First day in the kitchen

Last night I hid all of the stuff we can't use for the week. For the past while I was only buying what we really need because I didn't want a surplus of supplies in the kitchen, but we still have pretty well stocked cupboards of dry goods and spices. So I put some things in the freezer, and then concealed the shelves we can't use. Random tea towel art hides what we can't use, and now we are down to 2 small shelves. Here are the snapshots of before and after.

Lots of options and flavours.

After hiding everything, far less choice.

That pile of food pictured on the table from yesterday certainly looked like a lot less food once I put it away. A few things on the counter, our 2 small cupboard shelves, and then there is the fridge with the few things needing to be chilled. The top shelf is full of things we can't use, and condiments in the door, and the drawer that has cheese - all off limits! 

A sharp eye will notice the bottle of apple cider vinegar, and this is because we have apple cider vinegar and baking soda in stock at all times as we use these to wash our hair. Everyone else has shampoo and conditioner in the shower, so do we, and that's why I haven't counted these items in the budget for the week.

The only way to tackle all the anxiety this emptiness in the kitchen was creating for me was to do something, so today I spent most of the day trying to turn some of our ingredients into actual meals we might enjoy.

Confession time on a few last cheats:

One wee sweet potato for the stew.

Since we had $1.80 leftover I 'bought' the piece of ginger we had, and a sweet potato leftover in the fridge which had already been peeled and needed to be used, so we could keep both of these. I was amazed that the idea of keeping a piece of ginger was all of the sudden worth more than gold to me.

Where tea is made

For Sasha I chose to let her have the last half glass of juice left in the fridge this morning, and the choice of one already opened box of herbal tea that would be for her to have a cup a day, and also used to make some iced tea for her.

And last, I forgot about tea for us when we shopped yesterday, but we have a large tin full of tea in our cupboard (along with many other teas), so I rationed out tea bags for Mark and I to get a caffeine dose daily, which are in the tin.

To recap, all of the cheats I have chosen to make this week more bearable for my family include:
- salt, pepper and oil we already have on hand
- using leftover portion of applesauce and yogurt in the fridge
- Sasha gets to snack on her jar of pickled cucumelons
- tea rations from our current stock of tea in the cupboard

All day I was putting out food to eat, but I was always a touch hungry. My morning started with a cup of tea and 1/2 banana. We usually have a whole one every morning, and now sharing one. Then I cooked up a small pot of oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins and we each had a portion of just over a cup.

Once I had a smidgen of food in my belly I began the process of baking bread, and non-stop puttering in the kitchen for the day. Soaking chick peas, baking bread and muffins, and prepping for meals.

First snack time was a 1/2 apple. Sasha gets a whole one each day, and the few left over will be shared by me and Mark. One down, two to go.

Taking advantage of our big bag of potatoes today for two meals. First was a lunch of fries and scrambled eggs with celery, trying to get in a small dose of green. All good eats.

Afternoon snacks were 2 bite size oatmeal raisin muffins (I made 24 bite-size and 3 regular size muffins), then we split one of my fresh baked buns (which turned out super yummy!) and each had a third with a smear of margarine,

Once the chick peas were done I made up some hummus and we sampled with 7 crackers each. Hummus isn't quite the same without a hint of lemon and I had to water it down to smooth it out to conserve oil, so it is meh. I roasted the other half of the chick peas, which I forgot about in the oven and therefore they are overly crunchy and dry, but will have to do as the handful-now-and-then-tide-over snack it was meant to be.

The last meal of the day was potato stew with one bun. I used the chick pea water with a cube of stock for the broth, and used onion, garlic, celery, carrots and potatoes for the stew. I normally love my stews, and this one I loved mostly because I was hungry, and there was enough to have 2 bowls and almost fill up for a meal. Soon after I was hungry again, but stew has to last another meal so dinner was done.

Oats cooking.

Lunch

     

Baking goodness.

Hummus and crackers

     

Roasted chick peas

Vegetable stew

     

Overall, most of the food is tasty enough, and I was thrilled at how yummy the buns were! Simple can be good, but I already miss the treasure trove of flavour our spice rack provides. Thankful I managed to get cinnamon & raisins for oatmeal and baking.

Thankful tomorrow is another day off so I can spend more time in the kitchen prepping for the next few days of meals. When I'm back at work Tuesday I won't have time or energy for all this kitchen time anymore, and I lucked out the challenge began on my two days off so I could get us off to a good start. 

I'm thinking of all the other participants of this Welfare Food Challenge and hoping they have made it through the shock of the first day alright. 

Focus in the morning is making sure Sasha has enough for lunch at school. Now I'm exhausted and it's time to rest, but I'm feeling joy to be able to have a couple of slices of my bread toasted for breakfast!