I’m moving at the end of August and don’t want to lug pantry goods with me. I’m going to try to eat as much from my pantry and freezer as possible before August 30. This is especially tricky for me in August, because all I want to eat is fresh produce. I’m not going to do a full inventory, but I know in my pantry I have ample baking supplies, a ton of spices, some coconut milk, pasta, rice, grains, and beans. In the freezer are grits, bread, a ton of meat (including foie gras – so fancy!), some veggie odds and ends, and junk food. If anyone else wants to join, go for it! I’ll document my successes and failures here.
I’m in. I have so much dried and frozen and canned everything and my grocery bill last month was still like $500…
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I want to play along! We’re moving sometime in September so I gotta work on this, too. 
We also have plenty of beans, coconut milk, pasta, flour, etc. I used up a cup of red lentils in lentil soup last week (yeah!) and half a pound of pasta in a homemade mac n cheese. I gotta plot what’s up for this week now.
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I started a bit early and made palak paneer today. It used up most of the spinach in my freezer, the paneer in my freezer, an ancient bottle of garam masala, a little bottle of local dried chili flakes, and some brown rice I got from a friend’s dad (I don’t love brown rice so this is a success). I always have butter and half and half on hand, so I didn’t have to buy a single thing for this recipe.
Up later this week are black bean tacos to use up a can of those beans, plus a zucchini salad with farro and chickpeas (I bought the farro for it but it used up a bag of chickpeas I had). My husband is returning from a short visit to his family and he’s coming back with a ton of produce from my father-in-law’s garden, so things might get tricky. Also, the farmers’ market is tomorrow, and if heirloom tomatoes are ready, I’m going for it.
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I need to do this too. We have plenty of pantry space but we should get our food spending under control. We moved a few months ago and then had a couple work trips/camping/vacation and it feels like we haven’t had a normal week since we moved. But we aren’t going anywhere for a while so we need to get back into a routine of meal planning.
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I’m also in, aiming to use up older pantry items and control food spending!
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I’m not moving, but the chest freezer needs defrosted pretty desperately, so I’m in. I’ve been working on said chest freezer for the better part of a month, and things are improved, but we’re not there yet. Things will get easier starting next week, when I’ll be in the same state as it for more than two days a week.
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I’m in but only in the sense that I have to eat out of the garden like every day between now and October or else be overwhelmed. (Or give it away, but partially defeats the purpose of having a garden. And I don’t have a pressure canner.)
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I’m in (for combination of pantry and freezer). Food bills have been higher than they should have been lately, probably because I’ve been doing a lot more ‘oh, that looks good’ rather than looking at sales and matching it to what I already have. No particular interest in using up everything, but I should at least get the oldest stuff rotate through/used up and do a better job with the money side.
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Glad to have others in it with me!
Husband came back with a lot of produce, so we’re kind of sliding in the wrong direction. There’s a ginormous zucchini, so I’m going to make zucchini bread this week. The pastry chef I used to work with has a great recipe I’ll make. The nice thing is that the only ingredients I’m missing are flax seed and some whole wheat flour, and she’s going to bring me small quantities of both when I see her tomorrow, so I don’t need to buy any huge bags to hang out in my pantry!
There are two eggplant, which I think I’ll pair with the grits in my freezer. I have some frozen corn cobs in the freezer, and I like to make stock from those and use them to cook my grits/polenta/corn whatever. Bam.
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I’m in, because even after Plastic Free July limited my purchase of groceries, I still have a very full pantry.
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I am in, will do a stock take of my pantry and freezer and see what i can do
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I’m in. We want to redo our kitchen soon(ish) and move from a huge (to us) panty to a few drawers.
We’ve fallen victim to filling up the space because we have it.
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In! I always have plans to do this after CalBal first started logging, but haven’t gotten to it.
@CalBal I have friends who do a challenge every August - eat off the land only 
They have chickens so they have eggs, but otherwise eat just the produce and fruit they grow. It’s pretty cool.
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I am in for this. I plan to move at the end of October, and it will take me couple months to eat through my storage of food. Someone gave me two huge boxes of all sorts of gluten free flours/baking stuff/dry goods and I have tons left to use up. I also have a deep freezer full of food…I’m hoping to keep grocery buying super minimal for the next 3 months, mostly just farmers market veggies.
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Okay, things to use up:
-red lentils
-red kidney beans
-cannellini beans
-7 oz snowflake pasta
-sprinkles
-white flour
-yellow cornmeal
-maseca
-dried apricots and other miscellaneous dried fruits and nuts
-makings for seitan
-rolled oats
-coconut milk
-some canned crab
-who knows what else is in there really
The kidneys and cannellinis can be used, along with the seitan mixings, for a chili; the yellow cornmeal can make some cornbread. Maybe a lot of cornbread over the next few months.
Canned crab + cornmeal will make some ebelskivers I’ve been wanting to make.
I’ve been wanting to make a funfetti cake, so white flour + sprinkles will be great for that.
Rolled oats and fruits/nuts can become granola.
Maybe more mac n cheese with the pasta? It feels so one-note, though, since that’s how I already used up half this pasta.
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You could toss the pasta with a simple tomato sauce for adult spaghettios, haha. I love small pasta in soups, but it might be too hot for that where you are.
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Oh man, these pasta are HUGE. Like they become an inch across when cooked – they’re the TJ’s winter snowflake pasta (hello, yes, I use so little pasta that I still have a bag from six months ago). They make great mac and cheese because they have so many nooks and crannies for cheese sauce, but that would work with other sauces too.
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Oh, nice! I’m sorry, I eat so much pasta that I can’t comprehend this problem 
. My favorite in the summer is pesto (TJs has a great one in the refrigerated section – not the shelf stable one!). Sometimes I throw a can of artichoke hearts or a can of tuna or both in there to bulk it up.
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I’m in too! I tried to eat our supplies more in July as I’d done a big stock up on dry goods at the start of the month and I tend to forget what I buy and then buy more (have soooo many dried chick peas to work our way through!) I’m going to only buy fresh fruit and veg from the farmer’s market and maybe some meat here and there. And maybe some of our favourite bulk cereal as that gets used up. We should be set for most of the month at least!
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