Yesterday was one of those days where I did a bit of taking stock -- does anything need to be eaten soon? How much room is in the freezer? What did I order already?  Let's start with the last question first. I have two food orders coming my way. First, a relatively small Fresh Direct order, with some dairy (milk, half & half, yogurt, feta), a bit of produce (tomatoes, mangoes, avocados, lettuce, shallots), some random pantry items (rice for risotto, cannellini beans, flour, crackers), and a box of rose (cheap and cheerful!).  Second, I placed an order from Pierless Fish, which ordinarily is a wholesaler for restaurants but is doing home delivery with a minimum order of $60. Their seafood prices are much better than Fresh Direct, and even with the $10 delivery fee on orders under $100, I think I made out pretty well. That's coming on Monday and includes a bunch of frozen items, a pound of mussels, and some sushi-grade fish. I have been craving sushi but haven't yet ordered it -- I somehow got the idea in my head that I was going to make it. I have had a rolling mat and rice paddle for years, but haven't made sushi in ages (I also have to find them). I placed another order that arrived yesterday from Sunrise Mart through Mercato and got my favorite fresh ramen -- the Tan Tan Spicy Ramen from Sun Noodle (my other major craving that I haven't yet satisfied), some sushi rice, mirin, and nori, so now I'm ready to rock when my fish arrives.

Knowing I have a bunch of things coming, I decided to make some room in the fridge and freezer. First, I took some chicken thighs out of the freezer to thaw for Saturday night, then for breakfast, I had a quesadilla with homemade refried beans (from Tuesday's nachos) and cheese topped with salsa. For lunch, I took the last of the lettuce and made a "kitchen sink salad," by taking a bit of this and that from what was lingering in the fridge: a slice of pepper jack, some pepperoni, chopped up sweet potato fries, some chickpeas, shaved carrot, fried shallots (I have a jar of these in the cabinet) and some pepitas.  For dinner I continued my quest to empty the freezer: I ate half of a Trader Joe's frozen chana masala with brown basmati rice, and a Trader Joe's malabari paratha. In the before times, I often kept a frozen TJ's Indian meal of some sort lying around. I'm a big fan of the lamb vindaloo with a handful of spinach. They're great for times when you have zero interest in cooking, although I like the garlic naan better than the paratha, if anyone's keeping score.

So I was plugging along on Tuesday with a fridge (and freezer and pantry) full of food. For lunch I had leftover Dinnerly kung pao chicken with jasmine rice with some mediocre but easy scallion pancakes I made last weekend, and I was all set to make this Smitten Kitchen sheet pan meatballs with crispy turmeric chickpeas, but as dinnertime approaches, all I wanted was Thai food. So I caved and ordered from Uncle Boon's -- khao soi and fried chicken laab. I'm so glad I did -- I missed Thai food so much. Yes, I had some of the very tasty Watcharee sauces, which are good, but khao soi is my ultimate favorite, and Uncle Boon's version is so good. Being back in the city, there is much more temptation to order in/take out -- there are so many options. I'm going to try to limit myself to once per week, max.

Yesterday I had leftover Thai for lunch (just as delicious the next day!) and then went back to the ground turkey that was scheduled for Tuesday's dinner. Before ordering Thai, I had double-checked the expiration date on the turkey (all good until the 9th) -- this is crucial for meat and I always err on the size of freezing something if I don't think I'll use it quickly enough. I also revisited that sheet pan meatball recipe and realized that I was not at all in the mood for that, so instead I made a Skinnytaste inside-out turkey cheeseburger with pepperjack and air-fryer sweet potato fries with Everything but the Elote seasoning from Trader Joe's (it's also amazing on popcorn, FYI). I used 1/4 lb of turkey for the burger, wrapped another 1/4 lb as a burger patty and put it in the freezer, and froze the remaining 1/2 pound for those meatballs or in lieu of the ground pork in this recipe I've been eyeing for spicy-sweet sambal pork noodles.

