Cleaning out the pantry cooking

Before I launch into a month of tracking how much I spend on a month's worth of groceries, I am getting a head-start now at cooking from my pantry.  Yesterday, I took inventory of what I have in our pantry, freezer and fridge, and typed all the ingredients into supercook.com.  I love that website!  Once all my ingredients are on the list, it searches recipes all over the internet and tells me all the stuff I can make.  So easy to use, and it saves me money by delaying my trips to the grocery store.  It also came in handy when we were planning to leave town on vacation, and will be very helpful when we prepare to move at the end of this year.

Our pantry has a hodge podge of ingredients, because since May 29, we've either been traveling (total days gone this summer = 31) or cooking theme weeks!  In between our three family trips, we chose a different cuisine and planned our entire menu that week around it.  One was Mexican, the next was Asian, and the latest was Italian.  There were a few special ingredients purchased for each one which weren't all used up.  Also, I've made at least two trips in the last 2 months to take advantage of combined sales with coupons.

From all that, I came up with a list of 8 things I can make from what we have on hand, so I have a week's worth of dinners planned already.  Those ideas go on a list on a piece of scratch paper onto my fridge.  My first shopping trip in August will probably be small, just milk and fresh fruit.  I have plenty of breakfast cereal and bagels on hand, and some waffle mix.  I have two loaves of bread in the freezer for sandwiches for lunch, although we sometimes have leftovers from the last night's dinner.  My garden is currently producing onions, green beans, swiss chard and zucchini plus basil, oregano, cilantro and parsley.  Our pantry/fridge/freezer includes:

alfredo sauce
allspice
american cheese
applesauce
bacon
bagels
baking powder
baking soda
balsamic vinegar
banana
barbecue sauce
basil
bay leaf
beef steak
beef stock
bread
breadcrumb
brown sugar
brussel sprout
butter
canned tuna
canola oil
carrot
cayenne pepper
celery
chard
chicken
chicken soup
chicken stock
chiles
chili beans
chili flake
chili pepper
chipotle chiles
chow mein noodles
cilantro
cocoa
coconut
coconut oil
cooking spray
cooking wine
corn
corn syrup
cornstarch
cracker
cranberries
cream cheese
cumin
dijon mustard
Dream Whip mix
Easy Mac
eggs
flour
frozen pizza
fruit juice
garlic
garlic powder
graham cracker
green beans
grits
honey
hot dog
italian seasoning
jelly
kamut
ketchup
lemon
lettuce
lime
maple syrup
margarine
marshmallow
mayonnaise
milk
mozzarella cheese
mustard
nutmeg
oat
oatmeal
olive oil
onion
onion powder
onion soup
oregano
paprika
Parmesan cheese
parsley
pasta
peanut bars (Nature Valley)
peanut butter
peas
pepperoni
Philidelphia cooking cream (2 pkgs)
pickles
pie filling(cherry)
popcorn
powdered sugar
prunes
pumpkin
raisin
ranch dressing
red pepper flake
red wine
refried beans
relish
rice
rice vinegar
roasted red peppers
sage
salami
salsa
sausage
sesame oil
shortening
shrimp
sour cream
soy sauce
suddenly salad mix
sunflower seed
syrup
taco sauce
taco seasoning
thyme
tomato
tomato paste
tomato sauce
tuna helper
tuna
Uncle Ben's rice pouch
vanilla
vegetable oil
vegetable shortening
vinegar
wine vinegar
Worcestershire
zucchini

A week from now, we'll see what's left!

Tucking my plants in at night

It's been cold several nights this past week!  So for my square foot garden, I've been tucking my plants in at night with a nice warm blanket.  I'm most concerned about my strawberries, as it's not good weather for them.  Everything else can probably survive the cold.  I'm not seeing any sprouts of carrots, lettuce or spinach though.  If nothing comes up in the next couple weeks, I will replant.  I'm seeing more onion sets sprouting above ground.  I'm hoping for a warming trend as this next week progresses.




I was surprised to see several more snow pea plants popping up in my row in my conventional garden!  I counted 17 plants in the row today.  My potatoes are showing signs of life as well with tiny greens emerging.  True that Colorado may have a late start to the growing season, but I'm trying to push the limits in hopes of some good results.

