I Had to Clean Out My Pantry

I did have plans to work in the kitchen today. I did NOT, however, have plans to clean my pantry.

That was taken out off my hands when I discovered black bugs. Ugh!

I quickly set to work finding the source and cleaning the pantry out, praying that I won't have to throw out the entire contents of my pantry. THAT would certainly take care of the pantry challenge, eh?

The source turned out to be a forgotten canister of corn meal pushed in the back corner.

Thankfully, I did not have to throw much more out because almost everything else was sealed up tight. My flour is kept in the freezer due to a bug experience a few years ago.

I think I caught the problem early because the bugs had only traveled down one shelf and had not traveled up to my cereal and pasta yet. I poured all the opened cereal into sealed bags. I'm contemplating putting the pasta into the freezer?

The only other thing I'm worried about is my sugar, which is just a 5 lb bag that I keep on top of the fridge. It's kept there so that Jim can get to it for his coffee. I tried to put sugar in the freezer once and it hardened into a brick. I guess I need to put it into a sealed container, which will require a purchase. I wonder if I can find one at the dollar store?

So, now my pantry is all clean and organized. I already had a good idea of what was in there, but it did help to get it all looking nice and clean.

Here's what it looks like now:

So, now I'm off to concoct a vegetable beef soup for dinner using leftover roast, carrots and potatoes from our dinner Sunday. Served with salad and leftover bread. Yes, this is a departure from my menu plan, but it's more important to use up food and not waste than to stick to a plan.