I'm taking the cure...

..the Kitchen Cure, that is.

Today I'm cleaning out the canned food cupboard and the freezers. (Surprisingly enough, the fridge isn't too bad. I did a clean out and got rid of the scary stuff in there a couple of months ago and haven't been too bad about checking for mystery containers since then.) The freezer task is particularly necessary because last week I almost lost a toe to a quart of frozen turkey chili that leapt out of the freezer and bounced off my foot when I was digging for buried treasure trying to find something to make for dinner. Ouch. But hey, it got my attention and we ate the chili the next night for dinner.

I like the idea of the Eat This Week list that was posted on the Kitchen Cure blog. I try to menu plan by keeping a list of what I intend to cook in the coming week at the bottom of my shopping list so I don't forget key ingredients when I'm at the store or space out on what recipe I planned to use (before doing this I would spend a lot of time looking quizzically at some weird ingredient I bought but couldn't remember what I planned to do with it: Kate and the endive go head to head.) But this list is a little different because it serves as a reminder of what you already have in the house and what should probably be consumed soon (StillTasty is a good place to look when deciding whether to use or chuck something). I'm thinking of making a version of the list to post on the freezer that inventories what stuff is inside so that I don't have to rummage around (thus saving the toes) and (hopefully) wasting less food and making menu planning a little easier.

For example, tonight I'll be making a version of this Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta because it uses up the pound of shrimp I just found in the freezer (don't know when the hell I bought them or what I originally planned to do with them, but they don't look freezer burned so they can't have been in there that long) and one of the big cans of Muir Glenn diced tomatoes that I have in the cupboard. If I find some frozen artichoke hearts in my excavation, I might chuck some in. There are probably some olives that have been hanging out on the condiment shelf in the fridge a little too long that might get chopped up and scattered over the top. And who knows what else I'll unearth today?

One thing is for sure--I'll be wearing close-toed shoes while attempting the freezer portion of my task.