cooking from the pantry

I'm making a grocery list today for a weeks worth of menus. The first thing I do is take inventory of what I have on hand. This way no food gets wasted. I have 2 whole chickens, smoked sausage, chicken tenderloins, shrimp, and some leftover ham I froze from Christmas to work with. I also have in the pantry cans of soup, and Kung Pao chicken mix. I then try to think of ways to use this stuff or if I have already exhausted my own recipes I use regularly then I start looking for recipes. Whole foods has great recipes, taste of home, pilsbury, and I love to use top secret restaurant recipes. For the chicken I don't usually use whole chickens so I will look for recipes for that. I bought several of them at Winco a couple of weeks ago when they were selling them for .64 cents a pound. It was an excellent price so I loaded up. When I go shopping I'm always looking for stuff that has been marked down to get rid of. I take it home and freeze it immediately so it's not a problem. This creates ways to find new favorites for your family. I remembered a recipe I haven't used in a while from my Yoshidas cookbook for smoked sausage. It's super easy and right up Ken's alley. (He's into easy) I found a potpie recipe for the ham on taste of homes website. (This one I will cook) Chicken cacciatore for the crockpock, oven fried chicken, shrimp and black bean tacos, Kung Pao chicken, soup and sandwiches, and Olive gardens chicken scampi. (Top secret recipes) I then make a grocery list of the missing ingredients for the recipes and off I go. I practically have a weeks worth of food already in the pantry/freezer so I will actually need very little at the store. While I am there I will take my coupons and look for sales. I stock up on what I can while I'm there. If you already know what you use regularly it's easy to keep your pantry well stocked at good prices on stuff you know you use all the time. Taking inventory also prevents you from wasting fresh fruits and vegetables. For example, I have avocados that need to be used so I will look for ways to use them so they are not wasted, like in the shrimp and black bean tacos.
Ok, I'm back from the store. I went to Vons because I needed to get Eli a new prescription for his toothache. I need to figure out how to save on that bill! Anyway I got a $30 giftcard for the new prescription, bought $72 worth of stuff, saved $24 on Vons club, Had a $10 off coupon when you buy $50 worth of food, another $3 in coupons less the $30 gift card so I paid $5 total. Not bad for a weeks worth of dinners!