A Stockpile Challenge Pt 5

Well here we are 19 days in to the challenge and 28 days since I did a "normal" shop and so far I have spent $15.75.
I am starting to think that shopping will be different from now on.  This challenge has really opened my eyes to where we waste food, where I fail to be creative with ingredients and how much variety a few ingredients can provide.  In fact I think we are eating really well.
Last week I made an eggplant and macaroni lasagne which lasted us most of the week teamed up with salad.
I made up a meat mix loaded with our home grown capsicums and tomatoes, then I sliced home grown eggplants into 1cm thick slices and made a white sauce loaded with parsley.

Then it was all about the layers.  Eggplant, meat, white sauce, macaroni and repeat.

Then I retrieved and very hard and slightly mouldy block of parmesan from the fridge.  After trimming off all the surfaces to get rid of the mould I grated it on the top.  Let me just say it was a hit.

At the end of last week I had to got to Brisbane for a few days for work.  While I was down there I decided to go the Rocklea Farmers Market and buy Tomatoes for preserving.

I had to really stop and think about if I should buy them or not since I am doing this no shopping challenge.
Hubby and I talked it over and we decided that we should buy them now regardless of the challenge for a couple of reasons.
1. This challenge is self imposed and there are no prizes (other than the money saved and the pantry clean out)
2. Tomatoes are currently cheap to buy and even cheaper from the markets but will not remain so.
3. It is a 260km round trip to go to the markets from home vs an additional 30km since I was already in Brisbane.
4. Since all the of tomatoes were destined for preserving and we still have a few jars in the pantry they will not form part of our meals this month.
So I purchased 2 x 10kg boxes of roma tomatoes.

Hubby helped me dice them up and each 10 kg box completely filled my 12 litre stock pot once they were all diced up.

And once bottled up I ended up with 20 x 1 litre jars and another litre that I froze in small portions.
So although the challenge this month is to put a dent in the stockpile this lot will keep us going for quite a while but I don't feel bad about it.  This is the sort of stockpiling that will allow us to continue to shop frugally in the future.