Not So Guilty Pleasures

I fell off the local food wagon today. I went to the nearby grocery chain to stock up on pantry staples and there were fresh green things from far away warm places, calling my name and luring me with their crisp leaves and stems full of chlorophyll. Normally I can walk by the displays of  non seasonal fruit and and veg without too much yearning but this winter has killed me. So cold for so long, endless days of snow and ice; even the extra hours of daylight aren't doing much except making me more restless. Suddenly it felt like the only thing that would make me feel better was the taste of dandelion greens from Texas, oriental eggplants grown in California and asparagus from Mexico. I should feel guilty but really, all I feel is hungry!

Last week I was fortunate enough to escape winter briefly as I attended a music conference in Kansas City MO. While not summer weather by any stretch, it was miles better than here, with temps reaching 15 C on one of the days I was there and the rest of the week it was well above freezing. It was lovely to be outside wearing a light jacket or sweater, no gloves or boots or hats to be seen. I even managed a brief but chilly swim in the heated outdoor pool! But I think it also tricked my body into thinking it was spring because I cannot be content to be warm and cozy any longer. I cannot face any more hearty soups or stews. I swear I will burst into tears if I have to look at another carrot or roasted root vegetable! When I found myself scowling at the sprout jar this morning, I knew it was over.

The body knows what it needs and mine was screaming for bitter greens which the frozen tundra outside my door will not be able to provide for a long while yet. It's still 20 long days until spring officially begins and I'm not holding my breath that the weather's going to cooperate by then either. Sometime in the next week or so I will start some seedlings for this year's garden and maybe some greens for quick eating but until then I will be feeding my cravings with imports. I needed dandelion greens stat and my favourite recipe is for dandelion greens and goat cheese pasta .

1 bunch dandelion greens washed well and chopped
2 strips of bacon cut in small pieces
1 onion, minced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp goat cheese
1 lemon- for zest and 1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups cooked pasta- I like linguine or fettuccine but any kind works
Parmesan cheese- optional

Cook and drain pasta as directed, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Sauté bacon and onions until onions are soft, add garlic and dandelion greens and stir until greens are wilted. Use a zester or small grater to add about a tsp of lemon zest or to taste- I like mine lemony! Add a tsp of fresh lemon juice and goat cheese and stir until greens are well coated; add pasta water a little at a time until it makes a  creamy sauce. Toss with pasta and serve with parmesan cheese.

On the theme of eating local, FarmGal is running her March Pantry Challenge again this year but as much as I'd love to join her, I'm afraid we'd starve this year. Until my doomed trip to the grocery store, our pantry was empty except for a few jars of pickles, and  I could see all the way to the back of the freezer but for a few containers of currants and one sandwich bag each of frozen beans and peppers. I don't know if we consumed more or I preserved less but it's an awfully good thing we don't have to live off of stored food this winter. I might have to have closer look at how much I put down this year.


Update:
I wrote this post last week and never got it posted- the cold I brought back from KC turned nasty and I ended up with pneumonia. Some good healthy food (and some expensive antibiotics, boo) have helped me bounce back quickly and I'm so glad I listened to my cravings!

Here's a nice meme I found floating round the internet that sums up my feelings exactly- she even looks like me!

Pantry Challenge Final Wrap up!

Yesterday was the last day of the month long pantry challenge and thankfully it ended just in time! We are now completely out of butter, sugar, potatoes, fresh veggies (except onions) and garlic. Virtually no dairy left- sour cream is long gone and a tiny bit of feta is all that stands between me and complete cheese desolation. There is still some frozen turkey, corn and various soup stocks but otherwise the freezer is a black hole of emptiness. The pantry cupboard is pretty much depleted as well- no coffee, no black tea, no herbal tea except a small amount of loose dried herbs. The crackers were gone in the first week, there's not a canned good to be found and even the pasta stockpile is nearly gone. Oddly we still have a few packets of hot chocolate mix left- guess we just aren't chocolate cravers. The dried good shelf is equally grim- white flour is all but gone, we are low on salt, and totally out of lentils, nuts and rice.

But we survived and we didn't even have to resort to eating pickles as a meal! The preserve shelves are looking a little sparse from a month ago but they're nowhere near empty. One thing this challenge has made me realize is that most of what I preserve are more condiment than main course. They make great snacks or additions to other foods as part of a meal but aren't really the main components. Which means I'm still heavily dependent on my freezer and store bought staples. It was a sobering realization.

