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I've been successful in sticking to my goal of cleaning out the pantry - purchases have been limited to rounding out what's needed with vegetables/fruit, milk, cheese, eggs, and bread. Some things have been tasty (such as this delicious recipe for peanut sauce - great in a stir-fry, or thinned with potstickers, and some not so great (Mark Bittman's white beans with tomatoes recipe from How to Cook Everything wasn't worth keeping leftovers of, and white chocolate doesn't melt when it's old).
I'm now down to a less forgiving assortment of items. I still have plenty of beef, ground pork, tuna, and shrimp in the freezer, but the other pantry items are getting thin. Namely - tomatoes. I'm out of tomatoes. Who knew I would wish for just a single can of tomatoes?
Some good news, though - with fall comes soup and stew season. That's my go-to type of recipe for beans and stew meat (of which I have two bags in the freezer) - but they don't really fit the weather on a hot day. Now, I'm sure many of these soups would be better with a can of tomatoes, but I must forge on!
I love grocery shopping about as much as I love cooking. I love finding new things, and stockpiling ingredients I should be using, and going into new food shops. There's a grocery chain around here, for instance, that seems to carry a lot of Indian foods that I don't have in the closest store (which has the best produce) - so when I happen to stop in for something I actually need, I typically come away with a basket full of other things that I just have to get. Don't go into a new grocery store with me unless you're prepared to spend an hour there.
What that means, though, is that I have a very well-stocked pantry. Beans, grains, noodles - the cabinet space is chock full. My freezer - and we now have a chest freezer! - is full of meat from our meat man (though that is now over, we couldn't keep up the meat consumption to run out each month), and great deals from Costco (a giant bag of frozen sweet potato fries; a box of par-baked individual loaves of great bread). It's now at the point where I've realized that I shouldn't buy anything else new until I've made my way through what I have, or things are just going to get wasted as they approach their best-buy date.
My new mission: to make meals solely out of our pantry and freezer. The rules:
- No new meats or grains/beans/noodles or condiments until the pantry is close to empty.
- No new spices. The spice drawer is close to bursting, too - if it's not in there, I don't need it.
- The only items that can be bought at the store are dairy products, chicken bones for stock (the meat guy didn't give us chicken), cereal, fruits, and vegetables.
- This continues until the meat is entirely gone from the freezer and/or the pantry is empty of all grains and beans - whichever comes first.
The first meal on this mission? Lentil soup for lunches for this week.
Lentil and sausage soup
1 small onion, medium dice
3 small carrots, peeled and sliced into coins 1/4 inch thick
3 stalks of celery, sliced the same thickness as the carrots
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
pinch of red pepper flakes
2 sausages, cooked and sliced like the carrots
1 cup brown lentils
1 24-ounce can of whole tomatoes, tomatoes cut up (or chopped tomatoes)
2 cups chicken broth
Heat oil over medium heat; saute onion until softened and translucent. Add carrots and celery; mix well with onion. Add garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes, and cook until the garlic is fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine; cover and simmer until lentils and carrots are the desired tenderness.
I had stopped writing too much here because of time - I just haven't been cooking all that much. Or, rather, cooking that much that anyone wants to hear about; it's all been pretty basic.
Enter Darwin, the world's cutest golden retriever puppy. The training program we've selected requires the use of frequent treats. (Positive reinforcement! How could two psychology nerds not work with people who use scientifically-proven behaviorism to train their new dog?) However, also being (a) cheap and (b) overly conscious of the potential perils associated with purchased dog treats, this was a perfect chance to get back into baking.
I started by seeking out recipes online. I have a few criteria:
- No wheat. According to golden retriever (and dog nutrition) lore, wheat can cause allergic reactions in dogs. No, they do not have celiac disease.
- The same idea goes for soy and corn. From what I've read, it seems that the real issues with these ingredients come from feeding them to the dog over and over and over - and traditional dog foods are chock full of them. Anyway...I'm trying to avoid these ingredients.
- No sugar. I use unsweetened applesauce and bananas to add sweetness, and the peanut butter I use is natural, so there is no sugar or added ingredients.
- No added fat. The only fat that is a part of the recipes I've tried is in the peanut butter and eggs.
These are the recipes I've started with. Where flour is called for, I've substituted gluten-free flour. There is a bit of cornmeal in the Peanut Butter treats below; since I'm still experimenting, I'm not sure what the role of all of the ingredients in the recipes are.
Applesauce and Oatmeal Treats
Peanut Butter Cookie Treats
I'll be experimenting with modifications of these recipes for a while. I'm lucky - Darwin will eat anything - rocks, clumps of dirt, grass - so while not discerning, he's a very appreciative taste tester. The most successful change so far? Instead of applesauce, I added a banana and a bit of peanut butter instead of the applesauce to the Applesauce and Oatmeal Treats above.
