Pantry Cooking Challenge

If you're like me, you probably buy more at the grocery store than you need or plan for.  Or you get ingredients to make a meal, and then don't, and those special ingredients just sit in your pantry.

It's time to try the Pantry Cooking Challenge!

I will do the pantry challenge 3 or 4 times a year, usually before we go out of town or when I deep clean my pantry and fridge.

You'll see that I make a lot of meals in bulk and freeze half or more for later, which is a great money saver as long as you eat them.  Sometimes I'll forget about some meals, or they slip to the back and can't be easily seen and forgotten.

I also stock up on meat when it's on sale and freeze it for another meal.  Until I forget about it or it's on sale when I'm shopping and use that instead.

Why should you do this?
1. It saves you money.  It's great if you're doing a no spend month, or need a little extra money one month.  You should already have most of what you need in the house, so you can use that money elsewhere.

2. It helps you clean. You're already going through to look at what you have, might as well clean up too.

3. You're stopping waste.  By regularly going through your freezer, you're able to see what you have that will expire soon.  Most frozen items have a 6 month shelf life, so by going in every 3 or 4 months you're making sure you get through everything.

What you do:
1. Look at everything you have in your pantry, fridge, and freezer.  I will take everything out of my pantry on shelf at a time and inventory it (this is when I wipe down where it came from) then I repeat with my freezer and fridge.  It's amazing what you find that you forget about!

2. Now that you know what you have, make meal plans that revolve around them. I try to buy as little from the store as possible to make these meals.

3. Start using up what you have. This can last me anywhere form 1 week to a month, depending on what I have laying around.

4. Look at all the space you have!

It's amazing to think you had so much just sitting around, and now there's room again!

After I finish, I try to meal plan as much as possible to keep from piling up.  I'll do a big batch of fresh freezer meals to fill the freezer back up a bit, but other than that I try and keep it light.

Then a few months later I'll do it over again.

I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know when you try this, or if you have tried this before and have any extra tips!

XOXO,
Sarah