I'm a Flip-Flopper

Yes, Liz Lemon said it best when she referred to herself as a 'flip-flopper' when confronted with her membership in the Steak of the Month Club and her subscription to the Vegetarian Times. I often find myself in the same boat, as I go through phases of vegetarianism without trying, but then when I do try I end up out to dinner and ordering the steak tips at Silvertone (they are sooo good).

Anyway, I have been feeling quite informed as of late when it comes to food. I typically buy as locally as I can, and shopping at Whole Foods makes it easy to go organic. I know that veggies are a good choice-- and I honestly love vegetables. I get cranky when I don't get my fair share of vegetables in a day so when I am being good and not living off of macaroni and cheese or the pasta I always keep in my cabinet, I eat a lot of the green stuff.

This week I ate entirely vegetarian, except for one day when I had chicken noodle soup at work, but I didn't make that. And I didn't eat a single fake meat product. I am not against fake meat-- I love a good veggie burger. I just think that if you are trying to be vegetarian, you can do so without a constant barrage of tofudogs, sliced deli-style tofurky, and all of the smart brand stuff ('bbq chicken style veggie protein' and 'veggie protein chili') although I have to say, most of that Smart stuff is good.

This was also the week of peppers. I bought 5 peppers-- a couple red, a yellow, and an orange. I'm not sure why, it's not like there was a sale or anything. But I do like peppers and I was planning on making a Thai style curry and I need at least a couple of colors of pepper for that dish. Then I figured I'd buy a few extras and use them in other dishes throughout the week. One of the red peppers was an honest mistake and I was too embarrassed to return it. But, one of my rules of shopping is trying to get one ingredient to work in a few meals. That way if one recipe only calls for say, half a pepper, then the next recipe you make will hopefully call for the other half. Waste not, want not.

Right when I got home from the store, I started off with the peppers. I sliced all of them up and put the ones I wasn't going to use in a tupperwear container. It actually wasn't tupperware, it was a grocery store container that at one point held salad green or something of that nature. Since they were already sliced up-- the peppers were conveniant as a snack or to throw into a dish or salad. I ate them with hummus while watching TV; I sauteed them with onions and enoyed them in a warm salad on top of a Spanish-style omelette; I diced up a few of them onto a Southwest Flatbread pizza. It was a good week.

The point of this little story is-- there is a point, it turns out, I wasn't sure at first-- although it can be tricky shopping for one and buying the right amount of each thing, with even the slightest amount of prep you can get 5 peppers eaten in 5 days. I know for a fact I wouldn't have eaten those peppers if I hadn't sliced them all up the day I made my curry. Getting them prepped in advance made it that much easier to use them throughout the week even if I was in a rush or feeling lazy. Doing that was also great to incorporate veggies into a snack. I almost always have hummus on hand, and if I have vegetables chopped up and ready to go, I will sit there and snack on them. If the vegetables need to be chopped when I am ready to eat- I will just grab crackers instead.

So don't be afraid of buying a lot of one thing. With a little creativity/ prep or whatnot, hopefully you will get them eaten before they go bad. Unless it is bananas. I have three bananas that went bad in my kitchen right now. Well, they might be banana bread acceptable, but they aren't peel and snackable anymore. Which is a shame. But such is life.

Lists are for Grocery Stores, Not for People*

One thing that I find difficult when cooking for one is buying food in the proper amount and knowing what to buy. It's taken me years to come up with a system that is shoddy at best and usually requires some creative cooking at the end of the week that resembles an Iron Chef competition or at the very least Ready, Set, Cook! (which probably most people haven't seen, but it was a real show, I promise, and that was when my FoodTV obsession started back in high school when I'd take naps on the couch after track practice while listening to the competitors on said show whip up meals from random ingredients found in a brown paper shopping bag in only 30 minutes).

Needless to say, I am not a huge fan of grocery shopping. My mom writes her grocery list in the order in which the aisles appear in the store so she can get through it quickly and efficiently. I write my grocery list on the back of my paycheck stub and then leave it at home.

But, unless you want to be stuck making yourself Fiesta Couscous on a regular basis (couscous prepared with taco seasonings, leftover frozen corn, and a can of diced tomatoes), you better start planning ahead. Since I had a goal of cleaning my apartment today, I needed a way to procrastinate and so I decided to plan my meals for next week. I made a basic game plan, looked through my close-to-empty cabinets, and scratched out a list on my refrigerator post-it pad that was bought specifically for this purpose. It is fairly vague, but that's sort of how I roll, especially when shopping in the city. You never know exactly what you are going to find, so it is important to be flexible.

One thing I do a lot when cooking just for me, is use a cooked dish over and over again in different ways throughout the week. This week, I am going to roast up a variety of vegetables (probably zucchini, peppers of all colors, carrots, olives, yellow or butternut squash) and use them in a few different recipes throughout the week. This is one of my favorite ways to prepare vegetables, because I can cook them up on a Sunday and then use them all week by just adding them to a dish, the final flourish that pulls it all together. Otherwise, I find I have to buy small amounts of vegetables and in the end there is always a bag of green beans going slowly bad in my crisper because I forgot to cook them.

I've posted my grocery list to the left, as it stands right now, and I will begin to cook tomorrow.

*I saw that in an online personal ad awhile back and thought it was cute and could be reused here even though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense in context.