Organizing the Pantry

Organization is NOT my "thing".  Despite years of trying to keep everything neat and structured, it goes against my nature.  That said, I never stop trying and making an effort to keep my home tidy and less cluttered.  Having been previously married to someone who was OCD in scary ways, I think there is certainly a balance between an unkept home and glorifying tidiness to an unhealthy degree.  I am ALWAYS trying to find that balance.

When I was a child, my mom was a wonderful housekeeper, but she went into panic mode when we were having parties and/or guests over.  Feelings of tension about keeping everything "perfect" for our guests ran high.  I still struggle with that since I have had my own home.  My friends know that I get very uncomfortable and apologetic if someone drops in and my home doesn't look "perfect"...whatever that means.  This is my problem and I am continually working on giving myself grace and not losing out on laughter and joy in welcoming others into my home in all its stages of cleanliness and disarray.

Last week I tackled the pantry and the freezer.  The freezer had so many odd packages of meat and veggies that I had frozen.  Some were crusted over with thick ice and I just decided to toss them for safety concerns.  In addition, I purchased a Food Saver so that I could more effectively freeze portions and stack them neatly.  It arrived yesterday and I used it to seal some chicken thighs that I poached in stock.  They are fully cooked and ready to use for chicken salad.  I sealed them and placed in freezer.  We get so much organic produce from our CSA since we are the local pick up location; I will know be able to freeze the greens for using in winter soups and smoothies.

Here are two BEFORE pictures of my pantry.

We have a tiny home, but the kitchen is the largest room in the house with a tremendous amount of storage.  This is kind of embarrassing for me, but shows how easy it is to just toss things into the pantry after grocery shopping.  Sometimes we need to clear the table and island, so I quickly put all the pantry items on the shelves and never return to arrange them.

We use a great deal of fresh produce, but always keep canned items on hand.  I make all of our marinara from scratch, so I keep canned tomatoes on hand when fresh aren't available.  I tossed some leftover boxes of sugar cones in there in December when I bought them for a craft night at church.  The taco shells are great for standing upright in a baking dish, filling with meat and cheese and baking.  My boys love to then top with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, etc.  Not as tasty as my homemade tortillas, but they are quick and easy to hold.

Here are the AFTER photos:

So much better!  I realized that I had A LOT of tomato soup cans, too.  We make tomato soup in the Vitamix, but my boys love good old Campbell's for dipping grilled cheese sandwiches.  I had forgotten when I bought these at Meijer for 59 cents (a great price).   I love olives and they are also nice to have on hand for adding to a salad when you are bringing a meal to someone.  

I rotated out some of the baking supplies and made note of a few items that were missing.  We had a few bags of pasta that were half used, so I made some simple pasta dressed with butter for a side this week.  

If you are serious about meal planning, keeping an organized pantry is so helpful.  We generally always have the following on hand:

-canned tomatoes

-tomato sauce

-canned beans

-chipotle with adobo (freeze whatever you don't use)

-Chicken and beef stock

-tuna

-flour (white, wheat, bread flour)

-sugars

-baking soda and powder

-spices

-pasta

-rice

-1 extra ketchup and mayo

Today I am going to start another organization project: tackling rounding up our financials and doing our taxes.  2017 brought an unexpected job offer for my husband and he was able to quit driving uber as a side job and I was able to ease up on etsy.  Taxes will be "fun" this year with the first half uber in addition to the job change.  With the change came his employer reimbursing us for our health insurance which was a huge blessing, although we were locked into a high deductible plan until 2018.  This December we got the incredible news that we now have group health insurance.  With a very low deductible...at no cost to us.  I actually cried and not a day passes that I am not incredulous at God's great mercy to my family.  I know that as I do these taxes, I will be thanking God for His lavish provision and goodness.  Continue honoring Him with your money, be a wise steward and live below your means.  

Spinach and Potato Frittata

I loosely call this a Spinach Potato Frittata because it sounds better than "Easy Way to Use Up Veggies".  My family enjoys variations on this and we have added bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes.  The tomatoes do make it watery so don't go crazy with too many.

The first time I had a frittata was in a college Spanish class. My grad student teacher, Ms. Beauchamp, had just returned from studying abroad in Spain and she discovered how to make it there.  She brought one in for us to try and we ate it cold and it was really delicious.  (Side note: she wanted us to pronounce her name Bee-Chim....it felt sacrilegious to me as a French major.)  The two things I remember from her class was the tasty frittata and the awful butchering of her beautiful French name.

