Tag Archives: pantry

food preservation, Use it Up

Thank Goodness for the Pantry! March 29, 2023

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Have you ever had one of those weeks? The kind where you are hit on every side by unexpected activities and situations, and have to maintain your “regular” life at the same time? I think we all have.

We had one of those weeks! Our pantry saved the day for me!

I did have time to run into the store once, while Rob stayed with Malcolm in the car on the way back from one of our many commitments. I spent around $6. Otherwise, I have been relying on my freezer and pantry shelves because I have been too busy to worry about organizing a big shop.

Rob cooked some of that 87c/lb chicken we got last week. He barbecued it with some home-canned plum sauce. That sauce has been sitting on my shelf for quite a while, and since we liked it a lot, I know what I’m going to do with the rest of it now.

I had him pick up a Costco chicken last week when he was with our niece. She loves, loves, loves to get a hot dog there, and they occasionally do that after her other activities. We ate that a few times, then I boiled the bones and now have about 3 quarts of broth and some bits of meat.

I made some home-made gluten-free Bisquick mix and made Impossible Gluten-free Cheeseburger Pie, right off the Betty Crocker website. I made three of these this past week, as we had lots of company at various times and also needed to take food to the college group yesterday. I used the same mix to make cheesy-garlic biscuits like the ones from Red Lobster. They were great! Now, I’m out of that mix and will need to mix up more if I want any of those again. I have a huge assortment of gluten-free flours in the garage that need to be used, so I’m purposefully looking for some recipes to use them.

I practiced making gluten-free angel food cake and fed it to my mom and aunt. I want to make one for Easter and haven’t made it for so long I wanted to practice. It came out great and also used some of those random flours in the garage.

I made up another bag of gluten-free bread crumbs from a loaf that was given to me a while back. We were given a few quite dry ones, and this is the second time I’ve made crumbs.

The schools handed out free lunches for spring break. They are doing it differently–handing out a large bag every few days, rather than one small bag each day. We managed to make it one time so far, and have one more chance today to hit their one-hour window. The kids have been enjoying some different foods from that source. I made tapioca pudding from some of the milk. I also made hot chocolate by mixing some chocolate and white milk and warming it. I cooked the broccoli and cauliflower and will put the celery in something I cook. I froze a few items and will feed them out over time. There were apples and oranges. My nephew and his friends ate apples Monday afternoon while they were playing, but there are still a few left.

Yesterday was the busiest day of all. I made muffins early in the morning, using frozen peaches and Pamela’s gf pancake mix. I doubled it so I could freeze some. I didn’t freeze any. We ended up with some unexpected company that stayed all day, so I served them up, along with sending some to the college group. I grabbed 2 quarts of home-canned broth because what I was making on the stove was not finished, canned carrots, a garden onion, rice, spices and some of the Costco chicken and quickly made some soup.

The pantry and freezers really came through for me this week. We even got out a packet of instant mashed potatoes (saved for desperately busy times), pulled soup from the freezer, and used some other odds and ends. Fresh produce is what I purchased, we have carrots, potatoes and onions, the eggs are holding out from some we got reasonably a while back, the milk was stretched by the school lunches so I still have plenty, so we are good to go for several more days. What a blessing! I’ve saved quite a bit of money this month from my grocery budget, due to how busy I’ve been. Perfect! I’ll just replace some of my pantry items if I need to and be ready for the next super crazy, busy time in my life.

Although this picture of the canning shelf is from last fall, while I was grabbing jars one day, I arranged the shelves and tidied them up a bit and noticed that we still have jars and jars and jars that are still filled. Amazing! I’m glad I filled so many.

Cooking for a crowd, Projects, Use it Up

Cleaning the Pantry and Garage–Part 3–January, 2023

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I didn’t clean another area in the garage, per say, but did tidy up small places to keep the places I’ve cleaned so far from slipping back into chaos.

Instead, this past week was full of cooking up items that needed to be used from my pantry. I had several extra meals to cook, including food for 25 people that I was taking to the college group from church on Tuesday.

