Meet the Welch's

Back in December, I was honored to be one of the speakers at Ignite Boulder 7 (my post about the experience).  I had hoped that it would help me build my network–which it did & much, much more!  How else did it help me?  After I spoke at Ignite, I received three job leads that very night.  None of these ended up working out, but a job lead is a job lead.  Since my spark “How to run meetings that don’t suck” was relevant to my work, I was able add it to my resume.  Of course, I didn’t use the title, just “Topic: how to run effective meetings”.  I put it under “Community Involvement”, and at every single interview and phone screening, I was asked about it.

People who were familiar with Ignite were intrigued, and those who weren’t wanted to know more.  Talking about Ignite Boulder gave me a chance to show my passion for and commitment to Boulder, which was important during our relocation.  My topic also gave a great starting point for discussions about how I handle difficult meetings and gave employers confidence in my comfort in talking to a large audience.  It felt like everyone I spoke to thought that it was a little something extra.

I can’t leave out the network building aspect, though.  I had expected that it would get my name, face, and job search out there.  I did not anticipate how much genuine and personal interest people would have in my job search and relocation.  It’s been amazing and humbling.  Now that I’ve landed a gig in Boulder, we’re moving to Boulder the first week in May.  With so many great friends (& friends-to-be!), it will feel like a homecoming.

Back in January, I started a food challenge–to eat out of the pantry & fridge/freezer until we could do it no longer.  I chose to do this in the midst of a kitchen remodel.  It was the tail end of it, and it was a pretty minor remodel.  It was still a remodel, though!  I’ve been a very bad blogger, and I haven’t let you know how things ended.  So, here it goes.

After my last post, we made it about another week and a half with very, very few cheats.  By the end, we had very few vegetables left in our stores–predominantly canned tomatoes.  I tried, but my stomach just couldn’t handle it to carry it any further.  So, it was about 3.5 weeks total.  I’d say that’s a win!  We saved a bunch of cash, used up a lot of great food, and I lost some weight & thoroughly enjoyed myself in the kitchen.  I’m happy to say that I’ve kept most of the weight off, despite some stressful times that sent me back to the junk food for a bit.  I have broken one of my worst habits, though: my go-to comfort food french onion dip and Baked Lays.  I bought it as soon as I took my first real trip to the grocery store after this little experiment and merrily had some when I got home.  My fingers swelled up, my stomach churned, and I haven’t touched them since.  My digestive system is tuned to real food now, and for the most part, I just don’t want the junk.

My kitchen habits have changed.  I’ve returned to more slow cooking–not in a slow cooker, just longer cooking meals.  Even though some of these meals take several hours to cook, most of them don’t have a lot of prep time.  They require more planning, not a lot more work.  It’s become more of a ritual.  These slow foods tend to be cheaper, too.  I have cooked many roasts, chicken, stews, etc.  These meals are fantastic for rolling over to quick work night dinners, too.  On Friday, I made two beef roasts that will end up as pot roast with veggies (we had this for a family dinner tonight), beef & mushrooms over rice, beef veggie stew, and roast beef sandwiches.  Some leftover grilled vegetables from Thursday will become a veggie soup to be served with chicken salad sandwiches made from leftover grilled chicken from the same meal.  I’m saving a bundle buying meat in large packages, saving time with all of the rollover cooking, and we have plenty of food to share with friends and family.

Another goal was getting my kitchen organized.  It’s been a win here, too.  Since I’ve been cooking more, it’s just become easier to keep it organized.  Since we’re nearly always eating at home, it’s become easier to keep on top of what’s in the fridge, pantry, etc.  We’ve eaten through most of the deep, dark freezer, too.  It’s about 70% full right now–mostly with things I’ve bought since the challenge ended & keep replacing them.

There’s been an unintended side effect to the challenge, too.  My consumption of other goods has changed.  I have purchased very little besides food in 2010.  I’ve bought a couple of birthday presents, a couple of notebooks, a necklace, and a few Christmas decorations on super clearance.  The total of items for myself is about $35 in 2.5 months.  I’m afraid to go back and look at prior purchases for an accurate total, but I assure you this is a massive drop.  I have not purchased a single item of clothing.  For most people, that wouldn’t be weird.  For me, it’s astonishing.  Typically, I buy at least one item per month–usually more.  Given all of the post-Christmas sales, I’d estimate that I would have purchased at least a dozen in this same time period before this new take on clothes.  I’m rediscovering my closet & wearing things in new combinations.  I’m discovering that you can wear the exact same outfit–accessories and all–more than once.  You have no idea how materialistic that last sentence made me feel.  I had no idea how freeing it could feel to just stop consuming.  It. is. amazing.

