This Week's Food Waste
This week, I had to get rid of some tomatoes that went squishy before we got to them. We did enjoy the rest of the container, though, on our salads.
This Week's True Food Confessions
This week was one of the overall best times for eating at home when we consider all family members and all meals. I think we only ate out once when we met Miss Landers for breakfast. However, we did not suffer. Last weekend, Wally and Theo made two large racks of ribs which we had for the next couple of days. Also, we stocked up on Super Bowl food and feasted on that for a couple of more days. All and all, it was all great tasting, high-fat, high-sodium food, that my body started to protest from after a couple of days. However, the men in the family were very happy. We finished the week up with some simple vegetable rich comfort foods.
Where do I go now? I'm starting to bored with this whole process of tracking our food, so I've been thinking about if I want to change things. I have been doing a Food Waste Friday for about a year and a half. It has definitely made me more aware of of our food waste, and consequently, we have been able to reduce it greatly and save money in the process. There have been a couple of short breaks I have taken from weekly reporting of our food waste and I immediately slid backwards. So I think this weekly confession is good for me, however unexciting it is to write and read about.
I have been doing True Food Confessions for about six months now, and overall we are much improved in the area of eating at home. I have not reached the goal that I had in the beginning of having a weekly meal plan, one trip to the grocery store based on this meal plan, and good food ready every night. However, we are doing pretty well with a couple of ideas for the week and making do with what we have on hand. In fact, that's how I like to do things the best. Create on the spot with only a loose structure guiding me. However, I'd like to expand on this success.
I want to think more now about getting even healthier food on our plates and maybe some better tasting food. I want to spend a little more money for more exotic ingredients and to try more things. I want my food to look like the colorful, varied, vegetable-rich food that Economies of Kale shows us every week. (However, I know that with my family of carnivores, that may not be a realistic goal.)
What am I going to do about all of this? I've decided that I'm going to start slow, and try to cook one new dish every week, that is reasonably healthy, and follow a recipe. That's going to be the hardest part--following the recipe, but I think I can do it.
Do you realize how much your meal desires have changed? Going from a few meals out to just the one, and that was also a social thing, so not the same as grabbing some burgers or pizza a few times a week.
ReplyDeleteI've committed to serving more fish in our house. I don't care for fish, but the rest of the family would enjoy it, and it would be healthier for us. Healthier eating is one area I'd like to work on. In fact, with an upcoming trip, we've even been talking about how we can eat out healthier, instead of the loads of greasy stuff we usually order.
Good luck with your plans to incorporate more interesting dishes into the menu.
Thanks for your lovely words about my blog :) I will share a secret with you, Mr Omnivore doesn't always eat the same vegetable-rich meals that I eat. Even now that I 'm eating meat and we can share most meals, sometimes he cooks something else or has a smaller portion of veggies.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you have managed to cut down on eating out and takeaway food so much. This also used to be something I struggled with, mostly eating out at uni instead of packing my own lunch. I only had to organise myself, so I can't imagine what it would be like organising food for a whole family.
Theoretically, I don't have to manage my family's meals because they are all adults (and they don't expect me to.) However, it's something I do because I want the best for them.
DeleteI would be interested in seeing what Mr. Omnivore is eating along side of you. Maybe, between the two of you, you strike a happy balance that would be useful for many people. In my family, I like veggies more than meat, and the men like meat more than veggies. We are often at cross purposes with our meals.
Ha...our food waste consisted of tomatoes this week too :) Ever since I started following, I think you made great progress and how little you eat out and trying to eat better. It's a great idea to try new recipes and things often and slowly introduce new kinds of food. When we got married, my husband only ate carbs and meat. And my parents were vegetarians for more than ten years! It took us time to blend it together but now we eat vegetarian at least twice a week, and he loves it. And even if your loved ones eat less salad and such than you, hey, at least they eat some :) I don't think my husband knew the difference between lettuce and romaine until we got married:)
ReplyDeleteWe are making progress. I am hoping that we can find some recipes that will encourage all of us to eat better. We don't eat that badly now, but there's definitely room for improvement. It's encouraging to see how you've been able to blend your different eating styles together.
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