Spring Cleaning Food: Use Up The Old, Make Way For The Fresh

Last week at The WellGrounded Life, Lisa kicked off her Getting Ready For Spring series. Her first post was on Clearing Out the Cupboards followed by Replenish A Spring Time Pantry. Such a great idea, right? So I followed Lisa’s lead and it proved to be a very worth while effort.

We, like everyone I’m sure, buy food with every intention of using it and creating a stellar dish. Yet occasionally, and despite our best intentions, some items make their way to the back of the pantry never to be seen again. As was the case with 2 tins of crab meat and a tin of green chilies in our pantry. I had every intention of making Crab Rangoon, one of Gwynn’s favorite appetizers and the chilies were to be used in a tortilla casserole of some sort. Well not so, as of yet.

Before:     After:  

I started by taking every item out of the pantry and setting it out on the kitchen table and kitchen counters. I captured all of the items I had on a piece of paper, ready for the next step of organizing this master food list. I took the opportunity of having an empty pantry to wash down the shelves, walls and floors. I also wiped down all the containers, tins and bins so they would be clean going back in as well. OK a bit over the top for some but it makes me happy.

Next it was back into the pantry. I put everything back in according to category baking goods, pasta, tinned goods, snack items, oils and vinegars, potatoes and onions. I must say it looks MUCH better now!

As Lisa puts it “Spring is like nature’s ’New Year’ and everything about the season supports us shedding off the old and bringing in the new.” I love that! So armed with my inventory list I started brainstorming meals we could make using mainly ingredients we already have at home in order to make room for fresh, lighter ingredients. Here’s what we’ve got so far:

1. Fettuccini Alfredo: Ingredients we have: fettuccini noodles, parmesan cheese, garlic, Italian seasoning, onion, butter, flour and salt. To buy: mushrooms and half and half.
2. Crab Rangoon: Ingredients we have: cream cheese, crabmeat, garlic powder and paprika. To buy: Wonton wrappers.
3. Curry Coconut Chicken: Ingredients we have: salt, pepper, vegetable oil, curry powder, onion, garlic, coconut milk, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce and sugar. To buy: Chicken
4. Manicotti: Ingredients we have: Manicotti noodles, eggs, carrots, onions, pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese. To buy: Ricotta cheese
5. Fresh baked goods: All made with ingredients we already have: breads, muffins, pancakes, cookies and cakes.

Benefits to doing the great pantry purge:

1. Keep things fresh. Take stock of what you already have in your home. Purge items that are past their best before date or are in opened packages and are now stale.

2. Try interesting recipes. If you have a tin of green chilies look in a cookbook or online for a recipe that calls for them. This is a great time to be adventurous and try something new. Our favorite online resource for recipes is allrecipes.com and if you weren’t familiar with it before check it out I’m sure you’ll love it.

3. Reduce clutter. We tend to buy a lot of our food items from the bulk food store and with that comes no pre-packaging. We had a lot of containers for items that we’ve used up and have not replenished (and likely won’t be replenishing i.e. cranberries and raisins). Going through this exercise was great because we were able to get rid of a lot of containers that were just taking up space.

4. A nice tidy pantry. Nothing pleases me more than opening the pantry door and seeing everything neat and tidy. We are not perfect and it is a constant battle to keep it this way but the great pantry purge has helped restore order, at least for now, as you can see from the before and after pictures.

5. Save money. By using what you already have at home to make meals for a week or possibly two you will be saving money at your next shop. By using what we already have in the house for this weeks’ meal planning we will save just over half on our grocery bill this week. If that’s not incentive to give this a try I don’t know what is!

So there you have it that’s where we’re at. I can’t wait to try out some new recipes and to start replenishing the food stocks with fresh light ingredients just in time for Spring. I would like to thank Lisa for suggesting this, it really is a great idea!

Are you up for the challenge? Make some time one night this week or this coming weekend take stock, plan a bit and try something new. You just might surprise yourself and add a new family fave to the dinner roster.

See also:

A Simple and Effective Meal Plan In 3 Easy Steps

7 Money Saving Ideas From The Kitchen

A Real Simple Way to Organize Your Pantry