I try to do that periodically, but as my husband and I are both mustard whores we will never have a completely empty fridge.

I have 2 close friends. one friend’s fridge looks like yours but maybe sparser. 2nd friend’s fridge & freezer are always packed to the rafters. i like eating with friend 2.

I was expecting something deep! Whew.

@mtnrdredux_gw ❤️❤️

@lisaam as two folks who love to cook with 50 yrs together we are doing really well! There’s frozen homemade French Bread, Whole grain porridge bread and date/ pecan bread… we love our carbs! There are 6 - 1/2 pints of frozen homemade lemon curd ( will go on toast and cereal at breakfast) . There are still eggs, butter and aged cheddar and parm and CONDIMENTS! There is an unopened 1# of ricotta and 1/2 gal buttermilk… fabulous possibilities with those. We have ground beef so lasagna and spaghetti and… since DH makes all our pasta. We have coffee beans so will keep you posted. C

6 containers of lemon curd, i could be in lexington for breakfast! ( just a hop, skip, and jump from cville.) maybe date bread toasted with ricotta and lemon curd.

@lisaam I didnt know you were so close. Let me know if ever you would like to meet up. I need to go to Hummingbird for plants! c you can pm me.

My refrigerator's freezer quit working, then the rest of the fridge followed over the course of a week. Buying a new fridge took awhile, luckily I had bought a mini fridge at Lowes to keep necessary staples (milk, butter, juice, etc). My neighbor let me put my meat and other froz. items in her freezer.

Let's just say I had to do a purge whether I liked it or not including meat that I felt had been left too long in my failing freezer, and lots of condiments I just wasn't sure were safe. There were ancient bottles of stuff I had used only a little of. Since then, I'm down to just catsup, mustard, and Miracle Whip besides not cooking nearly as much as I used to. I have not re-stocked the freezer compartment with meat yet. Come this winter, that will probably change when I get hungry for those comfort foods.

I can't imagine not going to the grocery store whenever the urge hits! So I go all the time!

@schoolhouse_gwagain wow thats not fun to to throw out food! rarely if ever happens here. i cant even fill a qt compost container in several days!

I never go more thsn once a week but this challenge has been wonderfully instructive and creative and fun! we parcel out each item so the meal is balanced . with no fresh stuff now and we never have frozen or canned vegs or fruit it will not be as well rounded as before. OH! We have a sack of onions! With buttermilk and flour we have…. onion rings! Will let you know how it ends. im sure tomorrow will be a big meatloaf . and that means sandwiches… mmmmmm

I hate cleaning out the fridge more than just about anything (and the freezer). I probably should have done it when the weather was in the 110+ range this summer to enjoy the chill, but I was afraid of even opening it too much during that time.
For anyone whose fridge fails, that happened to me once, back when Sears was still in business and I was able to buy one online and arrange delivery the next day! Those days are over.
The next time it happened, I called a local furniture rental place and they rent refrigerators! Delivered the same day, really, really reasonable price and could be rented by the week. I had them set it up in the garage until I could get a new refer and have the old one hauled out of the house. Just an FYI to tuck away in case of fridge failure in these times of appliance shortages and delays.

@Bumblebeez SC Zone 7 Ha! I never get the urge to go to the grocery store!!

Buttermilk pancakes with homemade lemon curd! Way to go DH used 2 eggs so we still have one!

Buttermilk pancakes with homemade lemon curd! Way to go DH used 2 eggs so we still have one!

Is it ok to ask why you stopped going to the grocery store?

You are getting creative!

I clean out our refrig pretty regularly though not necessarily with the intent to use up every last thing. And I'd be on my own with that anyway since DH is hardly what you'd call inventive in the kitchen! We are leaving Sat for 10 days so it's pretty bare bones at this point and I'll do a thorough cleaning when we get back before I restock. Beyond washing the shelves and drawers I wipe down all the bottles (Allison I have a thing for mustards, too as well as Asian flavored things) particularly under the caps - goopy caps are a pet peeve!

Since you and hubby both cook and are doing it so creatively, I think it's a fun idea to challenge yourselves and really clean things out. Unfortunately, my refrigerator quit on me twice, couldn't be readily repaired and a new one that fit was weeks away. So I purged the hard way. And hubby (excellent DIY guy) is hopeless in the kitchen. We had a small bar fridge.

Now I want a peach!

One thing Covid has taught me is I needed to be a bit better stocked - both our freezer and our pantry. We're always stocked on paper goods as I order that via Amazon and get larger size packages. We eat alot of fresh foods, and obviously during a pandemic, you might not have as much of that. So now we have a better stock of items in case we need it.

Found a partial box of lasagna noodles, not sure why I had them as DH makes all our pasta but with 1/2 the container of ricotta and the one egg and I made marinara out of two onions and the last two cans of crushed tomatoes we have a lasagna! I have 1/2 of a block of parmesan to to top it off. We have a homemade frozen baguette so dinner tonight. This keeps getting more fun😊

The ground meat will be a meatloaf ! Still have 4 more patties frozen so more possibilities.

This does sound like fun for you two creative cooks!

May my DH & I come live with you because I am tired of cooking? You'd like us...we're really nice & don't make messes!! Plus DH is learning the ukelele & can play along with your DH on the piano if that works...:)

@lizzie_grow that would be terrific! Truly if you get by this way we have plenty of room … and food! ❤️🙏

Odd condiments are the most difficult thing to use up. I'm still working on a spicy green tomato relish and wine shallot jelly from last year . . . and some strawberry cranberry jam I made that sounded better than it tasted . . . I don't know if I'll ever use the duck fat. I keep forgetting to, but I hate to throw it out because fry cooks value it so much . . . and it was hard earned and rendered. The anchovies are a problem too. As is the half tin of smoked mackerel. It goes great with fisherman's pie, but I can't afford the other ingredients . . . and when I can I hate to moosh them into a casserole . . . I guess I'll have to remember to eat it on a bagel with cream cheese . . .

A five day power outage forced me to clean my fridge. But it got messy again very fast . . . trying to pare down because I twice during a two week period of outages transferred everything out of the fridge and then a week later second outage again. Going to get a whole house generator but not in a rush . . . everyone around me is doing the same. Outages actually more of a problem for us in the summer due to having a lot of food in the freezer. It got a clear out too and still working on the last of that stuff.

I'm sorry if I missed the thinking behind this. Is it to eat everything in your house--that's edible--before you buy anything else?

I've often wondered if I was suddenly put under house arrest and couldn't get any deliveries how long I could live on the food I already have. Hello sardine fettuccini!

I believe that condiments and aromatics are what make life worth living, but I don't know if I want a bowl of capers with fish sauce for breakfast.

@Bunny yes we just sort of fell into as a joke between us. DH said how about we see how long we can stay out of the grocery store. I was all in as I hate clutter and I love to cook backward. Creativity in the kitchen is our long suit so this has been a challenge that is fun and productive. All the combos have been very appetizing lol! With the additonal produce today , from our local produce market not the chain grocery we are definitely well set. Tonight’s meatloaf. And if anyone wants to know ”Why do you make such a big meatloaf for 2?” MEATLOAF SANDWICHES of course 😂

Thanks Trail. Fresh produce! That's what keeps me needing to go shopping.

Just remember, ketchup is a “vegetable.”