I'm doing the same thing! Lots of malingering legumes and grains to use up...I hope to make some headway on it this month.

wow i'm actually doing the exact same thing too! i've already made lentil soup (and frozen some to help with my winter blues!), made soft pretzels to share with friends, and cooked up some delicious indian-inspired potatoes with my drawer full of spices. i've actually been more inspired with the challenge of emptying my cupboards!

looks like this is a trend - i'm doing the same thing. bean soup, homemade pasta, risotto - lots of homemade pizza. i even made mozzarella today using powdered milk - who knew that was even possible? being snowed in right now is helping the cause tremendously!

Good luck to you on this -- I've tried it and never quite make it. It's more of a challenge than I realized. I am doing a half-hearted trawl through my fridge and freezer, though...It's a scary place after the holidays!

I am doing this too, as well as using what is in my deep freezer

I feel like I'm always perpetuating this challenge. I'm such a stockpiler of dry goods. I really have to start meal planning…

I too am trying to clear out my pantry and freezer. In fact I'm having a friend over for dinner tonight for this exact purpose. I'm having a hard time thinking of ideas how to use up my barley (other than soup), so if you have any, let me know!

ha i am also trying to do this! i have cooked a TON of black beans, and am making some honey baked lentils and yams tonight, and have only bought a few staples i ran out of so far. i really want to empty that cupboard out!

I suggest making lots of pizza dough (freeze it), crackers and bread with your flour. As for the legumes and grains, soup is a great way to use all of that stuff up. This won't get rid of them, but sometimes I cook a bunch of dried stuff and freeze it so I don't have to take time to cook them later.

Coppertone24: I've heard barley risotto can be good!

Haha looks like we should start a support group. It's a great idea to just buy produce, because I was trying to narrow it to one pantry meal a week and it's just not working. Whenever I do make one, I end up doing sauteed veggies with some kind of noodle and herbs. My fave pantry one (that travels well), which you could use with your udons is soba noodles/bell peppers <--u could buy frozen since they're outta season/red cabbage/edamame/avocado. The sauce is sesame oil/soy sauce/canola oil/lime juice/sriracha. Good luck, this was inspiring!

I thought my stockpile was bad, but I don't have nearly as much squirreled away as you do. Though I am swimming in nuts and dried fruit leftover from holiday baking.

Also I have quarts and quarts of home canned tomatoes which would be awesome, except that I made them way too salty by accident. I don't know what to do with those!

My pantry reads like something similar. Due to an overspending last month, we are running quite tight this month, and we've pledge to stop spending, so we are eating our way through the pantry as well. I've made black bean soup, five batches of cookies (lots and lots of oats and chips), two loaves of bread (10 lbs of different types of flour), some pasta dishes too. I'm going to try and keep it up through January and February. I think I can do it!

@katepk, reheat your salty tomatoes with a raw potato. The potato will absorb much of the unwanted salt, so ordinarily one discards the potato afterward, unless one has a use for a salty potato. I suppose this technique qualifies as wasteful, but so does not using the tomatoes.

@katepk: BLOODY MARY MIX!!! Throw it into a food processor till its juicy! the salt is perfect in a bloody mary!

I did this before the holidays when we moved! We ate our way through the freezer and pantry and it felt great. Even better was when we traveled to California we stocked a suitcase full of Trader Joes pantry supplies. Now if only Colorado would get with the program and get me a Trader Joes!

I *love* this post. I'm in the same boat, except that I subscribe to a CSA, so I'm usually in a mad rush to finish all my veg during the week before it rots. My pantry is usually ignored as a result. I should make a point to incorporate pantry items into my vegetable dishes.

Between being completely broke, a windfall of meat (beef) from his parents, and a pantry full of things we'd always kept because we figured they'd be useful sometimes but never actually used, we're doing the same thing. We're nowhere near as well-stocked as you are, however.
It is ridiculously handy to have parents-in-law who buy a whole cow (butchered, of course) every year just after Christmas. We get everything they hadn't used already. With his new obsession (sous-vide) and lots of herbs and spices and reductions, we've gotten along quite nicely.

What a timely post! If you are in the UK, we are running a competition to win a 5 night stay in a luxury hotel if you send in your store cupboard photographs! We will also try to recommend some recipes to cook from using your store cupboard ingredients so hopefully we can help you on your challenges...

I really should do this with the weirder things in my cupboard; I have a bit too many Japanese ingredients (why do I have three packs of soup noodles?) and a lot of chocolate chips (I was supposed to enter a cookie contest, but then got the flu the day before and had to drop out).

So...I suppose I need to make a lot of ramen and fudge.

Chili with the stock pile of beans. Throw it over some rice and you have a super filling meal.

Yup - working our way through the freezer - we have so much frozen soup! I want to make more soup, but until we have space in the freezer it's no go.

