lose my stores because of physical organization. I was the same at work. My clothes hang in order too. I like visiting my food and shop my pantry. I grocery shop weekly, but that is tied to picking up mail. Meals have my favorite: vegetables and vegetables and vegetables, fresh, dehydrated, powdered, frozen, canned. Calories like barley, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice. Beans are in veg and calories and protein. Then protein: meat, eggs, dairy, nuts. I eat fruit a couple times a week. Deserts on occasion.
Thanks!
Thank you very much ❤️
Been just eating from pantry and freezer here at home...its only me so nobody is complaining. I'm pretty happy with how its going - even did a meal plan for next week! Yay me!
Good for you! Sounds like you have a handle on things.
Just tired today , it’s cold rainy and just gray out, hubby is sick so put on a pot of Elk stew, our carrots, spuds, veggies, onion scapes, 10 minute pull, added in a slice of homemade bread, it made him a touch better, love my pantry!!
That sounds like a perfect day for a hearty stew!
@ it absolutely was, hope you and Phil are well.😊
Made with hands of love is always healing medicine 😊
I've always loved soups, stews, and stir fries because it's an all in one meal. Throw in some bread, biscuits, or cornbread, good to go.
Leisa, you are such a good teacher, I feel like I won the food planning lottery!
I implemented the colored stick dot labeling that one of your members uses.
Each sticker color represents the year the product expires. This is SO much more doable than writing dates with sharpies.
And I finally understand the concept of shopping from your pantry vs. putting food away for hard times.
Thanks so much how sharing information so generously.
Gratefully, Eileen.
So glad you are finding it helpful!
Thank you so much for all your help on filling my pantry. It's just me, but I have many grandchildren and 6 great grand babies. So I have so many to provide for. I do for all my babies and my inventory reflects that.
In Australia it's the start of canning season as the first harvests are happening. I am eating from the shelves to make room for this year's produce.
I just cleaned up my pantry yesterday. Reorganized, condensed areas, and found where there are shortages . Today, I have been working on my restock list. Trying to identify what I really NEED, not just want.
I told my husband today that the first week of every month, we are eating from our food storage. It’s not massive; it’s emergency.
I did the inventory for the long term storage. Mostly
Dried and canned and forever stuff like salt. I have a cabinet in the garage that supplements what is used daily that’s in the kitchen.
At the end of the week I will take our average food budget amount and transfer it to savings. That will go towards replenishing what we consume. Biggest challenge will be running out of fresh vegetables, but I told hubby he can do it for a day or two. He’s a big eater, even though he is older. So I hope he can do this and humor me.
I live alone so I have prepare my meals ahead and portion them in the freezer (soups, stews, burritos, taco meat, etc.). Most nights I pull out something and warm some bread or make a little salad to go with it... or maybe do Brinner...I love Brinner! I keep Loaded Mashed Potato Mini Waffles in the freezer as well, one of my go to favorites with a poached egg from my Peepers on it and some fruit is perfect after a busy day.
Having studied Nutrition intensively for years, my meals always involve plant-based protein, veggies, a little fruit and/or nuts & seeds (for the fat component). I recovered from a stroke with no loss of faculties years ago by switching from a standard American diet (often called S.A.D.) to 100% whole-food plant-based, and once I adjusted to leaving animal products out of my diet, it got easier and easier (and wildly less expensive.)
Just made chicken noodle soup with ulgy chicken my canned bonebroth carrots and celery. Dried onions. Delicious.
Being a single senior I find that two meals a day (breakfast and dinner) consists mostly of protein and carbs with a veggie thrown in the one pan meal! If I snack which is not daily I find it’s canned fruit or popcorn! Of course sometimes I grave something sweet and chocolaty so have a jar I can access!
I started to only keep in supply is my garden food from year to year. Then watching you. I know keep a little bit of everything that I use a lot of from the store. I can sit back and not worry when I'm snowed in for days or weeks. or in the summer when the electric goes out for days or weeks. This girls will survive.
I’m glad you’ve started to build a pantry that works for you!
Being a senior I don’t like cooking every night any more. I could live on leftovers! Adding things to my pantry, getting containers and get things to can! Looking forward to that!!
I can nearly everything is those half pint " jelly jars" now. It helps with the left over dilemma
You nailed it with us. When we were raising kid's, we had the full balanced meal. Now that they are grown, some nights we may eat a bbq sandwich and potatoes or spaghetti. We still have bigger meals, but they tend to take place on weekends or when the family comes over .
