Day 8: inventory, attempt #3

My "first step" in this process was to inventory what I wanted to use up in the form of meals or snacks that we could have. It never happened. My second attempt at inventory dissolved into my normal inventory of eating up available produce.

For Round #3, I'm giving up on the big picture. Before today, I have actually made inroads in small areas: some mystery jars in the fridge (Day 2), a cabinet that had become literally piled with stuff, the lazy susan where I store pasta, and the counter space where boxes of cereal and other snacks accumulate. In little pockets of time, I have attacked each of these, usually for some purpose.

When making pasta for my daughter, I cleaned off the shelf as she chose what she wanted.

Once the pasta shelf was clean, I could move some snack foods off the counter to be stored there. (My husband's comment: "How will we know to eat them if we can't see them?")

Frustrated when bringing home a new bottle of ketchup, I cleaned out the poor cabinet that had been piled with food since my college student came home. Now it's in categories: replacements (things I normally store in the fridge once they're open), food for daughters, popcorn, cocoa and marshmallows (how did we get six varieties of both cocoa and marshmallows?), and canning supplies.

Along the way, I planned a few meals. I used the half box of giant shells to make Chicken Stuffed Shells, a recipe I found that did not require me to go buy ricotta (like most stuffed pastas would demand). I altered the recipe to use what I had on hand: a small amount of leftover chicken, a box of frozen spinach (how did I accumulate three of those?), and leftover spaghetti sauce. I even served this new dish to my visiting nephew, who told me four times how wonderful it was, and thanked me three times for cooking. He could hire himself out as an encourager; contact me privately for more information.

We had an exotic mac and cheese that my daughter begged me to buy then never ate, along with the rest of the broccoli. And I found a bag of beans that I can cook with a ham hock from the freezer. My mom gave me a homemade cornbread mix at Christmas. I know it's July, but I really need to use that up. Don't tell her; it's kind of embarrassing. Maybe I could make cornbread pancakes out of it. Isn't that some kind of American heritage food? (PW to the rescue. And I have frozen blueberries for homemade syrup!)

So, the new goal for inventory: small steps. Next, I'm going to tackle the shelf at the bottom of the freezer. Or the baking supplies on the top shelf above the flour. Hey, I could use up those odd, leftover sprinkles with the cornmeal pancakes! I am on a roll.