It’s now been two weeks since we started the Waste Less Food challenge.  Before I get too far into the update, I have to admit: I fell off of the wagon this week.  I didn’t buy any groceries not in the blizzard trifecta (bread, milk, eggs), but I did dine at restaurants–and even a gas station.  Argh.  Here’s the rundown of the bad:

• On Tuesday afternoon, Rich was leaving town for a business trip.  I drove through and grabbed some chicken strips, potato wedges, and cooked apples from our local chicken joint.  Excuse: I wanted to spend more time with my honey before he left town.
• On Wednesday morning, I stopped at the Mobile station near work and grabbed a sausage biscuit and a yogurt parfait.  In this case, gas station food isn’t as bad as it sounds.  A local restaurant prepares most of their grab and go food.  It could have been worse.  I avoided the breakfast pizza and vanilla frappuccino, a combo which is an old friend.
• On Friday, the food that I put in fridge to thaw wasn’t ready yet.  It was another drive-through (I refuse to spell it that other way) lunch.  A burger for me and a chicken sandwich for Rich.
• On Saturday morning, Rich and I went to our favorite local breakfast joint.  While there, we found out that our favorite waitress no longer works there, so it will probably be easier to avoid in the future.
• Throughout the week, I had the munchies.  The candy supply has dwindled.

Whew!  Now that I’ve made my confessions, there was a lot of good this week, too.  Most notably, I lost another 5 lbs (down a total of 15 lbs in 2 weeks).  I was kind of shocked at this given the list I just fessed up to of all my food sins for the week.  I did drink a lot of water (over a gallon one day), and I ate fairly healthfully other than my little dalliances above.

I’ve also been working to make my kitchen work better for me.  I consolidated all of the ‘real’ food into the new pantry, and I reorganized the freezer.  The ‘bad’ food lives in the buffet–appropriate, no?–which requires more effort to get into, find the bad stuff.  Now I know what food I have and can put my hand on it when I need it.  I’m not as worried about running out of a food category any longer.  My food stores are actually fairly well balanced.  I’m sure that I’ll end up with more sauces, jams, and jellies than I can use before this thing runs out, but I don’t think it will be terribly out of kilter.  I’ll try to post pictures this week, along with pictures of my newly remodeled kitchen.  It was a mini-remodel, but it’s a huge improvement!

Following along? If you’re following along, I have a couple of resources to share with you, courtesy of my cousin Kellie Robertson.  She sent these along when she started reading my blog.  Kellie is always trying out new, healthy recipes and trying to fit them into her busy life.  First up is Cooking by the Numbers.  This site finds recipes based upon what you have in your fridge and pantry, kind of perfect for a challenge like this one.  Next, she sent Love Food Hate Waste, a British site dedicated to helping you waste less food.  It has tips on keeping food fresh, using food that’s a little past its prime, and educating cooks on the impacts of food waste.  I haven’t delved deep into this site, but it already looks like a great resource–much in line with many of my goal’s for this challenge.

That’s it for now.  If you are playing along or have made changes inspired by this challenge, please let me know in the comments.  I’d love to hear your successes and challenges.

It’s been a full seven days since we started the ‘Waste Less Food” challenge.  It’s been fun, delicious, enlightening, and literally lightening, as well.  I’ve lost a few pounds, ten of them actually.  Good riddance, I say!  While I did expect to lose a little weight (remember: no eating out, almost no grocery buying–which means no new junk food!), I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly and don’t expect that pace to continue.  I’m sure a good amount of it is water weight from the change in diet.  I cook with very little salt, which can’t be said for restaurants or processed foods.

How closely have we kept to the challenge after one week?