I started with a boxed mix for pumpkin bread I found when cleaning. It was a conventional, wheat-filled mix, so I had not used it. I used the rest of some squash I’d thawed and a mashed banana to finish up the cup I needed. I threw in some mini chocolate chips from the freezer and baked it up. I have no idea what it tasted like, as I could not taste it, but I’m sure it was delicious. What’s not to like about chocolate chips, right?

Rob marinated and grilled chicken legs and thighs for the group, us and my sister’s family. I did not use the new chicken I purchased on such a good sale last week. Instead, we pulled the frozen packages we already had, thawed and used them to keep things rotating properly in the freezers. They were purchased on sale, as well, not long ago.

I made 3 kinds of cookies or bars, to use items I wanted to target. This one is fudge toffee bars. It used a can of sweetened condensed milk that was close to date, the rest of the toffee chips from a recipe a few weeks ago, some coconut that had been lingering and some glittery “disco” chocolate chips I had gotten on a super bargain. They were normal Toll house chips, but with some kind of glitter on top….go figure:). I guess they weren’t super popular, as they were at the discount store. They were kind of pretty, to me, though.

I made raspberry jam oatmeal bars with oats and home-canned jam that was a couple of years old, but so, so yummy! I wanted to use some old-fashioned rolled oats I have and we liked the bars so much I’ll make them again.

The third kind was peanut butter chocolate chip. I sent a few of those on my cookie tray, but froze most of them in the shop freezer. I like to make a batch every couple of months and we eat them slowly. I used a jar of peanut butter I got for 97c.

Normally, I would not make so many kinds of cookies for the group. I just wanted to use these ingredients in a creative way. We had plenty of cookies to eat and share and have a large container in the freezer still to use.

We got a bag of romaine from the restaurant supply store and added a bag of spinach from Safeway, as I had a coupon to get it for $1.50, for a big salad. I added shredded cabbage from my garden, grated carrot and just a few cherry tomatoes on top for color.

To finish that meal, I soaked and cooked a large pot of pinto beans, as I still have quite a few from the 50 pound bag we got at the beginning of Covid. At that point, it was about $22 for the entire bag, and they were in short supply. It was either buy that or no beans at all, at the time, and we were out. They still cooked up beautifully. There were no issues getting them soft. I made Western beans with southwestern seasonings such as cumin, and froze the rest for later use.

I tried a recipe for egg flower soup from a cookbook I checked out from the library. I added tofu cubes at the last minute so they wouldn’t crumble. It tasted really good. The broth was given to us a while back and was almost at “Best used by” date and the tofu was a 97c bargain at the discount store. Rob loves tofu…I’m not as much of a fan, but it was good in this soup. It also used up some green onions that were starting to wilt.

One of our sons came over one day for lunch. I used hamburger buns that were lingering in the freezer and served burgers and extra salad from the big batch I made for the college group. I didn’t make much else, as he only wants hamburgers, hamburgers and more hamburgers:)

Last, but not least, I made some salmon patties and fries in my air-fryer. There were some cans of salmon on the shelf that needed to be used. I shared some, and we ate some. One thing Rob did was make a fish sandwich from them. He liked the patties that way. I tossed the potatoes in a tiny bit of oil and added parmesan, salt and pepper and they came out very tasty.

I can see some small spaces already forming on the pantry shelves, which I’m very pleased about as I just organized it to be full and straightened. Once another large space opens up, I want to reorganize all of my tea. The freezers are in good condition, but will need cleaning before too long.

Food management is a big job around here, and I have plans to continue my pantry project for a while longer before moving on to the freezers. Unfortunately, there are still a couple of areas to clean out there in the garage, and happily, there are still many, many delicious items to put on the top of the “use-it-up” list. Thankfully, most of the items that urgently needed to be dealt with have been used!

I really enjoy cooking, and like to be able to find what I want on my shelves, so it’s worth it to me. Also, organizing it allows me to buy several of each item when the price is low, and have plenty to use when the prices rise, without wasting! It really needed to be done and I’m glad I finally got around to it.

Food and Water Storage, Use it Up

Cleaning the Pantry and Garage–Part 2-Jan. 2023

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Really, Becky?

When I say I’m cleaning the pantry, I really mean the entire garage needs desperate help. The kids used to play Wii on this t.v. No one has done that lately, for many reasons, so it’s become a dumping ground for empty containers. Then full ones. Then other stuff. And so on.

