Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 27 Days

 After today, just 4 days to go on the pantry challenge.

Right now I am cooking up the final squash in the work microwave.  ALSO found a tiny, mostly dried up garlic head, like 3-4 cloves, in the bottom drawer of the work fridge.  I know it is mine because I am the only one who uses the drawer and I'm the only one with fresh veg, and I'm the only one who would have a garlic head with dirt on it rather than shiny store bought garlic.

I'm thinking of throwing tomatoes on some of the squash for lunch (this is breakfast time, the microwave is free now).  With some spicy garlic seasoning and maybe an egg on the side.  Or not.

Looks like I will get 4 small portions or 3 good sized ones.  We'll see.  

The radish sprouts are finally going !   Warmer at the office than home so they are doing better.  Might take them home for the weekend if they are far enough along.

I got an invite to a friend's house on Saturday to help with farm chores and see the baby lambs.   The friend is a feeder so I will eat what is served.  

For the rest of this week and the weekend, I'm taking home the smoked duck, some service berries in vinegar, and maybe something else.

I FINALLY used the out of date desiccated coconut I had gotten at ross dress for less ages ago.  I mixed it into melted coconut oil and threw in a bit of peppermint emulsion I have had for literally years.  Put it in a bee-themed silicone cake mold (thanks pam) that works also as a chocolate/candy mold.  I put a tiny bit of stevia in the mix but I don't think it was needed.  Had one with my coffee.  I wonder if it counts as a fat bomb?  Anyway, will finally just eat that stupid coconut.

I might also bring the last of my maple syrup home for the weekend.  It is major delicious.

I am totally out of nuts!  Ate up the walnuts a few days ago when I was too lazy to cook.  Also had some in pancakes which was really nice with the maple syrup.  

Still have plenty of dried mushrooms, beans, lentils, a cup or so of rye berries and some chicos.  I have a half cup of chicos soaking so I can hopefully have duck with them for lunch tomorrow.  They take to long to cook to have for supper tonight.  I'd be up until midnight.  So, cook them up, put them out in a tin overnight to freeze (helps soften beans so I think it might work on chicos) and then spice up and stew again with duck or beans for a meal.

I am still amazed how long the pantry stock is lasting.  Even with the meals out, I have plenty of protein, nutritious veg/fruit options left.  Also whole wheat flour, leavening, coconut and almond flour and various things to throw in to make keto style meals.  With the sprouts on line now, also some fresh green things.

The TP is getting low.  Partly because I have lots of stock and haven't been scrimping.  I think I am lowish on hand sanitizer at home but I prefer to use soap and water so using that has just been laziness.

I'm working a list for a gradual resupply with more of the things I will truly eat up so there isn't as much stuff hanging around super long term.  I think I will also keep posting a penciled list of things to eat up over my cooking/prep area.  I don't' always eat them on the assigned week, but faster than if I just leave them jammed in the back of the pantry stock.  Also, dividing up the big packages and portioning them out by a week's supply worked well.  Made for a more useful active pantry right by the food prep area and a more manageable inventory of the longer term storage locations.

A close out inventory should prove interesting.

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 21 Days

 So far so good!

Someone brought me store bought bread yesterday, and food freely given by people who don't know what I am up to is inside the "ok" category per the rules I set up.  Anyone trying to give me stuff through pity or sabotage...that is outside the "ok" category.

So I ate some.  I hadn't had industrially processed carbs since an xmas dinner before xmas.  Turns out...I do not digest them nearly as well as whole grains well cooked/soaked.  Good to know.  Also, the bread was not particularly delicious, threw my sodium intake off, and I look like a puff ball today.  Totally not worth it.  I will try a little of the long ferment sourdough I can get at a local farmers market, but I think store bread type products are just not doing it.   I have the no-sodium baking powder and baking soda as well as yeast and the whole wheat, plain flour and keto-ish breads I've made with those, even with additional wheat gluten for texture, have been fine with my guts.  Again, excellent info.  Store bread is BS for my GI.  Like dairy...I might eat some breads now and then, but it will have to be worth it not crap.

