Day #6: Eating from my pantry. Finally setting some beans to soak

Since my pantry is stocked with items that I have been dragging around for years, I decided the only way to make sure I get rid of it all without throwing it away was to not go grocery shopping. There will be no grocery shopping at all until Dec 31, while from January 2 through January 31 I will only buy fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and meat. Wine, beer, and soda, of course, are excluded ;-)
Here is the list of items I started out with in my freezer/refrigerator/pantry.

We are finally getting close to the edge of my comfort zone of not food shopping. I genuinely felt that food shopping was necessary on a weekly basis, if not more often. While I knew last week would be easier since we knew we would eat out more often for the holidays, refraining from shopping this week I felt would be the real challenge. I felt that with running out of bread, white flour and almost all of the wheat flour, and having no fresh vegetables left, that we really were getting to the point where we were going to start depriving ourselves.

And so, of course, I am finally feeling that this is a challenge.

I re-evaluated and saw that we still have frozen shrimp, beans, and frozen zuccini from last summer's garden. I've decided that when I really, really have no more vegetables left (i.e. no more zuccini), then THAT'S when I need to buy more. Same with protein: no frozen shrimp or beans = go meat shopping.

My husband, understandably, is worried about this. We agreed that we would keep stocked in frozen pizzas just in case I run out of things that he is willing to eat during this experiment.

Tonight, I made a quick & simple pasta with shrimp & pesto, with (what else?) shredded zuccini.

I also, conceded to the fact that we are running out of proteins, and if I want to avoid shopping, then I'm going to have to start soaking some beans. I set 3 cups of beans to soak tonight. I'm guessing (between soaking and cooking, with full days of working in between all of that) they'll be ready for dinner on the night after tomorrow.

Pantry Items Used:
• Shredded zuccini from last summer's garden
• pasta
• pesto from last summer's garden
• frozen shrimp

Him:
Great amount of shrimp.

Me:
Shredded zuccini goes in everything.

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Day #5

PS No picture tonight. The meal was absolutely delicious, and I don't want to ruin it's fantastic simplicity with yet another one of my crappy pictures.