Food Inventory Template

You know how it is, you think you have a can of beans, but then you go to grab it and it’s GONE. GRRR that totally gets my goat!  It may also get a few other more colorful words thrown at it!

Creating a pantry inventory will help you know what you have so, you don’t end-up over-buying — and you put the RIGHT things on your grocery list. I hope you enjoy our family’s pantry inventory spreadsheet.

Pantry Excel Spreadsheet

This pantry inventory spreadsheet will help you stay on top of what’s where. You can download the free printable/template right here:

And, if you’re feeling like a LOT of your house is out of control (or could just use some new tips) — check out The Organized Home. Stop stressing about your house, and let IT support YOU for once!

Using a Pantry Inventory Spreadsheet

At the height of my use of this document, I was checking all of the items monthly, I’d then go into my computer and update the spreadsheet.

If I was feeling adventurous I’d ask a kid to yell out how many items were in the pantry and I’d update it as we went along.  It didn’t take much time at all.

Then, I’d place the items we needed on my shopping list for my home kitchen. Easy-peazy.

Lately, I’ve been buying less — and that helps our grocery budget a lot also.  I just sometimes run out of stuff again.

Feel free to adjust and fix as needed — as is, it will likely NOT work for your family. The first time you use it, it will likely take some time to adjust it. You can also use it with your freezer, fridge, etc.

Pro Tip: If you’re going to use this spreadsheet, take some extra time to check expiration dates, and put the food that needs to be used first at the front.

I’d love to know if people have ideas to make it better! Have a great idea? Leave me a comment!

Notes about the spreadsheet:

You’ll find the product name on the left, then how much we’d LIKE to have on hand, and then how much we DO have on hand. It will calculate it for you! The main reason I created it was to have to think less.

The colors are for each shelf in my pantry.  That, and the fact that I really like colors.

You could use those colors for shelves, different categories, different types of foods — totally up to you! A lot of people want to know the BEST ways to use this, but it’s really up to what works for you, and what is easiest to measure your food stocks.

The columns will automatically update if you use a proper program (I use Excel, but it should also work in google sheets) that will execute equations.  aka — if you want to have 6 and you have 3 — the third column will say 3, as you will want to have 3 more.

Ok, back to food….

Pantry Inventory Template in Google Sheets

This was initially made as an microsoft excel inventory template spreadsheet (this was when google was pretty young, and google sheets wasn’t as useable as it is now).

Just go to “import” on google sheets, then drag and drop it in there to upload.

That all needs to be done on a computer, as far as I know.

This list is also printable, just select the cells you want and you’ll have a pantry list you can take to the store.

Please note that this does not need to be only shelf food storage. You could use it anywhere you want to keep track of inventory. Even junk food!

Pantry Inventory App

You can turn this into useable on you mobile phone by adjusting it to just 1 collumn and putting it in google sheets.  That way it can easily be available on your phone.

It’s something I wanted for such a long time.  I was running out of things that would leave my frustrated and wonder why I didn’t have a lot of the things I had on hand in my pantry inventory.

I have heard there are other good apps fo r this, but I don’t know of any this simple (and I prefer less apps on my phone).

Keep your pantry organized so you know what’s in it!  {and what’s not, which is what I’m normally worried about}

And I mean it, if you’re looking to stop over-buying in general, and be able to easily access what you have — NOW is the time to jump in The Organized Home. Jump in for just a month (no obligation to stay) for the tips and then leave with your organized home! Use coupon code PC10 to save 10%

Pantry FAQ’s

Be sure to check out my more recent post on having an organized pantry.  It can be really helpful too!

Some other posts about home organizing are my weekly cleaning schedule, and stocking up on canned goods.  And if you’re on Pinterest, check out my organization board!

This was originally created in 2014 and has been updated.

The post Best Pantry Inventory Spreadsheet: Track your groceries appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Today’s guest is my friend Becca from My Crazy Good Life — do NOT miss her on Youtube where she really takes family favorites and makes them healthier, you can also find her on Instagram.

Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines, if you’re looking to get your family into a routine that makes life easier — do not miss it!

Remember to use the coupon code mentioned in the episode!

In this episode we’re talking about:

• Making menu planning work for you
• Becca’s Tips for making a meal plan
• The two-bite rule
• Making veggies in different ways to get kids interested
• Becca’s Desperation Meals: Goulash, Fajitas,
• Getting kids involved in cooking
• Becca’s Mac and Cheese that WON!

Other things that might interest you:

• Check-out all of my meal plans

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other parenting podcasts:

Check out all my podcasts:

Transcript:

Hilary Erickson 0:00
Hey guys welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on Episode 32 we’re talking about eating a little healthier I think everyone can get on board with that right I have a good friend coming on we’re going to talk about picky kids, kids helping in the kitchen she shares three desperation meals that are going to kind of change how you view desperation meals I also share mine which are not particularly healthy. Let’s untangle it Welcome to the pulling curls podcast where we untangle everything from pregnancy, parenting, home routines, even some family travel because heavens knows our lives are tangled. I’m your host Hilary Erickson.