Waste. Very little food has gone in the trash since this challenge began.  I may have missed something, but this is what I remember throwing away:

• 3-4 pieces of deli turkey, leftover from family staying with us.
• 1/2 large container of plain yogurt.  I bought this at one of our local health food stores.  I love to support them, but they don’t have enough traffic to keep their stock fresh and the refrigeration is a bit sketchy.  I’ll stick to the non-perishables from here on out.
• doggie bag of leftovers from our fave local Mexican restaurant, ordered Friday before the challenge began.
• ~1.5 pieces of homemade cornbread.  I need to buy a smaller cast iron pan.  It’s hard to make it through cornbread made in the one I have now.
• Karela Curry.

I think that’s it!  I didn’t record a typical week before starting this, but let me tell you, this is far from typical.  I’m actually thrilled with these results on waste.

Grocery Buying. We’ve been very, very good here.  We did make an exception so I could cook some comfort food for friends (also in the Karela post), and we did enjoy some of this as well.  I can’t cook small, and I don’t think they could have finished it off, which would have been wasting food.  Other than that exception, we’ve only purchased skim milk, bread, and eggs, as outlined by the challenge.  We’ll head off to the store to restock those today.  Honestly, when I did go to the store, it felt a bit wrong.  I wanted in and out as quickly as possible, because I want to see this through.

Eating out. Prior to this challenge, we ate at restaurants several times a week and ate restaurant leftovers several more times.  I typically picked up breakfast on my way to work, and it was never healthy.  It wasn’t donuts, but it was bad.  I did cook before, but we kept making excuses not to cook at home.  We’re busy.  The kitchen is a mess (fairly relevant, as we’re doing a kitchen renovation!).  We have other things we need to do.  I just don’t feel like it. These excuses just didn’t work this week.  We kept to the plan.  I will admit one exception.  I did have lunch out with a friend yesterday.  She needed to get out of the house and to chat.  However, I did not start this challenge to ignore my friends (especially those in need), so I’m not beating myself up about this one little bit.

Looking Forward. I think it’s going quite well, but I do have some concerns as we progress on this challenge.  Other than a few pieces of fruit, we no longer have any fresh produce.  While we do have some canned and frozen vegetables, I’m not sure how long these will last.  We may run out of some basic ingredients before the bulk of the food is gone.  I’m concerned about cooking oil, flour, and corn meal in particular.  It’s really about proportions of my food stores.  I’m a little nervous about how that will work out.  We’ll have to see, though.  I still don’t know what all is in my freezer.  Maybe I should do an inventory like my friends Terry & Kia are doing.  You see, they jumped on my little bandwagon here.

My great-grandmother Naomi McDonald (Mama, pronounced Ma-Maw) was nothing short of a hoot.  She was fashionable, spunky, and just a lot of fun.  I am incredibly happy that I got to know her.  In honor of Elvis’ birthday today, I’m going to share my Mama’s brush with the King.

During the days of segregation, my Mama was a waitress at a diner in downtown Memphis (and the only waitress on staff that would serve the colored section–shocking to think of that time period, really).  She loved listening to Elvis Presley, and lucky for her, the jukebox at the diner was full of it.  When the music was changed out, she asked her boss for Elvis’ music, but he just broke the records in front of her.  One day, she was checking on customers and lo and behold, Elvis Presley himself was sitting at the counter.  She told him how much she loved his music and about how her boss wouldn’t let her have the old records.  Elvis asked her to point out her boss and after he had a short talk with the man, Mama got all of the rest of the Elvis records out of the jukebox.  She always told that story with a beaming smile on her face.

Until the day she died, my great grandmother was a huge Elvis fan.  She even had her own system of time, before and after Elvis’ death.  She used it to determine such personal matters as how long her own husband had been dead!  One Christmas (long before I was born), she bought a huge set of Elvis luggage and broke it up for presents to her grandchildren.  Mom got the train case, which she used all of her life.  It’s one of the possessions I’m most sad to have lost.  There was a lot of love in that train case–and fantastic vintage costume jewelry.  I do have the jewelry, and when I wear it, I’m reminded of my spunky, Elvis-loving granny.  RIP Mama.

