Normally I don't think too much into the actual process of prepping and chopping vegetables-- I just do it. Yesterday though, I was more careful and meticulous in my preparation of these elements of our dinner. The onion was carefully peeled of the skin, whereas I may have normally removed a few layers and discarded them all into the compost heap. This didn't happen. The zucchinis normally would have had an inch hacked off of the ends. Yesterday, maybe a millimeter was removed from the blossom end, and the same removed just under the stem. When food is in a finite supply, more care is given to how it is prepared and utilized. It was a small step, but I really thought about it. How wasteful have we been? How much more could we have utilized all along?
Today, we killed off the last few Christmas cookies that remained on the counter tray. A cookie and a half plus a cup of coffee does not make for a "complete balanced breakfast" (remember those lines from cereal commercials in the 80's?), so I hunted down a piece of fruit. I really had my heart set on a Honeycrisp apple from the crisper drawer, but I remembered that I had other fruit that needed to be eaten first. In horror, I found the lone banana on top of the microwave that was more spotted than yellow. It was significant in that it was our last banana. We have no more, and I can't say for certain when we will have them again. I picked it up and looked it over in a way I hadn't looked at a piece of fruit before.
I shuddered. It was darker than this:
(imagine the yellow parts brown, and the brown parts yellow)
That's why we're on this journey. We aim to eliminate wastefulness from our lives. We want to re-establish genuine notions of want vs. need. We want to be good stewards of our resources, whatever they may be. I see a lot of leftovers and "interestingly concocted" meals in our future, and you know what? That's perfectly OK.
--SH