Pantry Cleanout, Day 1: Black Beans and Rice (aka Old Faithful).

Welcome to Day 1 of this week’s Great Pantry Cleanout of 2014!

The other day, in preparation for the new year, I went through my kitchen cabinets – I mean, really went through them – to see what-all had expired, what we weren’t using that could be donated elsewhere, and just how many cans of corn we had in there, after all.  (The answer: Five.  Five cans of corn, bought along the way for who knows what and relegated to the dark recesses of the kitchen cabinetry.)

Through this exercise, I learned two things:

1. Spices that expired in 2005 have far surpassed their usefulness and ought to be tossed.
2. We have a TON of canned goods and other nonperishables that are perfectly edible and are taking up valuable storage space. 

I reorganized everything and am so pleased with how the cabinets look now when I open them.  But those five cans of corn just kept staring at me.  As did the pinto beans.  The black beans.  The two half-used bags of rice.  And so on and so forth.

Enter: Our weekend trip to New York City.

Now, New York is an expensive place, but LeeLee and I budgeted for our two-night stay this past weekend.  In fact, it was also our Christmas present to each other.  I’ll get into the frugal (and less-frugal) components of that trip in another post soon – I promise! – but suffice it to say, New York is always pricey.  Which is why we don’t go very much.  And which is why we always feel guilty and overspent when we get home, even when we stayed well within our budget guidelines (honest!).

So as we stood at the bus stop yesterday, waiting for our BoltBus to arrive and ferry us back home, we decided that this week would be a week where we concocted meals straight out of our pantry.  What’s the sense in going to the grocery when we’ve got shelves and a freezer full of perfectly good food right here at home?  And so, the goal: To not go to Safeway at all this week, except for maybe a fresh vegetable or two.  Or toilet paper. 

One day in, we’re doing just fine!  Tonight, I used up one of those two half-empty bags of rice, adding a packet of Goya seasoning to create a yellow rice to go with our black beans, plucked from the newly tidied pantry.  We each added a Morningstar Farms chik’n patty – left over from last week’s ramen with Rotel – and topped our meals with sour cream and cheese that were waiting in the fridge.  We even had half a container of cherry tomatoes to work with!  And a jar of sliced jalapeno peppers, which gave the dish a spicy kick.

So once again, Old Faithful comes to the rescue.  If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Give me black beans and a bag of rice, and I’ll give you a dinner that can’t be beat!

What’s on the docket for Day 2?  Stay tuned!

:)