a challenge

Part of me is quite frugal. The other part is Southern, and falls hard for nurturing with abundant food. I cleaned out my pantry yesterday and found so much that I had forgotten I had. Our dinner was a hearty hodge podge of black beans and brown rice with green chilies and kale and a spicy Mexican cornbread, all foraged from the larder. Everyone was happy. We sat around the table and talked about the food (we do a lot of that around here) and a plan emerged.

We are not going to buy any food at all for the next week or two. We are going to make do with what we have. We are going to be creative and agreeable. It's important that we are all on board, so that there will be no dissension in the ranks. (i.e. Matt sneaking off to the market for Ben and Jerry's)

This idea thrills me. I'm excited to go lean. As simple as we are, I sometimes feel that we have come to want too much. I don't think we should have something, just because we want it. I certainly do not want my kids thinking that way. If nothing else, this should heighten our senses around waste.

My first thought was, Holy Mother of God, we only have a half stick of butter!!!

My second thought was, yikes, what about greens? Ahhh! The lowly cabbage to the rescue.

I bought a big bag of oranges last week, so we won't die of scurvy.

I'm sure that 'issues' will arise.

That's sort of the fun part, right.

So, in the interest of boring you to tears, I'm going to fill you in on what we eat this week and the heart ache that we might encounter around significantly reducing our beloved dairy fat.

Pins and needles, I know!

(and feel free to join me in this little adventure!)