Friday, September 18, 2015

Back in the Swing of Things

 School has started and now we are in the full swing of back packs, lunch pails, and homework!  Since Labor day, this house has been had a whirlwind of activity, which I have to admit has been really exciting and fun!  We have four little ones in school as our youngest has started UPK this year, and so this Mama is trying to organize the house and de-clutter while the kiddos are out of the house, which hasn't left much time for my blog...but today I am back and I have some great stuff to talk about! 
    School can really knock you off of your rocker!  My kids have a strict schedule now that school is back in session and I am working tirelessly to keep them on track with homework, reading assignments, and of course their extra curricular activities.  Then, somehow in between all of that, I have to try to remember when they had their last bath (which is a task in and of itself!)  Crazy town is what has happened in our quiet house!  Now that the dust is settling a bit, I am really excited to get back to work! 
     As many of you know, I work very hard to meal plan, and usually I can plan a great menu in just a few minutes, but this week, with the weather going from cooler to hot, I struggled to figure out what I wanted to make.  So, essentially, I went grocery shopping with only a few meals in mind.  Thankfully, I have enough food in the pantry that I am able to put meals together without too much of an issue.  After my shopping trip, I thought about my pantry and decided this would be a great time to start a new weekly series!  So be on the look out for my Pantry Basics series!  These articles will be essential if you are just starting out on your meal planning journey.  I have to admit that it took me years to get my pantry to a place where I can pull easy meals out of it without much thought.  My hope and prayer for you is that, with these tips and strategies, it won't take you long to get on the road to a well stocked and  functional pantry. 
    Anyone with a cupboard can have a pantry so please don't be discouraged if you don't have a dedicated pantry.  To be honest, I only have two cupboards that I use to store food.  If your storage space is limited, that's okay! You can still have a functional pantry. 


 Getting Started! 
Getting started doesn't have to be expensive.  In fact, my biggest piece of advice in this project is to write a list of really quick, go to meals, that you or your family eat on a regular basis.  Out of those meals, write down the dry or canned ingredients.  For my family these meals include spaghetti, chicken and wild rice soup, and tacos.  My pantry is never without spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, angel hair pasta, wild rice, cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup, chicken broth, taco shells, or taco seasoning (I make my own now and its amazing!)   

Step 1-
      If you need to start small, I recommend developing a list of 2-5 meals that you or the family eats all of the time.  I could give you a list of what I have in my pantry but if your family is vegetarian, then what I have in my pantry would be completely wrong for you.  So start there.  Once you have a list of meals in place, write down all of the dry or canned ingredients that you would need to make all of those meals.  What do I mean by dry ingredients? After all, cheese is dry right?  By dry ingredients, I am talking about all of the those that are not in a can or a bottle that do not require refrigeration.  For example, boxes of pasta would be a dry ingredient.  Other examples might be rice, seasoning packets, spices, flour, sugar, and cereal(s) like oatmeal. 
     The next step is to write down all of the canned or bottled items you may need to make those recipes.  In my pantry those items would be any canned tomato product, chicken broth (I make my own but I always keep canned chicken broth on hand too), chili beans, and cream of mushroom soup (I am working my way to making it from scratch, I'll keep you posted!) 

     To keep up with my pantry, I always purchase at least one of each of the items above when I go to the grocery store.  It's just part of my weekly budget and since I don't want to appear on the next episode of "Hoarders" I always do a spot check of my pantry when I am meal planning.  If I have a ton of chili beans in my pantry, I know that I should make chili sometime during that week.  The spot check also lets me know what items I need to "stock" up on.  For example, this week, I used several cans of cream of mushroom soup.  I like to have at least 4 on hand per week, which means I keep 8 on hand because I shop every two weeks, and since I only have 4 left, I put four cans on my shopping list.  I may not even use them, but if I need to drop a quick casserole in the oven this week, I know that I have them to fall back on. 

Now that you have determined what should be in your pantry you need to decide how many of those items you need to keep on hand based on your shopping schedule.  If you shop weekly, then you may only need to keep 1-2 like items in your pantry at a time (this saves space for those of you who don't have much).  If you like to shop bi-weekly or monthly, then you will need to have more.  Determining how much of an item you need on hand can be done with trial and error.  I would recommend a three month trial period to start.  If you never used that can of spaghetti sauce, then you should only have to keep one on hand, but if you purchased 5-10 of any one item during the trial period, then you know that you should keep at least 8 on hand in the pantry.  Make sense?  If not, that's okay!  It's early and I am multitasking, LOL.  If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask! 

Do you have a well stocked pantry and have an idea to share?  We would love to hear it!  What do you keep in your pantry?

***Stay tuned!  Next week: Spices and Seasoning Packets.  What to keep, what to get rid of, and how long they stay fresh in the pantry.***

Check me out on Pinterest!  My Mama's Cheap!  Even if I am not posting on here every day, I'm pinning stuff daily!  Check out some of the recipes that I'm pinning and let us know how they worked out for you and your family! 


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