Dried fruits and veggies are in containers on the right. The box is full of empty cottage cheese, etc. cartons plus a few purchased ones. There are tin foil pans. I use these items for sending food to people so they don’t have to worry about returning anything. I also freeze items in the cartons if they are sturdy. The ice cream buckets are always full of things like extra flour, sugar, beans, etc. and I always keep extras there for when I need them.

Behind the t.v. are extra take-home cartons, plus empty gallon and other glass jars for re-filling with bulk items when necessary. You can see my fancy cake plates and swiffer sheets.

Every shelf has now been organized. The large bins/buckets below have been pulled out and the floor swept. There is a large bin of gluten-free flours and other items under the shelves you cannot see and that’s been gone through, sorted, and organized, as well.

There were a few things I was out of, believe it or not. There are a few things I’ve been using that I will not replace. I have already sent Rob searching for a good price and replaced some items, such as canned mushrooms. I will only keep a minimal amount of tomato sauce on the shelf anymore, as I have been able to make enough from the garden. The same goes for salsa. There are a few other things like that, as well, and some things we were given or bought in a moment of craziness…we just don’t like them. We have given away things we were given we can’t eat, such as Xylotol sweetener, and some other items.

There has been a LOT of yummy food coming out of my kitchen.

Here are some of the things I’ve used up this past few days:

Several cups of gluten-free old-fashioned oats. There was a 25 lb bag we got that was damaged, so it was only $5 or $10 at the time. It was a LOT of oats for us, so it has been around for long enough it needs specifically targeted. These bars used those oats and some raspberry-peach jam from 2020 I found in my canning. I also started cooking that kind for breakfasts. It just takes a little longer than the other kind.

I made 2 loaves of bread from some gf bread flour I found and added some flax meal that had been lurking in the back of the fridge for ages. It came out good and I froze most of it, as I don’t eat much bread.

I used 3 lonely gf lasagna noodles and a box of gf manicotti noodles along with 50c/carton cottage cheese we found at Wheeler Dealer, fresh mozzarella balls from the same place, same price, the rest of the pasta sauce I made last week, and some assorted odds ends of cheese that needed used. I froze one, gave one away and we are working on the other one.

Rob ate some sardines and smoked oysters from the shelf. He’s using the mango coffee syrup we found out there to put with seltzer for drinks, and in a marinade.

I used some honey powder–it came in a mix long ago and was basically dried honey in several things that needed sweetening until it was gone. I used tiny packets of spices and other things we had picked up here and there over time.

We had the cutest tiny little jars of ketchup and mustard. I used the ketchup in meatballs and the mustards in a marinade with rosemary on pork chops.

As always, we used our stored garden onions, jars of beans, carrots, assorted fruits, jams, pickles and relishes. I’ve also been taking things out of the freezers daily. In fact, we downed a huge container of peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies, with some help. I will make more soon, so I can clean out that item again:)

There is still more to do in the garage. There’s a table that still has things on it and I want it mostly empty. It’s 1/2 done. A messy corner is now clean, but there are books to go through. I have a cookbook shelf that is still awful. The sewing table needs a little spiffing up. I’m very encouraged, though. Real progress has been made.

As I mentioned before, I like to do this twice a year. Hopefully, I will get back to that schedule. I don’t like to waste food, so want to keep it rotated. Also, I actually want to bring my food storage down to a smaller amount. What was reasonable when we had so many children at home isn’t necessary even though we have people in and out all the time, along with the ones who live here. I’m well on my way to my goal.

House Projects, Use it Up

Cleaning the Pantry–Part 1-January 2023

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I spent quite a bit of time organizing in the garage. It has become a dumping ground for many things and it’s very unorganized. I keep many pantry items on shelves in there and that was all messed up, too. Normally, I go through all my canned and packaged food items in the spring, and then again in the fall. This fall, it just didn’t happen. I wanted to do it over the holiday break, but, nope….didn’t happen then either. I will blame it on Covid. Even though my case was the mildest one I’ve ever heard of. Covid. Right:).

