[Happy Song]

Over the years my husband and I have gotten into food storeage and pantry cooking. I first heard of pantry cooking from the cookbook I linked. Basically it just suggests that you should buy your supplies and cook from what you have on hand. This marries very well with only buying what is on sale and storing it. Yes I have a freezer too. We are going to try an experiment and not purchase any food in February.

So what is your cooking style?



Amazon.com: Monday-to-Friday Cookbook (0019628037480): Michele Urvater, Simms Taback: Books



our pantry

[Keakie]

I don't have the space or the patience for that sort of thing. I think it's really cool that some families make it work for them, though. Let us know how it goes!

[Augie]

I also don't have the space. I try to keep a months worth of pantry stuff in the space I do have. It's easier for us because we prefer fresh.

[C&K'sMama]

We don't have a pantry (or the space). I've also tried to move away from canned goods since reading about the BPA in the lining and such.

We make a meal plan for 15 days at a time and only shop once one each paycheck. We've been good about sticking to that. I'm going to try and add couponing to this (which I know will mean more boxes, but I will still try and stay away from cans).

That's an amazing stockpile though!

[w292737]

wow! I'm jealous!! I wish I had space for things like that

[Happy Song]

Originally Posted by w292737

wow! I'm jealous!! I wish I had space for things like that

Yeah me too I am going to end up with three kids in one bedroom because of this.

[Mod-The Lesha]

Woooooooooow I wish I had that space!!! My space is limited but I stock pile what I can fit into my pantry (which is just a large cabinet compared to yours lol) and my biggest cabinet is a spice cabinet which also holds extras like ketchup, oils, vinegars, wines.

I have a huge deep freeze, that's where my savings comes from.

I would say Im the same, I buy on sale in bulk if the price is right and thats what we eat. I am currently working on preparing meats, such as cooking up chicken quarters and shredding the chicken for quesadillas, soups, salads, etc... and freezing it and the broth stock.

I will be doing the same with pork.

i bought a 10 lb bag of potatoes last week and baked them into twice baked potatoes, froze them individually. its nice when you want a snack.

I just got another bag of potatoes that I will prep for fries, dice for soups, etc...

I just got a bunch of good deals on meat today, so tomorrow it will be all about separating into ziplocks for freezing. Cooking the chickens and the pork, and Im going to attempt to make and prefreeze some stuffed bell peppers.

[Happy Song]

When potatoes were on sale 10lbs for $1 we bought 300lbs 100lbs are in an ice chest in the shop. 200 lbs are done up the old fashioned way buried in the ground. We have 20 acres so any that get all eye or rotted we will plant, feed to the chickens or compost.

[Mama.Angie]

Whoa! THAT is a pantry! Good luck in February!

My cooking style is last minute. We generally don't pre plan meals, and often shop the day of or day before. Past few weeks however, I have been attempting to buy one bulk load of grocery a week, but it hasn't really helped in my meal planing.

[Tiki]

We do some food storage too mostly we are working on building up our emergency supplies. I cook from my pantry quite a bit, we do buy some fresh fruits and veg about every two weeks (I prep and freeze alot when it is in season, this year I did 30lbs of tomatoes, I made them into diced, tomatoe sauces (2 different kinds, I discoverd roasted tomato is so much easier then what I have been doing, the roasted taste so much better too and salsa, we also did carrots and zuchini, we have done 40lbs of peppers in the past but I didn't use as many as I thought we would) Next year we are going to branch into canning it all instead of freezing. We have to stay away from most processed food because of allergies and sodium concerns. It is really nice to be able to reach into the pantry and freezer and have your meal right there. I did that last night Good luck on not buying any food in Feb

[Happy Song]

Originally Posted by Mama.Angie

Whoa! THAT is a pantry! Good luck in February!

My cooking style is last minute. We generally don't pre plan meals, and often shop the day of or day before. Past few weeks however, I have been attempting to buy one bulk load of grocery a week, but it hasn't really helped in my meal planing.

Oddly enough this is so true! Especially when you first get started you feel like... you spent tons of money and have nothing to eat! Like for me this month I bought 15lbs of real butter, which is a lot of money not a whole lot of meal spark.

Butter reg price $3lb sale price $1.88 with 5 bonas points. Savings $16.80 plus $.75 earned store cash. And I had completely run out of butter over the holidays. The last box had a "best by date" of Aug 2010. I have given birth twice since then!

[Mama.Angie]

YES! I get it all unloaded, love that my fridge/pantry looks so full, then order a pizza! Okay, not what really happens, but it happened last week! Mostly 'cause I was too tired to cook at that point but still!

Oh and at creating life two times past the expiration of butter!

[babyloves2dance]

My pantry is also not as big as your food storage space. Our chest freezers are our largest food storage area. We raise our own beef and every other year get a feeder calf butchered. It is a lot money wise all at once, but we know the quality of the meat is going to be good and that it will last us a long time! We also try to buy a 4-H hog (or half of one) every other year. The only meat I buy is poultry and fish. We also put up our own sweet corn every year or every other year depending on how good the crop was (DH plants a large sweetcorn patch every year when he plants the field corn.) I tried to cook with nothing but what we had on hand last October (to clean out the pantry) and made it about 2 1/2 weeks before giving in. I would love to get more into gardening, freezing, and canning but don't have much of a green thumb and know nothing about freezing or canning vegetables.