Pantry Perfect

The last few weeks the Essley family has been somewhat overcome with unexpected financial burdens. The biggest issue being that one of our cats got sick. After nearly two weeks at the vet we walked out of there over $1000 poorer. During that time we went on vacation (which was mostly free to us, thankfully) to Florida only to return to a bill from the IRS saying we made a mistake on our 2008 taxes and we owe them $500. By September 15th. Not to mention my car is in desperate need of tires. So, we're a bit broke. Not that we'll be choosing which bills to pay like so many Americans these days, but things will be pretty tight through the end of the year. So we've been looking at our budget trying to figure out where we can cut some dollars. By far, out biggest monthly expense (sometimes even bigger than our mortgage) is our food budget. We spend a small fortune on food every month. Is pretty ridiculous, actually. I usually justify it by saying we eat a mostly organic diet, so this means we have to pay more money for everything. Yeah, not so much. Not that organics don't cost more, because they do, but the way we go about things is all wrong. For a family that recycles everything under the sun and claims to care about the environment and eats food that is good for our bodies as well as our earth we waste a shocking amount of food. It's embarrassing, really. We throw out a ton of stuff. I make a menu and then might decide come Wednesday that I don't want to make chicken for the four millionth time, I want to make some complicated middle-eastern dish that requires forty-three spices I don't yet own, and so there I go back to the store yet again. So we've decided to eat mostly from our pantry for all of this week and possibly next week. Then we're officially "cutting back" for at least the next month, if not the next several months.

Hello, rice and beans. How have you been, tucked back in the darkest corner of my pantry for so long? Well rested, are you? Well, you're about to become very famous in our house.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did go to Publix on Sunday when we got back from Florida and bought some milk, grapes for Avery, half and half, toilet paper, chicken stock, and coffee. So here's what our menu has looked like thus far:

Monday: Brown rice and cheese enchiladas. I made homemade enchilada sauce and we had corn tortillas in the fridge. I made a huge batch of brown rice (short-grain brown rice is the BEST and so so tasty!) with the chicken stock and chopped up some of the sliced jack cheese we brought back from vacation. Seasoned with chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, s&p, and ground coriander. It came out surprisingly delicious. Rob made the comment "that was great! It's probably all downhill from here, right?!" Hmmm.

Tuesday: Chicken and rice balls and salad. I got this rice ball recipe from Deceptively Delicious. I picked up this cookbook at Kohls for $5 a few weeks ago and it's become my new best friend. I've got a freezer full of pureed veggies that I've been adding to all sorts of things. Come to think of it, I added some pureed yellow squash to my enchiladas on Monday. I used more of the huge batch of rice I made Monday and some cooked ground chicken I had the forethought to freeze before our trip. It also included more of my leftover jack cheese and some pureed sweet potatoes. It called for the balls to be rolled in whole-wheat cracker crumbs which I didn't have, so I used panko mixed with flax seed meal. Again, delicious! The bag of organic salad greens was another thing leftover from vacation. I'm SO glad we decided to bring every leftover food item back with us!

Wednesday: I finished the rest of my rice for lunch and found myself wondering what the hell I was going to come up with for dinner. I have frozen ground turkey and frozen chicken thighs. I have more rice I can make but at this point all I'm left with is either white rice, which I'm trying to avoid, or boil-in-bag brown, which isn't terrible, but it's not the super-tasty short-grain brown I've been eating all week. It's got more of a carboard-esque flavor to it I'm not in the mood for. So I decided to make some flax bread in my bread machine and use the turkey to make patty melts. I also took several onions and spent nearly two hours caramelizing them. I have to say, those were the most amazing onions I've ever had! Sticky sweet, almost like candy and served on top of the melts. Served with a side of sauteed squash, amazingly leftover from my last organic box nearly two weeks ago (say what you will about organic produce being overpriced, the pesticide coated stuff at the grocery store wouldn't have lasted a week in my fridge much less the 12 days it's been) and again, delicious! I couldn't help but pat myself on the back. I was hitting these impromptu, somewhat made-up dinners out of the park!

I have to admit, guiltily, that I stopped by the store on the way home from Avery's gymnastics class. I bought carrots and celery and more creamer for Rob (the coffee addict). I also bought some Edy's fruit bars. No, they're not a 'basic necessity', but I needed them for my sanity. I swear. I find myself yearning for Friday to get here so I can go pick up my organic produce box and have some good, fresh fruit and veggies to cook with.

Thursday: I wake up trying to figure out again what I'm going to do for dinner. At this point my options are running out. I'm low on chicken stock and completely out of olive oil. Looks like it might truly be rice and canned beans. I then glance in my pantry and realize I have cans and cans of "soup beans" I picked up at Whole Foods months and months ago. I used to buy these in Colorado regularly and I made a really tasty veggie soup with them. I'm trying to ignore the fact that it's supposed to be 90 degrees outside today and get excited for soup, served with leftover flax bread, toasted and rubbed with garlic and sprinkled with s&p. Just carrots, celery and multi-bean soup isn't sounding all that filling. I'm also wondering just how much chicken stock I have left to actually make soup with. Otherwise I'm looking at bean water for dinner. Turns out I have just enough chicken stock. I also added some leftover caramelized onions and a little tomato paste. It wasn't too bad, though I've made it tastier before.

Friday: It's produce day!! I'm so excited I can barely stand it. I pick up my organic produce box every Friday and I'm jonesing for some fresh fruit and veggies. I get my produce from Organics2u on the outskirts of Dahlonega. It's about a 40 minute drive for me every Friday but SO worth it. I've also been lucky enough to become friends with the wonderful couple that provide this awesome service, Alex and Paige. Avery also loves to play with their 3 year old son so we end up spending an hour or two every Friday playing and chatting and even occasionally helping Paige put together the boxes. Avery and I really look forward to Fridays.

The box is gorgeous this week. Of course, it could just be that I haven't seen my beloved produce box in two weeks due to our vacation, but really, it's beautiful. Bananas, apples, oranges, oh my. I'm absolutely craving fresh fruit. I get home and I'm really tired. I stayed up until 1:30 reading an awesome book, but I'm feeling every bit of the sleep I didn't get. I do not feel like cooking. Rob and I are very very tempted to order pizza. Easy, delivered right to our door. We decide pretty quickly that we don't want to do that so we decide Friday will be "forage" day. Basically, it's fend for yourself night. Avery is stoked because this means she gets a cheese quesadilla, her current favorite meal. I decide to have an apple dipped in crunchy peanut butter and a little later I ended up fixing myself a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal.

Overall, the week was pretty successful. We still have quite a few pantry staples left and I didn't even have to break into the beans yet! I do need to do some restocking: I need olive oil, bread flour, chicken stock. This coming week will come with it's own unique set of challenges. I rejoined Weight Watchers online Saturday so now I have to stay within my points. This will be especially challenging since I will basically have to spend hours entering in specific recipes to figure out their point value. We no longer eat very many processed, convenience foods (and I'm really not spending money on those luxuries right now) which are very easy to figure in the point department so it will be somewhat challenging using mostly fresh foods. I'm even doing something I usually never do - I'm scouring the weekly ads for all three major grocery stores to try to get the best price. While it means I'll have to go to two different stores this week (one has absolutely nothing I want) I think it's worth it.

I have to say, I'm loving all the lessons I've been learning this week. It's only money, but once you become used to having it all the time it becomes a little insidious. You get really angry and irritable when you actually have to watch what you spend. In this process we're figuring out that it feels good not to be wasteful and it's helped us do something that is really really important to me, something I don't think near enough people do - practice what we preach.