Me & my Mama McDonald – Christmas 1979

Wow, tonight did not start out well for the challenge.  I was incredibly excited for a new cooking adventure, cooking Indian bitter melon, or karela.  I had decided to make a curry, something we eat around here fairly frequently.  As typical, I even started with whole spices, toasted them, and ground them to make my own curry powder.  I blended the spices with oil and ghee, sauteed the onions in the lovely mix, and starting prepping the karela.  I had done some research into the vegetable, as well as reading several recipes and thought I had a handle on how to cook this stuff.  Nope.  Even after cutting into the karela and discovering its fresh cut grass scent, I was as confident as ever.  I added it to the mix and waited for it to soften.  Once it did, I eagerly dipped my spoon in for my first bite.  What do I even say about this dish?  It was horrific.  I spat and spat and spat.  I washed my tongue.  I even considered washing my mouth out with dish soap.  Ugh.  Not only did it taste bad, but it made my tongue tingle, a sensation that lasted far too long.  I was crestfallen.  And wanted to order pizza.  But I didn’t. Did I mention that my yogurt had also gone bad, and I couldn’t make the mango lassis I had planned?  Yeah, that happened, too.  Boo.  Hoo.

My spice scented basmati rice was already done.  I had my mango nectar and naan at the ready.  I had no thawed meats or fresh vegetables available to make a new curry, and I badly needed a hug.  My well-stocked pantry ended up saving the day, more specifically my beautiful, bead-like split red lentils.  I started over on curry, this time using a vindaloo blend from the Savory Spice Shop in Boulder, those gorgeous little lentils, and some canned diced tomatoes.  Poured over the rice and served alongside some warm naan, it made for a warm and filling winter’s dish.  I was so very glad that I hadn’t ordered pizza.

Now, I do have to fess up to breaking my rules just a little bit, but I promise it was for a good cause.  I have been to the grocery store, and I bought a few things outside of my very limited list.  You see, some friends of ours are going through a very rough time, and I needed to make them some comfort food.  They adore my gumbo, and I didn’t have all of the necessary ingredients, including chicken.  In order to stay in the spirit of this challenge, I did use coupons, which meant buying more meat to qualify for the coupon.  My friends will also be getting a lovely herb and garlic stuffed pork loin.  I may have to cut a chunk off before I deliver it, though.

As it turns out, I ended up cooking five entrees tonight: the horrible karela curry, lovely lentil curry, gumbo, stuffed pork loin, and some spiced baked chicken (couldn’t use all of it in the gumbo).  If I were a baseball player, I believe that would mean that I had batted .800, not bad at all.

So last night I admitted that this whole ‘waste less food’ challenge is about much, much more than feeling guilty about some groceries going into the garbage.  I’m a complicated critter that requires convoluted tricks.  And I’m stubborn.  Quick anecdote?  Surely.  If not, feel free to jump down to the update.

Sarah vs. The Gym Teacher. In elementary school, our gym teacher was a drill sergeant and recent veteran–recent like we had a mini-parade in his honor after returning from Iraq.  I still know the Marine’s Hymn word for word.  Most of the kids jumped when he said jump.  I asked why.  Regardless, he was a truly great guy, but he was a bad judge of what mind games would work on my 5th grade self.  Since I was a good student, he decided to give me two options: 1) work hard and earn an A in P. E. 2) sit in the bleachers and get a guaranteed B.  I marched myself to the bleachers.  The next week, I sat in the bleachers.  And the next.  And the next.  I called his bluff.  I actually liked quite a bit of P. E., especially some of the sports, because I was competitive.  I did not like pull ups and a lot of the other jazz from the Presidential Fitness Challenge.  He was a Marine.  This was right up his alley.  Regardless, I wasn’t going to play along with him if he was going to play mind games with me.  Eventually, he decided he had to make me participate.  The Marine lost to the 10 year old.  By the way, while this was going on, I had started a soccer ‘league’ at recess.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to move.  It was that I didn’t want to say “how high?”