Some other things I noted along the way:

We don't eat bread much. This is not exactly news to me since I know how infrequently I buy it but I had thought I might make some during the challenge to help stretch out our food. I never did make any and never felt the need to either. Although we did finally eat a small loaf of locally made sourdough bread that was in the freezer- we cut thin slices and toasted it to eat like a cracker for snacks.

Speaking of snacks, popcorn saved me from feeling completely deprived. I am a savoury snack person and had eaten all my usual treats early on (hummus, pate, rice crackers). Having a big jar of popcorn gave me an option for something when I was feeling in need of a treat. Also this recipe from Liz at Food Snobbery was a godsend this week- tahini and kimchi is amazing together- who knew?

My other lifesaver was lemon juice. The concentrated in a bottle kind. Once I ran out of everything else to drink and used up my fresh lemons, a little of the concentrate with some sugar (or honey or maple syrup) in water made a drink I could live with. I added fruit syrup from canned or frozen fruit occasionally as well. I think I will stockpile a few bottles of that stuff in the future- it's not likely to ever go bad!

The mushroom kit was a nice bonus, both for the sustenance and the opportunity to actually grow something edible in the winter. I'm going to invest in a few more of those and see if I can't find a way to keep them going.

Overall the experience wasn't as difficult as I first imagined. There were some tough moments and few lapses that I wrote about previously but it wasn't as big an adjustment as I predicted, once I got past the no shopping part. I think we ate pretty well overall, and I even discovered a few new recipes that I will likely keep making. We definitely didn't lose any weight tho!

One of our last storage meals was Turkey Cacciatore made with frozen turkey and the last of my whole frozen tomatoes.

Turkey Cacciatore

1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup red pepper, seeded and diced (I used frozen)
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olives chopped ( optional
2 cups tomato sauce (I used my own canned sauce)
1 cup fresh or frozen cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tsp Fresh or 1/2 tsp dried herbs to taste (I used basil,thyme and rosemary, oregano and sage would be good too)
salt and pepper
2 cups of turkey meat, cooked

Over medium heat, saute onion and pepper in olive oil until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic; cook 2 to 3 minutes more. Add turkey, tomatos, olives, wine, bay leaf, sugar, and herbs and salt, cook on med for 5 minutes until tomatoes are softened. Add tomato sauce and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Serve over pasta or rice.


I don't think anything that came out of this experience will change the way I shop or how much food I'll keep in storage. We really don't have the room for much more here and while I'm forced to acknowledge my dependency on the freezer as one of our main food storage sources, we're not really in a position to change that at present. But I do think it may be time that I look into buying that pressure canner!

Now if you'll excuse me, there's some grocery shopping to be done!

Pantry Challenge Week 4- The Last Squash

So we've made it through 4 weeks and remarkably, the cupboards are not nearly as bare as I would have thought. The freezer definitely has more room in it now but the fridge looks pretty full even if most of it is half empty jars of preserves. Still I'll be grateful when I can hit the grocery store later this week.

We were able to get through last week without any repeats of the previous week's slip ups. We even went to a hockey game and didn't buy any snacks - although the poutine was tempting and the pulled pork smelt divine...

I think we have finally adjusted to making do with what's on hand, and with the nasty late season blizzard hitting midweek it was actually nice to know I didn't have to run out to shop for food. Also the bonus birthday cheese did go a long way in helping me feel less deprived. And the mushroom kit did its thing and produced ten of these beauties!



Sunday
Pierogies with bacon
Pasta shells with 4 cheeses and dried tomatoes
Monday
Oatmeal porridge (me)
Homefries (the Russian)
Pork with apricot mustard sauce (apricots I canned last summer and homemade mustard)
Asparagus Risotto (last of the frozen asparagus from last spring)
Tuesday
Thai beef and rice noodle stir fry
Carrot coleslaw
Pasta with chicken, pickled wild leeks and roasted peppers in an herbed cream cheese sauce
Wednesday
French Onion Soup
Chilled shrimp with tomato horseradish jam
Squash gnocchi with sage, garlic and brown butter
Thursday
Tortilla chips with salsa and sour cream (last of the sour cream, home canned salsa, homemade chips)
Stuffed pork tenderloin (stuffing made from a mix of frozen herbs and bread crumbs)and boiled potatoes with mustard sauce
Roasted beet salad with cucumber and walnuts and a goat cheese and horseradish dressing.
Friday
Crackers and cheese and mixed pickles
Homemade chicken soup
Popcorn with olive oil and titch of butter
Saturday
Fried bacon sandwiches with maple syrup (we were craving french toast so I fried the bread in bacon grease)
Grilled pork shoulder and potatoes (on the BBQ, for Earth Hour), mashed carrots and parsnips with maple syrup.
Apple cherry rhubarb pie- all from fruit I picked and froze last summer and Red Fife whole wheat pastry
Sunday
Turkey Lentil Mushroom stew (hooray for fresh shiitakes!)
Grilled chicken breasts with mashed potatoes and baked squash
Roasted squash seeds