My biggest issue with our pantry is people moving stuff around and hunting it down.lol
We are older too, but our children all have large families. We all work together to make things work. Each of us has our own pantries that are always a work in progress. As always, thank you!
Almost finished with my inventory. Too much (if possible) of some items, not enough of others. I do it in stages, commercially prepared items, spices and salt, home canned goods, and dry goods. Make sure the oldest is in front or on top of the bucket/tote. I sometimes just sit in the pantry area of my basement and meditate. It is my happy place.
One of my favorite meals..scrambled eggs,fried potatos and toast. Any meal breakfast lunch or dinner....also eat lots of home made soup.
I am currently working on my inventory list. After completing a week of meal planning, I have begun my second week. I was surprised by how much I had on hand, and I've found that using the inventory list has made meal planning easier. Thank you!
I am working on my can food right now. Putting the newer ones in the back and pulling more recent dates to the front and dating the cans. I Love cooking with my Crock Pot. I am only one, but I make a big pot of food, keep some in the fridge and freeze the rest.
We decided to pantry challenge in February. Our son is here until mid month and we like to have special things when he's able to visit. We usually give up fast food for lent and decided to combine the 2.
Most meals are protein and vegetable or protein and carbs. I am learning so much from your pantry guidance. For the first 70 years of my life, groceries have gone into the kitchen cupboards and the 'excess' has gone into the pantry. I am embracing the change, Thank You
Glad you’re enjoying the pantry tips!
I've always liked a protein, starch, veggie approach to nightly meals. Our goal this year is bread from wheat berries. I have the aero gardens started this year. My problem is fresh salad ingredients like cucumber and tomato. Pantry preparedness, unknown to me 35 years ago, is something we've been doing all this time. Since watching your videos for the past several years we inventory and use our pantry every day. Like you our trips to the grocery store our for fresh produce and dairy. We also purchased a freeze dryer last year and that has been a game changer to preserve our fresh fruit. Thank you so much for your videos and safe canning practices!
I use Ugly Chicken (which is Beautiful Chicken to me) the most from my pantry also. I love having it in my pantry. Thank you for teaching me how to can meat.I had canned for 50 years and had never canned meat. I always thought it was to hard to can meat.Boy was I wrong. It is one of the easiest things to can. Thank you for making these videos. They are so helpful.
Wondering, what is ugly chicken?
@ It is canning raw packed chicken and some people think it looks ugly when it is finished so Leisa named it ugly chicken.
Well Lisa I have so much ugly chicken I have been sorting and cleaning my pantry and so for now I am not bragging but I don't need to stock anymore meats, beans, soups ,veggies ,baking products, Pasta, Rice, milk, or other things but I do need to stock more oils, shortening, and water but really I am so blessed to have so much on hand . I am only going to the grocery store once a month and I dehydrate a lot too. My fruits and jams/jelly all good. Thank you for all of your reminders and good advice!!
I think I am low on fruit.
I have a bad cold and with it being in the 20 ‘s I already know I won’t be working next week, gives me time to organize my pantry, and clean out my sheshed, incase anyone is curious Russian tea and blackberry crown goes down smooth and you sweat that sickness right out, god bless all my prepper peeps may you all be healthy and have prepped your homes 😊
Hope you feel better soon
I agree, I’m not watching the food groups. Tonight was stew: meat, carrots and potatoes.
I love your videos. You are the sweetest lady and I love your wealth of knowledge. Thanks so much.
I have always had a garden and preserved food but it wasn’t till the Y2K fiasco that i started my first serious pantry stacking. Later, around 2007, I discovered the Backwoods Home magazines and learned so much.
I love having enough supplies so I don’t need to be concerned about storms, lockdowns, and more. It’s just so much easier to live like this.
Thanks again for sharing your journey with us.
Leisa, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the inspiration!!! Yay me this is the first year I did a complete inventory. And I mean complete! Every freezer what is on each shelf and even each shelf on the door!!! I was getting ingredients for dinner this morning, I looked on my inventory sheets and knew exactly where each one was. What an amazing thing!
That’s fantastic! You’re going to love knowing exactly what you have on hand!
