Well, considering the likelihood of leaner times in the next few months I decided it was time to take adequate stock of the pantry. I've let the inventory of some of the basic staples slide for a while. I discovered that while I have LOTS of lentils in stock, I was completely out of black beans, kidney/red beans and black eyed peas. We were getting low on other staples such as rice as well. I had planned on going shopping today to round things out, only to be reassured at
Sharon Astyk's page that it is a good time to take advantage of holiday sales. She reminded me that not only are baking staples such as flour and sugar on pretty good sales right now but to keep an eye out for spices that rarely go on sale. So I stocked up on ginger, nutmeg and allspice that were on sale at the local grocery. In addition I got the following:
10 lbs rice
10 lbs unbleached flour
5 lbs white sugar (it was a one bag limit)
1 lb packages of black beans, kidney beans, black eyed peas and small red beans to refill my mason jars
10 lbs russet potatoes (not organic but a really good deal)
2 packs premium chocolate chips (on sale for 1.99 each with a coupon for $1 off if you buy 2 bags)
4 bags frozen peas (Mine didn't do much this year- too much rain)
2 lbs butter (again, not organic but it's getting close to time for baking holiday goodies and I refuse to use margarine)
A few other items rounded out the trip, ramen noodles for I11, oranges (definitely not local produce!), coffee, eggs and a few items for the food drive at the boys' elementary school.
Hope all have a peaceful, restful weekend.
It's funny you should mention lentils because I just sat down to get my lentil sloppy joe recipe off my blog. We are making it for a potluck. I have a lot of lentils, too. We use them a lot though. If I think about it I will post more of our recipes.
ReplyDeleteI ended up stocking up a bit today also. I try to shop the sales and the coop, organic frozen veggies are on sale for $1.49 so I got a bunch. Not local I know but that isn't always going to happen during the winter on our budget.
Someday I will have enough garden space around here that I won't have to worry about that.
We love lentils, they are so versatile. But I think I got more lentils last time when I actually needed something else. That's what I get when I try to remember what is on the list that I forgot!
ReplyDeleteI try to buy organic and local when possible but sometimes practicality and budget concerns take over.
If you are interested, I belong to a United Natural Foods Buying Club and we save a lot of money buying in bulk and watching the sales in the price guides. I can get you the coordinators e-mail. If you are interested my addy is stephany@naturallysimple.org
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me - I need to get to our local bulk food store pretty quickly.....since I have to make the rolls for Thanksgiving and I'm out of bread flour!
ReplyDeleteKris
Stephany- thanks for the info on the buying club. I'll probably be in touch.
ReplyDeleteKris- yes, the holiday preps have a way of catching up to us, don't they...