The idea to make tons of pizza dough and freeze it is great. I do this and love taking a ball of dough out to thaw at mid-day and having homemade pizza that night. It even seems more flavorful!

I should just buckle down and do this! I was considering a similar project this January, but I just love grocery shopping so much....

Still, my cupboards are definitely overstuffed and there are some whole dried mung beans that have been sitting around FOREVER. Anyone have ideas for mung beans? I don't know why I own them, but they are too pretty to go to waste.

I also have too many prepared sauces/condiments/seasoning packets - I live near an ethnic market and I will often pick up things on a whim. But when I actually get around to cooking dinner, I rarely rely on a packaged sauce, and fall back to my large spice collection and staples like soy, mirin, etc. Hmmmm.

Anyway, you've inspired me! I'll try to clear out my pantry, too!

I'm planning the same thing for both financial and health reasons. I've got plenty of grains and legumes squirreled away and a freezer full of vegetable heavy soups.

Where did you get the jars in the photo? I like them.

Same here. I stocked up on things before the holidays and just didn't run through them.

One thing I tend to do when I have only a little bit of grains left (a bit of this, a bit of that) is make up a big pot of grandma's grains; feel free to experiment. It's great as a side dish, but even better with some herbs and spices as a savory hot breakfast.

As to sweeteners - in savory dishes - ketchup is an excellent sweetener, as is barbecue sauce.

Mixed nut butter is easy to make.

Also Bittman's soy broth might be a way to reduce your condiments.

Hope these help.

Yes, please identify the jars. They are sweet with their little "handles." Mustard?

I save Bonne Maman jam jars for my spices, etc. I love all their checked tops lined up.

I'm on the same kick! I realized I just have way too much stuff, stuffed into cupboards - time to use it up! It's amazing how creative you can get when you're taking on a project like this!!

January's financial assessment required much the same in my house. Using what we have has made our meals much more simple and focused and allows us to use up the stuff that we'd like to cut from our diets. Our pantry items are pretty diverse which helps when trying to create something new and delicious, but laying everything out makes me wonder - why exactly have I been buying lentils, dried beans and dried fruit in such bulk? For what - The End of Days? Perhaps it's some sort of insurance policy - maybe I'm a food hoarder. I'll say this - our grocery bill for January will be practically zero and I'm determined to both buy and eat smart in the future.

Those jars are from Polar brand canned peaches! I know because I bought them specifically so I could keep the jars.

I'm trying to do this too, with the added challenge of trying to cook through the squash and sweet potatoes from my winter CSA! I am so sick of soup!

I'm moving abroad on Monday for seven months, so since mid-December I've been focused on clearing out the freezer, fridge, and cabinets. I did an inventory and wrote out the complete contents of my kitchen on a big dry-erase board on my fridge, which is helpful for seeing what goes together. When I finish something, I erase it--it's so satisfying to see the blank space take over. I keep most of my pantry dry goods in Mason jars, and it's also quite satisfying to use up a jar and put it on the top shelf, to be refilled when I get back. This challenge has made me much more creative--today (a snow day) I made tuna-salsa burgers, oatmeal muffins, curried pumpkin soup, and two kinds of whole-grain bread. I'm cooking faster than I can eat on my own, so I've been hosting lots of impromptu dinner parties, too!

We're planning renovations in a few months so I'm trying to get our stock of food down to a manageable level to live in a mobile home or flat for six months. Also, I had the revelation that my pantry should be 'stuff we use a lot' not 'a treasure trove of incrediable and exotic ingredients'! Doh! Now we are playing the 'use this random ingredient' game. Last week was Spelt (lovely risotto). This week is Red Rice.

We have a massive overload of pickles and chutneys as well so I have advocated a 'no more til we eat what we have' policy as my GF tends to buy jars and jars when she sees something different and then doesn't eat them.

I do this every once in a while (with the caveat that I can buy fresh veggies, as I never buy canned) to prove to myself that I actually have plenty, when I think I have "nothing to eat." Mujahdarrah is a great recipe using rice and lentils.

Also, mixing pretty much cooled, cooked grains with beans and veggies in a viniagrette makes a great salad. In my poorer days I called this "$8.50 and hour is not a livable wage salad." I would clean out my fridge and cupboards, put everything into a bowl with lettuce and dressing, and take it to a potluck, and it was always a hit.

apricot: are you sure about those jars? I went to look at them on the Polar web site and the jars they show don't have the little "ears". I hope the writer will respond about them!

It's so fun we're all in this together! Good luck, everyone.

Sorry I neglected the jar questions- I was hoping to remember more about them! They originally contained pickles, purchased at Whole Foods at least 3 years ago. I think it was a French pickle company? Sorry that's not very helpful!

Same here. I stocked up on things before the holidays and just didn't run through them.

kitchen pantry cabinet

too am trying to clear out my pantry cabinet and freezer. In fact I'm having a friend over for dinner tonight for this exact purpose.