July 2014

Periodically, because it's good household management but usually because we're in a budget crunch, I go on a campaign to eat the food that we have. Those items that have gotten pushed to the back of the pantry or freezer. Anyone else have this issue? I consider it the fat corn years intended to supply the lean corn ears (see Genesis, the story of Joseph and Pharaoh), but just like the biblical story, it takes some creative management.

I'm going to keep a journal, hopefully during the entire month of July, of my own efforts to economize as I clean and organize my food. My journey is happening in 2014, a time when Americans waste about 25% of what we buy (see newsstory here). That's appalling, but it easy to do. When my culture fails this way, it pains me. When I am too lazy to eat the rest of the spaghetti sauce in my fridge, hey, what do you know about my life? Stay off my back.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Day 14: some things belong

The first time I campaigned to eat what we have, my husband got really excited and ate all the chocolate chips. Um, no. The goal is not to eat everything that is there. The goal is to eat the things that we've been ignoring or overlooking.

Chocolate chips (along with many other things) are staple items. They will always be in my cabinet. The problem comes when I stockpile too much or acquire things that are not in my normal pathways of eating.

I suppose the corollary of "eat what you have" is "buy what you need." And here's where I run into problems. Over the weekend, when I had a fresh influx of food and many favorite dishes that I could now envision cooking, I forgot the leftovers. The weird mac & cheese and broccoli that someone had to eat. The remaining spaghetti and fresh roma sauce. The mandarin oranges I forgot to put in the everything salad. The black beans leftover from a pasta salad recipe. And those cornmeal pancakes. Oh my!

So even in the thrill of Produce Acquisition, I remembered to eat what I have, and took inventory accordingly. I am not, however, sorry I bought the salmon. Yum.

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