AJ- I always use bread heels in my meatloaf! We don't eat them and my recipe calls for two pieces of bread broken into little pieces so that's what I use. 
Practicing Good Pantry Skills...
- Thread starter AuntJamelle
- Start date
AJ you can add the rinds to a small bottle vodka to make extract for baking. As for the bread heels dry them in the oven and then run them through the food processor to make bread crumbs.
Plant a couple of the acorn squash seeds to grow your own,
Plant a couple of the acorn squash seeds to grow your own,
WOW! You are set for while. You could also use the zest on top of icing and other dessert for color and taste. If you have the time, you can make candied citrus peels.
Oh you can let the zest or rinds sit in a small jar of sugar. Shake every few days. It will flavor the sugar.
If you like marmalade you can use the peels in that. Household cleaners, peels and vinegar I think it is, could also be handy.
When I came home I found a big jar of regular yeast in the fridge as well as two half jars of bread machine yeast! Whoopie!
Now that is celebratory indeed!
I thought of you, AJ, when I was looking for spices yesterday. I never noticed it before but there were bottles of dried orange peel. They were chopped up in very small pieces.
I'll do my the same day and leave them on the stove in ice water. If I do them in the morning like this, they'll usually stay white until dinner time when I cook them. I've left them in the fridge a day ahead and they turned grey still. I decided I wasn't doing that anymore.
When looking for spices, besides looking in the baking aisle of your store, check to see if the ethnic food aisle also has spices.
I've been having a hard time finding ground ginger and anise seed in the grocery stores. One of the grocery stores near me has a whole aisle dedicated to various ethnic foods. Within that aisle is a spice section and I found it there.
This is how I was able to buy Pasta. The entire pasta isle was empty, but when I turned around to the Hispanic food section, they had these little packs of pasta. They are smaller than a normal pasta pack, but to be honest they are the perfect size to make a small batch of pasta for a salad or whatever you need when you have a small household and just want it for one meal.
Haha that's funny. I swear ever since I turned 40 my eyes sight took a dive. Never had to wear glasses and now I had to get reading glasses. Now almost each year since then my prescription had to a get a little stronger.
This week my goal is to take stock of my pantry. Create a spreadsheet (Master list) of items I want/need to have and how many of each I should have and compare that to what I have on hand. Each week when I go to the store I will try t pick up ad an extra item or 2 and update my spreadsheet. This whole nightmare caught me off guard. I used to coupon a lot and at one time had a really well stocked pantry but let that go last year. We are still ok but just not as good as I wished we were. So I have set a goal to have a well stocked pantry again by Oct 1st. My fear is that this will repeat come winter or there will be something else and I want to be better prepared.
I have several recipe books with recipes I want to try so I will be adding those ingredients to my list as well so I can try a new recipe once a week.
I have several recipe books with recipes I want to try so I will be adding those ingredients to my list as well so I can try a new recipe once a week.
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AJ ~ I recently bought a jar of Tajin seasoning salt. Here's a recipe to make it with ideas for use.
https://beyondmeresustenance.com/low-sodium-tajin/
It calls for crystallized lime powder. You should be able to use your dehydrated lime I would think. Or search for a different recipe maybe. And that's assuming you could find a sufficient quantity of the red chili powder. Anyway, it's delicious and I think would make nice gifts for your friends and relatives.
https://beyondmeresustenance.com/low-sodium-tajin/
It calls for crystallized lime powder. You should be able to use your dehydrated lime I would think. Or search for a different recipe maybe. And that's assuming you could find a sufficient quantity of the red chili powder. Anyway, it's delicious and I think would make nice gifts for your friends and relatives.
I thought I was fairly prepared and compared to most I am. I am not 100% happy with where I am at at the moment so like you will take stock very soon and see where I can improve. I might need a shelf in the garage to store items such as cleaning supplies. My thought is as long as the item has a reasonable use by date and I am vigilant with rotating things I should end up with a good stockpile. I don't ever want to face shortages again if I can help it.
Im thinking of looking at my Christmas menu to see what items I could buy now. I do not see this mess as clearing up any time soon. Hope I’m wrong.
I really like this idea of a spread sheet. I just happened to have the bare essentials in stock but I ran out of the extras like spices and baking powder. They have been hard to find in some cases.
I never heard of this but it sounds delicious.
Yes, we are trying to make sure we are rotating cans and jars too. We are making do with what we have when we run out of things. My family has come up with some creative dishes. Some were hits and some were not.
I was thinking about that and Thanksgiving too. Do I buy canned yams, cranberry and maybe boxed stuffing and boxed potatoes? Usually we go for fresh but if things are bad around here, then I have something to work with. On the other hand, if I do start buying traditional Thanksgiving canned goods and boxed goods now and we don't need them, then I'll donate them to the food banks.
As I said, I am following Minta's suggestion about inventorying the pantry and planning on restocking it appropriately.
I feel like I was fine in the food department as well. I mean I have food storage that would of gotten me by, but I was SOOOO lucky I had just stocked like normal at Costco with paper products. I mean I literally had just bought paper towels and toilet paper before this whole thing hit, so I'm still using those same packs. BUT I will now think about disinfectants to keep in storage as well. Never crossed my mind before. We have a small house and I'm not one for stocking more than I need. But that will change or at least I'll have one or two back ups of things on hand and rotate like Katrina said.
I have started buying toilet paper every time I see it when I shop. I was nervous when it disappeared from the shelves and I don't want to have to worry about such a necessary staple as that. Paper towels aren't too big of a deal for us...we buy them but if we didn't have them we would be okay using kitchen towels to clean up messes and saving fast food napkins if we had to, etc. Hand soap is something that I didn't think about in the beginning. All our bathrooms (3 of them) had hand soap but I knew we would run out at some point and it wasn't on the shelves for a while either, so I will start buying one every once in a while to have a small stockpile. We can always use dish soap to wash hands as well. Clorox wipes or Lysol wipes are something I use often and they are still not on the shelf regularly, it's hit or miss. The next time I see them I will buy them and stock up for a bit when I see them. Just in case. They will get used for sure.
I won't be buying anything unnecessarily that I don't use just because, but things that we use on the regular and especially things that can ship in our household goods if we don't use it all before we move, like paper products, I will keep stocked up on.
I won't be buying anything unnecessarily that I don't use just because, but things that we use on the regular and especially things that can ship in our household goods if we don't use it all before we move, like paper products, I will keep stocked up on.