Went through the freezer and inventoried it today and meal planned at the same time. Our pantry consists mainly of home canned veggies, fruit, jam/jelly and condiments like pickles and salsa etc. I am most happy when I’m prepping things to fill my pantry. I try to make from scratch where I can. I don’t like buying processed anything. Thank you for putting Canuary together. I learn so much.
My meals are whatever food I can get to eat , I'm not that fussy , THANK YOU LEISA
I am so proud to say that I canned 4 or of pineapple and 7 pt cranberry orange sauce. Would have been 8 but one jar broke. Back to work on Monday so that's probably it. Just had to share.
Great!
You go girl!
I’m all in 3rd year in a row with Canuary no spend January. This has been the best game changer for me. I used to slog my way through January and February until I stumbled on Suttons Daze 4 years ago. I was depressed every winter as I’ve been diagnosed with SAD. Vitamin D3 and a few minutes outside every day is the ease along with these challenges for me. I now look forward to it and start talking about it before Thanksgiving. Thank you for this whole experience Lisa… it truly has changed my winter life tremendously.
I love that you’ve found something that helps you during the winter months!
Thank you for the inspiration to tidy up. I cleaned, checked dates and labeled, sorted and put like with like. I have all my ‘use me next’ in my kitchen cupboard to meal plan around. I am pleased that very little was lost to aging. I tossed some stuff that we didn’t like. The birds and critters will feast ! Thank you again!
Glad to hear it was a helpful inspiration!
Even though I live in zone 6B, we tend to eat more fresh food than canned. From the outside winter garden bed, there is cabbage, spinach, and parsley. And yes, we have snow on top. In the grow room, I have lettuce since the last planting outside finished up. The mouse ate the last pumpkin. I checked my own inventory today before I even saw your video. As to diet, growing up in meat and potato-land, I always have a protein, starch, and a vegetable for supper. We get our fruits with breakfast. Either jelly with yogurt or canned fruit on pancakes. Canned syrup goes great in oatmeal too. Frozen blueberries and raspberries get pulled as needed - wish I had the money for a freeze dryer but a regular freezer is what we have. During winter power outages, I toss freezer stuff in a cooler and stick it outside. Where I live, the grid isn't always stable.
I guess I have been somewhat prepping since 2015, I was a coupon queen. My co workers used to rib me a lot about it but I was the first one to make up a care package and donate goods when the need arose. They ALL stopped kidding me about it in 2020 when the doody hit the fan. Also we moved my mom in with us in 2014 when her health started failing, so I made sure we had emergency supplies at the ready for her care too. It’s just me and my husband now and I’m learning life again after being a caregiver for 9 yrs, so I took up gardening, preserving, and taking our health more seriously with what we put in our bodies. This is the first time I’ve really done a challenge to see what I could improve on. I’m pretty sure if we tried really hard it could last quite a few months. I guess I’m about to find out😂
I had a stock of peanut butter. My family doesn’t like it only me. But recently I have developed allergies to peanut butter. 😢 now I’m gifting it to family and restocking with something else. Time to go through the pantry and purge. With the storm coming in it will give me a project to do inside.
We’re on it! Pulling out primary cupboard cans to stash away 2026 and make sure 2024 are used up first and 2025 earlier year dates are ready to be used. Love the inventory idea! 😊👍❤️
We make a full meal every night. Lunches are always leftovers or pb&j. Breakfast is muffins, breakfast burritos, oatmeal, smoothies, cereal, pancakes, French toast. We are foster parents so we always have littles that need that well rounded diet.
When I went through and did the inventory I found several home canned food the lids came unsealed. So it’s definitely a good idea to go through at least every few months.
I can't tell you how much I love my new Project Pantry Planner. Totally obsessed. Even considering buying one for next year, just to be sure to have it. Thank you. ❤❤
I love hearing that!
I have the hardest time keeping an inventory. I write things down and never can keep track of the lists. I like having a fully fleshed out pantry, just keeping track of it is a pia.
@@TracieL1234 maybe place a clipboard or something like that on a hook inside your pantry? Just a quick thought. My "pantry" is not all in one location, but I do keep my inventory on a clipboard I can hang up inside my revamped broom closet turned food storage.
That is why I went from paper to spreadsheet. I take laptop to the pantry.
With the next inventory I am going to reorder the list to be in roughly the same order as my shelves.
My racks are metal.i hang my list up with a big ugly magnet and a pen on a string
I track my pantry inventory in Google Sheets.
