Eating Down the Fridge

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Mar 9th 2009 @ 2:01PM

I have found that the more storage space I have for the food, the more food I'll keep socked away. For example, we got a new refrigerator last summer. I was giddy with excitement when we bought it, thrilled that I would finally have a fridge that wasn't stuff to the gills. However, in very short order, it was just as packed with food as the previous fridge had been despite being a full 1/3 bigger.

Recently, I've been trying to be more diligent about using up the things we have instead of purchasing food on a whim, and this week, there are a number of home cooks and food bloggers specifically endeavoring to do the same thing. A Mighty Appetite's Kim O'Donnell is keeping things organized and she has more than 100 households across five countries participating in the Eat Down the Fridge Challenge (there's even a honor roll and a Facebook group devoted to the effort).

If you've got a number of things tucked away in your fridge, freezer and pantry, consider playing along this week and see how many meals you can make from the food that you already have.

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Filed Under: On the Blogs
Tags: A mighty appetite, AMightyAppetite, challenge, eating down the fridge, EatingDownTheFridge, freezer, pantry, refrigerator

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-09-2009 @2:17PM It's Frugal Being Green said... I'm also doing the same thing this week.
http://www.itsfrugalbeinggreen.com/2009/03/meal-plan-38.html
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3-09-2009 @3:48PM alisa said... We do this regularly at home and call it "random bag night". It includes the fridge and the pantry. Definitely a great challenge, not only because it means less goes to waste, but also it helps you get your creative on!

theripetomato.wordpress.com

can't wait to see what folks come up with.
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3-09-2009 @3:56PM Anne said... We do this every month - fridge and cupboards are stocked up on the 1st weekend of the month and we don't restock until the next month. The only exception is produce - can't expect to stock up on a month-worth of apples ontop of everything else, right? We usually restock on the basic produce (apples, celery, carrots, onion, potatoes) around the 15th and buy whatever produce is "super super cheap", as long as we have room for it. There's nothing like realizing you forgot to buy "x" ingredient...OH, well, we made do or do without until the 1st of the month. Thank god for grocery lists. ;-)
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3-09-2009 @4:15PM Rt said... Poverty will teach you this technique faster than anything else I have read about.

I have tried it but I can't recommend it :)

It is also an effective weight loss program.

Some people suggest I should lose weight. I respond, I tried that, I was poor and skinny but I found I prefer fat and happy.

By learning the lesson before the poverty you can mitigate some of the effects of having no money.
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3-09-2009 @9:51PM GL said... I do this regularly. Mostly due to lack of time. By making sure I have certain basics and shopping with the idea that specific short-lived items can work together in multiple ways, it is pretty easy to do. It's satisfying to not end up throwing anything out.
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3-10-2009 @5:40PM Kate said... Thanks for the link to the challenge. I call it Use it Up Month, and March 2009 has been a no-shop month for me. 10 days and counting, and I still have plenty of freezer goods to use.
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