Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, tells about her family’s year of eating local. A huge part of their plan was to eat stuff from their own garden. They canned, froze, dehydrated and otherwise preserved everything they possibly could. At the end of their “experiment” they were asked if they’d felt deprived not having certain things. Although they missed fresh veggies during the winter, they said something that really got me thinking. She said they didn’t think about what was missing, they focused on what they had on hand.
That seems like a small thing but I tried a little change-of-perspective experiment last night. I’d been thinking about the dinner options for this week and wondering how little I could get by with buying. I got out a pen and pad and did an inventory of what I have on hand. Holy Cow! I’ve got a food pantry in my kitchen! Granted, some of the stuff is a little odd but suddenly there were some new options available I didn’t know I had.
A large jar of off-brand peanut butter nobody likes – Wahoo! Cookies!
Condensed milk and evaporated milk – Fudge!
Pineapple – sweet & sour chicken? Cake? Don’t know yet.
Diced green chilies – Italian chicken soup!
Flake coconut – when did I buy THAT???
Tuaca liqueur – as soon as I figure out what to do with it I hope I’ll be pleased I didn’t dump it down the drain.
Orzo (odd, tiny pasta) – hmmmm, soup? Hey, maybe with the chilies!
And lots of other odd ball items.
I’m not planning to make all that at once but now I know what’s on hand. It opens a whole bunch of possibilities I didn’t know I had. It also refreshed my memory so I won’t waste money buying another can of milk if I do decide to make fudge.
The point is, doing an inventory gave me some new options. I refuse to sit around whining about what I don’t have. I’m going to focus on what I do have and see if I can be creative with it. See? The cupboard isn’t half empty, it’s half full!
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2 comments:
I have begun menu planning. It took me about 2 weeks of going through recipe books and figuring out which were easiest, most kid-friendly, and what didn't call for weird-use-only-1/4 t-then-never-need-it-again ingredients. I came up with 3 months of menus. I LOVE it! I use my crockpot at least 3 times a week, so I just throw everything in it and forget about it until dinner time. Our eating out expense has gone down by a TON! No more last minute runs to the pizzeria because we can't figure out what to have for dinner. Plus, my kids are getting healthier meals, our grocery expense is going way down (not so many convenience foods) and I'm not pulling out my hair every afternoon at 4 pm trying to figure out what to make. I use my Windows calendar and put what we are having, which recipe book it's in (and the page #) on the date we're having it. On the calendar night before I set a reminder to put the meat in the refrigerator to thaw. So far, it has worked out pretty flawlessly. It did take a lot of work up front, but I'm so glad I did it!
For all those odd ingredients you have, go to recipe.com or recipeczar.com and you can input your ingredients and it will pop up applicable recipes.
Hi AJ,
That's a great idea. I'm afraid planning is not one of my strong points. When I have taken the time to do the menu planning, you're right, it makes a huge difference. I think I can make a space to sit down and do next week's on Saturday because you're right, tearing my hair out at 4pm is no fun at all. THANKS!
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