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Taking care of my Mom several years ago meant devising ways to manage my responsibilities, efficiently and effectively, at home and at work. As a result, I’ve restructured the way I buy, store, cook and eat food. It has been gradually occurring for the past 8 years.
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COOKING
I cook mainly on the weekends, Saturday and or Sunday, depending on what I am making and what is involved. I make a variety of dishes so that I do not have to eat the same thing every day for a week. At most, I’d have the same thing 2 or 3 times a week but not consecutively. And because I make different things, I can mix and match. For example, one day, I may have fried okra with dhal as a soup and a couple of days later, I may have the same okra with rice and peas. Another example – one day I may have roast chicken with green plantain fries. Another day, I’ll have roast chicken with a garden salad. Nothing is set, I simply make up my mind based on what I want to have given the things I have made.
Cooking this way means that I have invested in additional glass and plastic, airtight storage containers and dishes. This way, I can portion my food and retrieve a container/dish easily and not have to access a large dish with the entire lot and have to go back and forth. Or struggle to pry things apart. Soups, stews, curries, and dhal all get individually portioned. So too do cooked vegetables, rice, beans and pea dishes. Roasts get cut up and sorted into portions.
There are times when I do not feel like eating what I have made and stored, on those occasions, I would cook whatever I feel like having.
BUYING & EATING
I’ve never been the type of person who eats 3 meals a day, and over the years that has not changed. Most times I eat twice a day, a main meal and something light, but these days, I find that I mostly eat one main meal and I feel full and satiated. On the rare occasion that I feel hungry, I’d have some whole wheat biscuits (crackers) either on their own, with cheese or butter.
Eating one main meal a day has resulted in me buying less perishables – vegetables, meat, seafood and poultry. My food shopping in this area has become somewhat disciplined. I no longer buy more stuff from the market or butcher weekly when there are still things in the crisper or freezer that need to be cooked/used up.
STORING
Speaking of the fridge and freezer. Just before the holidays I went through the refrigerator, decluttering. There was so much stuff packed in both compartments. As you well know, real estate is key in that appliance around the holidays, so I needed to free up some space. I made jams, juices and punches with all the fruit purees I had stocked and gave to friends. Pots of soups and one-pot dishes were made and given away.
Thanks to global warming and the unbearable temperatures we have been experiencing, things that were once stored in a pantry or cupboard must now be kept cool in a refrigerator to protect and preserve their quality and shelf life. Flours, particularly those of whole grains I keep in the refrigerator, ground spices, salt fish, smoked fish, dried fruits, nuts, jams, achar, pepper sauce are all stored in the refrigerator. Then there are certain pastes and condiments that once opened must be refrigerated. I am constantly arranging and rearranging things to fit and make space.
Based on the high cost of food these days, whenever there are offers and bargains on certain things that I use, I buy more units and stock them. Doing this means that I am adding even more stuff to the refrigerator in particular for storage. For example, the plain whole milk probiotic yogurt and the plain whole milk Greek yogurt, both of which I use regularly to eat, drink (in shakes), cook and bake, are not always available (international supply chain issues) so when they are, I buy multiple 2-pound tubs. More space being occupied.
TAKING STOCK
Given how I’ve been shopping, cooking, eating and storing these past few years, here’s what happens:
English potatoes are only bought when I need to cook them – the same day or the day after.
The quantity of onions and garlic bought has been reduced and that’s really based on my style of cooking whereby my sauteed vegetables for example are seasoned mainly with salt and freshly ground black pepper. This way, I get to taste the actual flavour of the vegetables.
Vegetables are cooked the same day they are bought from the market. Only broccoli and cabbage are stored in the refrigerator because the broccoli is mainly roasted or steamed and the cabbage stir fried or eaten raw. I like to prep and cook these just before eating.
A large bowl of garden salad is made and portioned in individual containers or mason jars for ready and easy access (taking up space in the refrigerator).
I’ve put an embargo on myself in relation to buying hot peppers and making pepper sauce. I have pepper sauce to last me for more than a year and frozen hot peppers to last me for at least another 3 to 4 months.
There is a self-imposed restriction on the quantity (and number of packages) of fruit purees that can be made and stored.
I am considering buying a mini refrigerator exclusively to store all those pantry items that will benefit from being in a cool environment and free up space in the large refrigerator for things that actually belong there.
WHAT I’M EATING
We don’t stay the same way all our lives, in almost all aspects of it. How we engage with food and drinks is one of the ways in which we change, for a variety of reasons, and not all of it is health related. Our appetite can wane, so too can our desire for things we once could not get enough of. Availability or lack thereof could be another contributing factor. As I said, the reasons are many. I mentioned last week in some of my food takeaways from 2024 that I have been eating more salads and baigan (eggplant) choka with whole wheat biscuits. Well, I’ve also been making a lot of broth-like soups (I never used to like soups) and eating a variety of legumes in the style of boil and fry channa (chickpeas).
How has your shopping, cooking and eating changed or not? What are you thinking about food for 2025?
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org