Okay guys, today I have an awesome guest coming on. She is the blogger behind my crazy good life. You can find her at Becca Ludlum on Instagram and be led them on Pinterest. She’s one of my best friends. I love how she takes family friendly meals that your kids would eat anyway and she just makes them a little bit healthier. I love her YouTube channel. Be sure and check out my friend Becca Ludlum. This episode of The pulling girls podcast is sponsored by Family routines how to automate your housewife life. ever wish life was more like you pictured it would be before you had kids being able to spend less time at the mundane tasks and more time teaching kids the fun and valuable life skills you know they need family routines teaches families to simplify daily tasks into routines that help them feel more peace and joy. Save 15% with a coupon code untangled you can find it at pulling girls calm in the menu under courses or in this episode show notes. Hey, Becca, welcome to the podcast.

Becca Ludlum 1:33
Thank you so much.

Hilary Erickson 1:34
Yeah. Okay, back on. Now you are a healthy eating guru.

Becca Ludlum 1:38
Right? I guess I am. Yeah,

Hilary Erickson 1:41
yeah. Please, today in this situation, everybody. The good news is you can’t be healthy all the time. Right?

Unknown Speaker 1:47
No, you cannot be healthy all the time. You have we have given take right we all have given take.

Hilary Erickson 1:51
Yeah. And so I think that’s super important for people to realize. So do you meal plan.

Unknown Speaker 1:56
I do I meal plan but I feel like when people say meal plan they have in their head that you have to sit down on Sunday for seven hours and prep everything that you are going to put in your mouth for the next week. And that just doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for me. So I do meal plan but some weeks it’s just cutting veggies for snacks so that I have them and then in the fridge to grab and some weeks it means that I get my breakfast and my lunches prepped because I know it’s going to be busy. And I know it’s going to be really tempting to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and so I want to just make sure that I’m getting all my veggies in and and then some weeks I do do the whole shebang like it’s we’re super busy. But more often than not, it’s me prepping one meal and some snacks. And that’s what works for our family. Every family’s different

Hilary Erickson 2:39
Yeah, I love that because I think everybody thinks that has to look like XYZ whatever. Yeah, meal planner guru. Yeah, that’s awesome. So any tips for getting picky kids to try new things? Oh my gosh.

Unknown Speaker 2:52
Yes. So I think kids rely on routine as much as we rely on routine but you know, they have different routines and so their routines are I’m going to eat nuggets every day for lunch, and I’m gonna have goldfish and that’s fine. But I also think that it’s really good to get in as many new foods as you can just to see if they like them. And so one of the things that I did when my kids were liberal is I took like lima beans, for example, I would tell them that were green green m&ms. And I do not recommend that anybody do not, that was not a good idea. Because they were confused. And they were like, I don’t like this, but I really, like Eminem’s and somebody would offer them m&ms and be like, No, I don’t like them. So I would not recommend doing that our family rule was always that they had to take two bites. And if they didn’t like it, that was absolutely fine. We would actually go through and we would make it again, in a different way. So if we had roasted asparagus, we would do steamed asparagus next time, or we would do bacon wrapped asparagus the next time and we would keep asking them to try it every different way that that they that we made it and we would let them also get you know if you had an idea about how to cook those carrots. We would cook the carrots that way. So get them involved. It’s super helpful. But to be able to say, hey, you have some ownership in this I have to say though that my my then 12 year old was so thankful. That was the last time that I made him eat peaches because he has hated peaches. And like when they were on his tray when he was a toddler, he would push them away with his finger. And so finally, when he turned 12, he tried peaches again. And he was like, I just don’t like it or like, you know what, that’s cool. This is the last time we’re ever going to ask you to do that. And so I really think that you just have to try it different ways and give them options and allow them to be a little bit creative and how they want to try new foods.

Hilary Erickson 4:34
Right, but I like that at some point. Sometimes you just don’t love food.

Unknown Speaker 4:38
That’s okay. We all have foods that we don’t like I have foods that I don’t like so that’s okay.

Hilary Erickson 4:43
Yeah. Okay, so I have three desperation dinners they are pancakes, potato bar and spaghetti. What are your desperation dinners?

Unknown Speaker 4:51
Oh my gosh. We always have stuff on hand for tuna casserole for goulash, and for fajitas always those there are three things that we always Always have something

Hilary Erickson 5:00
something on hand for okay what’s goulash

Unknown Speaker 5:03
goulash? So some people call it American Chop Suey. So it’s it’s veggies, I actually like I will hide veggies in that meal. That is my when my kids aren’t eating a lot of veggies. I’ll make goulash but it’s just pasta with tomato sauce and ground meat. Okay, but then we add in some peppers and zucchini and mushrooms.

Hilary Erickson 5:20
It’s kind of whatever you have in your fridge you can add to that.

Unknown Speaker 5:23
That’s exactly

Hilary Erickson 5:24
yeah, so any tips for kids getting involved with cooking?

