if you have a Job Lots or Big Lots store, i’ve found arborio there in the past. Do check the BB date tho’!
Just did a pantry tidy and reorg. Got the sweet potatoes in their basket, but the potato pillow case on the floor now has 2x as much in it. Maybe I should donate some potatoes too!
I went bonkers at Aldi and spent $124! There were a lot of great sales. I stocked up on canned soup (chunky brand was 0.70 a can!) for easy dinners. I also bought baking stuff, normal groceries, and there were good fruit sales too! I don’t usually buy my fruit at Aldi but the blueberries and grapes were so cheap and those are my favorites so I…bought a lot, haha. Ground beef was on sale too and while I typically get my meat elsewhere I think Aldi ground beef is tasty and I’m making chili this week! So many snacks and I got extra easy meals since I’m running low (I love frozen pierogi). I’m going to clear things out of the fridge tonight and make some easy ravioli (pumpkin and sage) I got in the refrigerated section. Not sure what type of sauce I’ll make yet…hm…
$203 Costco trip.
Normal food and sale stock ups:
Lots of red sauce
Cottage cheese (normally like $4, was nearly $6)
Sour cream (normally $3, was $5)
Coffee
Pickles
Sausage patties
Eggwich things SirB likes for early work days
Pepperoni sticks
Brussels sprouts
Maple syrup
I spent $58.03 at the market, but I saved a whopping $43.83 too! My local market seems to be putting out their category markdown/culls on Sunday mornings. Last week I bought $105 worth of groceries, notably our favorite cereal $2 off and a lot of premium dried pasta.
This week it was oil and vinegars.
Spectrum oils and Bragg vinegars. I bought grape seed oil, sesame oil, rice vinegar, Bragg cider vinegar, and Bragg salad dressing, all 1/2 off.
I also bought 2 boxes of tea on special (I had a coupon too), granola bars (1/2 off), agave syrup $3 off of $6.99, honey (needed it for the tea coupon), coffee cake (1/2 off), dried fruit ($1 off), organic lemons, and wheat germ.
Wheat germ disappeared here during lockdown and I haven’t seen it since. We ran out and so I’ve been looking for some since. The jar will probably last us about 3 years.
The $58 total includes $9 worth of Sunday papers too. So the groceries were $49.
Nice haul! Those are some really good deals.
$175 HMart haul:
That’s it. I gotta go to HMart.
@PAWG , my sister had the lazy susan in her kitchen removed so she could store bigger items in that cupboard, like trays, cookie sheets, cutting boards, and larger “small” appliances. I believe they installed a partial ahelf in there for the appliances.
This is a great idea for a thread! I have several photos, but don’t know if they’ll all upload in one post. I’ll do it over a few. Let’s start with the freezers. We have a small chest freezer, a medium sized upright freezer, and a freezer above our fridge. Here are the photos with description of contents below.
Chest freezer: a small 7 cu ft freezer. We store meat, poultry, fish, and ice packs here. We also store grains here for 72 hours after purchasing to kill any bugs in them.
This is the door of the upright freezer. It has frozen home grown herbs, homemade stocks, wheat germ, lemons, etc.
This is the inside of the upright freezer: It is loosely termed the fruit and vegetable freezer. Top shelf is mostly frozen fruit, though I see a tortiere in there! My sister knows wild blueberry farmers, so we have a bag of those in there. We also have frozen garden produce of all kinds.
This is the upstairs fridge freezer door contents: mostly bags of nuts & seeds, fresh ginger, yeast, and frozen limes.
This is the inside of our upstairs fridge freezer: there are more wild blueberries there, lots of flour I am going to use in baking this week, some stock, frozen veggies, homemade pesto, some pumpkin seeds, some Korean sauces and spices.
I can see, looking at these photos, that I need to get into the freezers and do a little reorganization. Lots of wasted space in them!
To be continued…
This is the biggest flex. I also didn’t know you could freeze grains to kill bugs. Not that worried about bugs, but love the idea for insurance.
Oh! Just spotted nuts in your freezer too, does that help them keep longer?
Yes, freezing nuts keeps the high fat ones, in particular, better for longer.
Noted! I don’t tend to buy large quantities of nuts but this is good to know if I spot a sale.
Next up…kitchen cupboards: also in need of reorganization.
Above the stove: oil, vinegar, extra cereal and crackers.
Spice cabinet with extra glass storage above. I have over 75 jars of spices. I have the back ones sitting up on 2x4s.
Extra spices and spice overflow. In a small drawer beside the spice cupboard.
Will continue in next post…
Rest of kitchen cupboards…
This is over the tea/coffee/hot chocolate station on the tray on the counter. The lowest shelf is small appliances and kitchen tools too big for my drawers. There is a box of crackers and some leftover rice wrappers, as well as sprouting seeds.
The second shelf is grains, pasta and almond milk, which I prefer to cow milk.
The third shelf is canned goods storage and extra product I use to refill other containers. There are also two huge bags of black beans and kidney beans split into smaller gallon size bags. I’m cooking for two. I make up a big batch of beans (one gallon of dry beans) at a time and freeze them in 2 cup amounts.
The above cupboard is my baking cupboard. Lowest shelf is baking supplies, second shelf is more baking supplies. Plus dried fruit and frequently used nuts.
The third shelf is food storage again, mostly for the foods in this cupboard, but I can see some strays in there. There’s maple syrup, molasses, sugar, canned tuna, cornmeal, corn flour, etc.
This is the cupboard over the fridge. It is Hubby’s domaine, as I can’t reach it, and houses mostly his breakfast food. Though I must admit more than passing curiosity about the mustard! I see the cupboards need some organization too.
I really love my spice rack! Seems like you have a system that works for you, but happy to link you to the listing!
ETA: buy link!
No wall space in this kitchen for that beautiful rack! Not even the back of a door. We have a door to the deck that is all glass window from top to bottom. I am envious!
Shoot, sorry for the unintentional brag! I just love it so much and lived with them in baskets and cabinets for a while so want to spread the love!
I think you should link to it anyways. Others might be interested. I’d actually need two of those for all my spices.
I almost forgot! One last photo of our basement pantry. It’s mostly filled with empty jars at this point, but here’s the part that’s left with food in it…
Bottom shelf is all part of the remains of my home canning for the winter.
Second shelf left: apple cider vinegar, homemade vanilla and almond extracts, and lots and lots of tubs of honey. My sister and her hubby keep bees. To the right of the upright is more canning and jars of honey. I think I need some honey recipes!
Third shelf: sugar and camping cooler.
That’s it for food here! For two people we’re outfitted for a while. But we have children and their spouses in the area who may need help sometime. So I keep a bit extra.
I also gift home canning to family and friends, so a large chunk of the canning is gone at this point…over 75%.
