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A 5 Hour Tour

We’re moving and we don’t want to waste any food in the process. There are many things in our fridge and pantry that will of course be joining us in the moving truck, but some things aren’t so welcome on the 5+ hour drive. To name a few: Ground beef, chicken, and ice cream. Aside from the fact that 5 hours is a long way for some items to be unrefrigerated, there won’t be a refrigerator at Moosicorn Ranch for several months anyway. So what ever we bring with us either has to be nonperishable or important enough to claim a space in the cooler.

Creative Ideas

For the last month, we’ve been making a serious effort to eat what we already have. When it comes time to decide what’s for dinner we resist the urge to buy a “needed” ingredient. When we look in the fridge at the strange smattering of remaining items, sometimes we get stumped. We do know what to do with the beer…drink it! But as far as meals go, when you get down to only a few ingredients you have to start getting really creative. Some easy “Impending Move Meals” for us have been:

• Meatloaf
• Chicken sandwiches
• Soup
• Pasta
• Omelets
• Casseroles

For moments when we get really stumped, there are some websites that can help. The sites below take what you have in the fridge and suggest recipes that use only those items. Pretty handy!

• Cooking by Numbers
• Firehouse Chef

Beyond the Move

We feel so horrible when food goes to waste: it’s inexcusable.  The energy and resources it takes to produce food (fertilizer, water, topsoil loss, transportation, packaging, processing) is completely wasted when we don’t use the food. Throwing away food we could have eaten is a waste of money and if you don’t compost it, it all ends up in a land fill. And lets not forget that people across the world go hungry everyday (someone dies of hunger every 2.43 seconds). It’s bad all the way around.

Purging the pantry doesn’t have to happen just when we move, though. We’re very into being prepared, so our goal will never be to see the pantry or freezer empty, but taking stock of what we have should happen regularly. Some things to consider to keep your food stores strong and waste-free:

• Keep tabs on perishable items: move them to the front and use them before they go bad
• Designate one night of the week for leftovers
• Eat leftovers for lunch: take leftovers to work with you
• Get creative with recipes: omit and add ingredients depending on what you have
• Donate: if you bought something you’re never going to use, give it to an organization in need before it expires
• And if all else fails, mix with eggs and call it good!