This week I've been reorganizing and inventorying my pantry. It's a LOT of work going through everything and finding places for it all. It will be worth it though when it's done and I can FIND everything!
We are about to go through snowmagedon. Am I worried? Not at all. Thanks be to you and those that have taught me to be prepared!! We are ready!! My pantry is on an excel spread sheet. Listed by year of expiration and type of food. When I shop I add each item...when I use something I take it off. We have 4 freezers and everything is listed on a separate spread sheet. When I need something I immediately know where to find what I am looking for, I just look in my notebook. It is great!! I also inventoried wine, alcohol, snacks, TP, medical supplies, cleaning and laundry supplies, It keeps the waste down to 0.
If the house is on fire We need to grab pictures and my notebook. I have an inventory of everything. I am not nuts, just very organized. We just had a SHTF event....my husband had surgery for colon cancer. He is doing well and a full recovery is expected but we didn't have to worry about meals. Thanks to all I have learned about prepping!!
My husband decided to add more installation in my pantry, he moved, mixed boxed, re stacked my pantry goods. So all my stock has been so mixed up. So,not reorganizing it till he is done. Lol!😅
Oh I know that feeling. Sometimes you just gotta let it go.
🤦🏼♀️
Wanted to get a year's worth of staples. (It's just me and the dog right now) I will get about 6-8 months before my self-imposed 'stop shopping' date in mid January. I made a weekly meal plan for the next several months and inventoried the freezer. Can't actually fit much more in there. 😂 Three sale items needed for the meal plan and I am done there. The list of pantry items I think I still need is getting smaller as well. Part of the money I save will go to restocking for next year.
I have take the leftovers. I have put them in bags and popped them in the freezer for a couple meals , instead of putting them in the refrigerator. It's been only me for years now, and it's just easier on me to grab my home cooked meal out of the freezer pop it in the micro wave and heat it up. Poof dinner is served. I didn't always do this when the girl's were younger and it showed on my waist 😅 I ate all their left overs. In fact, i would take some of them to work for lunch the next day. Waste not , want not. And yes, I check the cans ect and write the dates on them. Though I heard you say on one of your videos that someone used different color markers and just put a color code to tell what month, etc. To tell when they canned them or when buying can foods at the store. This idea I love and have decided to use it in my pantry . I have RA, and it's hard on my fingers and wrists to write it all out. A color code dot is just the ticket . Less pain as well. It is a good thing. Oh , if you bought something that will most likely last for years and you have a printer , type up the date , year, and month and slap a label on it just in case. Because even though the people sometimes think it will last forever - truely it doesn't. Because it was made by man , and we all know that when make makes anything it doesn't last forever. 😅😅 it just seems like it does. Love your video's and the great ideas I glean from them. This ole bird always learns something new every day, and yes, food is grown and is a lot different than when I was growing up. Grandma and Mom used celler's to keep things at a safe temperature. I do not have one . And I can't use Grandma's. Sadly, the houses and other buildings were torn down years ago. My meals vary from season to seasons , winters are stews , soup, chili's, and gravy's ,and my biscuits vary rarely buy breads from the store's. Spring , Summers , and first part of fall is salads , maccaroni with a ton of chopped up vegetables tossed in for good measure and what ever fruit i can buy at local farmers markets. 😊
My meals are mostly protein and low carb. I just did this with my pantry the other day because there is an ice storm heading my way and I needed to know. Was surprised that I didn't actually really need to run out and get anything.
That is great news!
That was me during hurricane Helene. Was a blessing to be prepared with food, water, batteries, etc.
Just stocked up on cooking wines (for slow cooker), various pastas, flour, and canned goods. As we get low on something, the shopping list for the following pay day is created.
Not only shopping my pantry and using up things that have been here a while, but planning a big cooking day to prepare meals so that I can continue to work on decluttering and reorganizing my home! Thanks, L!
Hi Leisa! Thank you so much for your hard work coordinating Canuary! 😊
I have a special three-ring binder and every time I can something I put it in it how much I did and if I like the recipe I write the recipe underneath it. I can refer back to it later on
I was just doing inventory today. I had to move stuff from my storage pantry to my working pantry. What a great time to inventory. Canned some blackberry jelly and I’m clearing the rhubarb from the freezer to can some rhubarb sauce. Canuary and pantry challenge.
