Avivah Werner

Restocking the pantry

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It was so nice to do a big shopping trip today and stock up on some things that I wanted!  I wasn’t exactly out of anything – except eggs, cheese, and some vegetables, which I picked up yesterday – but I felt like I didn’t have what I needed to make any dish I could think of.  And I wanted to add some things that I haven’t used much of before – specifically, I’m interested in using less grains and trying out nut/coconut flours for baking with, in addition to upping the kids’ intake of protein and good quality fats.  With that in mind, I bought a 50 lb bag of unsweetened dried coconut that I plan to grind up to use in place of coconut flour (it won’t be the same but it should be close enough to be comparable), as well as a 30 lb bag of pecan meal and 30 lb of almond meal.  And 25 lb of raw cashews.  After all, why bother with small amounts? 🙂

In addition to the regular stuff, like 50 lb of potatoes, 40 lb of yams, 50 lb of oats, 30 lb brown rice, and raw milk, I also got some nice fruits – 2 cases of blueberries, 1 case of cherries, 40 lb bananas, and 9 pineapples (they were $1 each).  I was out of butter (unless you count the butter that I canned, which I haven’t yet used), so I bought another 40 lb; 35 dozen eggs, 5 or 6 lb of cream cheese, 36 lb of ricotta, and 25 lb of organic unsweetened peanut butter.  I also got a lot of pecans (one of my favorite nuts), and four cases of frozen vegetables (okra, green beans, and peas and carrots).  I got some not so ideal food, too – 10 boxes of whole wheat/rice/flax pasta, and 12 boxes of blintzes (144 blintzes – half blueberry, half potato); it’s not the kind of thing I’d serve every night, but it’s nice for a easy dinner once in a while. 

As usual, putting everything away was the hardest part – I’m like the kid who’s eyes are bigger than his stomach – I see all these bargains and I buy it and hope that I’ll somehow find a place for it, even when it’s really unrealistic.  Before we left for our trip, I checked to see how much freezer space was available and there was just one empty shelf.  Dd14 rearranged the entire freezer to figure out a way to fit a lot more stuff in.  And I’m doing my part by using the turkey carcasses that were taking up freezer space to make more room for the new stuff.  Tomorrow I’ll be dehydrating some of the frozen vegetables that couldn’t fit (amazingly, only 5 lb) and canning the broth since the fridge is jam packed and there’s no possibility of finding an inch of space there, let alone room for a large pot. 

It was nice after all of that work unpacking to sit down to a quick and yummy dinner.  We heated spinach tortilla wraps (got a few packs today for a treat) and then the kids spread on mayo, added lettuce, pinto beans cooked in turkey broth (prepared yesterday), and some home pickled vegetables.  We finished off our meal with a big bowl of fresh Rainier cherries – I never bought these before (always got Bing) and the kids really liked them.

My husband was concerned when I told him I’d like to increase the protein and veggies for the family that I’d max out our food budget and it wouldn’t be sustainable long term.  I can’t say long term how it will work out because I don’t have the power to see into the future, but for now found that I was able to get all the nuts/nut flours and proteins that I wanted without going over my monthly budgeted amount.  It’s by continuously buying in bulk that this is possible – I didn’t need to stock up this month on a lot of grains and beans, for example, because I had plenty from last month – so that freed up money for these things.  Next month I’ll get the staples that I didn’t get this month, since I have enough of the bulk purchases from today to hold me over until then. 

At dinner my dd12 said that it’s so much work unpacking that she understands why people go shopping all the time instead of shopping like we do. I pointed out to her that while she’s right that it’s a lot of work unpacking so much food, it’s only a couple of hours once every 1 – 2 months, with a little here and there in between. But we’d be spending a lot more time on a regular basis dealing with buying and putting away food if we were shopping weekly. 

Now that I’m stocked up again, I’m looking forward to trying out some new dishes for the coming week’s menu!

Avivah

Comments

3 responses to “Restocking the pantry”

  1. yael Avatar
    yael

    How do you keep your fruits and vegetables fresh between purchaseas? Or is it that you don’t and when you run out, you run out. I know there are some frugal families that once that month’s bananas (or whatever perishable fruit/vegetable) is gone, there is no more for the month and they subsist on canned/frozen/dried. My family loves fresh fruit and I budget for it every week — especially now that I am expecting (I NEED peaches!!!!) and as long as I can get a good price (and is in season), I buy enough to last each week.

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  2. Avivah Avatar
    Avivah

    http://vibrantmoms.com/recipes/once-a-month-shopping/ – I wrote this a year and a half ago, but it’s still pretty accurate.

    I plan meals according to what veggies I buy every two weeks, and we don’t feel like we’re running out because we’re using what we have in a organized way. The more perishable fruits get eaten first; those that stay fresh longer get eaten next. I keep frozen vegetables and berries on hand, so when the fresh fruit gets low the kids enjoy frozen strawberries or blueberries – they don’t feel they’re subsisting; they love them! They also like dried fruit and consider that a treat. I hardly have used our home canned fruit – we never get to the point of needing it! Once something is finished, then yes, it’s finished until I go shopping again – but because I shop for produce every two weeks, it would be a very short time without whatever it is that ran out.

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  3. J. Avatar
    J.

    I’m shopping for a much smaller family, but we do basically the same thing. Although I shop for produce about every 2 weeks, I prefer to have on hand enough potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, cabbage, apples, oranges, etc. for a month, in addition to frozen veggies, raisins, canned tomatoes, etc. That way, I don’t *have* to run out for produce on any given day because I’m all out. I can shop when it’s convenient. This is even more important in the winter, when we could have two weeks of continuous snow and icy roads.

    For the same reason, I buy gallons of (organic) milk when it goes on sale and store them in my freezer. This isn’t quite as convenient because they take a long time to thaw, but it saves me from making an emergency trip to the store for milk. I also keep dry milk on hand so I can make the kids’ oatmeal (and other cooking) when I run out of fresh milk.

    One more trick is to buy some of your fruit hard/under-ripe (green bananas, hard peaches, hard avocados etc.) to eat later in the week or early next week.

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