Pantry Challenge, Week 1

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We have three full freezers and a pantry loaded with food, much of which we grew ourselves. It’s time to focus on eating this bounty, so I’m joining Jessica at Good (Cheap) Eats  for a January Pantry Challenge.
Our goals for the month:

1. To have one of our large freezers half empty by the end of the month (eat lots of home-grown vegetables and fruits)
2. To cut our food bill by 30% for the month (buy only the basic necessities as well as loss leaders)
3. To finish or freeze the remaining butternut squashes
4. To eat many of the carrots we have stored in sand in the pantry

It’s hard for me to dig down into the full freezers, but my husband just takes a box, fills it up with frozen goodies, and brings it the kitchen for us to use. That works wonderfully.
Last week we ate the following foods from our stores:

• Butternut squashes
• The last of our fresh homegrown apples (in Miss 9’s scrumptious gluten-free apple scones)
• Frozen apples (in Miss 14’s delectable gluten free pies)
• Red peppers (soup)
• Kale (mixed with potatoes and onions, a Dutch dish called ‘stamppot’)
• Arugula (soup)
• Beet tops
• Leeks (soup)
• Ginger (ginger beef)
• Onions
• Potatoes (we’re cutting down on rice and rice noodles for the month)
• Raspberries
• Cheese
• Two almost empty containers of ice cream (the kids loved that!)
• Turkey stock (soup and beef stew)
• Meats: ground beef, bacon, home-grown chicken, turkey, cheap steak (as ginger beef)
• Pumpkin puree (pie)
• Carrots
• Spinach

Of course, we can’t resist good deals so we put things into the freezer too.  Last week we added:

• A pork leg (at $1/lb, an incredibly good price in our area)
• Beef roasts (also on sale, and nice for company)

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For more homemaking stories, see Raising Homemakers.