The Very Paltry Pantry.

So here's something incredibly personal that I'd like to share with you. While I was Molly-proofing (kind of like baby chimp-proofing) a few weeks ago, I took a picture of our "new" pantry. The old one (see below) was nothing to write home about, as it is incredibly deep and just plain stupid. It's also Molly-height, while means she shops there regularly. And if there are snacks, Molly will bust through any door, lock or other various barrier to get what she's looking for. 

Here is the "new" pantry. It's up high, and really doesn't hold a whole lot. Somehow it feels like a lot of food, so I guess that's a good thing. See that box of Hamburger Helper in the bottom right? It moved with us from Maryland. No joke. And still it waits, probably expired, definitely ignored and unwanted. If anyone would like a box of lasagna Hamburger Helper, do let me know. See up there in the top right? 1000 Popsicle sticks. Very important to keep anything that numbers 50 or greater up high where Molly can't reach them. If you know Molly, that would be a no-brainer. We also keep the writing implements up high, but they're in a cabinet that doesn't have counters under it. 

You'll also notice that we have a lot of elbow macaroni. I hate pasta. I buy it with the best intentions and then it sits in my pantry. I love lasagna, but I'm pretty sure that the copious amounts of cheese and sauce negate the pasta content. 

We also have a lot of soup. Andrew is one of those guys who will scrape off everyone's plates after dinner and put it in a container and take it for lunch the next day. He's incredibly not-very-concerned with what he eats. If there are no plates to scrape or leftovers to take, he just grabs a can of soup. I really feel that if I were the one out there earning the cash, I'd be like, "Hey you! Fix me a decent lunch!" but he'd never say such a thing when we're really almost not keeping our heads above water with the chaos. I used to pack the most beautiful lunches in brown paper sacks with a love note and chips and a cookie. Now he gets Campbell's Chunky. (To my credit, I saw Tomato with Pasta today and thought, "Ooh, Andrew will love that." Thoughtful, eh??) I think that maybe admitting my craptastic lunch-fixing to the entire world might have inspired me to make him a lovely lunch on Friday. ( "Friday?!" Sheesh, people! The shopping's done for the week and the soup's in the cupboard!) 

And here you can see what's been done with the "old" pantry. There are still Goldfish in there, because that carton is enormous, and a huge bag of sugar. I'm sure that's the best place for a huge bag of sugar with Molly running wild in the house. There are also two packages of "who nu" cookies in there. The girls are totally fooled. I give them these perfectly nutritious and less than delicious cookies and they have no idea that the good stuff is hidden wayyyyy in the back of the "why on earth do they make cabinets this deep?" cabinet.

 I also have a giant gallon of white vinegar. I can't figure out why my garbage disposal backs up into my dishwasher. I did a test and it does, officially. I don't use my dishwasher, so I left it completely clean and empty for a week, and when I opened it, there was water in the bottom. So I put vinegar in it and ran it and the water was gone and the washer smelled fine. I don't have any idea what's up with THAT, but I'm just running it with vinegar every couple days until I feel motivated to call somebody. I should do that, right? 

And that is my pantry. Tomorrow I'm going to do a "day in the life of a chick with three daughters who hides the good cookies from her kids" post. I don't think I've done a day in the life post since I was a mother of two children, so this should be fun. Guess I'd better grab the camera so I can be ready first thing!