Store prepped veggies in bags (Bulk OAMC tips)

Store prepared carrots in an empty tortilla bag to save money

One of the most important parts of doing "once a month cooking" is the prep work. Even if you don’t do all of the cooking on one day, you’ll want to do as much of the prep work at one time as possible. This way, even if you need to stop early, you have still shaved off tons of time for later in the week or month.

The above is an example of peeling a whole bunch of carrots at once. I ran out of time and couldn’t go ahead and slice/dice/chunk them for various recipes. I was also making enchiladas for dinner and had just emptied a tortilla. Instead of throwing it out, it was an easy, reusable way to store the whole, peeled carrots, until I was ready to come back to them again.

Later in the week, I likely sliced some of these for the kids’ lunches, diced some for soups, and polished off the last for snacks. Chances are, I had a similar bag of celery right alongside it in the fridge, too.

Waste not, want not – I’ll eat almost anything, but….

broccoli, personal, vegetables, veggies | October 27, 2013 | By

So there are seemingly three main perspectives I’ve had over the years when it comes to eating foods or parts if foods that I don’t like. 
1. Hating the food as a kid and not understanding why I had to eat it anyway.
2. Hating the food as an adult and understanding why it was important to eat it anyway.
3. Hating the food as an adult and being able to say “screw it, I don’t have to eat that!”
For example, I don’t like eating the crust on a basic sandwich. As a kid, I didn’t understand why anyone would want to eat them in the first place. As an adult, I knew it was silly to waste food and that there wasn’t muh texture difference so I shouldn’t be so childish.
I don’t HATE the crusts any more and sometimes even enjoy them on the right kind of bread. If I’m alone, though, and have the choice of throwing the crusts to the squirrels instead (this is how I justify it as not wasting food…I’m sharing!), then I definitely will. If I’m not enjoying it, then why force myself to eat it anyway?
So what’s with the broccoli picture? I don’t really enjoy eating the stalks. Normally I buy fresh and can cut off as much as I want. When I buy frozen, I go with florets….and then cut off the excess. 
But this time, I ended up with “cuts” and half the bag was chalky, flavorless broccoli stalks. Instead of avoiding the bag in the freezer for months or using the whole thing in a dish and ultimately shuffling the bits around my plate later, I promptly picked out the bad stuff.
Why? Because at stage 3, even with understanding, it’s my money and my taste buds, and if I want to torture the squirrels with stale bread or the garbage disposal with tough veggies instead…I can. :p

Oklahoma’s State Fruit is…the Watermelon? (Facts about Food Friday)

 photo eagle-watermelon-carving.jpg photo 52.jpg

Facts about Food Friday

If this were a tomato we were talking about, I would understand. A tomato fits some characteristics of both a vegetable and a fruit, and we tend to use it for either general purpose, so there’s some confusion.

But the watermelon? Yes, I did my research. Yes, I know that there are some claims like how it’s part of the cucumber family, and therefore, could be considered a vegetable… But come on.

Even if it were 100% vegetable, I would say the vast majority of people think of it as a fruit. Maybe the vast majority of people are completely wrong even, but when you name your state vegetable as being the watermelon, you’re the one who looks stupid… Ah well. We probably didn’t have that high hopes for you anyway, Oklahoma. ;)