Eating Down the Fridge: Day 1

This was not a particularly difficult day, thanks to The Best Babysitter Ever...I could throw the lasagne she made in the oven, feed the kids some leftover noodles from the dinner last night that we were kindly invited to by Girlfriend, and get to the playground (or at least the house down the street with the puppy). I also finished the rolls I bought last week before they were irretrievable by making garlic bread. Breakfast was our usual cereal (and due to some amazing sales in December and January, we are stocked up on Life cereal through spring, even with the alarming rate at which the boys race through it).

But the EDF challenge did get me thinking about the rest of our food choices that day. We are in the habit of going to the snack bar at the gym after swim classes, where the boys get cereals that I usually don't let in the house. Today, one son wanted a cereal bar instead. And then he was jealous about the cereal and switched off, giving me a chance to read the ingredients on the cereal bar. That was not pretty. I didn't think I'd be glad to see him switch to Cocoa Puffs but (yikes) I was alarmed to realize there are less scary things in the puffs.

For lunch, the boys had popcorn, since they had had the late snack. I went through the fridge and found leeks on their last legs and my tarragon, which was fine yesterday and not so fine today, and used it to make the recipe for braised leeks from (you guessed it) How to Eat Supper. I used my new 12 inch not-non-stick pan, which was fun, and which I both scratched and created a brown spot on instantly. But the leeks were totally awesomely worth it and there were none left for my husband. I'm sure he wouldn't have liked them anyway. But oh, the cream sauce. It's been a real revelation to me: it really doesn't take more than two tablespoons of cream, sometimes, to have an awesome cream sauce if you have a good base to begin with.

As in most things, I was going for balance with this challenge--I hope not to go grocery shopping but that doesn't mean I'm not going to buy food, especially when it would throw off a routine (and a happy one at that).

Off to defrost the meat for tomorrow.