Alright, as for the regular pantry challenge.  There are 10days left after today and I am clearly not going to clean out the supplies.  I will have protein (beans, lentils, duck meat, maybe tuna) left.  Grains, probably the whole wheat flour, left.  I won't get through the camelina seeds, the vinegar preserved berries, spices/herbs, coffee, tea, vinegar (still literal gallons), cocoa, possibly not the keto-flours, definitely not the vital wheat gluten.  Plenty of gelatin (I use it as a protein supplement, egg replacement in some recipes, and to thicken things).  Someone at work...and old lady...needed honey to make herbal medicines and casually said "do you have any honey?"...then STARED AT ME POINTEDLY.  I couldn't lie and said yes.  She stood there until I handed it over.  So...I will be out of sweeteners other than stevia.  Will need a bit of sugar to keep the kombucha mother going.

I will eat up the squash and I might go for the smoked duck this weekend.  Also hitting a jar of that chicken broth.  I think an egg drop soup made with that and some hot and sour spices and the dried veggies/mushrooms I have will be quite nice.  I plan to get onions, garlic and carrots once off the pantry challenge though I have granulated onion and garlic which is fine and can still do sprouts for fresh veggies and have a few frozen carrot slices.  I do want some fermented ginger carrots going again because they are delicious and keep their crunchy texture.  That really improves soups made with dried veggie mix.

At thrift yesterday (was in town to re-up the building permit) and got a norpro spaetzle cutter for 94cents!  It would have been a buck but I'm old and it was 10% off for the 55 and up crowd that day so whoohoo!  I have a spaetzle shaker with a squeezy lid too, also from thrift, obviously.

Once I go back to stores, I might put semolina flour on the "if it is on super sale" list because I think that is the better flour for those noodles.

I could easily go a few more weeks or a month on what I have and it would not be an issue as far as nutrition or calories.   NUTS.  I had no idea I had that much food.  Good to know. 

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 16 Days

Going well!   

Had strawberry pancakes made with whole wheat flour, strawberry powder (thanks Pam), and an egg with maple syrup.  WOW was that delicious.  Also coffee and rooibos tea (thanks Chris).  

Lunch yesterday and today is/was duck soup.  Like actual soup made with duck meat, not a movie with the Marx Bro's.  I added my last fresh onion and the last of the non-frozen fermented ginger carrots along with some dried mushrooms (thanks Sher).  Really really good.  Yesterday I made some whole wheat flour dumplings to go with the soup.   Since I would be out and about today, radio show day and laundry day, I made some bread things to go with: almond and coconut flours with psyllium husk and camelina seeds.  Egg and fake (low sodium) baking soda for leavening.  Quite good!  I fried them up last night in the last of a jar of coconut oil.  I have another jar.  I supplemented breakfast with some walnuts.  I have about a pound of those left.  

I have more soup for supper or for tomorrow.  Probably for supper.  I don't work tomorrow so will have time to make beans or something.  I meant to bring home smoked salmon, lunches midweek were smoked salmon and some muffins made in the work toaster oven.  Anyway, forgot the salmon in the office freezer so I have that to eat.  I am thinking it would make a killer pilaf with the rye berries.  It is a low sodium brined fish smoked by a colleague (thanks!) and given to me.  

While I can see some definite gaps in the pantry now, I'm not in any danger of starving any time soon.  The radish seeds I tried to sprout said no...too cold at the wee shed.  Need to move the sprout factory to the office.  I am down to a few cloves of garlic, most of a hand of ginger, and a decent sized pumpkin and those sproutable seeds for "fresh" veg.   Still have dried peppers, dried mushrooms (I know they aren't really a vegetable, neither is a squash if we are playing that game), dried veggie soup mix and a can of artichoke hearts (thanks Chris!).  Plenty of beans which may or may not be a veg depending on your biases.

For proteins I have dried beans and lentils, gelatin, smoked salmon, smoked duck, a big can of tuna, and a couple of jars of duck as well as walnuts, pine nuts, eggs from the chickens and 1 3/4 bags of dried eggs (thanks Cindy).  Like I said, not starving.  Oh, and vital wheat gluten which is both protein and flour-like.  Also camelina seeds...are they a protein?  A superfood?  Something just to get stuck in my teeth?

Still have rye berries, whole wheat flour, almond flour, coconut flour, and that vital wheat gluten.

I'd like to use up the arrow root.  Maybe a pudding with coconut milk?  I have a bag of that left.

Also have tons of spices and dried herbs.  I'll parcel out the squash hopefully between this week and next and then we're done.   

