Last day of shopping, Feb 2nd, 2009
That’s right – I’m done. :) With the exception of buying asparagus and sliced ham for a meal going to a friend with a new baby, I have shopped my last (for groceries) until April or longer. We are anticipating a move in the next two months and want to deplete our food stores so as to have less to pack and transfer. Should be an interesting ride. :)
Because I generally purchase more than one of any regularly-consumed item that I find at a good price, we are fairly prepared for this little project. So far it has been a small challenge and certainly no hardship. I have frozen veggies and a good amount of yogurt with fruit in it, dried fruit, and a jar of canned peaches. I have at least 8lbs of chicken, 5lbs of beef, 4 pork chops, half a dozen fillet of talapia, 1lb ground turkey, and 2 dozen eggs. I also have 3 loaves of already-made bread stored and plenty of flour to make more.
The difficult part of this project will be the fillers. The pre-made granola bars, crackers, chips, and cookies are gone, and we are obviously limited on the healthier choices. This is fine for me and the little guy (who just turned 1 on Valentine’s Day!), but harder to manage for my husband who takes his lunch to work and eats, well, like the 6’4″ man that he is. :) He has no qualms with leftovers – eats them every day – but it will be a stretch to find things to go with the leftovers he takes.
In an effort to conserve our egg supply, I have been making us oatmeal in the mornings. My husband isn’t a fan of plain oatmeal, so I’ve been sprucing it up a bit. Here are some ideas:
“Home Made” Instant Oatmeal
3/4 cup quick oats
a handful of any or all of the following:
dried fruit (cranberries are our fave)
seeds/nuts (we like sunflower seeds and pecans the best)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
tsp sugar or honey
you can also add a tsp of powdered milk or coffee creamer if you like creamy oatmeal
Add water to desired consistency and voila!
When both my husband and I were working, we’d take a shortcut in this process and combine a dozen or so servings in a large tupperware container or ziplock bag and dish it into our bowls each morning until it was gone. One of our very favorite blogs posted a great “visual guide” to making individual oatmeal packets ahead of time a while back – read it here.
Please continue to follow me the next month as I stretch our food supply. :)
