Finishing the fridge

[jethrien]

For some reason, eating my way through the fridge feels like a victory. There is a strange satisfaction to finishing off the leftovers, a moral superiority that goes beyond the triumph of not having to throw out wasted food. I think it's almost like clearing a level on a puzzle game--I could have gotten to the end of the week/puzzle just by cutting a direct route through the obvious meal choices. But no, I have persevered and combined the strange things into an oddly palatable meal, thus getting the 100% completion bonus!

Perhaps I expect to be awarded a pixelated crown or something.

Anyway, there's a certain degree of ridiculousness. (Not to managing to not waste food; that is in fact a good thing. This triumph, however, is more directly linked to being able to see to the back of the fridge and feeling successful at having made it more tidy and empty.) Because now there's basically nothing in there that can be combined into a real meal. (I challenge you to make an edible combination of barbeque sauce, maraschino cherries, powdered buttermilk, and the last bit of jicama.) Which means we have to go shopping again and fill the fridge back up. Which I suppose has its own satisfactions.

This message is brought to you by my lunch, which apparently is going to be chestnut puree, sauteed brussel sprouts, and wedges of the aforementioned jicama.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

What's jicama?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

South American tuber. The outside looks like this horrible root thing. You cut off the peel and slice it up and eat it raw. The inside looks kind of like raw potato, but it's not very starchy--it's crispy and sweet, kind of like a Granny Smith apple without the sourness. Mexican and fusion restaurants put it in salads a lot because it doesn't discolor when exposed to oxygen. It's a really excellent snacky food--crunchy, light, no aftertaste, survives being beaten up in your bag well.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

...oh good, I'm not the only one who feels like this, then? My fridge is always crazy packed, and actually getting it emptied out and free of leftovers and manky vegetables and random tins of things feels SO GOOD. It almost never happens, and when it does, the fridge is immediately restocked - like by the leftovers from this past weekend's party -but it feels awesome when it does happen.

My fridge was referred to as Food Tetris this weekend, by the way. Definitely ridiculous. You're not alone.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

The week after every party we throw invariably involves finding create way to use leftovers from that party. Crudite veggies get stir-fried, leftover cresent rolls become breakfast, leftover overcomplicated dishes become our lunches, and leftover desserts...make us fat.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I mixed the last of the spinach dip into an eggplant and spinach saute last night and put it over rice.

The buffalo chicken dip has been going on baked potatoes. I have to come up with something to do with that, some cauliflower, and some rutabaga tonight...

(I've been eating the dirt cake for breakfast)

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Yeah, cake for breakfast is also a bit of a tradition, especially if it's cheesecake or pie, because fruit and cheese are totally breakfast food. It also occurs to me that our big leftover (after candy) from Halloween was cheese, which became a big bowl of delightful mac and cheese.

You can make a delightful combination of roast cauliflower and rutabaga, but I'm not sure how to make a buffalo chicken dip work with that. Now, if it was leftover salsa, then I could make useful suggestions.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

For Mocksgiving every year, I make pumpkin cheesecake. The recipe makes two, so there's always one left over. BREAKFAST FOR A WEEK. It has vegetables in!

I think I might hold the vegetables to tomorrow, and make a roast chicken with balsamic, and do the veggies with that. It'd be delicious, and I could throw some of the parsnips and sweet potatoes in, too - they need using.

The buffalo chicken may be on its own. Although I do have some bread...hm, buffalo chicken cheese toasts?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Buffalo chicken would probably be awesome, mixed into mac and cheese. But I feel like there are a few too many states between us to easily combine leftovers.

Also, pie does a very convincing imitation of breakfast.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

The buffalo chicken dip already has something like two pounds of cheese in it. Just add mac!

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Well, there you go. That's totally healthy.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

At least my arteries will be clogged with DELICIOUS?

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

I went from living with airspaniel's boyfriend (and practically with airspaniel), to living with my boyfriend in Texas.

I went from being used to cooking for three + leftovers, which always got used, to cooking for two, with two people not so good at making use of leftovers.

Every few weeks, we clean out the fridge and I feel great shame.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Re-focusing how much food is appropriate to make is much harder than it seems. (My parents were always drowning in leftovers when I came home from college, because they weren't feeding a teenage boy any more.) I've had some gradual adjustment over the last year (of mixed effectiveness), as I've tried to increase how many leftovers we had so I wouldn't have to cook when I had class.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the "Bringing Lunch" factor is always huge.

That was part of what skewed my gauge so hard. Seth (Hilary's bf) would make enormous quantities of food, and then eat that for the whole week.

I try to do that, and then three weeks later remember there's a tupperware with some white rice and browned beef in it. Gross.