What's in the Fridge

I will have to have Brenton put pictures up of how truly empty our cupboards and refrigerator are.  Because we don't buy food in plastic, it means we don't eat a lot of processed foods so we don't buy large amounts of groceries at a time.  This has resulted in running out or getting very low on groceries quite frequently and so we end up pulling out the can of kraut in the back of the cupboard that we forgot was there but can finally see again.  Ultimately, one unforeseen result is that we don't grocery shop until we are essentially completely out of anything edible.  I have actually started cooking a lot, out of necessity, and I've gotten really creative with what I cook (I wasn't joking about the can of sauerkraut!).

We have been trying to use up the old items that are still lingering around the cupboards that are in plastic.  We haven't bought anything packaged in plastic since the new year and so we have gotten rid of most things but are still using a package of corn tortillas and a box of Bisquick.  We also have quite a few condiments that have been lingering around that I don't want to eat but don't want to waste.  You know when you walk down the hallway in high school and meet that person that you don't like and you just look the other way and pretend you didn't see her?  Well sugar-free strawberry preserves sweetened with splenda is her name.  I just don't like how fake she is!

Our parents gave us the leftover meat that they weren't going to eat when cleaning out the freezer and so we ended up with an overwhelming amount of cube steak, hamburger, and bratwurst, as well as those pork roasts that come from some bony, grisly part of the pig that only someone's grandma knows how to make into something that anyone would really want to eat.  It is all wrapped in plastic and it is all mostly old a freezer burned, but we haven't talked about this yet because we realistically may have to go without meat when we run out of what we have.  We were really bummed to learn that even the grocery stores that cut their own meat originally received it in plastic.  We definitely have plans in the works to buy in bulk from a local farmer, but haven't talked about it in any depth.      

Learning to make things from scratch has been an interesting experience.  I've never been much of a cook, mostly because I just never bothered to do it.  Now, flour, eggs, and milk have become staples in our house and are used in almost every meal.  Speaking of these items, grocery shopping is going to be thrilling tomorrow!