And have I mentioned my tomato plants in my square foot pots?  They are growing quickly, though they reside in my dining room most of the time lately.  (As I type this, I'm sitting right next to them.)  I put them out for sunshine a couple hours a day.  When it quits freezing at night, I'll harden them off, and leave them outside permanently on my patio, which gets a ton of sunshine.  There are tons of blossoms on these, and a few tiny tomatoes forming.  I love tomatoes!

Garden Progress

I've made a few changes this week with my square foot garden.  I bought some strawberry plants and broccoli plants and put them in.  You can put 4 strawberry plants in a square foot, and one broccoli.  The other three broccoli plants are in my conventional garden plot on the North end of my backyard (picture 2).  You also see some 1/2" PVC pipes that I've criss-crossed, and connected at the cross with a zip tie to form a frame so I can cover it with either heavy plastic (a painting drop cloth) to protect from hail or high winds, or a blanket to protect with frost.  Since we had one freezing night last week, I had to use my blanket!  Also, last night we had a nice rain shower, so I collected the water from my downspout, and filled my 5 gallon bucket.  Sun-warmed rainwater is supposed to be best for your plants.  You also can see five of my onion sets have sprouted!  I planted 11 more, since you can fit 16 onions in a square foot.  They'll probably sprout in a couple weeks.  Two squares, where I have spinach and lettuce seeds, are covered with thin plastic (and rocks to keep it from blowing away) to keep the soil moist until the seeds sprout.

Here is my conventional garden.  Three broccoli plants are next to six potatoes I put in the ground.  A stick marks each place I put one in, topped with some extra cut up potato that I figure wouldn't hurt as extra fertilizer.

My conventional garden is an experiment.  I have never worked with such clay-like soil.  This plot has been topped with a couple inches of compost, brought in when we had our yard professionally landscaped.  I have spaded up about 1/4 of the small garden space.  I'll get to the rest when I have the time and energy!

Here is an area I was so anxious to plant before it occurred to me that perhaps I should spade up the soil first.  I just made a row with the hoe, and put in the seeds.  I have about 6 snow pea seeds that have sprouted in this row you can sort of see (one close up, and the others down the row).  This part of my garden gets the most shade, so I don't have high hopes for it.

Square Foot Gardening

This year I finally have a chance to try square foot gardening!  A couple of friends of mine did them last Summer, and I really didn't have the yard for it.  We've since moved, and have the yard, the resources, and the time to give it a try ourselves!  I checked out the book "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholemew from the library.  I also found this website http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/ through an online search, which is a blog that documents one person's experience with her garden, as well as many resources she's developed to plan and organize everything, and lots of input from blog readers.

Some of the benefits to square foot gardening are that there is good soil because you make your own raised bed filled with "Mel's mix", there are fewer weeds and bug problems, and you can grow more plants in a small space.

Now my yard only has a small garden space where not much sun shines, so my solution was to have a square foot garden box put on my rock area where it will get full sun.  It's built out of scrap lumber we had in the shed.  My husband and I built it from the directions in the square foot garden book.

I built a trellis for it from the book's directions as well, and also purchased PVC pipes for a frame to cover my garden with a sheet of plastic (painting drop cloth) when it hails, which in Colorado, it does frequently in the Summer.

So far I have planted onion sets, lettuce, spinach, carrots and snow peas from seed, and transplanted broccoli, and strawberries (not shown).  I have green pepper plants started indoors that will go in the box later, as well as a melon plant which can climb the trellis after the snow peas are finished.

I'm working with my small garden plot on the North end of my yard also, but it's soil is clay with some compost mixed in, and, as I mentioned, it doesn't get as much sun, since it's near some evergreens, our shed, and our back fence.  I'm hopeful it will produce something.  I'm not investing much cost into it, so it's an experimental year.  I am making compost in a bin also, which I'll work into the garden plot as it's ready.

It's not too late or too hard to put together your own garden!  I recommend checking out the resources mentioned above for how you can get one started.  I hope to post occasional updates on my garden's progress through the Spring and Summer.