Good gravy, what is THAT?!

So, remember back in October, we went to Boston for my cousin's wedding? My BFF stayed at our house to watch my boys for the weekend. Upon our return, she proceeded to mock the food in our house.

I took this all with a grain of salt. My BFF lives in the DC area. The people out there believe in all organic, all the time. She did the "baby-led" weaning for her first son, which meant no baby food. While I appreciate her theories on food, and sure, organic is great and all, I don't think what we have in the house is all that abnormal.

Until I cleaned out the pantry this morning.

I like to do a little cleaning out before we go to the grocery store. It helps to see what we need and what we don't. Turns out a) I don't do this nearly enough, b) I must normally limit the cleaning to the refrigerator and c) I'm not the only grocery shopper in this house. Today, I found:

• 27 cans of golden mushroom soup
• 5 opened boxes of Triscuits
• 4 boxes of taco seasoning
• 3 opened packages of egg noodles
• 2 opened bags of Tostitos
• A box of graham crackers with an expiration date of August 2008

My husband buys things without really looking to see if we need it or not. And yet he complains when I go to the store without a list. Almost every grocery trip he makes, I know he's going to come home with the following:

• Oreos - "They were on the end cap at the check-out. I HAD to buy them." And then my brother eats all of them when he comes to visit (which, I suppose, is better than me eating all of them).
• Taco seasoning - "I didn't know if we had any and thought, to be safe..." As if it's a national emergency if we are out of taco seasoning. I don't even like taco seasoning.
• Tostitos - "You can never have enough Tostitos." Which... is probably true.

It's no secret I'm a freak about food. When you have a sensitive stomach like mine, you learn to adjust - and eat things you know won't bother you. That said, I don't eat meat from the freezer that's more than a couple months old. And even saying that out loud makes me squicked out. So, it needs to have been bought within that month for me to consider it. Although, now that I think about it, it's a pain to defrost anything, so really, I should just buy fresh every week and call it a day. My freezer wouldn't be scary, I wouldn't be a freak and everyone would be happy.

Aaaanyway. I went to the freezer and found the mother load:

• 6 packages of mixed vegetables - which the kids won't eat (why do we keep buying it??)
• Ready-made hamburger patties that expired in 2009
• Tilapia from 2008
• Frozen steaks from 2008
• Mystery meat from 2008 - it has a date on it, but no other description
• Marinated Costco chicken from 2007
• A pork roast from my mother-in-law (she died in 2006)
• An unopened box of spanakopita that says, "Best Before Dec 16, 2006"

It makes me a little sick to know I am throwing all this money away. So, from now on:

1. We are not accepting meat from family.
2. We are not buying and freezing anything that won't be eaten within a month.
3. My husband is no longer allowed to do the grocery shopping.

And now that I've completely emptied our house of food, I'm going shopping to fill it back up.

And then probably throw it all away in a few months.