Welch Whirl

The Wrap Up.

Because the family is coming into town today, I need to do a wrap up on the food challenge and move onto other things, like Wiley's baptism -which is this weekend.

Monday Menu
French toast
Meat and Cheese sandwiches with grapes
Potato bar, cheese from freezer, canned chili, yogurt etc.
Tart Mango ice cream

Tuesday Menu
Smoothies
Mac and Cheese
Frozen Asian style meal from freezer

Wednesday Menu
Oatmeal
Meat and Cheese sandwiches with sliced apples
Sheppard's Pie
Vanilla Ice Cream in cones

Thursday Menu
Cereal and milk
Lean Pockets from Freezer
Homemade Marinara with Noodles and green beans
Root Beer floats

Friday Menu
Oatmeal packets
Meat and Cheese
Smoothies
Pizza

Lessons learned:

One can never have enough of certain items. I am running low on toilet paper, whereas two weeks ago I'd have never thought that I would get through it all. I'm also running low in laundry detergent and toilet bowl cleaner. I am down to 5 lbs of flour, of course I have wheat flour if I need it, but still. It is strange to only have 5 lbs left. I also feel like I could never have too much chocolate in the house. I'm also very aware that I didn't have enough diapers or formula in the house for even two weeks. How sad is that. I can do better.

I hate canned veggies, but I can see the value in having a flat on hand for moments like this. We couldn't have survived without green beans, corn, tomatoes, peas, and beans. Not to mention all the bottled pears and peaches that we went through. Wow, we made it through a lot of stuff. My freezer is looking empty. Although, I still have two flats of chicken, freezer jam, frozen fruit, puff pastry, concentrated juice and a few other things.
My pantry shelves have slimmed down and could really use some organization. I am really impressed with how much cereal I have- I still have 5 boxes left. Yeah for me. I still have sugar and oats in abundance as well.

I've also learned that my long term food storage was not put to use as often as my short term food storage. It is nice that the church has re-focused its efforts on a three months supply in addition to the longer term storage.

I've learned that friends and neighbors make it easier. I've learned that variety is essential and no one method of storing food is better; frozen foods, long term, short term and fresh foods all made for better meals. I am also really looking forward to having a deep freeze one day. But that will happen when I actually have a garage.

Thanks for sticking with me through the challenge. The winner is going to be announced soon and I will post that as well.