Food challenge

The other day, my husband was trying to find ingredients to make brownies, and wasn't having much luck since the kitchen is my domain. In the process of looking however, he saw food (staples mostly) that we don't use that often. And this bothers him. See, my husband is the kind of person that buys only what he needs, and feels that we shouldn't need to keep a lot of food in the house, even if they are staples. So he issued a challenge to me that I'm willing to do (for once).

For 4 weeks, starting the last week of October until the end of the third week in November, we will eat only food that we have at the house. That's right. NO trips to the store*. The first week or so, we will use up the perishables like produce, bread and eggs. But after that, that's when it should get interesting, especially for him. He loves fruits and veggies and overall, eats really well. So I think it'll become difficult for him towards the end when we will probably be eating a lot of oatmeal, rice, pasta and potatoes - all of which he eats very sparingly now.

And honestly, I don't think we have THAT much food... you know, the amount we need to feed both of us 3 meals a day for 1 month without going to the store, and without starving ourselves. So I think I'm going to have to be a little sneaky these next few weeks and make some things I can freeze easily, like chili and soup. As well as supplement some things I think we'll really miss, like orange juice. I <3 oj, so I think I may have to cheat and buy a few cans of frozen oj. I might not be able to get away with that as much though, because I usually only buy the non-frozen stuff and he'll be onto me like white on rice if he sees those cans in the freezer. So I may have to think about that.

*the only exception to the no-going-to-the-store thing, is when we host our friends for our bi-monthly dinner & game party. There are 6 of us and we all rotate on who cooks. My turn will be coming up within that month time frame, and I can't subject my friends to this challenge without a lot of guilt. Because by that time, we will likely be well within the pasta and butter sauce stage.

Within the next few weeks, I will be taking inventory of what we have and making meals plans, and I'll share that here. Should be interesting. But I will say, Thanksgiving will kick ass because of this. And it'll be fun to build up my food supply again ;)