What does my Fridge say about Me.

I went shopping today. I actually did all my grocery shopping today. I shouldn't need to go again for two weeks (I could, most likely, even go longer). I don't usually get to go to Costco, Target, the farmers market and the regular grocery all on the same day. The only store, that is in my regular rounds, was whole foods but I went last week and am all stocked up for awhile.

I have to say my fridge, freezer and shelves look very full. Here is my side by side in its full glory. Don't look too closely, I am sure it needs some wiping down.  So what does it tell you about us? I guess first thing I notice is that it is absolutely not organized. The freezer especially. No rhyme or reason to how I put things in there. As long as it fits it works. I think I need to work on that one.

Mostly frozen fruit for making smoothies and veggies for when I run out of fresh.  There is a bit of frozen meats and I try to freeze a lot of muffins and breads that I bake. That way I don't eat the whole batch and so we always have snacks/desserts on hand that I can just pull out of the freezer.  During the summer, frozen pumpkin or banana blueberry muffins are really nice. There is no baking involved, so the house doesn't get hot.

As for the fridge... there is a sort of organization to it but in the end I too resort to putting things where they will fit. I had a hard time getting the watermelon into the fridge. I wouldn't have bothered but I really like watermelon when it is cold and since we are planning to have it for dinner tomorrow I stuffed it in. But I had to use the shelf where half of it can be pushed back, to make room for it. The whole space will look very different come Monday when that watermelon has been cut down a bit. At the moment my fridge looks like my Mom's. No offense Mom, but usually I am able to see the back of the fridge and am even be able to put a jello in to set without too much trouble.

What about the items. Do they say something about us.  We drink a lot of milk. Three different kids are currently reside in the fridge; whole cow, Almond and rice milks. Most of the milk is up on that top shelf. Next to it is my #10 can of my freshly ground wheat flour. Behind that you will find a few containers with other flours that I rotate through; bean, buckwheat, and rice. I keep them all in the fridge so they don't spoil but I only grind up what I think I will use in a week or so.

The next shelf is eggs, bread and tortillas. Nothing that exciting there. We have been getting eggs from the farmer's market recently and my husband swears that the free range, organic eggs taste better.  We also love the tortillas that aren't cooked yet. My boys love being in charge of cooking them when it is time to eat them. One day I will actually try to make my own, rather than buy them. For now I am going with these. I am sure they aren't that hard. I am just not excited about rolling them out. Maybe that is why I haven't made pita bread in awhile either. I think we are going to have lessons on rolling out dough soon so my slaves children can do it for me.

Other than one drawer which has cheese, hummus and a few other odds and ends in it the rest of the shelves and drawers are full of fruits and veggies. I think there is a big tub of yogurt in there somewhere. Mostly likely shoved to the back behind that watermelon. I need to get back in the habit of making yogurt again. The tub is full of plain yogurt so perhaps we will add lessons on how to use the yogurt maker to our list for coming week. That way we can use lots of yogurt in our smoothies.

Everything else, butter, condiments, dressings, jam, maple syrup and such all have home on the door.  The little flip door at the top is where I keep my yeast and bouillon. A bag of broccoli always lives in that bottom section. I really should get that little metal bar replaced. I can't put anything heavier there.

So that is the tour of the refrigerator. Are you bored yet?

Do you want to see the pantry too?

Here are the bottom three shelves.

Here are the top three.
I admit they aren't very organized either. Story of my life I guess. Good intentions but don't actually follow through. I know where everything is but I send my husband or kids to find something and they don't have a clue. My husband always talks about getting one of the shelf reliance shelves to rotate the cans but we don't have space for anything like that. So instead I just keep shoving more and more into these few shelves.

Oh... and did I mention that we bought a small chest freezer a month or so ago. Guess what... It is packed full too. Thanks Dad for the beef! We topped it off with lots of Ice Cream. The kind I like was on sale this week and with a birthday next week and two more in a month or so I figured we would get a few and keep them out of sight for bit.

Those little freezer jam tubs are actually full of an artichoke hummus. We bought a huge tub of it at Costco today and I knew we wouldn't be able to eat it all before it went bad so I hope hummus defrosts well.

So that is the tour of our kitchen stores. We will have to live on this for the next two weeks. I am really trying to keep it to twice a month.

One more thing. I splurged on a new appliance. I knew I would most likely never win one from the Pioneer Woman (She gives them away all the time but when you are one of thousands that enter her giveaways.... well...you may be waiting a really long time before your lucky number comes up.) so I talked my husband into buying me a Kitchen Aid Mixer and it isn't even for my birthday or Christmas. 


Yeah... no more hand mixer.  I look forward to making bread and let it do the kneading. My arms could use the toning but I just think my bread will turn out even better when it is kneaded longer than I was able to do it.

So this ends this long post. I can't believe you made it to the end of this long boring post. I just feel so blessed to be able to live in such luxury. To have all this when I know so many have much less. We certainly don't starve and hopefully eat pretty healthfully.