This is our second year in a row of making our January kindness as a food bank donation.  This year, as our first Christmas with a child has left us with credit card payments; we decided to do a quick look through our cupboards before dropping some cash at the grocery store for our donation.  It only took a few minutes to discover that with one part minimalism kick and another part 'my husband goes grocery shopping while hungry' far too often = three big bags worth of food to be donated.  We didn't even have to make a trip to the store for our donation. 

We loaded the bags full of cans of corn (why on earth did we have 8 cans of corn?!), boxes of ready to cook rice (Cajun red bean rice, no thanks), and baby food jars (that Grey decided he just doesn't have the palate for).  For reasons beyond understanding, we also had four boxes of instant pudding to spare, one bottle of ketchup, two cans of tuna, and a partridge in a pear tree.  hah  But we really did have a lot of excess that could easily go to someone that needs it.  We kept plenty of back-ups for ourselves, but when is the next time I'll be needing 2 boxes of stuffing?

On our food quest, we also found multiple items that we were apparently hoarding that are obscenely expired.  Who has a can of refried beans that expired in fall 2009?  Really?  B and I decided that the cake mix that expired in August2010 couldn't possibly go bad...right?  So, I decided to bake it today.  I have the handiest cookbook, Best Loved Quick Fixes from Mixes that has really yummy recipes for all those random packages of stuff that somehow are left in your cupboard forever until you realize they are about to expire(d).  I found a recipe for Upside-down German Chocolate cake in which I had all the ingredients for, so I whipped it up!

Moral of the story:  Not only were we able to accomplish our January kindness without spending a dime, but we got a yummy dessert out of discovering I had expired cake mix on hand.  I'd say that's a win-win.