Our Challenge of the Week

Don't buy groceries.

There is an exception to this... I will not feed Kaylee junk, so I might have to make a run to get her some fruit if I run out before the end of the week. But, our pantry is full and needs to be cleaned out. Meaning, we need to eat more from it. The goal is to rid ourselves of any and all processed food and figure out which processed foods we want to continue to buy... like Ricearoni. I'm sorry, but I just can't give that up...

My goal while Kaylee is napping is to do an inventory and make a menu. Then stick to said menu. I don't think it'll take us more than a week to rid ourselves of all this stuff, but it might. A lot of things like the chips and cookies are probably stale and just need to be tossed.

Things like the rice and pasta can be made into casseroles to freeze and use later, if needed.

I'm also pulling out the Kitchen Aid. I received it as a gift but have been terrified to use it. My first project - make bread. I used to do this all the time... but I had a bread maker. The one I had for over 10 years finally died. The new one I received as a gift just doesn't do the trick. So I've decided to forget it... I'll just do it the old fashion way. Fortunately, this will keep me at home since I can't really leave it unattended like a bread machine.

I'm also hoping to acquire a food dehydrator soon. This will allow me to save all the fruits that we don't get a chance to eat... as well as learn to make kale and spinach chips. Brian wants to make jerky, so I foresee this being used A LOT. The one I'm looking at also has a temp control, which means I should be able to make yogurt!

I challenge you.... clean out your fridge and pantry. Eat what you buy before it goes bad. Make a list of staples. :)