So, how’s the challenge going? The challenge is rocking!  We’ve stayed true to our original specs.  And…

• We’re both feeling great!
• I’ve made one meal that I thought was my best ever and one that Rich thought was my best ever…in 4 days!
• Yesterday, I made minty green tea, which I haven’t done in months even though we both love it.
• I ate one of my “go to” snacks on Day 3.  My fingers puffed up, and now I’m repulsed by it.  This is a major win.
• I’m feeling a creative surge in the kitchen, and our taste buds are enjoying the journey.
• Because I feel better, I’m taking better care of myself–hot baths, hot tea, more sleep.
• I’ve also noticed that I’ve been less wasteful in other areas–using things up, not buying things I don’t really need, using less water even.
• Since the plan is to use everything up, I’ve been using some of my ‘someday’ ingredients, like some fantastic French grey salt that’s just been sitting in my spice cabinet.  It was a revelation.  I’ve also been using those bath bombs that just sit in my toiletry closet.  ”Some day” is now.

So, what have I made recently? Last night, I made my version of dirty rice, which isn’t really dirty, because that’s just gross.  It’s rice I’ve cooked with a bunch of spices, diced tomatoes, green chiles, and sausage.  We had some green beans & potatoes on the side.  That’s a lot of starch, but both the sausage and the green beans had to be cooked.  I just couldn’t let those green beans cook by themselves.

Tonight was the meal that Rich went ga-ga for–whole wheat sweet potato gnocchi with roasted eggplant and spicy tomato sauce, broiled with a little mozzarella.  There’s a chance we had a grilled cheese appetizer a couple hours before, too.  Whoops!  Even that wasn’t so bad–real cheese on honey wheat bread.

Conventional wisdom says that you should play to your strengths.  That’s probably a good plan, but sometimes it pays to play to your faults.  In my case that fault is stubbornness.  I don’t particularly like doing things–anything–unless it’s a challenge.  I don’t even like doing a series of small things that result in something challenging.  Hearing ‘good job’ on something easy almost annoys me.  If I’m going to bother doing something, I want it to require me to think, react, plan, and use a wide variety of skills.

There are many things that I would like to improve about myself.  Most of them just require showing up and getting the job done.  Granted, you have to keep showing up again and again.  This isn’t enough of a challenge to engage me.  I’m self-defeating like that.  So, I have to trick myself a bit.  This challenge of wasting less food is about a lot more than feeling guilty about putting food in the trash.  I wasn’t really planning on explaining myself, but since there’s some  interest and some friends are playing along (!), I guess I’ll share.  I might as well, I’ve already opened my soul, uhmmm…pantry up to you.

Food is everything.  Food is fuel.  Food is comfort.  Food is attitude.  Food is tradition.  Food is culture.  Food is social lubricant.  I could go on, but you get my drift.  Food is central to the human existence, and little ol’ me isn’t immune to this.  In fact, if you read my first post on this challenge, you know that it’s something more for me.  It’s my zen.  Planning meals, buying ingredients, preparing dishes, and feeding friends and family are both calming and a source of energy for me.  Like other things that are good for me, I don’t do it often enough, and when I do, I often cut too many corners.

Forcing myself into a creative place in the kitchen is at the heart of this challenge.  By limiting my access to new ingredients (and junk replacements) and pushing what is reasonable in the kitchen, I will feel challenged.  By meeting the specs that I’ve set forth (very limited grocery shopping without eating out), I intend to reach some goals that are more difficult to nail myself down to do:

• Cooking with more basic ingredients – I’m fairly good about this, but if I have to use everything up, it will force my hand.
• Increased energy – If I’m eating healthier food, I’ll have this, which means I can do a lot more.  Cooking when I get home from work rather than sitting on the couch and ordering take-out will also mean that the momentum will be with activity, not laziness.
• Better immune system – Again, healthier food and activity makes this happen.
• Weight loss – ditto.
• More responsible spending – Wasting less food means wasting less money, especially since we won’t be eating at restaurants.  Cooking with basic ingredients is also cheaper than prepared foods.
• Cleaner kitchen – If I’m going to be cooking all of the time, we have to keep the dishes done, because just going out to eat will not be an option.
• More organized kitchen – We’re nearing the end of a minor kitchen remodel, but my pots and pans are not back in their homes.  In fact, the cabinets have been changed, so I have to come up with a new scheme.  This will force me to do this.

There you have it.  I’ve made one moderately sized intention that will support many of my personal goals, and these goals support larger goals.  I didn’t really plan it this way.  I came up with one of my crazy ideas (cook everything-don’t buy groceries) and followed the thought through to what it could mean for me.  And, since I’m stubborn and this is moderately crazy, it just might work.

