9.06.2013

Relating To Food

Eating is the ultimate routine activity. You do it, day in, day out, at designated times throughout the day and night.  Whether you're feeding a family of 25 or just the two of you, managing that routine without blowing a wad of cash is going to take just a little bit of planning.  Trust me, I've done it the other way, no list, no plan, no nothing. It sucks. It also gets very pricey, very quickly.

Which leads me to think about the habits we develop over the course of our lifetimes, what we learn from watching our parents, what we get sucked in to, marketing wise, and what kinds of food we choose. I know I'm not alone in this, growing up in a house where the fridge and the cupboards were packed to the gills....with alot of it going to waste eventually, due to an "if the cupboards are full and I can feed my family then I've done my job" mindset....a mindset that often leads to having TOO much as opposed to not enough.

I know it all too well, because I've also sat at the other end of that spectrum where you could clearly see the back of the fridge and cupboards were echoing. Which, I think, created this urge in me to have more than enough but then to also conserve it. Conserving to the point where stuff has been in the cupboard for years. YEARS. Long past the point of being edible probably....but yet I cannot bear the thought of getting rid of it, because:

  • ....what if we lose our jobs?
  • ....what if there is a blizzard?
  • ....what if there's a war? 
Granted, we don't have our fully functioning bomb shelter/warehouse built just yet, but I'm devising the blueprint in my head as I write.  


Herbs, spices, baking stuff and cereal. I'm not going to tell you how old some of those herbs and spices really are.....but I once made a pair of good, semi-expensive Nike cross trainers last for 11 years, so you can guess.  


Dried goods, cooking stuffs, coffee, tea and snacky stuff.  Pasta will last forever, right? So will dried beans and peas.  It will! I will make it last.


Canned stuff, bottled stuff. Surprising, I think some of today's canned soups will last forever as well. My brave, lab-rat-type beloved opened a can of Progresso, with an outdate of 2011 and ate it. Not only did he say it tasted just fine, he's still alive!  Scary shit. You really have to wonder why they put in that stuff!  

In addition to the fear of running out/not having enough, I have this underlying inability to admit failure. So saith the 2/3 full bag of Soba noodles, the bag of wheat berries and the jar of Hoisin sauce (in the fridge) that have been taking up space for over 2 years now. You know how it goes, you see a trend, a recipe, a way of eating, a lifestyle change....you go for it...and then.......you stop.  So, for now, I'm just on break.  Yeah, break.  

I have, however, learned a very important lesson about eggs. They do NOT last forever, nor should you ever think they would.  I found out the hard way and now I don't know that I will ever even want to look at, let alone touch another egg in this lifetime.  

What are your quirks when it comes to food?  Share!   

2 comments:

  1. I used to do this, but I have so little space for stockpiling now, I don't do it anymore. Still, I have a jar of alfredo sauce that my roommate bought for me on a BOGO over a year ago that I just haven't had a taste for yet. Just when I think I'm getting desperate enough to eat it, because the cupboards are bare, I get more food, and it gets pushed back to the back again. When I left my old house, I threw out a bunch of expired stuff, 1/4 boxes of cereals and grains with meal moths, etc. Never again.

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  2. Ha :) I got my alfredo because I was going to make one of our favorites, and I had a coupon, but then I forgot the sausage and the pasta that also go in the recipe.

    I just cleaned out the can inventory a few weeks ago and got rid of cans from probably 5-10 years ago. We're the same with cereal, somewhere along the way we both developed a great intolerance to dairy (milk and ice cream), so cereal consumption has gone way down and now there are tons of partial or even FULL boxes (more coupons) that are not used. I hate it. So lately, I've been sticking to a very strict list, no "stocking up", no 10 for 10 blowouts (except croutons which we do use), just enough for the week.

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