Doing this is very important to me because when I sort it all, I check dates and make sure to move older things forward, or into the kitchen for immediate use, or throw them away if I’ve waited too long. Obviously, the goal is to use it, not toss it, so I normally keep on top of the project.

I have about 1/3 of the job done out there. I will continue to work out there whenever I have a bit of time this week. I’ve already found so many surprises. For instance, I’m almost out of brown sugar and canned mushrooms. I’ve apparently been buying refried beans for a day when I’m busy and don’t have time to make any for a long time. I have about 20 cans. They were up high, down low, and everywhere in-between, behind things, to the side…..Let’s blame that on Covid, too, shall we? Because there is absolutely no logical explanation for that one. At. All.

I cooked from the items I weeded out of the pantry, plus from the freezers and canning shelves. I did not shop at all this past week at the store, but instead ordered bulk items from Azure Standard. I needed some cleaning supplies as well as some items such as salt, pepper, Mexican seasoning, garlic powder, etc.

This picture is vegetarian spaghetti sauce made from aging tomato sauce and tomatoes from the shelves. I added celery, frozen peppers from our garden, onion bits and spices. The truth is, I make and use so many tomato products from our garden tomatoes that those cans were just languishing out there. I will use some of this right away, and freeze some in recycled cottage cheese cartons.

I used up 3 old cans of soup, a box of lemon pudding mix, those above mentioned tomato products, some pancake mix, partial boxes of cereal, a Chex Party Mix seasoning packet, and more. I refilled all my little spice jars in the kitchen from my bulk bags which emptied a couple of those in the garage, used a packet of pre-cooked rice, the bottom of several bottles of this and that from the fridge, and threw away a few items that were either old, or I figured we were never going to eat.

I am often given food. I find a use for almost all of it. But, occasionally, I never do finish it up. Sometimes, it is almost expired before it comes to me and we just can’t use it fast enough (a big bag of corn grits), and sometimes we just can’t stand it so never bring ourselves to use it up. I gave a few items away (all the baby food and snacks Malcolm doesn’t eat anymore).

I read quite a few blogs or listened to U-Tube vlogs about various pantries. I got some great ideas I’d love to implement at a future date.

I also listened to or read about various pantry challenges. It was amazing. Several people are doing these challenges this time of year. In the few I watched or read, people ranged from buying nothing for several weeks or even months while eating only their stored food, to cutting back to “only” $100 per week. The first one has even more preserved than I do! The second one’s grocery budget is obviously much higher than mine to start with. I did see that they only had 4 people in their family, as I wondered if they had 10 kids or something. I decided from all my reading/listening that I didn’t want to do a formal pantry challenge with any rules, but instead just do what I always do: clean the pantry out and use up anything I can find that needs using while putting it into good shape so I can easily find everything I need. And quit buying refried beans:)

I gained tremendous respect for some of the people who are so self disciplined and creative that they can go so long without visiting a store. I found a few new recipes or ways to use my home-preserved food, and that’s always welcome! I’m always happy to get new ideas.

I’m hoping to get a long ways on this project this week. We had a lot of meetings at church last week, including a 6-hour one all day Saturday, so was gone a lot. This week is much quieter, and I hope to have more time to focus on this, and other projects.

Food and Water Storage

Water Crisis in our Town–June 1, 2018

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The city of Salem, where I live, gets its water from Detroit Lake.  It flows down the watershed, and is treated, then used by the city, and a few other surrounding cities. On Tuesday, we received word that the water has a low level of toxins in it from an algae bloom in Detroit Lake.  It is the same lake we were fishing at on Monday.  The very same lake we let the kids wade in, and many people were swimming, water skiing, and boating in.  Yikes!!!  (We are all fine so far, by the way–we didn’t ingest any and the kids only dipped their toes in.  Thank goodness they didn’t lick their toes!)

Thankfully, the warning to not drink the water applies to children under 6, medically fragile people, and so forth.  Still, although my body size is quite a bit larger than an infant’s, or even a preschooler, so I’m fine, it’s a bit creepy to think that I’ve been drinking toxic water for a few days.  Even just slightly toxic water.