As part of my January challenge of wasting less food (get up to speed here), I think it’s important that I show you where I’m starting.  I took these pictures last night after dinner and this afternoon.  I did not clean up, hide, or otherwise primp my pantry, fridge, etc.  This is an uncensored look at the food we keep at home.  Obviously, you won’t be able to see everything, but it will give you an idea of what I have to work with on this challenge.  Before I get to that, a quick update on Day 2.

Day 2

Today was a big leftover day, so this part of the update will be short and sweet.

We had intended to get up early and make ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches for breakfast.  This did not happen, but we did eat at home.  Rich had cereal and milk.  I had peanut butter and jelly on honey wheat.  My tolerance for dairy is hit and miss, mostly miss on an empty stomach.

For lunch, we had planned to eat the last of the leftover ham and beans, and we did, supplemented with turkey and cheese sammies.  I was so very tempted to go out for lunch today, though.  I had one of those ‘can’t stand to eat leftover’ feelings, but you know what?  Once we got home and started prepping things, I thought our lunch sounded awesome, and it was!

Tonight, we’re having the leftovers of the shrimp, mushroom, and bok choy dinner from last night.  I don’t think either of us will try running away from that.  I will definitely savor it since it is so fresh tasting.  We only have a few days of fresh produce on hand.  I’m plotting to use it all to its advantage!

Our Pantry & Food Stores

You’ll see that I keep a well-stocked kitchen.  It’s a product of growing up with family for which the Great Depression, floods, and other natural and financial disasters were always kept just in the back of the mind.  Not to mention, for several years my family lived in a house that all roads to would get blocked due to flood waters in the creek a few times a year.  Actually, one of the three roads became a creek a few times a year.  I was raised to be prepared.

The Fridge. This is actually fairly lightly stocked for us.  As always, there are a lot of sauces and condiments.  In proteins, we have beef summer sausage (leftover from Christmas), bacon, sausage, and deli ham and turkey.  This is much heavier in fatty meats than typical due to the holidays.  There are a variety of cheeses including at least colby, sharp cheddar, chipotle cheddar, tomato basil cheddar, brie, swiss, colby jack, and some interesting foreign cheeses.  I’m kicking myself for running out of parmesan, romano, and asiago before starting this challenge!  In other dairy, we have skim milk, buttermilk, heavy cream, cream cheese, butter, blended butter (butter and olive oil), sour cream, and plain lowfat yogurt.  In produce, we have baby eggplant, karela, green beans, and a variety of fresh herbs.  We have a little bit of booze: tequila, champagne, hard limeade, wine, as well as some Mexican sodas.  To round things out, there’s some naan, eggs, and active yeast.  That blank spot in the fridge door is where the orange juice goes.  I’m already missing something.

Fridge

Fridge Door

The Freezer. To be completely honest, I’m not totally sure what all is in the freezer.  That’s part of why I wanted to do this challenge.  It’s ridiculous to have so much food you don’t even know what you have in there!  I know that there are a few packages of meat, some frozen vegetables, overripe bananas, blueberries, ice cream, and several bags of leftover soup, chili, and gumbo.  One thing I am a little concerned about is running out of vegetables before I get to the end.  It’s something I’ll have to keep in mind as we proceed.

Also, I hate to admit it (especially since you can’t see them!), but there are two small frozen dinners inside.  We bought them back in November when I had the flu and Rich was going out of town.  As it turns out, he got sick, too and stayed home.  We’ll see how far we get down in our stores before those are consumed!

Freezer - top drawer

Freezer - bottom drawer

The Pantry. The pantry is actually a series of cabinets.  We’re doing a small kitchen remodel that includes a small pantry, but I still have everything spread out all over.  This is another reason for the challenge–making room for my cooking wares.

In this first picture, we have tea, tuna, lentils, sauces, spreads, jams, fruit nectars, canned milk products, and other non-perishables.  There’s even a microwaveable soup (1–again from the flu period) and a little stash of ramen noodles.  I will probably never grow out of having these now and again.

