Food
Goal for the week: Remember that I am not my entire family.
No, this is not some sort of existential crisis regarding my place outside my family unit. This is a much more practical issue--food.
At home, I am the household chef. I generally cook for five people. However, one of those people is my sister who, being fifteen, eats approximately one quarter of her body weight every week*. Another of those people, my stepfather, works construction, so he eats a lot. I almost always make at least one extra serving, in case someone drops by; for example my dad eats with us a couple of times a week, and the children have friends over constantly. I also typically cook enough to be lunch for everyone the next day.
This is a lot of food.
However, I am a single female with a slow metabolism. On my own, I eat about 1700 calories a day. Yet I still seem to cook with a family in mind. Part of this is habit--I have no idea how many dried lentils make an appropriate amount of soup for one human being. I always just dumped in the bag. Part of this is the nature of food itself. Butternut squash is delicious, and I want to include it in my diet, but that means buying a whole three-pound squash.
It does not help that I have three local farmers markets seducing me with their delicious local produce. Damn you, beautiful organic salad greens. How can I eat a whole head of lettuce?
The upswing is that I spent four hours this morning cooking my way through my backlog of vegetables. I made butternut squash soup, miso-ginger stirfry, pasta with tomatoes and beans, and perogies--and I still need to finish that lettuce.
I either need to stop cooking or acquire more friends.
*A literal truth, but not as hard as it sounds, given that she is anime-thin.
No, this is not some sort of existential crisis regarding my place outside my family unit. This is a much more practical issue--food.
At home, I am the household chef. I generally cook for five people. However, one of those people is my sister who, being fifteen, eats approximately one quarter of her body weight every week*. Another of those people, my stepfather, works construction, so he eats a lot. I almost always make at least one extra serving, in case someone drops by; for example my dad eats with us a couple of times a week, and the children have friends over constantly. I also typically cook enough to be lunch for everyone the next day.
This is a lot of food.
However, I am a single female with a slow metabolism. On my own, I eat about 1700 calories a day. Yet I still seem to cook with a family in mind. Part of this is habit--I have no idea how many dried lentils make an appropriate amount of soup for one human being. I always just dumped in the bag. Part of this is the nature of food itself. Butternut squash is delicious, and I want to include it in my diet, but that means buying a whole three-pound squash.
It does not help that I have three local farmers markets seducing me with their delicious local produce. Damn you, beautiful organic salad greens. How can I eat a whole head of lettuce?
The upswing is that I spent four hours this morning cooking my way through my backlog of vegetables. I made butternut squash soup, miso-ginger stirfry, pasta with tomatoes and beans, and perogies--and I still need to finish that lettuce.
I either need to stop cooking or acquire more friends.
*A literal truth, but not as hard as it sounds, given that she is anime-thin.