The Proof Is In The Pictures

It's Wednesday, and since I'm still not a foxy mama, you know that means I am linking up with ShortMama for her muffin top extravaganza!  Okay, so it's not really called that, but if you want to learn more, you can click the now familiar button up at the top of my post.  It's FUN!!!

The challenge this week is to let our pictures do the talking.  After all, I can claim to be eating granola and barley, and in fact have my pantry stuffed with Oreos, and my freezer stocked with Ben and Jerry's.  There's just no way for you to know for sure...until now. 

You may have noticed that I don't often post pictures.  Why is this?  Well, because I suck at photography.  I mean, BAD.  I usually let Roon handle the camera, because even our sad little auto Nikon intimidates me.  I can't even imagine having a fancy camera!  So, yeah, please excuse the picture quality, because that is why I pay people to take shots of my family annually.  I even took the pics myself.  You. Are. Welcome.

Here is my fridge.  Pretty standard.  What's in it?  Well...proof that it needs to be cleaned out, that's what's in it! 

On the top shelf, you can see some eggs, peach preserves (for a new recipe we tried), my yogurt, some deli meat, and some guacamole, which has obviously been exposed to the air. 

In our deli drawer, there is some more deli meat, some various cheeses, pepperoni, canadian bacon, etc. 

On the middle shelf, you will notice a costco sized bag of string cheese.  Takes us about a month to get through it, it's a quick and easy snack for anyone.  You'll also see a pound of lean ground beef (left over from the 2 pound package I used to cook dinner on Monday), the kids' yogurt, celery, some breakfast sausages (this is one thing the kids like to have for breakfast.  Eggs and sausages.) There are also more eggs, and a Rubbermaid container, I'm pretty sure I don't want to know what's in it.  This is the case with most, if not all of our Rubbermaid containers.  They are really just science experiments, from the second we put them in the fridge.  Did I mention we are horrible at eating leftovers?

On the bottom shelf, is our milk, water, jam for the kids' PB&J's, mayonaisse (I know, but I only use a tablespoon, and it's not very often, but I can't stand a dry sandwich), and some leftover queso from a mexican dinner night we had. 

In the bottom drawers we have at least 3 bags of salad, half a dozen tomatoes, a cucumber or two, and some strawberries. 

In the door of the fridge, you will find first that the door is broken.  Nice, huh?  I think it's a family omen of mine to have packing tape holding my door shelves together.  Did I mention a new fridge is on the list?  Anyway, food wise, you will see lots of salad dressings and condiments.  There is some whipped cream in there from Christmas, and there is some maple syrup, but everything else is fairly inocuous.  Most, if not all of the salad dressings are low fat, or fat free, and while I do use butter, it is only for cooking and baking.  We have a tub of margarine (somewhere) for the instances where we need spreadable butter product. 

This freezer is pretty sad.  Most of the food we actually eat (meat, etc.) is out in our deep freeze.  In this one, you will notice some extra butter and margarine, some frozen vegetables, frozen juice concentrates, freezer burnt ice cream and some leftover cookie dough from the school fundraiser.  There are a few frozen dinners (Smart Ones) for me, when I need a fast lunch, and there's also chicken nuggets for a quick meal when we don't have time to really cook for the kids.  If you dig deeper, you can probably find some Rhode's bread dough, and my Scentsy bars.  I heard that if you keep them in the freezer, they last longer, though that could just be an urban legend.  By the way...who doesn't have a fridge farm?  I think it's a staple for every American family!

Watch yourself...we are now journeying into---the Twilight Zone.  Oh, I mean, my pantry.

Here are the top two shelves.  Top shelf is chips (pretzel sticks and Lays Sour Cream and Onion for the kids, Sun Chips for me) some Oreos (which I'm sure were left from a pie I made to take someone who had just had a baby), fruit snacks (in the Rubbermaid bowl), then cereal and juice boxes.  By the way, I do NOT call Capri Suns "juice bags" because I think it sounds dirty.  They are juice boxes to me, so there ya go.  You can't see from the picture that I have some Total Raisin Bran up there for me.  The sugary cereal is all for the kids. 

On the second shelf, you will find a lot of pastas, pop tarts (for the kids), oatmeal, crackers, and about 4 years worth of hot cocoa mixes.  Not very good at throwing things away...

On the top shelf of this picture (the third shelf, in real life) you will find a lot of cooking/baking stuff.  Rice, cornstarch, ice cream salt, baking soda...etc.  There is also some leftover s'more stuff from last summer, leftover Cracker Jacks and crackers from the baby shower I threw, Nesquik, Country time lemonade, rice, peanut butter, and the really yummy Special K bars I got from Mamarazzi during the Spring swap. 

On the next shelf, there is flour, sugar, Bisquick, flavored bread crumbs for cooking, canned mushrooms, brown sugar, canned tuna, an onion, and various tomatoe products.  You may even be able to find a jiffy pizza crust mix or two in there too...

The last shelf has some canned vegetables and soup (for cooking with, and eating by themselves), extra syrup and salad dressing, canned fruit, and some olive oils, balsamic vinegar, white vinegar, etc. 

In this last picture, you can see that I also have Ramen noodles (which my kids love, and call "brown noodles").  On my pantry floor, I have extra juice boxes, and an extra jug of juice, as well as my spare bottled water.  I also have some grapefruits that Boo apparently relocated there, and yet more Cracker Jacks, from the baby shower. 

Why is my pantry such a disorganized mess?  Well, because Boo likes to "cook" in there while I make dinner.  It keeps her occupied, so I don't have to fight with her, but it doesn't do much for any organizational system I set up.  Maybe someday, I'll be able to organize it...

I'm almost done, I promise!  Here is our "bread box".  Although, it is always overflowing.  This is because our kids love sandwiches and french toast (MAJOR bread users), then you have my "flat out" flatbread wraps, and tortillas.  Next to the toaster we also have some bagels, and some whole grain English Muffins, but I didn't want to post more pictures than I had to...

FINALLY, we have our fruit.  This bowl is usually overflowing with apples, oranges, bananas, mangos, etc. but since payday is Friday, our supplies are pretty well depleted.  We do have a pineapple though!  Mmmm pineapple!

So, there you go!  I know it's not as great as it could be, but one of my goals is to actually purge my pantry and fridge, and then it should have even less junk food than it does now.  I'm out of chocolate (heaven help us all!) right now, or I would show you my stash of that, as well. 

If you feel like joining in, DO!  Don't let the fact that you are a few weeks behind deter you.  Just start where you are, and let us help you.  The more, the merrier!