I had to think long and hard about the foods I wanted in my capsule kitchen, although nothing is set in stone and you are able to bend, break or even disregard some of the rules if you want to .... I didn't want to be messing about. In my mind if you set yourself a Challenge or join in with one you should give it your all if it is possible to do so.
There is a Facebook page with lots of the participants listing their foods and linking back to blog posts they have done, and this is also being used for ideas and to ask questions and is a very useful resource if you need to dip into it. Courtney Carver of course also has her own blog 'Be More With Less' which is well worth a visit to read up on the 'rules' of the Challenge which are on this link.
But basically it is along the same lines as P333 for clothes in which you pick thirty three of your clothes and wear them for three months. In the Capsule Kitchen you pick thirty three foodstuffs and use them for three months, simplifying your shopping and your kitchen cupboards in the process. It makes life simple and hopefully will help you to understand just what you eat, what you get tempted by and then ends up in the back of your cupboards never to be seen again and what foodstuffs you would eat seasonally.
By using the same thirty three foods it should mean that there will be less waste, you will be able to think up recipes and meal ideas that really suit you and that you will be happy to eat on a regular basis. For quite a while now I've wanted to simplify our meal plans and eat the same sort of foods in different ways, meaning we can buy less, store less, think less about food and yet get maximum meal ideas from the foods we buy and grow, so when I stumbled across this capsule kitchen idea I was intrigued.
I have listed my foods on a stand alone page at the top of the blog, but I will also list them here so you can see just what choices I have made. The only thing I have not put on my list, as I do not eat it, is meat and I will continue to look out for meat bargains and pop them into the freezer for Lovely Hubby to go with the rest of each meal that we will share as we usually do.
My 33 Foods
Vegetables Onions Potatoes Carrots Peppers Cucumber Lettuces Courgettes Leeks Spinach Kale Celery
Carbs Rice Penne Pasta Spaghetti Cous Cous Bread (or Bread Flour & Yeast)
Protein Rich Cheese Eggs Nuts Salmon Cod Lentils
Lazy Foods Frozen Mixed Veg Frozen Peas Frozen Chips Gravy Mixes Tinned Tomatoes Ready Made Quiche Bases
Miscellaneous Coffee Jams Peanut Butter Yogurt
Fruit
*** *** *** *** ***
Any item that you use less or around one tablespoon of or are using for flavor or seasoning do not have to be counted, in my case these are :
Salt, Pepper, Oils, Herbs, Spices, Mayonnaise, Curry Pastes, Butter, Garlic, Lemon Juice, Tomato Puree, Stock Powder or cubes, Salad Dressings.
Also not counted is water and I am including Sparkling Water in this.
Some people have counted 'vegetables' and 'fruit' as one item each to enable them to add lots of other foods, but I think (and it is in the rules) that individual items amongst these should really be listed. However, as I eat so little fruit, usually just one type a week, ie a bag of apples one week, pears the next, berries from the freezer off our own bushes occasionally etc I have decided that I will just list 'fruit' as a single thing.
For now we are eating our way through the fridge, freezers and cupboards in our bid to make our Sealed Pot money of £61.21 last as long as possible. We will only use this money to replace things that are on the list as they run out and eventually I will be into this Challenge properly.
Is there anything you think I have missed out that should be there, or have I, with much tinkering, finally got it right?
Sue xx