Plenty of coffee, tea, cocoa, coconut oil and olive oil.   I've been using a vinaigrette I got for xmas (thanks Cindy!) for making baking soda leavened whole wheat quick breads at work.  It is really good!  I still have plenty of yeast as well.

My grocery list for the after challenge times is more refined.  Like I eat dried fruit too fast so less of that.  Also nuts in the shell go slowly, nuts out of the shell I eat too fast.  Nutbutters rarely make it into a sandwich much less a recipe.  I just eat them on a spoon which is stupid and pointless.  And expensive.

Tart jams go slowly as well.  Other stuff goes better if I portion it out by week's worth rather than looking at the whole giant quantity.  That's just a pantry reorganization issue for effective use of what I've got.

It is still strange to just skip grocery stores.

I was chagrined today to see the tiny free pantry I usually contribute to when I do groceries, is totally empty!  Usually it has stuff in it.  It is at a church and this is Sunday for pity's sake!  Put your canned goods where your mouth is people!  

OK, time to prep the radio show some more.  Enough bloggery.

Random Aside Blog Entry: Your Answer Can't Be Books

This is actually a youtube tag but I don't roll that way.

I heard about it from "Thor Wants Another Letter" who is a hoot and talks about books on the youtube.

It is a questionnaire for book people, but answers to the questions can't be books.

Here goes.  There are 6 questions.

1. What is something that you own way too many of, other than books?

Uh...like everything!  OK, coffee gadgets. This is JUST IN THE WEE SHED not in storage.  Or the office  2 manual grinders.  1 antique/vintage coffee scoop. A couple of vintage coffee storage things (a jar and a tin).  17.5 brewing methods in the wee shed alone, over a dozen in active use, mostly Planetary Design french press dealies.  The .5 is half a copper coffee brewer I got at thrift but the pot part had been separated and I hold out hope it will get donated back by whomever bought it (who may be waiting for the half I got to be donated back...it is basically a chronological range war) and I can buy it to complete the set.

2. What is something that you do for fun that’s not reading a book?

Snowshoeing and staring at chickens. Not generally at the same time.

3. What is something special or important on your nightstand, that’s not a book?

My night stand is the important thing.  It is a hand made wooden tray done by a cool cousin-in-law.

4. What’s something that you buy at a bookstore other than books?

Pencils. I love pencils.  And handmade paper.

5. What’s a fun gift that you’ve received that wasn’t a book or a gift card for books?

I suppose the book light isn't fair here.  So many...snowshoes come to mind.  And the tibetan singing bowl.  

6. What’s a YouTube channel that you watch, that’s not related to books?

Tasting History with Max Miller!

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 10 Days

 I can see a dent in the pantry!  I no longer am overwhelmed with overstock.

Making a list of what to try to get through last week really helped.  I didn't get through everything on the list, but did move the items to the most convenient spot to grab and that worked.  Got done with many partial jars/bags of things and that makes space so I can see what I have.

I've gotten quite enamored with the pilafs.  Will focus more on whole grains when I go back to the store...whenever that might be!  I'm low on fruit....so I thought.  Then I found the 2nd jar of no-sugar cranberry juice AND a jar of the failed jelly cranberry sauce I made...still not thickening but probably still delicious.   Then there is the 2.5 quarts of berries in vinegar.  I dip a few berries out to throw in breads now and then.  I used some of the strawberry powdered I've had for ages (thanks Pam) in a keto-ish bannock (skillet quick bread) and it was good as well. 

I cracked open the final 5lb bag of flour and have some quick bread (made with a really yummy blackberry vinaigrette a friend gave me) going in the work toaster oven.  It smells good.   I was supposed to have a field trip for work today but we'll see.  It is Monday and I'm the only one without kids in the office.   Mondays are usually a tad chaotic for families.  Still have part of a pound of coconut flour, a quart jar full of almond flour, another of vital wheat gluten.  Plenty of "faking powder" and "faking soda" (the sodium free versions of the "baking" products) and enough yeast to get me through the apocalypse.  About a pint of rye berries (yum).  And camelina seeds that I really should start eating more of.

Anyway, got here and remembered the field trip so figured if I bake up some savory quick bread and take the last can of tuna (not counting the 2 from xmas...thanks Chris!!) it will be a decent lunch.

