I consulted the husband. He didn't look at me like a deer in headlights (probably because I still have two unfilled Michigan whitetail tags that are valid until the end of the year). I took this as a good sign, and let him stew it over for a few weeks. Christmas came and went, and now New Year's Eve is hot on our tail. I brought up the subject again today: "Hey, honey, what do you say we try going without buying groceries, or any food whatsoever in January?" He raised an eyebrow, inquired if this meant much change to what we currently do, and when I told him that the recipes might get a little stranger, and the fresh goods a little scarcer in time, he said, "Sure."
The man doesn't mince words.
We have a freezer full of fish, game, and garden goodies, pantry shelves full of non-perishables (some questionable, I'm sure, but we'll get to that) and other home-canned garden goodies, and a fridge full of fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy. Combine that with a varied spice cupboard, and traditional staples such as oil, flour, sugar, salt, dry milk, and the like, and you can pretty much imagine what we have to work with here. We don't have super fancy tastes, but we like to vary our meals so we aren't eating the same things all of the time. The wife does most of the actual cooking, the husband does most of the grilling, and that's what works for us, and what we're happy with around here. If you feel possessed to leave some sort of fanatical feminist comment, spare us. Please. We're also hunters, fishers, gatherers, gardeners, and home-preservers. I'm sure these topics of conversation will come up from time to time. If you have nasty comments about any of the aforementioned, move along and spew your venom elsewhere. We are going to live our lives as we see fit, we won't tell you how to live yours.
The goal here is to see how far we can go without actually grocery shopping. There are a few ground rules and exceptions that I'll lay out tomorrow. One example: Dog food is off limits. We love our dog, and will continue to feed him. We'll even go buy him more kibble when he runs low, but we aren't going to short him on his daily food allotment, and we aren't going to check the Betty Crocker Cookbook to see if she has any recipes using Eukanuba or Beneful. Gross.
Kidding. Sort of.
Are you still here? Good.
The husband's early bet is that we'll make it a month on this challenge. I think we can potentially make it much, much longer than that. The ground rules that we will finalize tonight will help us determine how long we actually want this to be. Are we going the all-or-nothing route, or will we have a small "cheat" budget to allow for fresh vegetables and dairy? What about "gifted food," restaurants, pre-planned parties, being invited over to someone's house for dinner, freebies set out at work, etc.? All of those questions and more will be answered in the next day or two before the actual challenge begins.
Along the way, I'm sure there will be some whining, some humorous conversations, and some photos and recipes of interesting concoctions we come up with as we piece together dinners from our household stores. I usually get bored in the wintertime, and this will give me something interesting to do. I hope you follow us on our journey. Read, comment, and give advice, but please, be nice. Otherwise, I'm liable to come over and steal your milk and fresh vegetables. :)
-SH