Eating From My Pantry: Day #11: My project ends

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.

Obviously, I quit this project right smack in the middle of it.

I was on my 2nd night of serving my husband "breakfast for dinner": pancakes and eggs, when he said "Pancakes for dinner is an odd choice".

Ok, let me explain the significance of this seemingly mildly spoken observation. My husband is a Brit, and even by British standards, he is incredibly understated...to a fault. When he says "It's a bit chilly out", what he really means is "It's fucking cold".

Besides being ridiculously understated, he also needs to be pushed to his absolute limit before he would even hint at complaining about any food I prepare for him. (No, it's not because I'm a big meanie...it's because he's a big softie. I have been known to threaten him with repeating a dish the next night as a way for him to tell me the truth about how he likes it).

So when my husband utters with a kind smile a phrase like "Pancakes for dinner is an odd choice", I know that what he's really saying is: "Buy some fucking food now, or I'm ordering pizza, blog be damned, and while you're at it, find a new goddam hobby, please".

So ended this experiment.

Of course, I was also running out of creative ways to re-combine the items in my pantry in fun and interesting ways - to eat AND to blog about - so I was happy for my husband to give me an excuse to blame the end of the experiment on him ;-) Off to the market I happily went, and picked up 2 kinds of flour, yeast, olive oil, butter, cheese, cold cuts, pasta, jarred pasta sauce, a shitload of vegetables, and sausages.

All in all, in was a fun couple of weeks that I will probably repeat every once in a while when I feel like my cabinets are overpacked.

Him:
*burp*

Me:
Well, that was fun. Now, what's my next project?

Here are some before & after photos of my cabinets:
BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER


Day #1
Day #2
Day #3
Day #4
Day #5
Day #6
Days #7 & #8
Days #9 & #10