I am currently on a very restricted budget. Christmas shopping has diminished my wallet–all within budget, filling the oil tank for our furnace wiped out my savings, and my midwives have placed me on medical leave from work… Oh and my yearly nursing license fee came out a few weeks before that! Lovely! I’m not sure when I will see any income from employment insurance for sick leave; it could be a few weeks or it could be a few months. Fortunately for the household, I have enough left in my bank for the bills of January, however, there is absolutely nothing left for gas nor groceries. Of course, my partner has income and can contribute as needed (we do not share finances, just bills).

With that said, I am thankful that I buy multiples of all pantry items, so there is a lot of food still in the house. The only downside is that using it all will require a good amount of creativity, planning, and preparation.

Tomorrow, I will be preparing a bunch of carrots for our family Christmas potluck… Our family includes 13 children, and 16 grown-ups. It’s quite a fair amount of people. We used to call it our “redneck Christmas,” because it used to be hosted in my sister’s in-law’s garage and my stepdad would borrow tables from his workplace, and we’d all bring a dish or two and come together for a gigantic dinner. Back then, there were more adults as our grandparents were all alive to share the memories with. I have one grandmother remaining at this time.

I will be doing a massive pantry clean-out next week to take inventory of what I have and what has spoiled and needs to be tossed. So while I don’t have any recipes prepared just yet, I’d love to hear from you! What are your favourite pantry recipes?