15th: We cheated because we didn't feel like cooking. We had Apollo's subs and I don't feel bad about it. Not even a little.
16th: Freezer: 1 package of turkey bacon, crab legs, pre-cooked shrimp. Pantry: 1 can of corn, 1 bag of 90 second microwaveable wild rice
17th: Freezer: chicken nuggets. Pantry: macaroni and cheese, 1 can of mixed veggies.
18th: We ate at Frank's West - fabulous! Food was really good, but too expensive for the quality. I plan to go back for lunch - subs for $6.75 sounds better.
19th and 20th: Weekend cheat days.
21st: Freezer: chicken strips and breasts, chopped spinach, dinner rolls. Pantry: ziti and cavatappi noodles, alfredo sauce.
22nd: Little Caesar's heals the soul.
23rd: McDonald's does, too.
24th: Chipotle on a rainy night is perfect. We're not doing so hot this week! We might have to give up some weekend cheating to make up for it...
25th: Wow, this is embarrassing. We ate out again. We wanted to go to Black Sheep (they served deviled eggs as a side dish!), but there was some basketball tournament at the Seigel Center and traffic was a real bitch. So we went up to Boulevard and ate at The Empress instead. If there had been no parking there I'm sure I would have driven us to McDonald's or some equally offensive restaurant out of hunger.
26th: Bowling night with friends - we ate at Red Robin for dinner after 2 games! My high schore was 74 (I think?)...
27th: I'm going to just admit defeat at this point. I am so sick of looking at the same old things in the freezer and I don't want to cook any of them. But I will be eating Smart Ones for lunch every day this week because those are the only thing left on 1 shelf. We made pizza for dinner tonight, but using ingredients we bought at the grocery store today.
28th: Don't even ask.
As you can see, we lost a lot of steam towards the end of the month. I expected that. Rome wasn't built in a day, right?
These after photos aren't very dramatic, but I see a huge improvement in the freezer.
When we started this, the freezer was so full things would fall out of the shelves if we flung the door open too fast, and sometimes the door wouldn't even shut because the shelves were overflowing. We've definitely improved that, and there is empty space on all the shelves. We've learned that we have/will never eat bread that has been frozen (blech!). Also, we should only buy meat for the current week's meals because if we buy what's on sale and freeze it for later, it'll get shoved to the back of the freezer and we'll forget about it like that bag of shrimp that expired in 2009.
The pantry pictures are even less dramatic (if that's possible).
We went grocery shopping in the middle of the month for fresh fruit and veggies, and snacks, so even though I swear the contents are different than they were on the 1st, the pantry doesn't look less full. I'm ok with that. Lessons learned in the pantry? We eat a LOT of pasta. We go through it very quickly and it is not something that will ever be in danger of going bad. Also, we have way too many spices.
Lastly, the impulse buys at the grocery store are the root of the problem here - that's my theory. See that grape Kool-Aid container? I bought that last weekend in Fredericksburg while shopping for a dinner at Bonnie and Nate's house. I was craving it, so I bought it knowing I'd use most of it that night. But once we got to the Millers' and I got it out to mix, Bonnie said she already had an open container so we made a jug using that one. I got my fill of Kool-Aid that night and am no longer craving it, but there's the whole thing sitting in the pantry. Who knows if/when we'll drink it.
Final verdict - good exercise; we learned how to change our shopping habits to avoid this bottleneck of food in the future, and we know exactly what's in the pantry and freezer now. On the agenda for tonight - beef stroganoff and asparagus! Yum! Now, if I could only get this pesky migraine to go away so I can get in the kitchen and eat something. Yesterday was really bad, possibly the worst migraine I've ever had. I closed the blinds and curtains and covered my whole head with blankets and was still bothered by the light! UGH! Today I'm half-brained from sleeping until 2 yesterday, causing me not to be able to sleep last night. If any of this post makes sense it'll be a miracle. If it doesn't, meh.
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