After 4 years of living like a spice hoarder and stocking my pantry and freezer as though a zombie apocalypse is eminent, I've finally come to the realization that enough is enough. I can't continue to cook a whole turkey just for one meal and put the rest away in the freezer for later use if I never plan to open the freezer, take out that turkey, and actually use it. I can't continue to buy spices in bulk if I don't use them up within 4 years. Same goes for tea and coffee and rice and beans and quinoa. Just because it's a good buy doesn't mean I should stock it for an army for a year when there's only one of me. First world problems, much??
So. The plan is:
- Empty the refrigerator first. The fridge has a lot of awesome stuff in it right now - sour cream, half and half, cream cheese, hard cheeses, lettuces, bok choys, carrots, half an onion, pita bread, olives, tortillas, etc... It doesn't have eggs, so this morning when I went to look for breakfast I found one chinese eggplant about to turn, a 1-c mason jar full of turkey from Christmas, and a green bell pepper. I made Mapo Turkey (subbing out the tofu for turkey) and 2/3 of Di San Xian, because I don't have potatoes. All of this with 1 c of rice led to a 1-c mason jar filled with chunks of half a green bell pepper, two 1-c mason jars frozen with rice and mapo turkey, and 1 mason jar with the Di San Xian. This is after I filled my bento with rice, mapo turkey, and Di San Xian for Monday's lunch. For lunch I had a grilled quesadilla with cream cheese, smoked salmon (whoops how was that even still good?? that's left over from Christmas, but hey, if it passes the sniff check and is a fish, then it's probably okay), lettuce, and a lemon mustard sauce. I can say "check" for pulling from the fridge for today! :-)
- Empty the freezer next. The freezer has a lot of awesome raw ingredients in it that is really well organized, including 10 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs, at least 5 mackerel fillets, some rainbow fish, and a very large box of Stockton beef. I should never, ever, have to buy meat again. The beans are well organized - these I buy dry in bulk and then cook and freeze in 2-cup baggies flat for easy organization. I have 4 cups each already cooked of garbanzo, white, pinto, and black beans. I should not have to cook beans again for a long, long while.... BUT. There is a dark side to this beast. The freezer also has a less-well-organized component, including jars and bags of, "what is this? is it beef? is it even meat? it might be eggplant, or finely diced mushrooms... why on earth did I tell myself that lie that I would remember??" There's frozen pizza with toppings I can't place, and a giant apple tart loosely wrapped in aluminum foil that was only half-baked at the time because I put it in the oven at midnight and had to be at work early and couldn't justify letting it cook all the way.... That's where the fun is going to come in. For every one "raw" ingredient I take out of that freezer, one "processed" item must also come out. Even if it's going to be a total surprise after it thaws. Looking forward to this, with a non-zero level of trepidation and quite a liberal definition of "looking forward to it." Already pulled a tray of "Zuchinni Bread French Toast" from Christmas 2017 from the freezer - looks like breakfast is planned this week!
- Empty the pantry last. My pantry has some things in it that never get used. That can of pork threads for that one Vietnamese dish, for example, hasn't been touched in three years. There's been a tin of sardines in there forever, and don't get me started on the instant ramen. While I can turn over a half-gallon of Gold Label Duck Brand light soy sauce once a year, I have this assortment of Hawaiian and Japanese and Korean soy sauces that almost never get used (I really like the Gold Label). I have a 15 lb sack of jasmine rice that almost never gets touched because I'd rather use the Calrose that I like better (I turn over maybe 20 lbs of that every year). There are jars of barley and quinoa and couscous that I probably ought to eat, if I could just get out of the habit of Calrose and seaweed for breakfast. I'd probably be healthier for the variety, as well. This is good for me. It doesn't suck. It's good. I'll just repeat that a few more times if you don't mind....
The only problems will come when I run out of eggs, garlic, onions and greens. I foresee that being a situation akin to when Mark Watney ran out of ketchup for his potatoes (he starts putting vicodin on the potatoes, and while I might reach that level of despair, I won't have vicodin but I will have a full bag of MSG because guess what, I'm a hoarder of relatively useless food items). I've already ran out of eggs, and that hurts badly. I have 6 cloves of garlic left, and I'm rationing them out for the last of the bok choy. I'm starting a garden STAT to start growing greenery for when I am out of lettuce and bok choy and any remaining green things in the freezer (oh, yeah, I also hoard seeds about like I hoard food).
General thoughts:
No more ranch dressing soon - when the sour cream goes south or runs out that dream will end. It's okay because I'm almost out of things worth putting ranch dressing on. It's not even January 15th yet - not even 1/24 of the way through!
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