Unknown Speaker 5:27
Yeah, so let them play and it’s super stressful to do that. I know I know this like it is so stressful to give a kid you know, a knife right or scissors or, I mean it’s a health or it’s a dangerous thing, right? We know we want to be careful but it’s very stressful to allow them to have that room to play around a little bit and grow. And so I think that you know, we taught my my six year old how to use a knife like we sat down for a long time and did that and he is awesome at it now and it’s funny because even when he was little people would come into like he’s cutting away watermelon. I’m like, He’s fine. He’s good. He’s eight and he is solid. And he has done this many times and and he rocked it. So even if you don’t want to allow them to use knives in your kitchen, there are different things. Give them the spices, allow them to measure out spices and put spices in food or allow them to saute something over the stove and you can turn it down super low. Um, you know, making sure that you know, I guess I’m talking about older kids, I’m talking about eight 910 11. But even like the little ones, hey, you know, can you go measure half a cup of flour for me and bring it over? Anything like that is going to get them interested? Because they are making their own food. And that’s exciting for kids.

Hilary Erickson 6:35
Right? They’re playing a grown up all the sudden like that’s what grown up people do. Yes. Yeah. So that is fun. I like your ideas about keeping the satay on super low. Yeah, I tend to be the mom who turns everything on high. So that’s a good idea.

Unknown Speaker 6:47
Yeah, no, no, you always gotta think about those little hands.

Hilary Erickson 6:50
All right, so what no, Becca, you are famous for making good food healthier. Right. I love it.

Unknown Speaker 6:57
I love it. That’s what I do.

Hilary Erickson 6:58
Yeah. So What are some of your tips for making foods that your family loves already a little bit healthier,

Unknown Speaker 7:05
I am the queen of sneaking and little changes and so I’ll tell them about it after they’ve tried it but all these all these little things and so like, you know, there are a couple of meals that like the kids don’t like that to be added in and I get that like spaghetti. You know, I don’t want spaghetti that has veggies in it, okay, but I would take like the food processor and you know, take mushrooms or zucchini or something that has like a really bland taste and I would pulverize it in the food processor and you add it in and they have no clue because it looks like pasta sauce. And so then afterwards I get all excited. So it’s like a game at this point. Like guess what I did to your dinner tonight you had extra veggies but they laugh they totally laugh about that and so you know slowly stop using as much cheese in your meals you know, see if you can swap some you know heavy cream based things like sour cream with Greek yogurt, little things like that. You don’t have to do like it’s not like all of a sudden instead of using the sour cream, I’m going to switch Greek yogurt do a little bit at a time 75% sour cream 25% Greek yogurt. So I do things like that with anything that I can make a little bit healthier. But then there’s times to that. I mean, we do like we just made my husband really wanted to try mac and cheese and he bought a big block of Velveeta. And he made mac and cheese and he’s like, I’m not going to tell you what’s in it, but it’s really good. But then, like the next time he was like, You know what, let’s make like real mac and cheese. Let’s like do it with real cheese and see so last weekend, my home was a host of a mac and cheese cook off and so I got to make my healthy version. My husband got to make his version that was healthier than Velveeta but not healthy he smoked it and then my girlfriend brought some over I won of course even though mine was healthiest but so you two little little changes little changes all the way you can’t do this overnight. You have to make little changes for your family.

Unknown Speaker 8:50
Yeah, cuz clearly their kids stuff to eat

Unknown Speaker 8:52
right? Exactly. And you don’t want you know, when you make big changes that’s when you get the kids that are like no, I’m not eating No, I’m not doing and even sometimes husband Do not know I’m not eating that. Yeah. And then you find yourself making multiple meals so you have to make it work for you and you just kind of sneak in those changes.

Hilary Erickson 9:08
Yeah, that’s true. super smart. Well, thanks for coming on back. I think this gave people some ideas on making family meals a little bit healthier.

Becca Ludlum 9:15
Thank you so much.

Hilary Erickson 9:16
Okay, you guys that had so much good information in it. I really love what Becca had to say about getting kids in the kitchen. Some of those desperation meals that you can cook when you know the heavens are falling but you still need to make dinner you guys know how that feels. And of course I love getting kids in the kitchen. That’s one of my top chapters in family routines. The more you can get Kids in the Kitchen the less you’ll worry though start when they go to college. Anyway big fan of getting kids in the kitchen, it helps them be less picky. It helps them be less entitled it helps them like dinner a little bit more. I just love it. Anyway, if you’d like to know more about getting your kids healthier, check out the show notes. You can find it on my website pulling curls under any menu or pulling girls com backslash podcast Big thanks to our sponsor family routines for making this episode popular. Remember to use the discount code I mentioned previously You can find more about that course under my menu on any page of my blog. Of course Big thanks to my friend Becca for coming on and being part of today’s discussion. She is a busy mom. She’s got teenagers now but I think it’s so important to discuss that it can be difficult to get kids do all sorts of different things but so worth it in the end. Of course if you like today’s episode, I’d love it if you would share, subscribe and review. Of course I would love review. Please give me a review. I hope to have you with us next time we drop an episode every Monday and until then I hope you have a tangle free day.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post Healthier Family Meals with Becca Ludlum from My Crazy Good Life — PCP 032 appeared first on Pulling Curls.