Using What I Have Journal Entry #15: Reflections on 2025

Of all the resolutions I made for myself for 2025, the one I had the most success in keeping was in making better use of what I had on hand, hitting pause on buying anything but staples while deliberately enjoying the ingredients I had around. I did not expect it to last a whole year, but I had quite the backstock.

Some highlights:

January

In January, I was getting my footing and trying to relearn how to shop. I made some amazing meals, and several of them involved meatballs! I think my favorite was probably this meal, which featured oven-baked mushroom walnut quinoa meatballs in a creamy sauce over eggless noodles.

I didn't make it all the way through my quinoa flakes this year, so these might reappear in 2026!

I was still visiting the grocery store on my previously-usual schedule in January, but the focus on what I had meant I came significantly under budget for food for the month.

February

In February, I started to have a lot of stress about tariffs, and grocery shopping got very stressful, too. My records show I was still shopping at Target then, which feels like a lifetime ago now (boycotting Target was hard at first, and still inconvenient, but I've managed). I was empaneled on a grand jury and faced totally new stressors that lasted through the end of June. For jury duty, I found I could only manage to cope with various stressors was to make those days totally predictable, so I began having my weekly court days as days with a standard menu. Breakfasts varied according to what I had left over, but I would otherwise always have some sort of sandwich with chips and a soy latte for lunch and peanut butter ramen for dinner. In retrospect, this focus probably slowed my using-what-I-have quest, but it didn't result in me accumulating more.

But I used up my fonio in February, accepting that I may never get to have it again (tariffs, not ordering from Target anymore, etc. make it less available for me). And the loaf I made from it was delightful.

I also made my own bagels in February, and broke my tooth (unrelatedly). It was a stressful month!

But my focus on using things up did yield some great breakfasts. Besides the bagels, I made my own sausage, and you can also see a delicious mini rye pancake bowl in the linked compilation with the sausage. I still have rye flour in my freezer, but I've also had fun using it here and there.

February had its moments, and also came in significantly under budget for food for the month.

March

I made more sausage in March, plus I introduced myself to some new-to-me Ethiopian food when I needed to use some kamut. I don't know if I ever would have without that, but oh, my goodness, I wanted to cook every Ethiopian recipe after that even though I wasn't letting myself buy teff.

It wouldn't be my favorite way to have kamut, but it did get me addicted to Ethiopian food, so I think this was one of my favorite meals in March.

I wasn't as far under budget for food in March as in January and February, but I did spread out my shopping trips more.

April

I finished off my polenta in April. It has been hard to avoid buying more, but 2026 will be a bit different (more on that in a few weeks), so I expect to have some polenta in my future. Polenta is so, so comforting, and having it with lots of veggies and baked tofu was just perfect.

I showed you how I made a bunch of different breakfasts around one batch of muffins, too, and I made yet more sausages.

In April, I was very slightly over budget for groceries, but that was covered by being underbudget for three months. When I had jury duty, it was hard to predict when I would have available to shop for groceries, so I tended to take advantage of being able to go when I could, which I think is why this month wasn't as frugal.

May

In May, I appreciated the muffins in my freezer, and told you about how I made breakfasts surrounding them. As weather turned warmer, I began avoiding the oven. The best meal of the month was some soy curl tacos that used some tequila I had been given and had no interest in drinking. It was the first time in 2025 that I allowed myself to buy flour tortillas, and I was so excited about getting to have them. I realized how much more I was enjoying my food when I was focused so much on appreciating what I have.

I let go of the end of my favorite frozen sausage crumbles, and showed you some new-to-me hot breakfast drinks. There were a ton of beautiful things to explore, still. And I started to realize that I was probably shopping too frequently, given what I had on hand and my tendency to overbuy. In May, I spent less than half of my monthly food budget.

June

The best meal I made in June was farro jambalaya. It was a delicious way to say farewell to farro for the time being.

I finished grand jury duty, though I faced some other personal challenges and remained pretty stressed. It was hard to focus on the creativity needed to try endlessly new things, so I focused more on just using what I had without shopping, rather than using the unusual ingredients. That made for some great meals, too, like raid-the-fridge soup with dumplings.

But I did come up with my own vegan recipe for strawberry atole to use my masa harina, which was nice.

I was very slightly over budget for food in June, but I didn't worry about it given being underbudget in May.

July

I didn't have much oomph in July, so there weren't as many meals focused on unusual ingredients, then, either, but I did make a really lovely batch of amaranth pea fritters.

