With food prices continuing to rise, stockpile cooking is a great way to stretch out that food budget and minimize food and money waste. Whenever money is tight, you should always start with what you already have. Having a robust pantry allows you to make many different meals, but what if you find your pantry slimming down? With less bargains available, I have been seeing some shrinkage in my pantry. That is why it is so important to get creative and use up what you have.
Now, when I mention cooking from your stockpile, I really mean your pantry, your freezer and your refrigerator and any other places where you keep your total food. Sometimes things get out of place, and we forget where things are. For example, perhaps the hot cocoa is stored away near the cups or a box of cereal or cookies have been stored high up away from the kids and then forgotten.
I’ll be starting a series that will address how to get the most out of your stockpile and include some ideas for food combinations and meal planning. If you ever find yourself staring at your food pantry or refrigerator or pantry and wondering what the heck to plan for a meal, you’ll want to read the next few posts. As long as you have some food somewhere, we can plan out some healthy and cheap meals. I’ll also offer some tips on planning out your meals so you don’t wind up with a week full of just pasta, for example.
While I can’t share specific recipes (you can see the Food Blog for that), I can give you ideas for meals using what you have on hand and lead you to where you can find them. Heck, I may even be able to include some tips on finding low cost and free food to include in your cooking and stretch it as needed. I strongly believe that God (or the universe, if you will) will provide what you need. I’ll help you figure it all out, and I hope you will add your ideas, too.
I do have to warn you that a little preparation in the form of organization will yield better results than simply grabbing things at random. While you don’t have to organize, knowing what you have and where it can be found will give you more options.
Before we get to all of that organization, let’s start with an example of something we all usually have just for a little motivation: bread. In the next post, I’ll share many different things you can do with bread, even stale bread to make it into a meal. I’ll also include links to how to get the cheapest bread possible, in case you want to add to your pantry.
Click here for more articles by Mary Ann Romans.
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