The Pantry Reconfiguration - Part 1

After an off the cuff comment on the page of a Face Book friend during the week, I got to thinking about all the food that gets wasted in this house. Sure, we recycle, we compost and until very recently had a burgeoning veggie garden so there were some grounds for feeling somewhat righteous in this disposable (and very wasteful) age.

But the Pantry is another matter. Its the place where food goes to hide and peacefully pass its use by date without a murmur. Its the place that periodically gets raided when I have forgotten to buy something and look in vain, praying that there's a jar of asparagus spears in the back there "somewhere". There usually is. Along side the sixteen half used packs of spaghetti and the four cans of baked beans (gracefully rusting in their old age).

So, being a smart arse and a big mouth (a charming combination at the best of times) I posted to my FB friend, rather wittily I thought, "I'll bet we could live for three weeks on the contents of the Pantry if I only just looked in it more often", or words to that effect. And she said, "Why not try it?". And I thought, DAMN.  But later, I thought, yes, why not?

So this is my record of The Pantry Reconfiguration and the attempt to survive for as long as possible from its contents. This is also my first ever blog. Don't say I'm aftraid of public failure.

To put this in context, we are a three person family - myself, Long Suffering Husband (LSH) and Son and Heir (S&H) aged 7. LSH works shifts so will not always be at home for dinner. I work everyday and take my lunch to work most days. S&H attends school and also takes a lunchbox everyday.

Obviously, there are some things that will continue to be purchased - milk and other diary products, fruit and veggies and maybe some cold meat for sandwiches and salads. Oh, and paper towel, cleaning stuff etc. But I am hoping to only buy edibles that need to be eaten fresh. Everything else comes from the Pantry.

This morning S&H and I went shopping and bought the fruit and veggies for the week, as well as washing powder, cordial and some porridge oats (there were none in the Pantry, I did check). Just over $60 was spent and I am hoping that will be it for the week.

Then LSH and I went through the Pantry and cleared every shelf. I audited and he wrote down the goods we would be keeping. I was going to do a before and after pic, but seriously, the before shot would have made me look like one of those crazy horders on TV. Even the after shot would be a sad indictment of the consumerism of our time. But the good news is, we didn't actually throw as much away as I thought we would. There were about 10 glass jars of various sizes that were emptied, washed and put in the recycling (mainly things like marinades and stir fry sauces bought on special - madness when I prefer to make my own anyway, but who can resist a bargain? Clearly not me) and a few cans that were clearly past their use by date. Some packets of noodles and instant soup also got turfed, as did various packets of open pasta (see, that wasn't creative licence earlier). But all in all, not too bad.

So now, we have a reconfigured and tidy Pantry and a list of what's in it. All I have to do now is sit down and work out what we will be eating this week. Stay tuned.