I know we are supposed to have a year supply of food in the basement and that means also having a regular supply of food in the refrigerator and freezer but every few months, I like to do what I call "Purging".I don't make any meal unless it comes directly from either place and I won't go to the store until we are either out of milk or the shelves are mostly bare. It makes me use up food that might otherwise go to waste and it forces me to get creative with what we have. It is also a good humbling reminder of tighter times when the grocery budget had been spent and we had to just live on what was in the house--even if that meant black beans and Ramen noodles for two or three days.
So today for dinner we had a salad, to use up lettuce and one last tomato that was on the verge of going bad. Hamburgers (from frozen patties that I found in the back of the freezer with no cheese because we used up the cheese yesterday). I found in the bottom of the veggie drawer, some asparagus that I had forgotten about (under the head of iceberg lettuce) that we grilled (the ends were growing mold but I just cut them off--I know, yuck). It actually was a very good meal, much better than some of my other purging times (noodles with blue cheese because that is all we had on hand, comes to mind.)
Now, the shelves in the refrigerator are bare (with the exception of some hamburger dill pickles and a 1/2 a gallon of milk) and I can go to the grocery store tomorrow with a clean conscience.
5 comments:
I can't believe your fridge only has two things in it. Really? What about the salad dressings? What about the cans of pilsbury biscuits? What about the ketchup and mustard and the teriaki sauce? You've used up EVERYTHING in the fridge AND freezer? That's impressive. But then you have to go out and fill it back up again, which would be expensive.
Ok, Paige, on the shelves, not what is in the doors. That is where the ketchup, mustard, teriaki sauce, etc. still remains. But the shelves are empty.
Awsome idea. :)
You inspired me and I purged my fridge yesterday. It was liberating. Unfortunately the only thing I could come up with was a salad. Everything else was moldy!
I'm inspired, too. I don't know when is that last time we eat our cupboards bare, so to speak. I know we've had certain pastas on the top shelf for over a year. In the spirit of there's-no-better-time-than-now, perhaps we'll eat spaghetti tonight!
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