As I mentioned yesterday, I ordered a LOT of food from Fresh Direct, including things I don't usually buy or keep in the house -- some healthier than others. For example, I don't ordinarily go through a lot of fruit, so when I shopped in the before times, I'd get some cut pineapple, maybe two bananas or two apples, a grapefruit, and potentially some clementines. This would last me for about two weeks. In my pandemic FD orders, I got a bag of clementines, strawberries, raspberries, mangoes, and apples, and I have to say, I've been eating a log more fruit. There is nothing as tasty as a perfectly ripe mango. I'll be getting those again for sure. I've also been getting things I don't normally keep in the house because I love them and will eat more than I should, namely chips (in this case Cheetos, tortilla chips "for Cinco de Mayo," and potato chips), and cheese. I also got some candy (Reese's peanut butter cups), which is something I just don't usually have on hand. I don't have a big sweet tooth, but one a day hits the spot. After this round, no more chips and candy. The cheese hasn't been a problem -- I'm eating normal portions of it, so that's good. 

I'm trying to get into the habit of scanning fridge daily and trying to determine what needs to be eaten first, so I can plan around that on Plan to Eat, and what needs to get frozen so it doesn't go bad.  Today I put half of my milk in the freezer because all I use it for is coffee and I can't get through it before it goes bad.  The freezer is your friend, but it's important to keep track of everything in there, lest it turns into a black hole. Gotta eat at least some of it before buying more! I label containers with masking tape/painters tape and a sharpie with the contents and date on each.

Going back to toning it down, there's one thing I'm trying to ramp back up -- my exercise routine. I have been using Aaptiv, an audio workout app that I have been using for quite some time, for most of my workouts, and managed to do ok when I was up in CT. It was waaaay too hilly to run, but I went on decent walks most days, and sometimes did strength training, yoga, or going up and down the stairs from the road to the lake. Since I got back home, I have gone running a few times (with a mask) but allergies are making that challenging right now, so I've primarily been doing bodyweight-only strength training, yoga, pilates, stretching, and meditation, and in the before times, I've done all of that plus spinning and strength training in the gym where I have access to dumbells and kettlebells. Who knows when I might have access to those again. I have also tried a few Zoom workouts, both through ClassPass and with Circuit of Change -- both were great. There are also tons of free workouts on Instagram -- haven't tried those yet. I just ordered some kettlebells because I feel like I need an extra boost -- stay tuned. 

Yesterdays meals (Cinco de Mayo themed): Breakfast taco (egg, hash brown, bacon, pepper jack, salsa, scallion, cilantro) for late breakfast/brunch,  Margaritas and nachos with homemade refried beans and leftover steak (pictured above) for dinner.

Now those of you who know me know that I like a well-stocked pantry in normal times. I don't feel comfortable without it. I had an amazing pantry at my disposal in CT and frankly, I think I have a pretty incredible pantry in my studio apartment as well, considering I have a fraction of the space. After my week of fried chicken, pizza, spaghetti-o's and Dinnerly box meals (kung pao chicken w/rice, crispy shrimp tacos, and sesame ginger beef with string beans) (there were some salads in there as well, never fear), I continued to utilize my Fresh Direct groceries along with my pantry/freezer stash. One tool that I use (and have used even in the before times) for grocery lists, recipe clipping, and some meal planning (to the extent I do it) is Plan to Eat. It's not free (maybe $20/year?) but it's worth every penny as far as I'm concerned. 

Since late last week, I have been using it to meal plan, partially just to ensure I'm not letting things go bad that need to be cooked and partially so I don't overcook -- I really feel like I went a bit haywire there with the VAT of spaghetti-o's that I had to eat more of than I wanted because I had no room in the freezer for leftovers.  Now that things have calmed down, I think it will be helpful to see when I really need more food, what exactly I need, and how to best incorporate what I have. Another thing to note as I talk about my planning/eating is that my breakfasts are generally minimal -- a slice of toast and some fruit; fruit and yogurt, etc. Sometimes I don't even eat breakfast because by the time I get around to it it's already 11:30 and I might as well wait a tad longer and have lunch instead. On weekends I'll make more of a brunch. At one point prior to the pandemic, however, I had made waffles from the Trader Joe's protein pancake/waffle mix and had frozen a few waffles -- so I had a waffle with strawberries and raspberries (2nd FD order) Saturday morning, and a full on spinach, mushroom and cheese omelette with hash browns (shredded Trader Joe's potatoes from freezer) and bacon on Sunday.