Being as it's just me most if the time, I cook 2 or 3 times a week and have left ivers the rest of the time. Today I made a big pot of bacon-cabbage-potato soup that Ill eat for the next few days with homemade bread. The cabbage was some I had dehydrated and wanted to try, it was delicious in the soup.
That sounds amazing!
I think we need this recipe!
I agree ! Where’s the recipe!! 😂
You still just bring it Leisa. Thank you for bringing content with VALUE! Such a refreshing break from the firehose of regurgitated daily "news" content. They TALK the talk, you WALK the talk. Bravo Leisa!
I appreciate that!
Thank You for your timely info.
Just stared to inventory or pantry, freezer one done. 3 more areas to go. I think this is going to help us be less wistful. Thank you for sharing.
I am 61 yes old and lives alone.. I am more of a food person. I do have a food allergy to beef and pork, so I do try to make sure I get some kind of protein every day.
When I stock, I write the expiration date on the front. Another thing that I do is when I do my inventory, I put all the used by date for this year in a separate area. That way I know that I really need to use them up and don't forget. I have found out I do better with meal planning around those items then.
You are absolutely spot on with this pantry thing 🙂 I was battling lots of visitors in 2024. This year is going to be different. We just put in some new shelves so now I am following your guidance and getting everything in order. Also trying to keep in mind some space for all the garden goodies I'm dreaming about.
Meals for us usually are a protein, carb, and veg. Preferably in as few pots as possible.
I'm so glad to hear you are taking control of your pantry!
I was in the middle of doing inventory (I use a spreadsheet that tracks location, price, quantity, size and cost per unit) when I saw that most of the ingredients for my gardiniere recipe were on sale. So today I cut up everything for 5 batches (appx. 25 pints) of gardiniere, which I will can tomorrow. I made a batch this fall and gave jars away a Christmas. Everyone who got a jar opened it and immediately finished the entire jar - some in just one sitting - so I knew I needed to make more.
Ma y I ask. What is gardinere?
That's amazing that your gardiniere is so popular!
@@denisewilson8367 definition copied from google
Giardiniera typically contains a mix of vegetables that you might find in an Italian garden: carrots, cauliflower, celery, green beans, peppers, and onions.
I haven’t canned it myself but I keep 2-3 jars in my pantry all the time. I have one or two recipes that use it. And we like pickled items also.
@@denisewilson8367 It's pickled cauliflower, carrots, celery, onions, zucchini and bell peppers. I follow the recipe from the Ball book (the green one.) It's also spelled Jardiniere.
I am doing some inventory but also filling in gaps. Ran out of homecanned chili and baked beans. So have both going. A crock pot full of baked beans and my large kettle of chili. Keep a little to eat soon and can the rest. Found hamburger yesterday on sale for $2.98 a pund!! Got enough to make chili and either can or freeze the rest. Caught the sale by chance so that worked out great! Single grandma and dont want to cook every nite. Love canning soups and other meals as well as ingredients so I can just warm something up some nites!
My meals have become just “something to eat”. I am a one man show so my meals don’t have to be fancy or gourmet. I have found that I have canned pints of soups or meal starters and lately it is about what can be done quickly.
Ditto
There seems to be a lot of us that are single person homes. But having our pantries stocked and buying in bulk save us so much money. And meal preps are quick and easy. The fancy stuff can be saved for holiday get togethers.
In some things, I grab my protein and veg and left overs in for either lunch or dinner tomorrow. I keep veggies I cannot can fresh. Since I got serious about trying to stock my pantry, I find eating from it saves me from thinking I don’t want to cook tonight. I am eating better, and since I live by myself, the only pallet I need to concern myself with is mine! 😊
I'll find the bottom of the big freezer this week. LOL I know there are frozen cherries that want to go into a cobbler
Hubby's a typical 'meat & potato ' man but i love to eat lighter most of the time. I do love my homemade chili 😋
I found the pressure canned meats, potatos & beans, home canned tomatos and a crock pot are the dependable methods of a home cooked 'dinner', a batch of chili is generally 3 meals. A sandwiche.for lunch, and egg(s) for breakfast -typically 2x per month I make a quiche or oven fondue which can be divided & frozen usually 4 breakfasts with other days being an egg + toast or a dish with yougurt, fruit and granola...no time for complicated 4 course meals at my house except at the holidays.
I plan to spend a number of days next week doing pantry inventory.
