Real Life Intervenes

This past week started out like any good week:  on Sunday morning, I wrote a menu for the week and then translated that into two grocery shopping lists, one for Sunday and one for mid-week. I was pretty pleased with the balance of protein and carbohydrates, and with my plans for vegetables at each dinner meal.

Menu for Week of 24 Jan 2021

Unfortunately, real life intervened.  I didn’t leave the house to go grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon, even though I had been out of the house for roughly two weeks.  I can’t really say why I lacked the motivation to do my shopping, but I figured it would be okay to wait to do it after work on Monday.  I had ordered both a sandwich and a dinner salad from the local takeout delivery service on Saturday night, and I still had the salad saved for Sunday dinner.  The only problem would be the lack of milk for Monday morning coffee.

Monday morning, I woke up to chemical coffee: hot water, freeze dried espresso powder, and Torani syrup.  Breakfast was two gingerbread cookies from a Christmas basket that a colleague sent me for the holiday.  I had left an open box of spaghetti on the counter before I left for my travels, so that was satisfying for lunch, especially since I had found a jar of tomato sauce in my pandemic pantry.  In fact, that worked for Monday dinner and Tuesday lunch as well.

By Tuesday evening, I ran out of spaghetti and jar sauce.  So I decided to do a deeper dive into my pandemic pantry, which consists of four brown paper grocery bags stuffed with nonperishable food items that are stored under my buffet table.  Because they are for emergency use, I only have a vague idea of what is in each bag.  I know that’s where the extra pounds of Barnie’s coffee are stored, along with approximately two pounds of dried black beans and a similar quantity of dried lentils.  I also know that there are jams and other preserves from the local orchard that I moved out of the horde cabinet.  Finally, I know that the fourth bag has the extra pounds of white flour that I ordered from Amazon when flour was short in my local grocery stores.  Beyond those meager insights, the contents of my pandemic pantry are a mystery to me.  I was hoping my investigation would turn up a box of macaroni and cheese, but would settle for to anything that could tide me over until I did my grocery shopping.  Happily it turned up a container of powdered coffee creamer, which meant that I could do without milk for another day.  Unfortunately, rather than turn up boxes of macaroni and cheese, the inventory turned up a lot of plain couscous: a large plastic container at the bottom of the first bag as well as several generic boxes in the third bag.  So I decided to make a box of couscous for dinner, seasoning it with olive oil and roughly a tablespoon of the Hawaiian seasoning that Little Z gave me for Christmas.

Christmas Eve Pierogi Fest

The couscous lasted through Wednesday lunch, which left me limited options for Wednesday dinner: I could order takeout, I could reinvestigate the pandemic pantry, or I could check the freezer.  Sure enough, as soon as I opened my freezer, out tumbled a plastic bag of homemade potato pierogi leftover from the Christmas Eve pierogi making festivities at my parents’ house.  (Pierogi making is a whole different discussion!)  And tucked behind that was a second bag of assorted mystery pierogi.  I started with the easily identifiable potato pierogi, which were enough for Wednesday night dinner and Thursday breakfast, and then progressed to guessing which of the mystery pierogi were mushroom for Thursday lunch.

On Thursday night, I declared myself sick of my carbohydrate diet of pasta, couscous, and pierogi.  So I ordered delivery from a local seafood restaurant, which was enough to have protein rich meals for dinner that evening and breakfast the next morning.

When I finished work on Friday afternoon, I finally left the house to go grocery shopping.  It was a short trip - just enough to tide me over until the weekend shopping trip - but did include a flank steak, two broccoli crowns,  two cartons of mushrooms, a carton of milk, and shredded cheddar cheese.  Just enough proteins and greens to make me happy!

The Verdict

My blog, like most of my social media, may not necessarily be reflective of my everyday real life.  I truly would love to have a creative cocktail, a decadent dinner, and maybe even a crave-worthy confection on the regular.  But most nights, I’m scrambling to see what I can find, cook, and/or both before I chew off an arm after work.  So if you ever find yourself feeling that way, just remember that you’re in good company.  Tonight I’m eating sauerkraut pierogi for dinner because I’m too hungry to wait the half hour for my flank steak to cook.  (Fortunately, it will finish cooking while I’m eating my pierogi so that I can have it for lunch and dinner tomorrow!)