What is in this cupboard...

The one thing I have learned about unpacking is that I had no idea what was in my cupboards! I decided that I would unpack my kitchen first when we moved into our new home. I never thought I would say this but I am SICK of eating out! I can't believe that I just said that, I am the queen of "too tired to cook" nights. When I worked bankers hours we ate out every day for lunch and having 2 very active dancer daughters take out was on the table at least 3 nights a week. I am thinking that since that was a personal choice it did not bother me as much. However being forced to eat fast food, take out, or pizza delivery for every meal because you can't find the pots and pans gets old.

When I walked into our new home and saw the stacks and stacks of boxes in the kitchen I knew where my challenge was to begin. They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach and being that I had not lived under the same roof as my husband for nearly a month, it was time to tackle the kitchen and have a home cooked meal. I had NO IDEA where to start! There were plastic tubs and cardboard boxes EVERYWHERE! I did not realize that I had soooo much kitchen stuff (I should have known that I had too much stuff when at our last house, there were 4 boxes of kitchen stuff left in the garage that I could not fit inside the cabinets) and had no clue how I would make it all fit.

It was time to dive in, I started unpacking each box and it almost felt like Christmas in July. Each time I opened a box it was a mystery what would be inside, would it be canned goods or bake ware? I began making stacks of dishes on the floor since I got tired of moving them from shelf to shelf as I tired to make everything fit in the cupboards. The part that baffled me was when I discovered that I had multiples of many items, I somehow ended up with 4 sets of mixing bowls and funnier yet, they were 2 sets of exact duplicates. My husband came out into the area where I was stacking and re-stacking and said "Liz just go to bed" my response was "I can't sleep knowing that I have to eat take out for breakfast!"

By the time I looked at a clock it was nearly 2 in the morning and I was still unpacking kitchen boxes. I decided that I would take on the rest of the boxes in the morning since I had at lease unpacked the dishes and the cereals. All in all it took me 2 days to unpack, organize, and decorate my kitchen.

This morning I decided that it was time to start using some of the food that I had just unpacked. I am wondering how long it will take my family to get sick of Rice-a-Roni as a side dish (somehow I acquired 35 boxes of different flavors) or cupcakes as desert (there are over 20 different cake mixes in the pantry) but we are going to give it a go. I spent a few minutes cruising some recipe websites to try and decide some different ways to use some of this food. I have made some food goals for myself this month.
Goals for August:
1)I will not purchase any non perishable foods this month.
2)I will not eat out more than 2 meals per week this month.

I am sure that the clerks at Vons and Smiths are going to know me by name before the end of this month (I don't know that this is a bad thing, all the waiters in Globe, AZ know me by name and preferred dish) but I am up for a challenge. I am sure that my husband will be happy with some savings in our check book, lets just see if he can handle my creative cooking. I am sure that I will be calling his mom for a lot of different ideas.