Tuesday, August 21, 2012

And so it goes

It's day nine of the initial two-week grocery ban, and the native is restless. My milk has gone questionable, and I'm low on any remaining fresh ingredients - I have some tomatoes that haven't quite started to wrinkle and one avocado that I attempted to save by throwing it in the refrigerator drawer, but other than that - nada.

I did manage to make banana bread on Sunday with the two remaining bananas, although it bears little resemblance to the bread I know from my mother (despite the fact that I used her exact recipe - one of the eternal mysteries of recipes that are passed around my family is that they never end up the same as what we all grew up with). It's not bad, just...more banana-y than I would've preferred. Perhaps I didn't mash the banana quite enough so that it wasn't able to disappear into the bread well (is that supposed to even happen?).

The banana bread. Doesn't taste bad! Just banana-like (imagine that).
I posted two other recipes I made this weekend: cardamom shortbread, which used up my oats, and a s'mores pie, which didn't finish off anything but certainly was tasty - my only regret was not using more marshmallows on top. I brought it into lab yesterday to have other people help me eat it. I'm keeping the shortbread for myself (it has enough oats in it that I feel it can be qualified as breakfast food).

Other items I've used up: an open bag of pasta, some frozen arancini rice bites from TJs, and with both of those I'm doing my darndest to work through some marinara sauce I have in the fridge. I've also managed to polish off a few more snacks. To feel accomplished, I've taken some "in progress" pictures (only of the places that actually look different, which in itself is telling - I'm not showing the other three locations).

The shelf in the hallway:
At first.
Now! Ok, so there isn't a ton of difference, but it is slowly starting to shrink. The root beer, the salsa, and a pasta package have all disappeared. It's also gotten blurry - sorry about that. It's hard to tell on my tiny camera screen whether things are in focus or not.
The table:
At the beginning.
This is my favorite comparison because so much has disappeared from the bowl of snacks, and other items have actually been replaced with home cooked goods - exactly what I am aiming for in this whole endeavor!
 The freezer:
When I started....
This evening. Moving the ice tray was a bad idea, as it doesn't leave the space open. But there are several items missing: a box of waffles, some broccoli, and two boxes of ice cream treats. Plus you can see the tarte flambee on the upper left - I guarantee that will be gone within 48 hours.
However, despite the (slow) progress, I can hear the siren call of the grocery store. As if my own internal battle wasn't difficult enough, this arrived in the mail today:

Thanks a lot, Trader Joe's. As if my willpower wasn't receding enough already. Why must everything sound so delicious?
I've started to compose my own mental grocery list: berries, cream, milk, cheese, veggies. The tricky part of this is that I still want to make sure I'm eating healthy - or at least not significantly unhealthier than usual - and a big part of eating healthy is eating and cooking fresh. I think the most challenging part for me will be buying only items that I am sure I will have time to prep in meals. I have no shortage of ideas - I just can't let myself delude myself about how much time (or energy) I will have to make things. But I am still counting down the days until I can get back into a store and freshen up my supplies (to help, I plan to go only to Stop & Shop or farmer's market, where I find I can control myself much easier than TJs or Target).

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