I also had some amazing Biscoff pancakes with strawberries. It was hot and I was very tired. 

July was also way, way underbudget for food, and the major success was a shift to coming up with interesting meals with the things I happened to have, like sweet potato TVP kidney bean chili with cornmeal dumplings.

August

I finished off the amaranth in August, as well as my barley. Some friends moved away and I adopted a lot of their pantry staples, so that also meant some new things to use up. I started deliberately avoiding shopping, and was proud to produce some excellent meals from scraps. Odds and ends produced a mashed root vegetable dish that was absolutely sublime.

I also uncovered some wonton wrappers in my freezer and made homemade ravioli, which was a comedy of errors but still satisfying, and homemade wontons, which were easier but still maybe more trouble than I want to go to again.

And when my inner toddler threw a tantrum and demanded potato tacos, I made some. They were absolutely everything I could have wanted.

I was respectably under budget for food in August, too, in spite of my inner toddler's demands.

September

In September, I at first continued to deal with my food insecurity traumas continuously resurfacing with tariffs and whatnot by leaning into avoiding grocery shopping. This, again, meant more of a focus on whatever I happened to have more than necessarily using unusual ingredients. But the ability to turn the oven on returned sporadically, so I did what any self-respecting frugal cook would do, and went back to making baked meatballs. I also finally made a chickpea millet loaf to continue using up millet.

And I finally used my sweet rice flour, too, in some savory mochi pancakes. This was not my favorite use of sweet rice flour, but it got one other thing off my list, and I know of several other things I do love to make with that ingredient, so when in future I pick it up, I'll know what to make with it. 

On the breakfast front, I made some ugly but delicious muffins to use some of the oat bran I'd adopted from my friends.

For this month, I was substantially under budget for groceries again.

October

October was the return of fully getting to utilize my oven; I was so excited! But I didn't use my oven exclusively. I braved making raid-the-fridge curry successfully, which made me more confident in my ability to whip up meals with whatever was on hand. I resisted the urge to buy a ton of Halloween candy.

I was really struggling in October, and as I look over the month's food, it seems the best meals weren't remotely planned. I used the freezer a lot. Probably the meal I am proudest to have presented was this enchilada casserole with some improvisational sides.

I was roughly on budget for food for October, coming slightly under.

November

November meant using some rice noodles and Pad Thai sauce that had been largely forgotten, a love affair with unusual pizza meals, and the discovery of how delicious buffalo cauliflower can be. I also revisited some favorites from earlier in my quest, including Ethiopian food and butternut squash gratin with kamut berries.

Given everything going on, this was as close to holiday food as I got.

I was slightly over budget for food in November, mostly because I stocked up on vitamins. The additional cost was more than covered by being under budget in October, though.

December

December did not go according to plan whatsoever, but I did share one pretty impressive meal with stuffed peppers that used up some things I had on hand.

And I survived, which is perhaps what is most important!

Weirdly enough, I was under budget for food in December, by a significant amount.

2025 Summary

In the end, I spent about 1/3 less than I'd budgeted for food in 2025, despite tariffs and crises. (Of course, I spent that money on my emergency trip in December, but thanks to my efforts, I had that extra money and didn't have any true financial stresses on top of the other ones--I always have some financial stress, because the threat always seems to be there, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.) I found this year's pantry utilization quest comforting and helpful in more than one way. I gained more confidence in following my own path in the kitchen, and in just being able to pull things together with whatever is on hand. I will carry those things through with me in the next year.

I've been through a lot this year, more than I would be able to mention here, and I don't expect that 2026 will be quite as strict, but I have some plans and hopes and we'll see how it goes. I will continue to use what I have in favor of chasing shiny things, but shiny things will be allowed here and there so long as they don't end up being something to have rather than to use.

I used up a lot of things and diminished my stocks of a variety of other things, and yet I never was in danger of starving to death. This was a hard thing for me to do, but I think it improved my life and my mental health.

I still face a lot of anxieties around food and money, and I suspect I'll continue to do so. I feel mildly sad, still, that I'll never have my favorite vegan sausage crumbles again, and that fonio will be hard to come by. But we do our best to take care of ourselves, and sometimes, a combination of gentleness and firmness works.

There will be more tacos, enchiladas, lasagnas, and polenta in my future, though. I look forward to finding all sorts of ways to use up whatever ingredients I buy on my journey this next year.