HHP - Week Eleven

House and Holiday Plan – Week Eleven – Pantry 

Here’s what’s on the To-Do list for this week:

• Clean out the refrigerator.

• Clean out and inventory the freezer.

• Clean out and inventory the pantry.

• Review recipes and start a shopping list.

• Stock up on seasonal staples.

• Prepare some freezer meals.

I was going to save defrosting the freezer for this week, but about a month ago someone (that would be me) didn’t make sure the freezer door was shut tightly, and it defrosted itself one day. Fortunately, we were able to catch my mistake in time to salvage everything. Once again a reminder to always listen to that little voice in your head!

Anyway, that leaves me more time to declutter and organize the pantry. I don’t know that I’ll do an actual inventory, but I will create a list of non-normal things that need to be used. This would include the canned beets and sweet potatoes, candy corn and candy canes leftover from years past, lentils, alphabet pasta and chow mein noodles. What’s languishing in your pantry?

I’ll also plan some dishes to make and stick in the freezer for the busy days of December. In addition to spaghetti sauce and pea soup, here are some meals that work for us.