I am low on fresh veg.  Still have one small onion, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, a hand of ginger, and a medium size squash/pumpkin.

I do have a can of tomatoes and a can of tomato paste which I count as veggies. Along with the can of artichoke hearts and jar of olives from xmas (thanks again Chris!!).  I have kept a bag of dried mixed veggie soup base for when the variety of fresh veggies dwindled and started some radish sprouts for more fresh.  Also have broccoli seeds and alfalfa seeds. And a few fermented ginger carrots left as well. Plenty of veg then really.   And then there are the dried hot peppers.   They add some texture and flavor to almost anything.

The chickens, pretty sure it is Helen and Beatrice, are cranking out 2 eggs most days.  That helps keep the protein supply up.   

Also have 2 jars of duck, a smoked duck, 8 portions of smoked salmon, about 3-4 cups of lentils, a pint of dry garbanzos (maybe 2?), a pint of dry peruana beans, those 2 big cans of tuna, a can of garbanzos and a jar of home canned garbanzos, 2 cans of sardines, 4 pints of chicken stock (bone broth if you are a hipster), and 2 bags of dried egg which are about 10 large eggs equivalent each.   Jesus!   Too much protein??  Oh, and 1.2 lbs of beef based gelatine which is basically pure protein.  And 2lbs of walnuts (like in a bag, not in the shells).

The neighbor gave me 8 eggs but I didn't get them eaten because I have so much and they are SO poopy I am not able to wash them well.  So, they are getting boiled up and fed to my hens now and then.  I am grateful and if it had been warm enough to try to wash them outside, and the woodstove/chimney was not on the blink this weekend, I would have dealt with them better.  Next time?

Have a bag of dried mushrooms that make for some umami in soups and pilafs.  

Enough herbs and spices for the next apocalypse as well.

In other news: 

I did force the chickens out of the coop for an hour this weekend so I could get all the poop out.  The weather warmed up a bit and after a rain the snow was crusty and more solid under the snow shoes.   Still can't get to the utility sled...stupid mistake.  So, I used the empty bedding bag I'd stuffed in the pallet wall of the coop in case I needed it, and loaded it with poopy bedding several times while the chickens whined outside.  It was 35 degrees and SUNNY.  They were FINE.  It took about 4 trips to haul bags over to the terrace garden. The snow is a few feet deep there so it will have plenty of space to leach and rot before it hits the ground and I haven't planted/prepped that bed yet.  I think the woodchip bedding will be good for the super clay "soil."  ("Soil" because really...it is just clay.)   

As I was walking on snow shoes with a recycled bag full of poopy chicken bedding, I thought about that ph.d. I have.  It did get me the job that lets me afford the place where I am doing all this so I guess...but the reality was not the picture I had in my head during graduate school.  I do like this life better than the one I pictured and tried out (being a professor was not a good fit for me), but fewer turd bags on my back would be fine.

The chickens rushed back in when I re-opened their door.   They were all fluffing around in the new non-pooped bedding.  By this morning...crap everywhere.   Assholes!

Anyway, the pantry challenge.  It is going really well.  Clearly.  I've started a list of things I enjoy eating/using/cooking with so I can focus better and not just buy what is cheap.  Also, things that I will just eat up rather than pace myself.  E.g....anything sweet and easy to eat like dried figs and raisins.   Honey in the cold weather is harder to get through so that is lasting.  Coconut oil is easier to deal with in the winter than olive oil.   And I really like working with cocoa and super dark chocolate.  You can make many delicious things.  I got so much coffee as gifts, all amazingly good stuff, that I am not putting that on the list for a while.

Pantry Challenge 1 Month Plus 3 Days Update

 I think that is 34 days.  I didn't want to do math.

SO....still doing well with the pantry stock.

I went through everything at the office and the wee shed, my two food storage locations.

Made a list with amounts, but I didn't weigh things just put about how much there was because I know what 1 bag of powdered egg looks like and how far it goes.

THEN, I had to reorganize it by type of thing like "Meat/Fish/Poultry" and "Grains"

FINALLY, I figured out and wrote a shorter list to post on the wall, of what I would like to finish up in the first portion of January.   I want to use up the tail ends of things that are just a bit in a jar or bag and are taking up room, or that weren't stored where I could see them and are hence overstocked.  Also so I don't end up the last week of January with 5lbs of whole wheat flour and 2 dried figs...space the proteins/veg/fruit/grains out over the month.

