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eat_it_all_up1/04/19
It’s shortly after New Year’s, and I’m beginning this effort the way I usually approach a problem: by settling down at the kitchen counter with a beverage and a notebook, to start listing and planning. I need to clean out the pantries and freezers, I need to make meal plans, I need to look up some recipes, check how long certain things last, do some cost analyses… but I know that a total reform of all my kitchen habits is too much to bite off (so to speak) in a day, so how about I start just with the most time-sensitive of the elements right now: what’s in the fridge, and what’s for dinner? Conveniently, it’s also a perennial problem (Every day, they want to eat!) and one my family is beginning to pester me with right now. So helpful, they are. So here we go.
*Instead of my usual thinking beverage, a cup of tea (ok, a pot of tea), I’m pouring a pomegranate “mocktail” to begin to use up the half of a giant bottle of Pom juice, given to me by my dear mother-in-law, that is currently hogging my fridge. I had to buy the club soda to go with it, but at $1 a liter on sale for my mixer, I’m still way ahead. 30 ounces of Pom Wonderful will go a long way (that tangy stuff is powerful!). Plus, I feel all fancy while I'm plotting my evening meal of leftovers.
*For the kids, leftover homemade pizza with a side of some broccoli from the crisper drawer that needed trimming but was OK to steam up today, maybe not so much later in the week. I heated up the pizza stone to re-crisp the pizza crust. No need to invite complaints about soggy old pizza this early in the game.
*For DH and myself, leftover black-eyed peas with cornbread and fixings from New Year’s Day. What better way to usher in a prosperous New Year than to respect what we have already?
We need to eat those leftovers up soon, though, because cornbread just doesn’t last that well, I’ve found. It tends to go sour from the bottom pretty quickly on the countertop- I’m not sure why. It’s the milk and eggs in it, I guess. I might be able to refrigerate the leftovers, but would the crust go soggy, or would it pick up odors from the fridge? Does anyone do this? I’d like to find a way to recycle our cornbread, but we don’t really love cornbread dressing. Maybe I’ll try a bowl of cornbread with milk and maple syrup for breakfast. It doesn’t sound super appetizing, but I’ll attempt to channel the Ingalls family while I try it. (Doesn’t it sound like something Ma, Pa, Laura, and Mary would eat? Baby Carrie, too, of course. Mushy cornbread would be right up her alley.) Meanwhile, I’d welcome other ideas. Or maybe I’m making this too hard, and I should just straight-up eat it with honey or jam as a snack. Duh.
[Update: the chickens will eat cornbread that goes funky while waiting for me to make up my mind.]
*I also tossed out the Rooibos tea from the pantry. I tried to drink a cup as my thinking beverage, but I do not like it, Sam I am. It hasn’t gotten any better since I bought it in 2013.
So there we go. One small step for dinner eaters… well, that’s all, really. No giant leaps for anyone. But life is made up of small steps, isn’t it? We ate some leftovers, I saved some produce that was headed toward the compost bin, whittled down the supply of a kind of hard-to-use-up ingredient, tossed one unappealing item from the overstuffed pantry, and hopefully started some better habits. And I’m gathering strength for a big step- I’ve gotta tackle those pantries next. Heaven help me!
What are you eating up tonight?
[By the way, I'm very new to blogging. If anyone has advice on the Dreamwidth platform, or things you wish I would set up or eliminate from this page, please let me know. I have no idea what most of these thingies do.]
It’s shortly after New Year’s, and I’m beginning this effort the way I usually approach a problem: by settling down at the kitchen counter with a beverage and a notebook, to start listing and planning. I need to clean out the pantries and freezers, I need to make meal plans, I need to look up some recipes, check how long certain things last, do some cost analyses… but I know that a total reform of all my kitchen habits is too much to bite off (so to speak) in a day, so how about I start just with the most time-sensitive of the elements right now: what’s in the fridge, and what’s for dinner? Conveniently, it’s also a perennial problem (Every day, they want to eat!) and one my family is beginning to pester me with right now. So helpful, they are. So here we go.
*Instead of my usual thinking beverage, a cup of tea (ok, a pot of tea), I’m pouring a pomegranate “mocktail” to begin to use up the half of a giant bottle of Pom juice, given to me by my dear mother-in-law, that is currently hogging my fridge. I had to buy the club soda to go with it, but at $1 a liter on sale for my mixer, I’m still way ahead. 30 ounces of Pom Wonderful will go a long way (that tangy stuff is powerful!). Plus, I feel all fancy while I'm plotting my evening meal of leftovers.
*For the kids, leftover homemade pizza with a side of some broccoli from the crisper drawer that needed trimming but was OK to steam up today, maybe not so much later in the week. I heated up the pizza stone to re-crisp the pizza crust. No need to invite complaints about soggy old pizza this early in the game.
*For DH and myself, leftover black-eyed peas with cornbread and fixings from New Year’s Day. What better way to usher in a prosperous New Year than to respect what we have already?
We need to eat those leftovers up soon, though, because cornbread just doesn’t last that well, I’ve found. It tends to go sour from the bottom pretty quickly on the countertop- I’m not sure why. It’s the milk and eggs in it, I guess. I might be able to refrigerate the leftovers, but would the crust go soggy, or would it pick up odors from the fridge? Does anyone do this? I’d like to find a way to recycle our cornbread, but we don’t really love cornbread dressing. Maybe I’ll try a bowl of cornbread with milk and maple syrup for breakfast. It doesn’t sound super appetizing, but I’ll attempt to channel the Ingalls family while I try it. (Doesn’t it sound like something Ma, Pa, Laura, and Mary would eat? Baby Carrie, too, of course. Mushy cornbread would be right up her alley.) Meanwhile, I’d welcome other ideas. Or maybe I’m making this too hard, and I should just straight-up eat it with honey or jam as a snack. Duh.
[Update: the chickens will eat cornbread that goes funky while waiting for me to make up my mind.]
*I also tossed out the Rooibos tea from the pantry. I tried to drink a cup as my thinking beverage, but I do not like it, Sam I am. It hasn’t gotten any better since I bought it in 2013.
So there we go. One small step for dinner eaters… well, that’s all, really. No giant leaps for anyone. But life is made up of small steps, isn’t it? We ate some leftovers, I saved some produce that was headed toward the compost bin, whittled down the supply of a kind of hard-to-use-up ingredient, tossed one unappealing item from the overstuffed pantry, and hopefully started some better habits. And I’m gathering strength for a big step- I’ve gotta tackle those pantries next. Heaven help me!
What are you eating up tonight?
[By the way, I'm very new to blogging. If anyone has advice on the Dreamwidth platform, or things you wish I would set up or eliminate from this page, please let me know. I have no idea what most of these thingies do.]