Such good advise. We had a real medical year in 2024 and found I had to gift a very large amount of my pantry. Wheat in chicken broth?? Seriously? Now this wasn't all bad. My inventory was shot though. I learned to pressure can, thank you. I have much more confidence this Canuary, again, thanks to you.
Our meals always have some kind of meat item in them and maybe a vegetable or two. Sometimes we will have pasta or potatoes with those meals. I plan on doing inventory in my freezer again and use up some items in my freezer to make more room. I mainly inventory the meat, but need to inventory my frozen veg, etc, as well. I just put in a bunch of fresh bell peppers from my container garden, into the freezer.
I shoot for a protein and two veggies, but when I don’t manage that I don’t get upset about it. We always have something filling to eat.
Tonight we were having a salad and baked sweet potato with pesto, eggs and avocado on top, but the baked sweet potatoes were rotten inside, so I substituted with refried beans, hubby said it was great for last minute!
Once again helping me update my pantry stock up list. Can't believe some of the things I forgot! Different types of salt and spices.
Like you I like food. Sometimes it’s a nice steak and vegetable with a potato for my husband he eats anything and everything except good things. Sometimes it’s soup and sometimes it’s a tuna sandwich or something. I limit myself to two meals a day low carb as much as I possibly can. I fell off the Keto wagon which I was on for over two years so trying to get back on slowly.
For me, it was the holidays
Still recovering from a major illness. I am going through a kitchen cabinet a day. I am not doing the January challenge. I am on a high protein diet and am trying to stock as much protein as i can while i am trying to pay off bills. I do not have the bandwidth for anything else.
You do whatever you have the ability to do. There are times in our life when doing nothing is ok. Get well soon and I hope the rest of this year will be happy and healthy for you.
Thank you for the pantry calendar. I’ve already started working on mine. I’ve already started stock piling food, but this will help me organize a little more. Thank you for taking the time and doing that for us. I printed it out for myself and for a friend keep doing what you’re doing. I’m glad you never talk about politics, except telling people to prepare no matter who wins or who loses there’s gonna be problems thank you.
Yes, I’m guilty… haven’t done my inventory lately. I will get on it. It sure is important.
We usually do a one pot type of meal.
BTW, Happy Birthday!
Thanks Leisa!
Thank you very much!
Sometimes I like to have a meal with sides. Something a person might consider "Sunday Dinner ". We might have pan fried pork chops, dressing (boxed for those days), corn or beans, some applesauce and bread of some sort, maybe a Lasagna with garlic bread and veg. Other days we might make something easy like pita pizzas, tacos, chili or grilled cheese and tomato soup. There's been due days in the summer I just eat summer sausage, cheese, fruit or such. I've made potato or macaroni salad and had that. Really just depends with us.
My biggest gap is medical supplies. I've inventoried the storage room, kitchen pantry, and both freezers. Oh, and I've decided that the lids to the tupperware have gotten out of control and no longer match a darn thing!!
My husband loves the old school protein, starch, veg and fruit, and I make that probably five night a week. Other nights is a salad with protein or a soup. I still work part time and if I get a late shift he is on his own for dinner and when I get home I have grapenuts with fruit/ yogurt or possibly a grilled cheese.
My husband and I very seldom can agree on what we want for dinner. Thank goodness for our Thrive meals that we have pre-packaged.
Thank you leisa ! Growing up a meal always consisted of meat ,potato/rice or pasta and a veggie 😊
I tend to only cook one meal a day. Most time that is only thing I touch all day. It normally contains 1 protein, starch, and veggie side. My hubby like his starchy foods. So I always include that. Any left overs he get for his lunch the next day. He eats 3 meals a day. Thankfully he cooks his own breakfast. He gets up 2 hrs before I ever do. I will grab freeze dried fruit, pickles or cheese during day if I’m absolutely hungry. Where I know I will sit down with hubby everyday at meal time to enjoy it with him.
I have shelves set up January through December, and foods that expire by those months go there. So then month by month we know what to grab 😊
We’re eating from the pantry (my daughter lives with me) and doing pretty good. I’ve already spotted a couple of sparse areas and will be allowing $20 a week as a grocery budget when needed. I didn’t can anything today but I did make 3 casserole freezer meals!