Pantry 1

This cabinet is primarily my canned goods, pasta, and rice.  I buy most vegetables fresh or frozen, but I do buy canned tomatoes, beans, and some soups.  I don’t use canned soups often, but I can’t replicate some of my family recipes without them.  I keep a decent variety of dried pastas, both conventional and wheat.  My favorite is a whole wheat sweet potato gnocchi.  I get them on subscription through Amazon.  I also keep about a dozen types of rice.  Rice is easily my favorite food.  It’s incredibly versatile and simply delicious.

Pantry 2

This cabinet holds my baking supplies including flours, meals, sugars, extracts, and leavening agents.

Baking

The next couple of pictures are from our new pantry.  We’re in the midst of a minor kitchen remodel.  This pantry used to be the old ’60s Magic Chef wall oven.  We bought a new slide in range, so it’s a pantry.  I’m waiting on hinges to be delivered so the chalkboard painted door can be put on!  Anyway, this isn’t very well stocked yet, but I need to clear some things out to make room for organizing.  We have a some new potatoes, purple potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions.  There are chips and crackers leftover from Christmas, as well as bread and cornbread. Below there are some miscellaneous items like oats, granola, and even more rice.  I buy long grain white rice by the 10 lb bag.  I told you it was my favorite food!

T

New Pantry 1

New Pantry 2

The cabinet below holds my vinegars and oils.  I have a few fantastic things in there like my cilantro onion extra virgin olive oil, jalapeno white balsamic vinegar, and my oh so special balsamic from Moderna in the cute little bottle up front.

Oils & Vinegars

This cabinet is for my spices.  I recently pared down a bit, passing on some duplicates and throwing away some that were just too old.  That top basket has some seriously fantastic spice blends from the Savory Spice Shop in Boulder.

Spices

Here are my dry goods on the counter: white flour, cane sugar, and long grain white rice.  What do you put in your third canister?  I don’t think rice is normal, but it’s what works in our house.

Dry Goods

This is our coffee station–which Rich says is a very important spot!  We have coffee and tea for the Keurig coffee maker.  I have quite a bit of looseleaf and bag teas, too, but this is super handy.  This is where the fresh fruit goes as well.  Right now, we have tangerines, grapefruit, and limes.  I’m looking forward to some fabulous marinades with those limes!  If I can’t use them all, they’ll get squeezed into my water or used in cocktails.

Coffee Station

This is where the majority of the bad food lives: in the buffet.  This is usually in the kitchen, but it’s hanging out in the middle of the dining room at the moment–more remodeling.  There’s a bit more junk food here due to the holidays.  We have sodas and candy, but there are also nuts, popcorn, and dried fruit.  It’s not all bad.

Soda

Snacks

There you go.  Our pantry–completely uncensored.  We’ll see what I can do with it!

I have decided to change my food waste habits once and for all.  Until my pantry, fridge, and freezer are bare, I will not be grocery shopping (except bread, eggs, & milk) or eating out at restaurants (or fast food or convenience stores, for all of  you loophole fans).  It all started with this tweet.  Now, I do reserve the right to buy a variety of bread and milk products (not to extend to cheese), because I will need to mix things up a bit.  At first, I planned to also give up bread buying, but my oh so wise husband talked me out of it, for which I am thankful.

So how did I get here?  I absolutely love to cook (it’s my zen), which means I love to fill my cabinets, fridge, and freezer with incredible ingredients.  It also means that sometimes my delight in doing so results in food going to waste.  I don’t want to eat any more leftovers, because I want to cook something new.  I don’t want to do dishes, so I go out to eat.  I buy a pretty roast, forgetting that I’m leaving town for the weekend.  While I don’t think my bad habit here is much worse than average, I know that it would make my great-grandparents that survived two world wars and the Great Depression turn over in their graves.  Being a cook, the worst sin I have with regard to food waste is saving a special ingredient for an occasion, only to let it run out of date or go bad.  This has broken my heart in the past.  Seriously.

A few things lately have spurred me into action.

There was cinematic inspiration: Julie & Julia and Outsourced.  Julie & Julia was my movie of 2009.  I felt attached to both main characters.  Their successes and failures in the kitchen were mine.  Their frustrations and joy were mine.  Their supportive but sometimes neglected-for-the-kitchen husbands were much like mine.  The simple ingredients and use everything mentality was inspiring, although I never intend to make an aspic.  Outsourced inspired me in a different way.  The movie was set in India, where the difference between classes is stark & so very visible in their culture.  Outsourced gracefully showed these differences.  The dinner that the poor family so lovingly shared with the main character made me feel ashamed of my own personal habits in the kitchen.

