Shelftember

As has become tradition the last few years, each September I join with Jordan Page and many others to participate in Shelftember. Shopping with a limited grocery budget, more shelf cooking, saving money.

The question for me this year was:

Kristin, can you celebrate September holidays AND follow A Season of Family Meal Plans AND still do Shelftember?

The answer:

Yes. Yes, I can. And I did. The whole point of shelf cooking is using what you have which is what Shelftember is also about. Start with what you have. Those cookbooks give ideas for substitutes and I can change things around to have it work for me.

For example, September 2 was Blueberry Popsicle Day. We didn't have blueberry popsicles. We pulled blueberries out of the freezer to have with dinner (with yogurt) then had Otter Pops after dinner. Blueberries and popsicles. We like creativity in celebrating. Shelf cooking is the same way.

The meal for that day in A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, was Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken and Crispy Italian Potatoes. We had meat from a Costco rotisserie chicken that we got a few days before (no need to cook our own), used russet potatoes instead of red potatoes, and rounded out the meal by making garlic bread out of a homemade baguette that had been sitting in the fridge for a while, cutting up apples, and having that yogurt and blueberries I mentioned earlier. 

Jet was once again my kitchen helper. He liked shaking up the bag in order to season the potatoes.

Success. I did this all month long, getting things like produce and milk from the store, but saving a lot of money because I also stuck to my list. My mantra going through the store: Not on the list. Not gonna get it.

I absolutely skipped out on things I normally would have gotten. I did have to buy a 25 pound bag of flour toward the end because we were making so much bread, rolls, buns, cookies, brownies, instead of buying them. A 25 pound bag of flour doesn't cost too much, though, so we still saved money.

I really do like participating in Shelftember every year.

On a different note, September 2 was also Labor Day so I made sure to grab a selfie with the American flag which has also become tradition.