(sorry about the picture again) I don't think I know how to work this camera very well!
I have been helping a friend organize her pantry. Yesterday we threw out hundreds of dollars worth of food that had expired. It made me feel sick to see the waste, and I wasn't even the one who bought all of it. I would definitely encourage you to have a pantry and stock it up, especially with the economy the way it is at present. But, don't store so much that you can't keep up on rotating it. Use or donate it before it is too late. It really is a waste of money if it ends up in the trash. When I get food for our storage, I always rewrite the date with a Sharpie so it is bigger and easier to see. I also put ones with the latest dates in the back and keep the ones that need to be used in the front. This way, I can skim through my food storage and know right off what needs to be used. The amount of food you store will vary depending your stage of life. When you have kids at home, you need more food. Also, make sure you like and know how to cook the food you store. We tried different kinds of freeze dried fruits several years ago, and were surprised that we didn't like some of them. Now we just store the ones we like. Do you eat wheat? If your body is not used to it, it can cause some unpleasant digestive problems. If you are going to store it, rotate it and eat it so your body is used to the foods you store. If you don't eat a lot of something, don't buy it. We got some Hamburger Helper on sale a year or two ago for a very, very good price. But, we don't eat Hamburger Helper. We eat fresh, homemade food. I was able to donate them to the food bank and some starving college kids who really appreciated them before they expired. Now I don't buy them any more because we just won't eat them. You learn by trial and error. Figure out how much you will use by the expiration date on the cans or packages and don't buy more than that.
How do you keep your pantry food organized so it doesn't spoil? How about your freezer? Link up and share your ideas.
Not sure if it's a blogger thing or not, but when I upload my pictures on my screen they look right, but sometimes blogger turns it on it's side.
ReplyDeleteI've found that if I right click on my picture on my hard drive and rotate it clockwise (though it looks right I do this anyway), right click and rotate counter clockwise I can upload the picture and it's fine. Seems weird, but that's how I got it to work the last few times.
Anyway, I follow your principle as far as eating what you store so I don't have much in my pantry anymore (now we eat mostly fresh/frozen items). Everything I have in my pantry I can see because of the shelves my husband installed.
As far as the freezer - I make my menu plan based off what we have in the freezer so I usually know what is in there. It's definitely easier with an upright freezer than a chest freezer.
This wasn't always the case for me when I didn't plan out our meals. For me, meal planning based on what we have on hand is the key.
I'm sure glad I found your blog by the way! Thanks for making me think this morning...I realize that I've come a long way from how I used to feed my family!