Thursday, September 18, 2008

Romancing the Stove

I like to eat lovely things. I like to cook lovely things. Why am I not doing that??? I seriously considered (but didn't do it,just so you know) stopping by McDonald's after spending some time at the yarn shop today. McDonald's??? Do I have no shame???

Then I came home and opened the freezer and found some bread my friend Tom made. SCORE!!! I had French toast for lunch, made with Tom's sourdough. And I remembered again that part of graceful living is eating well. And it's not hard. Well, it's certainly made easier when friends leave bread in your freezer. But really, it's not hard.

I could make this a huge dramatic project. I could marry a chef -not that any have come calling. "Will trade inventive sex for elegant food." Probably that's not going to work ;) I could contract with one of those services where someone delivers your meals. That just makes me feel sad and lonely. Or I could assess where I am right now, where I want to be, and chart a gentle course for getting there. I don't know how to cook in small quantities. I come home from work exhausted. My schedule is quite peculiar. Two nights a week, I work until midnight and eat supper at the shelter -and I've blogged before about the food there :( I need portable food to help me avoid unimaginable junk food. My situation is unusual, and clever googling isn't going to give me the plan that will work for me.

I don't need homemade sorbet at this point. I need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What will help me the most? Do I have to know? Do I have to know right now? If I need everything, maybe I don't need a plan. Maybe I just need to do something. Anything.

Tomorrow I will eat breakfast. I have sourdough bread, after all ;)

4 comments:

Kimberly said...

This is something I think any single person has to deal with.

I like to make big pots of stuff in the pressure cooker and freeze some of it in portion containers (I just made my first slow cooker soup this week, too). I love the pressure cooker, because in less than an hour (total) I can have a ton of food. Having lots of food that can either be cooked fast or is easy to defrost keeps me from grabbing junk food. I also have "I don't want to cook but I don't want to get fast food" meals, too--e.g. a can of tinned fish (tuna, sardines, herring) with some mayo or other topping with a fast-baked potato (4-5 mins in microwave, 15-20 mins in toaster oven), plus a piece of fruit. Or, grilled cheese and soup.

At work, we make a production out of "Granny lunch"--we bring in home cooked food. We usually work through lunch, but sit together in the conference room and work from their for an hour or so. It makes it nice and social. I find that bringing a food-thermos with soup makes me particularly happy.

Loretta_S said...

I'm figuring this out for myself at this point. My new job is in fairly remote location, making it not as easy to eat out (this is a good thing). In the employee breakroom they have soup every day and well as bread, various cereals and coffee/tea/soda/water. The first week I was pretty successful with bringing simple, but nutritious (protein, brown rice, veggies) lunches. But I need a plan. I think I'll do some prep this weekend to be ready for the next week.

Elisa said...

I'm always happy when I manage to make a lot of soup and freeze it in batches. Then you can easily have a nice healthy meal with just bread and/or a salad. We eat a lot of "big salads" -- lettuce and veggies plus canned beans or chickpeas, olives, grated jack or mozzarella cheese, sunflower seeds, maybe some avocado . . . . This is a meal by itself. For almost no extra work, you can make two and eat one for lunch the next day.

I keep breakfast and lunch very simple. Breakfast is yogurt, cheerios with soymilk, and maybe a banana if we have any. I usually have some whole wheat bagels in the freezer, so for lunch I toast one of those and while it's toasting, I mix up some tuna with a lot of salt & pepper and a little mayo. If you have a nice tomato, it takes no time to slice it up and add a lot of salt and pepper. Peanut butter and whole wheat crackers, plus a piece of fruit, is another easy lunch.

Renee said...

"Will trade inventive sex for elegant food."

If you list that on Match.com, I guarantee you will get calls.