A good suggestion while you’re sitting at home hiding from the cold weather for the next couple of days — clean out the kitchen cabinets! It may be a daunting task, but very rewarding. If your pantry is uncluttered and full of fresh stock, it may inspire to cook healthier meals more frequently.
I’m not sure how I became this way, but slowly over the years I have begun acquiring food in mass quantities. I must have planned to use it all someday to make some sort of imaginary recipe. A lot of it has been shoved to the back of the cabinets, forgotten, or gone bad. I usually end up buying extra when this happens rather than digging through the cabinets to see what I have. Tonight for instance I discovered I must really like tomatoes – I had ten cans! As a result, I am proclaiming this spaghetti sauce week.
If you are unsure whether or not something should be tossed out, The Food Marketing Institute has an online food storage safety brochure to help answer storage questions. If you have an abundance of unwanted canned goods and staple items (not expired), make sure to donate these to food pantries rather than throwing them out.