We still have 4 days to go to make it through the month and I think we'll be okay. As mentioned I baked the last squash today but we only ate half; we are also out of carrots, beets and rutabaga but we have frozen beans and corn, plenty of onions and now mushrooms. There's still some beef, seafood and turkey in the freezer. Butter is all but gone but we still have plenty of olive oil and other fats- I used bacon grease to baste the squash tonight. Speaking of bacon, there's even a small amount of it left- I'm amazed that we've stretched a pound to last this long considering how often we use it- good thing I dole it out in small portions, more for flavour than anything. For starches there's a few potatoes, some pasta and rice noodles and half a loaf of sour dough bread. We'll be fine and we won't even have to eat all the pickles to do it either!

I'll do a final wrap up when we finish the challenge on Thurs!

Pantry Challenge Week 3

I have a confession to make. Last week we failed. Badly. So badly I'm almost embarrassed to write about it. But since part of doing this was to see potential weaknesses in our ability to survive off of what's on hand, I'm going to consider last week a learning experience and talk about it from that angle.

Problem area #1 Poor planning

Last week was the first time in a while that both the Russian and I were out of the house for work all day every day. Because we seldom have access to a kitchen or even a refrigerator at work we don't normally bring a meal with us. I usually bring light snacks and beverages to tide us over but if we are on the job for an extended period we just grab take out. Monday I was not expecting a long workday so I brought a handful of crackers and some cheese. I expected to be home by about 6 pm and had pierogies in mind for dinner when we got home. What actually happened was we finished work at 7:00pm and then still had over an hour of transit travel before we got home. Compounded by a lengthy delay at one of our transfer points that left us stranded for another 20 minutes, hungry and exhausted, and the proximity to a fast food outlet (in the subway station no less!) was too much to resist. Dinner fail.

Lesson learned- I need to plan ahead for food that can be taken with us in case the day goes longer than expected. We did much better for the rest of the week.

Problem #2 Poor Communication

When we set out the rules for the challenge one of the things that was agreed upon with the other participants was that we can still take advantage of food sales for future use but we aren't supposed to consume anything we purchase during the challenge. Last week I found KD (macaroni and cheese, my personal weakness) and canned soup ( the Russian's weakness) on sales so I purchased a number of each. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it to him that these weren't for eating right now but apparently I failed to make that clear. One can of soup was opened and being heated by the time I discovered it. In the interest of not wasting food, it was consumed.

Lesson learned- any future purchases that I make during the month are now being stored somewhere other than the pantry.


Problem # 3- Timing.

As previously mentioned it was my birthday last week. It was also St Paddy's day which meant there were multiple celebrations going on, most of which involved food. On St Paddy's we made the rounds of several local drinking establishments and when there was free food proffered, we took full advantage. On the actual date of my birth, the Russian made me breakfast at home but we went out for dinner- sushi to be exact. On the day after my birthday we hosted a party that involved guests bringing cheese. A lot of cheese. Delicious cheese that did not all get consumed during the party and that will not keep for another two weeks.

Lesson Learned- not much. I'm of the mind that free food should be accepted whenever possible. And it was my birthday.

(Kinda looks like St Patrick threw up on me here doesn't it?)

So this week we will have to be on our best behaviour and I already know it's going to be much tougher than it's been so far. We are running low or completely out of many things now. No eggs, no milk, very little butter. Veggies, both fresh and frozen are in short supply- we still have a lots of frozen fruit however. Only one lemon- yikes! Maybe 5 lbs of potatoes which is practically none when you live with a Russian. Lots of onions but they are starting to sprout so we may have to use them quickly. I'm attempting to get the shiitake kit to fruit again but it's not looking near as plentiful as the first round. Even if we only get a few mushrooms this time they will be very welcome! There's still some meat in the freezer and we haven't eaten all the pierogies yet but we are almost out of sour cream. Still have some pasta, beans and rice, and a decent amount of a couple types flour so I can make both flour and corn tortillas. We won't starve yet but things are going to get a little dull.
(Thank god for the cheese!)


