While digging through everything, I was shocked at how much food we had accumulated. Our upstairs pantry was busting at the seems, our basement pantry shelf was full and both our upstairs freezer and basement deep-freeze were completely loaded.
As always, I'm trying to find ways to cut expenses--and honestly, food is kind of a hard expense to cut! That night, I warned Justin that I was going to try to use up EVERYTHING we had in our house and best be ready for some odd meals. Based on what we had on hand, I figured I could go at least an entire month without grocery shopping!
Well, reality struck and avoiding the grocery shopping--or lack thereof--didn't go quite as I had expected. Hello, a person needs some fresh fruits and vegetables from time-to-time!!! But really, I did pretty well. We had all the meat and dry ingredients on hand (yes, you can call me a hoarder) and most of the seasonings. Keep in mind we still had to run to the store for breakfast, lunch and snack items so it was easy to pick up a few fresh ingredients to add to our meals. However, over all, we had some pretty normal meals based on what we already had!
To be honest, the only reason I did fairly well was because I discovered a new website called http://www.supercook.com/. I have no idea if it's one of those sites that EVERYBODY already knows about, or if it's a best-kept secret. Anyhow, I loved it! You just type in the ingredients you already have in your pantry/fridge/freezer and it pulls up recipes from literally all over the Internet. It also sorts the recipes based on things you could make without going to the store--and recipes that you would add a few extra things to. It rocks!
Overall, I only found two downfalls of SuperCook.com. 1--It's not always available. For some reason, every couple of days or so, the site decides not to cooperate. But I remain patient and keep checking back! And 2--if you don't register with the site, they give you a limited selection of results. It's worth the extra two-seconds it takes to register with their site!
If you're really bored and curious to see what we came up with for meals, I tried to tally up all the suppers we made during the month of January. Of course, we had our weekly left-over nights, two nights of eating out and a weekend we weren't in town. But for cooking 20+ meals with stuff we already had on hand, I'd say we didn't do too bad! Oh, and guess what??? After a month of trying to use up everything, we still have a decent amount of odds-and-ends on hand!
Our No-Grocery-Shopping-Necessary Suppers:
1. Buffalo Chicken Strips with Homemade Shells & Cheese and Cucumber Slices
2. Black-Eyed Peas with Saffron Rice AND Cucumber Slices
3. 4-Meat Lasagna with Garlic Bread and Green Beans
4. Pigs-In-a-Blanket with Spicy Coleslaw
5. Chicken & Rice Soup with Dinner Rolls
6. Pot Roast with Mushroom Risotto and Roasted Carrots
7. Swedish Meatballs with Rice and Steamed Broccoli
8. Homemade "Chipotle" Burritos/Burrito Bowls with Black Beans
9. Taco Soup
10. Sloppy Joes with Cucumber Slices
11. Campbell's Cheesy Chicken & Rice Casserole
12. Pork Chops with Couscous and Broccoli
13. Beef Tips with Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Carrots
14. Indian Butter Chicken over Rice with Green Peas
15. 5-Spice Beef Stir Fry with Snow Peas
16. Brisket Quesadillas with Black Beans
17. Chicken Satay with Chickpeas Masala
18. Sweet & Tangy Meatballs with Stir-Fried Green Beans
19. Meatball Sliders with Spicy Ranchero Sauce and Pepperjack Cheese
20. Velveeta Taco Bake with Green Beans
21. Chicken, Corn and Cheesy Rice Casserole
22. Twice Baked Potatoes with Broccoli and Chicken Tenders (I admit, that meal did get a little weird!)
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