Eat down the pantry 2014

Last year we started our eat down the pantry challenge in May. It was definitely helpful but I remember thinking that it would be better to start it earlier in the season next time because we wanted to use up the freezer veggies before the fresh veggies were available. So this year we are starting our challenge in March and going into April. Like last year, we will be buying dairy as we need it and may buy fresh veggies if we use up all of our frozen and dried veggies.

I did an inventory of our pantry items with the exception of the grains and beans. I also inventoried the kitchen freezer. There are more meats and probably more frozen fruits and veggies in the deep freezers. We are going to have our hands full just trying to get through the food that is already in the house though so I didn't bother inventorying the deep-freeze. 

I think the most difficult things to use up it will be the jams, pickles and chutneys. If anyone has recipe ideas for using these please let us know. We got on a kick because we had so much produce this summer but we didn't consider how much of it we could actually use in the winter. Oops.

Seems like the freezer items will be pretty easy to use. We will post recipes and pictures as we go along if we find anything particularly interesting. Now it's time for me to start menu planning.