One of my fall back dishes for when were are absolutely ravenous doesn't really have a name. It is loosely based on a German dish that I tried at my friends and loved. I usually serve it as a salad but it can be easily adapted as a main or side dish.



1 carrot, grated
1 beet, grated
2 green onions, or 1/2 sweet onion minced
Optional- other raw veggies chopped fine. (In this version I added some of my white kimchee which included fermented cauliflower and turnips)

Dressing
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp soy sauce or Braggs
1 clove of garlic minced

Grate carrot and beet and add minced onions and other veggies if using. In separate bowl add all dressing ingredients and whisk until smooth. Pour over veggies and serve. Makes two salad portions.

For a complete lunch I will add a hardboiled egg, cut in quarters. To make it a more substantial meal, double the dressing ingredients and serve over warm cooked potatoes.

Pantry Challenge Week One Wrap up

One week down, 3 to go.

And in spite of my earlier whining we are actually doing okay. The fridge and cupboards are all still fairly full and we are not in danger of running out of anything quite yet. We don't have as many eggs as I would like but if I can convince the Russian not to eat two a day for breakfast we should be okay. Beverages are still problematic but I'm coping. We've run out of instant coffee but I don't drink it and the Russian has switched to tea without complaint. We have lots of tea and hot chocolate.

Sundries on the other hand are going to be an issue and I forgot to clarify if they were included in the no buy challenge. We are low on dish soap, laundry soap and already ran out of tp which I had to buy at the corner store. This is apparently an area I need to pay attention to and either stock up or find homemade alternatives to (the family cloth however is SO not going to happen).

Here's a brief overview of last week's menu, in no particular order:

steak fajitas with homemade flour tortillas and home canned salsa (red and green)
bacon pancakes
4 cheese macaroni and grated beet salad
homemade chicken noodle soup ( from previously frozen stock and meat)
eggs and homefries x 4 (the Russian)
yogurt and frozen fruit smoothies x 4 (me)
Roast beef and cheddar sandwiches and homemade shiitake mushroom soup
beef and beer stew in the slow cooker (leftover from last sunday's roast)
Oven bbq chicken with potato salad and steamed beans
Canned sardines on toast
Pasta with turkey, shiitakes and roasted red peppers in vodka cream sauce (last of the cream but not last of the frozen turkey)
Gado gado

Gado gado is an Indonesian salad of sorts that is simple to make and easily adapted for what's available at any time of year. I used potatoes, cabbage, frozen beans and cucumber ( thankfully we were able to pick up an Ontario grown hot house cucumber last week) in this version- you could also use fresh tomatoes if you have them.

Gado Gado

2 cups of potatoes, cut in pieces, skins on.
2 eggs
1 cup of cabbage coursely chopped
1 cup of green beans (or carrots, cauliflower, snow peas, etc)
1/3 of an English cucumber, cut in chunks
1/2 cup tofu cut in small pieces and pan fried (or use tvp soaked in a diluted soy sauce)
1/2 cup bean sprouts
2 green onions chopped
1/2 cup shrimp chips, broken in small pieces ( optional- they add a nice texture and flavour but I rarely have them at home)

Put potatoes and eggs in a pot of water and bring to a boil. When potatoes are partially cooked (about 5 minutes) add cabbage (and carrots, cauliflower etc if using) and cook for a minute. Add beans and turn off heat- cover and let sit for another minute or 2 until beans are partially cooked but still crunchy. Strain and run cold water over everything until cool. Peel eggs and cut in quarters, set aside.

Meanwhile pan fry tofu chunks in oil until browned on both sides. Or soak tvp chunks in warm water with a dash of soy sauce until softened. Set aside.


Spicy Peanut sauce

2 tbsp canola or peanut oil
few drops of dark sesame oil
2 cloves garlic chopped
3/4 cup natural peanut butter (chunky is best, can substitute other nut butters)
1 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
1 tbsp yellow curry powder or red or green curry paste
2 tbsp soy sauce
4 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sambal oelek or hot chili sauce (use less if you aren't fond of spicy!)
2-3 tbsp lemon juice or red wine vinegar
1 cup coconut milk or 1 cup water

Heat oils in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add garlic and stir briefly until soft but not browned. Add peanut butter and tahini, stirring constantly until it's all softened. Add the remaining ingredients except coconut milk or water. Reduce the heat and slowly add liquid stirring well. Simmer for 5 minutes, uncovered, stirring regularly until the sauce reaches a creamy consistency. If sauce is too thick add more water.