Last Friday night, I used the cod that arrived that morning to make roasted cod with tomato cream sauce (I had gotten grape tomatoes in both my Fresh Direct orders, plus heavy cream from the spaghetti-o's recipe) and served it over sauteed spinach (from first FD order; had also been using it for salads and omelette filling). Weekend dinners were Dinnerly stir-fries. Monday I cooked a Butcher Box NY strip from my freezer (used Plan to Eat to remind myself to thaw it), with creamed spinach (gotta use that cream and spinach up), sauteed mushrooms (from 2nd FD order), and some herbed horseradish butter I had in my freezer. Amazing. Lunch that day was the small bit of leftover cod atop some white rice. The leftover steak will be repurposed as well -- stay tuned!

Twenty days. Yeah, I got bored writing. Or I lacked motivation.  Or I felt like our cooking was sort of uncreative.  Delicious, for sure, but not super-interesting. Some highlights? Grouper with asparagus and fish generally -- I have gained confidence in my ability to cook all kinds of fish (olive oil, S&P, any other seasonings, bake to 145 degrees, viola!). Spaghetti and meatballs with freshly ground meat for the meatballs. Carbonara. Scallops in a shit-ton of butter. A lot of cucumber/tomato/chickpea salads. A honey dijon yogurt dressing. Some really good fucking steak (thank you, Dellapietras). More perfect roast chicken and potatoes. And then . .  .

I CAME HOME.

After 6 weeks living with my dear, generous, patient, hospitable, and amazing friends, we drove back into the city, and they dropped me off at my apartment. Of course, the first thing I had to consider was food. Mind you, I had done some stocking up on non-perishables before I knew I'd be in CT for that long, so I started with some frozen steaks and scallops from Butcher Box, some frozen veggies, a bag of rice, extra pasta, a few cans of beans and chickpeas, some canned tomatoes, a container of black bean soup, extra olive oil, and shelf-stable milk. But of course, I ignored/forgot about all that when I went online to place a Fresh Direct order. I had heard nightmares about not being able to get a delivery spot, things being unavailable, etc., so jumped on an open slot when it came up. I packed up the cart with all kinds of things, which would arrive the day after I got home. 

Before they went back to CT, R&N stopped of to drop me off a care package from Dellapietra's -- they apparently make fried chicken. So I had a 4pm delectable fried chicken "snack" and took stock of my kitchen. Fresh Direct was coming mid-day the following day, so I was pretty set until it arrived, with the exception of my morning coffee -- I didn't think it was necessary to bust into the shelf-stable milk for one cup of coffee when I had a half-gallon coming a few hours later. As the evening wore on, I was trying to figure out if I really wanted dinner. Turned out I did -- I ordered a pizza from Joe's to welcome me home. I ate two slices, kept two slices in the fridge, and froze the rest.

Saturday morning I went to Lena, a small coffee place around the corner and got a cortado, and had it with a slice of sourdough bread (from the freezer) for breakfast. Then the food arrived -- I had to figure out how to shove it all in my already typically full pantry (answer -- overflow on the kitchen counter), but I was well-set. Several of my meals that week consisted of salads, fried chicken, and/or pizza, but on Saturday night, I made an enormous pot of Adult Spaghetti-o's, a recipe I was eyeing for a while. I froze a bunch for later, but that was in heavy rotation the first week as well. 

Oh -- I forgot to mention -- I was so concerned that the Fresh Direct order would fail that I got one of my Dinnerly boxes delivered for the following Tuesday (I subscribe to that and Blue Apron, but basically cancel them every week; PS, let me know if you want me to send you a free box), so I cooked through those as well. I placed a much smaller Fresh Direct order for this past weekend, mostly produce and protein, and now I am taking a huge breath before figuring out how to recalibrate my food purchasing going forward. More on that tomorrow.