Pantry, Fridge, Freezer, Oh My!

Before you head to the store to stock up on groceries for the week, have you shopped your own pantry, fridge and freezer?

True or False - you have way more food in your freezer, pantry and fridge than you really need in there? 

I am gonna say TRUE in all caps. 

Every couple months, I plan our weekly meals based on what I already have on hand.  I take inventory of the following:

• Frozen meat
• Frozen veggies
• Can goods
• Veggies/fruits that need eaten (this even resulted in one of my favorite muffin recipes to date – all because the strawberries needed to be eaten)
• Spices, sauces, anything used to add to a recipe
• Condiments, salsas, hummus…

You would be amazed what you’ve picked up on all your store trips that is just sitting, already in your kitchen.  Doing this helps you to avoid throwing out food, reduce your overall grocery bill and clean out space for all the “other” foods you are going to pick up when you shop next.

This is also always helpful to do when your kids come home from school with the “canned” goods request, but I highly recommend you do it more often.  Over the years we’ve reduced how many cans we have, and shifted to more fresh first, then frozen and lastly canned.  I am grateful for my second fridge/freezer.

So, if you haven’t done this in a while, take your notebook/grocery list with you to the fridge, pantry and freezer and create the weeks meals.  It usually is as simple as adding a few fresh ingredients to make entire meals.

Need inspiration for meal ideas?  I share my weekly meal plan (and you can find the recipes right on our site) on my personal Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/corrylmatthews.  And yes, I do stick to it.  It stems from so many years of meal prepping for contest prep that it works.  And most weeks… the family shares what they want.  Of course, mom has overall veto power when Mac N Cheese or hot dogs are requested every week.