You can adjust this to your taste by adding more or less of the sweet, sour, salty or spicy. This peanut sauce makes a great dipping sauce if you add even more liquid, or can be added to any number of stir fry or noodle dishes.


To make gado gado - on a plate or bowl layer potatoes, cooked veggies and tofu. Place cucumber chunks and quartered eggs around the edge. Top with bean sprouts and pour peanut sauce over everything. Sprinkle with green onion and shrimp chips if using.

Pancakes and Self Denial

In the Christian faith, this Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the period proceeding Easter, which makes Tuesday traditionally the last day to indulge in the luxuries that you'll be abstaining from for the next 40 days (actually 46 but Sundays don't count!). Around the world that day will be noted with festivals and food; Mardi Gras (Fat Tues), Carnival, Shrove Tues, Pancake Tues; in my predominently Polish neighbourhood, it's known as Doughnut Day and there's some delicious treats to be had. All of these celebrations come from the same source; one last blow out before a period of self denial and reflection (hangovers are an excellent incentive for the latter).

In my family growing up it was all about the pancakes and although I no longer follow the faith of my childhood I can't help but crave pancakes when Lent rolls around. We happen to have the all the stuff for making some pancakes from scratch in the house so I dragged out my trusty Five Roses Flour cookbook circa 1960.

Basic Pancake recipe
1 1/2 cups Five Roses enriched flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp melted butter
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (I omitted this)

Fat (butter, bacon fat etc) for cooking.


The recipe indicates you can substitute 3/4 cup of white flour with graham or whole wheat flour so I used some Red Fife stone ground whole grain flour as well. This made a much stiffer batter than regular white flour so if you like runny batter you may want to add additonal milk. I didn't and my pancakes were a bit dense but still airy.

Mix and sift dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat egg thoroughly and add milk (and vanilla if using).
Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients and slowly add milk mixture. Add melted butter and mix only till smooth.

Using a heavy iron frying pan or griddle, heat fat until melted but not smoking. Pour batter in small circles, allow room for each to spread without touching. Cook the pancakes until bubbles appear through out, then turn to cook the other side. Do not turn more than once.

I wanted bacon pancakes so I partially cooked two slices of bacon, cut in small pieces and added to the batter before cooking. I cooked the pancakes in the resulting bacon fat but I had reduced the melted butter to 2 tbsp in the batter and they were still lovely and moist and slid from the pan easily.

Top with real maple syrup or fresh or frozen fruit for breakfast. Or if you prefer, have them for dinner. It was tradition in my family to have them with a side of maple baked beans that my mom would make for Pancake Tues when we were kids and it was our kick off to Lent. In my case it's been many years since I gave up anything for Lent but as we are currently restricting our normal behaviour (for a totally different reason) I feel a resonance with that ancient ritual. In this case it is the purchasing of food that we are denying ourselves rather than the consumption but it sometimes amounts to the same thing. If it isn't in the house now, I won't be enjoying it for about 3 more weeks.

So far it's been rougher than I anticipated. Not because we are lacking in options- the cupboards and fridge are still pretty full. But it's the idea of choice (or lack there of) that's been causing me to question my ability to see this through. I'm fairly organized about shopping and cooking but I'm also prone to whims in our dietary decisions and often will decide to make something because it appeals to me in the moment. Living within walking distance to any number of options for food shopping makes picking up additional ingredients an every day occurrence if I choose. I found not being able to do that felt really restrictive over the last few days. On top of that I realized that food shopping is a form of retail therapy for me. Often my trips elsewhere are coupled with a stop at a food retailer and even when I'm broke I can always justify spending a few dollars on food. Not having that option made a long week seem even longer. Coupled with a bad head cold and the general end of winter blahs, this plan to restrict ourselves added more misery and made me wonder why anyone would choose to do this voluntarily.


