My goals are to use some of the food that was purchased but has languished and to get a sense of what we eat on a regular basis now that we’ve returned to plant based eating.
I’ve done a full inventory of all the food, including individual herbs and spices. My plan is to sort them between things we use often enough to replenish, and things we don’t use for whatever reason, or just don’t use often enough to keep stocked. There are also some things that would get used more often if people saw them, like gomasio and furikake, so I’m thinking of repurposing a lazy Susan to hold these things out of the dining room table, or at least making a note to remind me to get them out when I get out the soy sauce.
Leading into the challenge I have gone to pantry foods several days this week, but I’m only planning to track in February. Yesterday I used canned beans, chiles, and tomatoes to make chili for my husband and son. I also used cornmeal and gluten free flour from the pantry to make corn muffins. At dinner I used a package of “bacon” seitan from the refrigerator in a vegan colcannon I cooked for Imbolc / St. Brigid. It turned out fantastic, but I think that particular ingredient will only be purchased when I have a plan for it. The meal did use the last of the russet potatoes (from Costco, and quality was really poor), more of the cabbage mix I bought too much of, and several cloves of peeled garlic (I bought 3# at Costco because I didn’t want garlic from China and I use so much now that I wanted to try buying it peeled).
I found two bags of Mexican Hot Chocolate mix from Costco, so today I made a big batch of vegan hot cocoa by blending some past date honey roasted macadamia nuts with water before adding in the mix. There’s enough of the hot chocolate mix to do this 7 more times, so at some point I’ll switch to homemade oat milk (not all in February — that’s way too much hot chocolate!). I bought the macadamia nuts in July when Costco was clearing them out, not thinking about the fact that freezing them would make them sticky upon defrosting, so I’m trying to get through them sooner rather than later. DH does snack on them. Overall though, I’m not going to keep macadamia nuts in the pantry, as I find cashews more versatile for plant based cooking and baking.
I will be buying perishables this month, but want to base our meals on what we already have. So while everyone enjoyed Indian spiced potatoes on Tuesday, I’m not planning anymore meals that require fresh potatoes. Wednesday I bought fresh salad makings and fresh fruit, plus zucchini, mushrooms, and onions. It unrealistic to think we’ll only eat frozen vegetables this month, and I don’t have enough to do that anyway. And while I happily use homemade plant-based milks, I’m still going to buy oat milk for my oldest. I’ll buy frozen or canned foods that we run out of during the challenge but do use regularly, such as frozen fruit for smoothies, but I won’t replace canned beans since I have dry beans we can go to.
I haven’t mentioned the challenge to the family — it’ll be interesting to see if they even notice.