I appear to be a bit low on fruit but otherwise things are holding up.

This gave me a dozen things to work into recipes and so far so good!

For New Year's Eve and Day I made a salmon and rye berry pilaf.  And it was goooooood...

((I really want to throw in a This Is Spinal Tap clip here but there isn't one handy.  Just know, that was a reference to a hilarious bit.))

Used some brown rice (Thanks Chris) an my failed cranberry buckwheat honey jam to make a rice pudding which was really good.  The jam was delicious, but did not set up.  I used the last bit of the last jar in some muffins.  Those were not great texturewise but did taste fine.  I didn't have any liquid fat and couldn't get the coconut oil to melt and mix in because the flour was so cold.   Anyway, lumpy muffins...my new stripper name and signature baked good.

I may not get through the entire pantry this month!   Could possibly go through February but the fruit and veg would get low. 

I used up the last of some fake egg product I had had for years.   I also noticed that I need to eat more REAL eggs!  Still getting 2 most days...way to go ladies!  4 of the 6 hens are on break but 2 are soldiering through winter putting out product.  One idiot, Gertrude, of course, decided to do the other half of her molt now.  Not a good idea to generate bald patches midwinter but she's an odd one.

The chickens have refused to go outside in the snow for 2 or 3 weeks now.   I shoved them a flat spot and the rooster, Houdini, poked his head out the door and said, "Oh HELL no" and went back to eating me out of house and home and crapping on everything in the coop.  Still, he's a calm rooster.  So far (knock on wood) has  not crapped on me when I go in to put up the food or water or check for eggs.  

Right now I have 27 inches of snow on the ground.  Or I did yesterday.  That is not a drift, that is just the regular snow and the bottom inch or 2 are compacted so more than that has fallen.  Nice fluffy stuff.

Nice fluffy stuff that is NOW blowing all over the tristate area because...wind storm.

Anyway, pantry challenge: I like it and think I can shift my shopping to more pantry use if I am diligent with the cooking.

As a side benefit I am ending up as an accidental 2MAD type person with an incipient fasting period each day. It's just easier to have a breakfast of eggs or whatever, then eat a giant lunch, like 1000 calories, of pilaf or whatever I cooked up.  Trying to store stuff is a pain.  Right now I have the porch-fridge/freezer, but you never know if it will freeze overnight or get too warm if the sun hits it in the morning.  So, easier to eat it up.  I keep wanting to get out a bigger pan and make one giant stew or something, but then, gotta store it.   Now that I am back at the office (we had 10 days off over the holidays) I can bring servings in here to the fridge so we'll see if the 2MAD keeps working or not.

A side effect of the pantry challenge and the "no spend on clothes in 2022" is that I REALLY don't need to shop.  I went to a thrift store hoping for some old brushes to make into a boot scraper and non-glass mason-jar size things to use as chicken waterers in winter (glass is scary in a freeze-thaw cycle), and frames for some art I was given.  Found 1 frame.  Then, headed to the clothes for my habitual "is there a decent pair of all cotton jeans" and other clothing basics.  Remembered that nope.  Not doing that this year.  Only needed 10 min in the thrift store.  I was at loose ends.  Didn't need groceries.

I did need some chicken bedding so I went and got that at the hardware store (bag of wood chips works best and us great in the garden after it rots with the poo).  Then....

I don't spend much time shopping compared to many americans, but now, even less.  I used some of the time to sort crap out at my storage unit and found the owner of the storage place there panicking because, like EVERY winter when we get snow, the roof leaks all over hell.  He thought it was fixed.  I think that taking gutters on and off and resealing around the AC unit will NOT WORK.  There is zero roof overhang on a heated metal building with little insulation.  It is a flat roof.  Until he puts a peaked or seriously sloped shed roof on there, insulates it and adds enough overhang to get the snow/water/ice to fall away from the building...and then fixes the slope on the paved driveway/parking areas, well, he's going to have a water issue.  My unit stays dry and I have everything up on pallets and plastic on the pallets.  I might go throw some plastic over the contents as well but so far the water stops at the hallway.  I didn't tell him to change then design of the building and the lot, not in the middle of a crisis where he is trying to mop up a small lake with a single shop vac...another time.