Lent occurs at relatively the same time each year; this year is actually later than usual but it's dependant on the lunar calendar. The earliest Lent can begin is Feb 4, the latest is Mar 10. Which means it inevitably falls in the latter half of winter, when we are already feeling a bit deprived. The original purpose of Lent was to promote fasting and prayer, signifiying the time Jesus spent alone in the desert (pondering his fate, no doubt), but I don't suppose the early Christians had northern hemisphere winters in mind when they worked out the dates. Little wonder that the ritual has evolved into choosing only certain things to abstain from rather than complete abstinence of all things pleasurable. Still it's a long way from total fasting to giving up chocolate for 40 days -something I could do with ease (gingerale on the other hand...). Choosing self denial isn't something we are accustomed to these days, yet in a few short days I have been made aware yet again of how little I know of real deprivation. Maybe I was due for some reflection. Maybe I lose some weight or finally ween myself from sugary drinks. Or maybe I'll just be unbearable by the end of this month. Time will tell. In the meantime, there's always pancakes!

March Pantry Challenge- eat what you got!

I've been encouraged to participate in a Pantry Challenge for the month of March arranged by a couple of bloggers I read: Canadian Doomer and Farmgal. They got the idea from a couple who did it for the month of February(sure, pick the short month!) at BrokeProfessionals. The idea is to try to eat entirely from what's already in your food stores, a sort of dry run for TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it), if you believe in that sort of stuff. I think it's a great idea, both from a practical and idealistic point of view. Being forced to eat only what's in the house means I might actually do something with all the fruit I preserved last year. It will also make me more aware of how often I pick up a few things here and there to supplement what's already in the house. Of course to be totally realistic we probably shouldn't have done a major grocery run yesterday. However, in our normal routine we usually do a big shop about once a month for staples and then pick up other things as we need them (root veggies and the occasional cheese from the Sorauren market on Mondays, eggs from the shop on Roncy that sells local free range, dairy and baking supplies from the natural food store and so on.). Yesterday we spent a bit more than normal but we were out of a lot of staples(butter, sugar, potatoes) and there were a few sales I wanted to take advantage of (olive oil, cheese).

I've been a bit hesitant to commit to this however because I'm not sure we can give it 100%. Not without stock piling certain things and that seems like cheating. Ms Doom decided to make a few exceptions (goat's milk for her children for one) in her plan. So the first thing on my exception list is the farmcats- there are 3 of them and while it wouldn't be impossible to stock enough food and litter for them for a month, it would require a fair amount of space and we don't really have the room. (Plus Shadow likes to rip apart bags of food for her own amusement.) The Russian has suggested that he will make homemade food for them from fish we purchased yesterday- I'll let you know how that turns out. The other thing is alcohol- while I certainly don't equate alcohol as being a necessity like milk for children, and one of us could probably stand to drink less (ahem), there's no way that one's going to stick. I'm already dreading the point when I have tell the Russian there's no more chicken for the month; I won't even consider telling him there's no more beer.

The other exceptions will be due to previous engagements/celebrations- we have concert tickets and dinner plans for Mar 11, the Russian will be on tour for a few dates this month and I'm reserving the option to do something other than cook on my birthday/St Paddy's day. Other than that we will try to eat only at home from what we have on hand.

I'm not going to do a detailed inventory of what we have on hand but I cleaned out the fridge and reorganized the freezer before we shopped yesterday so I have a good idea of what's here. The freezer is packed with meat and veggies, the fridge is full of mostly pickles and condiments and some dairy. The dry goods cupboard is decently occupied and the preserve shelves are pretty well stocked for this time of year. The one area of concern is fresh veggies. We have one squash, some carrots, beets and cabbage as well as 10 lbs of onions and 20 lbs of potatoes but no greens. Which of course is pretty much the norm for this time of year. I will be starting some seeds for the garden this week and will likely plants some salad greens and maybe some sprouts. The other area that is going be problematic, for me anyhow, is non alcoholic beverages. I drink a ton of sugary drinks; pop, juice, even powdered drink mix, and that's all I drink period. I know how bad it is for me, I know I'd probably drop 20 lbs if I switched to plain water but I just don't find anything else quenches my thirst. I've been trying for years to ween myself to no avail. I rationalize it for the most part because it's the only area of my diet that is high in sugar. I don't eat cookies or cake, I rarely eat candy, I don't even really like fruit! I don't know what I'll drink once I run out of the juice we bought yesterday. Probably homemade iced tea. Until I run out of lemons or sugar. And then who knows? If there's one thing that may make me cave it will be this. Suggestions welcome!



So we kick it off today! As the month progresses, I will try to post updates and maybe the occasional recipe to keep it interesting.

Wish us luck!