I used up some pinto beans that "expired" in 2022. They cooked up just fine and now I have a couple batches of refried beans in my freezer for taco/burrito night. Meals are simply whatever food is on your plate. On Sundays I try to have a meat/potato/veggie/bread type of meal, other days it's anything goes. Tonight we are having a frozen pizza I bought from the clearance bin, doctored up with whatever odds and ends are in the fridge. If we are super hungry I can fluff this meal out with homemade garlic bread (home made and prepped in the freezer) and a can of home canned peaches.
That is how it should be. Every day is a different adventure.
I try to serve a protein starch and vegee or fruit. Sometimes it is a simple breakfast of homemade cottage cheese and grapes though. Sometimes my vegee is carrot sticks or a small amount of pickles. Protein is so expensive so I prefer to add other items to help fill us up.
Told hubby we are eating out of the pantry and freezers to rotate the food better. Meal planned and went shopping on Saturday - spent $25 on food!!!!! (spent $20 on OTC meds we were out of). I normally spend $100/week - I would say that is a WIN!!! Thanks Leisa! Our meals are like yours - but hubby loves carbs, but mainly protein and veggies!
That is amazing!
I am doing a major inventory of pantry and prep since I moved. I am using a dry erase board as I take inventory and sort. My brother saw an old box of canned meats with use by date from a few years ago and went nuts. I just reuse boxes and flats to help contain cans.
We typically do a protein, starch, veg. We are a family of 4. Im a type 2 diabetic, we have an almost 18 yr old, she had adhd, and an 11 yr old, she's on the autism spectrum, adhd, severe anxiety, tourettes. I've been working to cut dyes and processed food out.
Having stocked shelves, I can say that older product does at times get pushed behind new stock. I worked with some lazy turds who did that regularly. Irritated me beyond words. Yes it's more hassle to move the older stuff aside to stock from the back, but that's how it's supposed to be done. As always first in, first out.
I started my challenge last month. And continuing this month . I have been learning to get really creative with my cooking and the only things I had to buy were a few fresh veggies.
Stores are having beef for under $5 a pound. Looking at beef stew and beef, onions and mushrooms.
Dehydrating peas to add to stews as well.
And will do my first go at dehydrating eggs.
I still need to do my inventory. I am pretty good at knowing what I have, it’s finding it when I need it that is the problem. Christmas baking I went to get the peanut butter, my daughter had gotten one. I knew I had bought 2 more jars from Sams just in case she ate it, I hid it so I knew I would have what I needed for baking. Couldn’t find it. She picked up more for the baking. Found the 2 jars I knew I had yesterday. 🤦♀️ I knew I had them. Well, now she has plenty of peanut butter.
I always tell my husband I’m going to the grocery store , then I go down in the basement and get food!! He always laughs at me!! Then when I actually go to the store I replace what I took!!
Really helpful video thank you. its only me and husband now, but I have found a few gaps in my inventory which I can now address ( need more canned veg). Even though we are older, we like the Protein, Veg and Carb and a fruit each day. However, this video has made me think.. so really appreciate your time doing this. ps its great knowing I am doing this with a like minded community xx
Glad it was helpful!
From the pantry. Potatoes into fries, baked beans,
hamburger Patties from the freezer. Ooops no buns. Pulled out artisan dough out of refrig made buns sprinkled with everything bagel on them. Yumm dinner was served!
Using beef stock for gravy,and some potatoes to smash out of the pantry,should go pretty good with our elk steaks for dinner tonight!!
Great information!! Use the pantry before the grocery store!!!
Great tips! Right now I'm doing my year end assessment of stores so i can put together my 'laundry list' of what and how much to plant in the garden this spring. Otherwise I do a quarterly assessment prior to shopping.
I don't have an inventory, i rotate and store by category. I pay attention to nutrition balance in my pantry and daily food. Fresh greens+ from my garden in summer, but powdered veg most days. I have a few winter greens and buy more at the grocery. I am dehydrating turnip greens this week. I don't seem to lose my stores because of physical organization. I was the same at work. My clothes hang in order too. I like visiting my food and shop my pantry. I grocery shop weekly, but that is tied to picking up mail.
Meals have my favorite: vegetables and vegetables and vegetables, fresh, dehydrated, powdered, frozen, canned. Calories like barley, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice. Beans are in veg and calories and protein. Then protein: meat, eggs, dairy, nuts. I eat fruit a couple times a week. Deserts on occasion.
I think that’s a great system! It really comes down to what works for you and what you are comfortable with.