Grits, Tomatoes, Spinach and a Poached Egg

This is one of those throw together pantry meals.  Since a few months before Aaron's graduation, I've been trying to purge our pantry and freezer stock.  Once we found out that we won't be moving until January/February 2013, I was able to slow down on the purging, meaning we no longer had to eat random concoctions of chicken broth, baked beans, and rainbow sprinkles for dinner.

Just kidding...we never ate that combination.

Not really anyway.

Technically, we are still purging.  I know, it probably seems like it's not something we need to be doing 8 months ahead, but for those readers who have moved long distances before & like to cook a lot...you know it really can take up to a year to use up some stuff.  Our last move, we were able to pack stuff in our cars, including a cooler for things we wanted on our trip up to Oklahoma, things to eat when we got here (so we didn't have to eat out for the umpteenth time in a row), and things we didn't want to part with.  See balsamic vinegar.

Even though we brought a ton of stuff with us, we still ended up giving a ton away, and even throwing some stuff out (Ouch, I know!).  I had menu planned the last month so we could use through most of our stuff.  What I forgot to count on was the amount of friends I had made that would want to take me out to breakfast/lunch/and dinner the last few weeks of our stay in Florida.  So basically, we ate out nearly every day for a month.  It got old.  And we didn't eat through our food.  But I wouldn't trade that extra time with my Florida guys and gals for the world.

This time is different though.  We won't be able to bring ANY foodie stuff with us.  If you've caught up with me on my newest blog, Where in the World is Kacey?, you'll know that we'll be heading off to Japan come the beginning of the year.  It's craaazzzy exciting, and I'll save all those details for that blog.

So since NOTHING is coming with us from my pantry...I have learned how long it really takes to finish a bottle of mustard.  No matter how much of that stuff you put on EVERYTHING, it never actually empties.  Sort of like toothpaste and shampoo bottles.  How long will that last 1/4 inch really last? It's amazing.  Because we are on this "use all our liquids up asap" kick, it's really exciting in our house when we get to an empty bottle.  Seriously.  One of us will yell and cheer about killing blah-blah-blah off.  The other person will cheer from the other room.

Wow.  That really makes us sound really lame, huh?  Man.

For this meal, I was able to kill off the rest of the grits (which moved here with us from Florida), a can of tomatoes, and that bag of spinach in the back of the fridge that was at that 'iffy' stage.  I would rather go through all my canned goods and condiments now, and only buy essentials if needed.

Oh, after all that...I should let you know that this meal was really good.  No official recipe, but basically I cooked grits according to package and threw in a bit of cheese (can't hurt, right?). I then sauteed the spinach in some garlic and olive oil, then drained the tomatoes and tossed those in to heat.  In a separate pot, I made 2 poached eggs, because poached eggs make everything better.  Pile everything on and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Viola!  Dinner is served!

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