On Tuesday, I finally got around to doing some grocery shopping.  We were out of a few things, like milk, and I had 2 coupons to still redeem from the Safeway monopoly game, and Tuesday was the last day I could do that.  So, Patsy and I meandered through Safeway, buying groceries and killing time while Ja’Ana was at her first college-age Tuesday night meeting at church.  (Unbelievable, huh?  College-age???  My baby??? She was the youngest kid we ever adopted, just 21 months when we got her, which is why she will always be my baby in my mind)

I went down the water aisle to get a gallon of distilled water for my iron.  They were almost out.  I even said to myself that it must have been because there was hot weather this weekend, and people were thirsty, but I wondered.

There were cases of water for $1.99.  I always like to keep a few on hand, and that is a good price, so I sent Patsy to pick up a couple and put them in the cart.  The pallet was rapidly decreasing.  In fact, she told me there were ladies who were snatching and grabbing for the water.  Huh?  For water?

At the checkout stand, I finally got what was going on, as I overheard the cashier talking, explaining that extra water was being sent by the truckload that night.  I perked up my ears, and began to listen better, and then realized that people were buying water like crazy.  I quickly paid for my groceries, including my 2 cases of water and gallon, and headed for the car.

On the way home, I stopped for gas.  Because I paid with a $20 bill instead of a card, I had to go inside.  There was a long line.  Everyone had bottles of water.  Some people had their arms full of bottles of water.  Of all those people, I was the only one who just wanted to pay for gas.

I’ve read since about price gouging–up to $47 for a case of water.  (Rob did point out that when you buy one bottle at a time for $2.50 or even $3 when you are on vacation, it comes out to more than that per case, but I still think that is excessive).   I’ve read about mothers who could not afford to buy water for their children.  I’ve seen articles about thousands upon thousands of bottles of water handed out to people, restaurants closing down, and ice machines turned off.  I’ve seen pictures of bare, empty shelves.  Thank goodness, the following picture is my idea of being “low on water.”

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This all happened on Tuesday.  Today, Friday, we are still under the same restrictions–don’t drink the water if you are under 6, pregnant, medically fragile, and so on.  When I stopped in at Safeway to get some grocery items, and a Starbucks card for a gift, the Starbucks was closed.  You could barely get down the aisles because there was so much water stacked up in them.  Although Rob knows of someone who watched an entire semi truck being sold in less than 2 hours on Tuesday, clearly, there has been a large supply brought in.

Have I bought more?  Certainly.  Am I drinking tap water.  No way. I don’t want even a little poison in my water:)  I made our ice with bottled water.  We picked up a couple more cases at Costco last night, and I got 3 gallons today. I’m letting the kids and my niece have what they want.   I expect this to be over before long, but if this crisis continues, I will take those 3 gallons or other containers to my sister’s and fill them.  Their water is not affected by this crisis.

It just brought it to my mind that you never know when some kind of crisis is going to come your way.  I’m glad I have a large food storage.  I’m glad it looks like a little grocery store in my garage, and that water was a part of what I stored.  I didn’t have to panic.  I didn’t have to snatch water from someone else. I didn’t have to juggle water bottles in my arms in the gas station store, and pay large sums for each bottle.  My kids didn’t have to drink water that was even a little toxic and neither did I.  I’m glad there is a well in our back yard that is hooked to our sprinkler system.  If worst came to worst, we would drink that, although I’d feel better if we got it tested first. (Wells are not affected by this current crisis, but we’ve never tested that well for drinking, since we are on city water and only use it for irrigation).

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There have been some times when I asked myself if I was crazy for storing so much food. While I admit freely that I am trying to keep it reigned in a little more in the past few years, simply because there are less of us eating here than there used to be, I still keep a large stockpile.  There is more in the shop, mostly the main home-canning shelves and the deep freezers.  I wondered if there really was going to be a crisis of any sort, but figured at the least, I was saving money by buying in bulk and when things are on a really good sale.  I do sort and rotate the food. I throw very little away.  I store what we eat, and not random items.

Thankfully, this crisis is short-lived, and will not cause a panic at my house.  I no longer feel even the slightest bit crazy for having several cases of water on hand.  And, if for any reason there is a food shortage…..you can all come over for dinner:). Unless, of course, you get busy and store some food and water as well.  It’s not a bad idea.