For this recipe, I do not use exact measurements since I usually use the eggs as a vehicle for whatever we need to use.  After poking around the fridge and pantry, I saw that we had one small bag left of our CSA potatoes and a package of spinach that needed to be used.  There are always onions, garlic and eggs readily available for use.

9-12 eggs
Olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 cups chopped potatoes (you could use shredded, too)
3 cups fresh spinach
Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and pour some olive oil into a heavy cast iron skillet.  My huge Le Creuest is perfect for this job.  You will need to use a skillet or heavy Dutch oven that can go from stove to oven.

Add chopped onions to the hot oil and cook until softened.

After peeling the potatoes, I sliced them in small uniform, pieces (this is important so that you don't have some under cooked, large potato chunks.  Add the potatoes and garlic to the onions and cook until potatoes are tender.

 Add all the spinach at once.  It will heap up in the pan, but the heat will quickly begin wilting the greens.  (This is where you could also add other veggies).

After about 5 minutes and a splash of water, the spinach was wilted down.  Season with salt and pepper.

While it was cooking, I blitzed the eggs in the Vitamix.

Pour the eggs over all and lift the potato mixture so that the eggs can seep underneath.  Pop the whole thing into the hot oven!

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until top is set and golden brown.  Serve while hot or cold.  Tastes delicious with salsa, too!

Meal Planning and Grocery Budget Fun

After several requests to share some of my meal planning and grocery shopping tips, I decided to write up another blog post since my "system" has changed since my last post a few years and I no longer coupon.

A few important things to help yourself:

1) Prepare a document on your computer that lists all the meals your family eats.  It helps to divide them into columns.  The ones I use are: chicken, beef, pork, other, pasta, meatless, eggs.  When you are stuck in a rut as you plan the week's meals, this document helps refresh your memory.

2) Familiarize yourself with good sale prices.  If you buy a lot of chicken, know what a great price is on breasts, thighs, organic, roasters, etc.  Same thing for produce and other items.  If you see a great deal on something you use a lot, stock up.  For instance, Meijer has their salad dressings 10 for $10 this week.  In general, I like to make our dressings from scratch.  However, I do bring a lot of meals to others and often have a salad.  I keep bottles of dressing on sale to bring with my meal, so I buy about 5 or 6 when they go on sale.  If you have a freezer, you can buy meat in bulk when there is a great price.  Meijer bought too much organic chicken thighs once and I was able to buy several packages for about $1.79/lb (GREAT for organic boneless, skinless thighs).

3) Set aside about 20-30 minutes to plan for your meals.  I actually timed myself tonight and it was about 20 minutes, including taking these pictures.

4) If you like, having a big chalkboard or erase board in the kitchen with our meals is an easy way to stay in track and within your budget.  I generally write down the week's meals and take a photo.  It helps to glance at the photo while shopping to remind myself of the menu and stay on task.

That said, here is a quick breakdown of what works for me:

Get the sales papers for the week and grab about 2 or 3 from stores with which you are familiar.  This week I am looking through: Meijer, Fresh Thyme and Shop & Save.

Go through the papers, circling items that are on sale and also noting ones that have really great prices (and that you use often) that you can add to your pantry. 

You can see here that I marked up the 10 for $10 at Meijer this week.  I love when they have this sale because they have fresh items and also pantry items (like the dressing I mentioned above).  That is a good buy on organic mushrooms so I know right away that I will make something like stroganoff this week. 

A half sheet of paper is perfect for writing down the sales for the week.  This is usually how I decide where I will shop as I generally only go to 2 stores.

Use that list to make a quick sheet for:
-Meal
-What you have (fresh and pantry)
-What you need (fresh and pantry)

This is where it all comes together and you can pull out your document of meal ideas (see #1 above) if you are in a rut. If there is a great sale on chicken, add it to your meal plan twice.  Cook double the amount and you can schedule in a leftovers day if you know you will be busy.

Make sure you add any item from that need list to your grocery list for the week.

Finally, head to the store and stay on task.  Know what seasonal produce is on sale and buy in bulk.  Make your family eat what you have chosen to serve.  Complaints get the complainer booted from the dinner table. 

Keep in mind that stores like ALDI, Costco and Trader Joe's are excellent for regular staples, too.  I make a trip every 2 weeks to the Caputos in Carol Stream for produce, dried apricots ($1.99/lb!!), roasted almonds ($3.99/lb), house Ricotta, beef tenderloin and their house canned tomatoes.

The first few months may be hard, but I firmly believe that anything can become a habit if done regularly.