I love Sunday morning. It is a time of quiet reflection after a vigorous walk in the neighborhood with Hannah. Yesterday was no exception. I sat in my comfortable chair and thought, “What am I going to have to eat today?” Yes, I have a slight food obsession. As I reflected on this topic, I went to the kitchen to check out my options. And realized that my cupboards are full of stuff.
This might not seem like such a big deal, except I went on a 21 Day Fast in January and didn’t buy groceries for the entire month – that’s 31 days, vowing to eat what I had instead of making weekly (and sometimes daily) trips to the grocery store for this or that.
Here’s what I have on hand, in no particular order:
Quinoa, red and white (because you need both colors, right?)
Lentils, brown and French green (apparently I needed the fancy French green ones?)
Flour
Sugar
Brown sugar
Honey
Crystallized ginger (for the world’s best ginger cookies)
Chocolate chips (in case I want to make some truffles)
Cacao
Barley
Dried beans
Ginger tea
Faro
Oatmeal
Olive oil
Tuscan herb olive oil
Four kids of crackers
Strawberry jam
Popcorn (lots and lots of popcorn)
Breadcrumbs
Kosher salt
Pasta
Tuna
Lemon juice
Vinegar
Red wine vinegar
White wine vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
Cranberry pear, Meyer lemon, and raspberry vinegars (what is with all the vinegar?)
Cocoa, not to be confused the the earlier entry of cacao
Tahini
Baking powder
Baking soda
Peanut butter
Coconut oil
Sea salt
Vanilla
31 assorted herbs and spices
Butter
Milk
Riesling (to go with the truffles)
Maple syrup
Yogurt
Salsa
Avocado
Flax seeds
Brewers yeast
Eggs
Walnuts
Pecans
Yeast
Cornmeal
Mayo
Catsup
Dijon mustard
Yellow mustard
Lime juice
Soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
BBQSauce
Garlic
Onions
Potatoes
Carrots
Apples
Molasses
Blueberries
Peaches (I picked 42 pounds last summer for some reason . . . )
Mulberries (there was a huge crop in the backyard this year!)
Whole wheat flour
Wheat germ
Parmesan cheese
3 kinds of cheese
Ice cream
Tomatoes
Peppers
Bananas
Barley flour
Chocolate candy bar
Two whole chickens
Assorted beef
Assorted pork
Corn chips
And a unopened, pristine bag of Lay’s Low Salt Potato chips
Pretty much everything on the list (with the exception of those pristine chips) is either organic or pasture raised, so this is no small investment. The list doesn’t include foods that I have cooked and stored in the freezer like beans, pesto sauce and chicken, soups and stock. I have all this in my cupboards and fridge, yet I still went to the grocery store at least once a week this month. Add to this the fact that I lamented to a coworker on Friday that since I’m alone, I sometimes eat leftovers for three, four, five meals in a row. Poor, poor me!
I’ve never had to worry much about having enough to eat, even when my kids were at home and I had a much, much smaller income. I tend to think that people that are hungry are in some far away place, but that’s probably never been true and it’s not true today. 50.1 million Americans struggle to put food on the table and more than 1 in 5 children is at risk of hunger. (learn more here)
I enjoy growing things and buying from farmers and making delicious, healthy meals. I don’t think that there’s anything inherently wrong with having food in the freezer or in my cupboards – in fact, I think we should have some things put by in the event of an emergency. Even so, I think there are changes I need to make. Do I really need so many varieties of things? Could I limit my food to what I can grow myself or buy directly from a local farmer? Would it be the end of the world if I ate the same things week after week after week for the rest of my life? And if I had a finite list of food, what would be on it? Could I give up my Lay’s potato chips? Would I even want to? Giving up chips is crazy talk!
It’s time for another grocery store fast – I haven’t been to the grocery store since April 18 so I will try to go a full 30 days. Yikes, I hope I’m not out of some critical item – I should have checked on stock levels before I decided to write all this! As you can see, there’s plenty here to choose from and I will likely post more of my culinary creations, which could get interesting given what I have on hand. But I don’t think I’ll be complaining about eating leftovers any time soon.