There was lifestyle inspiration. I’ve been attempting to live a simpler life, less cluttered with possessions and with less attention paid to unnecessary expectations.  Having the absolute right ingredients for recipe X isn’t that important, especially when something will go to waste.  It’s not like I follow recipes anyway.  I might as well be resourceful.

There was family inspiration. My almost 20 year old sister-in-law is out on her own for the first time, paying her own bills and cooking her own meals.  She’s frustrated by the cost of food and the time required to cook.  I’ve been spoiled by not really having a food budget.  I want something, I buy it.  She worries about the high price of spices.  I have an entire cabinet dedicated to them.  I buy weird produce, sauces, cuts of meat just to give it a try.  I need to get back to basics and show her what you can do with simple, staple ingredients.  It will take me a few days to get there, as I have to eat up some of my more exotic perishables first.  Speaking of which, do you have any good recipes for karela?

There was financial inspiration. We are targeting a relocation to Colorado, which means polishing our house here up for sale, as well as saving for a move.  I estimate that we have enough food at the house for 3-4 weeks.  Only buying the blizzard trifecta (bread, eggs, milk) should save us some serious dough during that time, which can be better spent or saved elsewhere.

Day 1

I actually decided to start this challenge midday, but we were already on target anyway.  For breakfast, we had tamales that I had frozen from the farmer’s market this summer.  Until late last week, I had been using my ice maker drawer as my tamale drawer.  They’re that good.  But, we just got the ice maker hooked up to the water line, so no more tamale drawer.  We also shared a fantastic tangerine.  For lunch, we had a quick and easy tuna salad sandwich.  There was nothing spectacular about it.  In fact it was about as basic as you can get: tuna, mayo, & pickle relish on honey wheat.

Now, dinner was special. Before I thought of this challenge, we took a trek to my favorite store on the planet: Global Foods Market in Kirkwood, MO (greater St. Louis metropolitan area).  If you’re in the area, you must visit.  Apparently even tour buses stop there.  It’s truly epic.  That’s another full post, but suffice it to say, I went a little nuts there.  So, my cupboards and fridge are a little better stocked than normal.  I don’t feel like this is cheating.  I do this every once in a while, and it wasn’t planned.  I think it will make it easier to get started on this journey.  Some of the ingredients from that trip ended up in tonight’s dinner: shrimp, shitaki mushrooms, and baby bok choy over egg fried rice.  I’m going to savor this dinner, as our fresh ingredients won’t last very long into this challenge.  Now, I don’t remember exactly what I did, but I will try to record it because it was one of the best meals I’ve ever made.

Shrimp with mushrooms & baby bok choy

Shrimp with mushrooms & baby bok choy

• frozen medium sized shrimp, peeled & deveined
• baby bok choy, chopped–separating white stems from dark leafy greens
• shitaki mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• white rice
• 2 eggs
• chopped onions
• olive oil
• sesame oil
• tamari
• red pepper flakes
• garlic ginger paste
• freeze dried orange peel
• freeze dried shallots

1. Cook rice as normal, adding orange peel, shallots, and red pepper flakes to mix.
2. Heat garlic ginger paste and red pepper flakes in oil.
3. Sautee mushrooms until soft in oil.
4. Add chopped stems of bok choy until soft.
5. Add shrimp and cook until about just starting to turn pink.
6. Layer bok choy leaves on top, allowing them to begin to steam and wilt for a couple of minutes.
7. Stir mixture.  At this point, the shrimp should be perfectly cooked.  Drizzle with sesame oil, toss, and set aside.
8. Using the same pan, add additional oil and chopped onions.  Cook until soft.
9. Add rice to pan.  While stirring, drizzle in tamari until rice is slightly tan.  Turn off burner.
10. Make a well in the middle of the rice.  Add two eggs and stir quickly into rice until cooked.
11. Drizzle in sesame oil.
12. Serve shrimp and veggie mixture over rice.