Pantry Clean-Out

Yesterday was The Great Pantry Clean-out of 2013.  I pulled everything off the shelves, wiped them down, and pitched everything that was expired or questionable.  I filled a garbage bag, and had an overflowing grocery bag of cans and jars to take out to the recycling bin after being dumped.  (is running canned/bottled food down the disposal and recycling the containers the best way to do things?  It made sense to me, anyway)

There was stuff that expired in the spring of 2010.  Most of the stuff was early 2012, plus a healthy dose of 2011.  I'm so embarrassed.  

I re-arranged how I had things.  I always had the large, bulky stuff (like the giant bag of frosted flakes) on the top shelf, and all sorts of small things on the bottom shelf that got lost.  I'm tall-ish, so reaching that top shelf isn't an issue, not like losing things down low.  I swapped a bunch of stuff, putting the bulky but not horribly heavy things on the bottom shelf, and the smaller, more easily lost, items on the top shelf.  The meal components are on the two middle shelves, like items grouped together.  

I made some notes on shelf measurements, and may look into getting another little wire shelf to help with space management.  

The good news is that I've got plenty to work with - pasta/noodles and some sauce, refried beans and enchilada sauce plus masa harina to make my own tortillas, some barley, corn meal and couscous, some mixes, and enough cream of chicken soup to drown a poultry farm.  Add that to the beef, chicken, pork and fish in my big freezer, and I should be able to put some meals together for most of the month.  

The bad news is that I'm out of fresh fruit (plenty of fruit cups for lunches), about to run out of fresh veggies, and will be out of soy milk by the weekend.  I could stretch the eggs for two weeks if I plan carefully, since I have 1.5 dozen.  I have plenty of sugar, but less than five pounds of flour, so any major baking will have to be planned carefully.  Two cans of green beans won't get me very far, either.  

When I said "no spending money on food" I was treating it as an all-or-nothing thing.  Pass/fail.  But seeing as how i'm giving myself a point per day that I don't spend money on food, a trip to the grocery for fresh fruit/veg would be allowed -- meaning I don't get to beat myself up for needing fresh fruits and vegetables in January.  Buying canned goods and meat is verboten.  Use it or lose it, remember?  

I'm going to use this great menu and grocery planner from Design*Sponge and see what sort of dent I can make on my newly-organized pantry.