We love leftovers!

Just as I'd planned, Ken prepared the leftover curried lentils and sweet potato dish and rice, the remaining frozen corn, and made a salad. Okay, so he had a cucumber craving...he couldn't help himself, he said! Later in the evening we did our duty and polished off the remaining Luigi's ice (love those things!) and scrapings of coffee ice cream. So THAT'S out of the way. Not sure yet if finishing all the ice cream is good or bad.

We're still really enjoying this project. My husband loves meat so it remains to be seen how long he can go without it, once we finish up that lone pork chop in the freezer. There's so much more we can do with the non-meat things on the shelves, though - and my own challenge will be convincing him we don't need the meat. Neither of us wants to be vegetarian, though I tend more in that direction and am happier with non-meat dinners than Ken is. Heck, I'm happy with a bowl of cereal with raisins for dinner, but that doesn't wash most nights.

NPR reported alarming statistics this morning. About 1.5 million people in North Carolina live in poverty (I didn't catch what is considered the income level). These are people who may have to choose between purchasing vital medications and feeding their families, and the thought of children not having enough food distresses me greatly. I'll bring something to the food drive underway now at the Museum where I work, which is the very very least I can do. My pantry overflows with riches, and I can spare much for those in need. Maybe you could do the same. See you tomorrow.

A week later...

It was rather a quiet dinner last night, nothing extravagant or particularly creative on the Tessier table. We did, however, enjoy pork chops from the grill, 3 remaining Yukon gold potatoes, and salad with homemade vinaigrette. Remember, these are all items that we already had on hand.

When we began this adventure, I thought maybe we'd last two weeks and most everything would be gone. That was a gross miscalculation - I'm not sure WHAT I was thinking. We have enough in the pantry and in the freezer, and could really manage, for about a month - maybe even longer. It's been a week now and time has flown - but the food on hand isn't disappearing as fast as I thought it would. I have only bought milk, orange juice, and salad stuff in the past week, and that's a nice change.

October will see us housesitting for our friends for almost 3 weeks, and that might derail a lesser woman's plans - but not mine! I'm determined we will continue to feast from our pantry and freezer items - we'll bring food from our stores to use during that time. Tonight we'll enjoy leftover curried lentils and sweet potatoes over leftover rice, and salad. Tomorrow I'm thinking some form of pasta with some of Ken's yummy spaghetti sauce from the freezer, and some carrot sticks.

I've had some nice comments about what we're doing. It's fun - why not try it yourself and let me know how it goes!