Spring Cleaning

A great way to clean out your pantry and freezer, and save money, is to do what I'm doing right now. Get rid of everything you've had in there for ever and ever, stuff you thought you just had to have but have never used, foods that you bought in large quantities and have never used up. My husband is always bugging me to get rid of all the stuff in the pantry that we don't use.

Well, I decided to try to use only existing foods from my pantry and freezer for a week, and fill in the rest of the shopping with fresh fruit and vegetables. It saved me a ton of money. Some of my meals were a bit unusual. I had large cans of red peppers, why I bought them in the first place I'll never know. But I got a little creative and I made a red pepper dip using pureed peppers, spices, and yogurt. It was very good. I plan to use the rest of the peppers in a pasta dish later in the week. I have four cans of sardines and again I'm wondering how I acquired them in the first place, considering that my husband doesn't like sardines. But I will use them up, one way or another. Perhaps a sardine sandwich for lunch. The point of all this is that we all buy crazy food items that sit in our panty for years sometime, and if you're like me, you don't want to throw them out. So get creative, pull out those unused foods and combine them with whatever else you like for some new and creative meals. Your shopping bill for the week will be much lower and you will have done some well needed spring cleaning in the kitchen.