If you read my new year post you know that one of my resolutions was to cook at home more often. I have found this difficult in that past because I find cooking for one to be very difficult. I love fresh vegetables, but fresh vegetables need to be used quickly in order not to spoil. And I have unfortunately allowed many a vegetable to turn icky in my fridge. Because my Northern California roots make me conscious of waste this has caused me undue stress (starving children here and abroad, you know), so I stopped grocery shopping out of the guilty feelings of wasting perfectly good vegetables.

But, the pocketbook no longer allows 2-3 meals per day (yes) to be eaten out at various restaurants (you know, what with a mortgage and all) ~ so with 2007 I had the resolve to learn to use vegetables up before they go bad.

Step one.
Buy only the amount you can use in 1 week. This trip I bought 4 kinds of bell peppers, artichokes, green beans and roma tomatoes. Hmmm. It may be too much. Unless I invite people over.

Step two.
Cut and separate the veggies into containers that make for ease of use. I am usually starved by the time I get to eat and so having to cut and do a lot of prepartion for my meal is not appealing.

Step three.
Have a plan. I bought my veggies with more than one meal in mind for the week. I thought of breakfasts, lunches, snacks & dinners.

Step four.
Stick to it. No matter that you feel like eating mexican food, you’re having one of the meals you planned in your head while at the grocery store.

So, now with a fridge full of various bell peppers I have enjoyed:
1. Veggie stir fry ~ 4 kinds of peppers, red, yellow, orange and green. Mixed with prepackaged bok choy, snap pea & sugar pea mix from [URL=http://www.traderjoes.com/index.html]Trader Joe’s[/url] this was yummy-yum. Although I cooked for two, ’cause the boy was starving too.

2.Turkey Sandwich ~ with slices of green bell pepper on it, just like Subway.

3.Egg Scramble ~ with 4 kinds of peppers and cheese. Add some veggie sausage links and sourdough toast and it’s just like your favorite breakfast nook. Pictured here with placemats and napkins from Grandma.

4.Mixed Green Salad ~ I think this is self-explanatory. Spring salad with bell peppers, tomato and some basalmic. Served with some chicken, rice & green beans. Add bread.

5.Artichoke Appetizer ~ good with butter/lemon juice. As a mid-day or mid-night snack. Cooked ahead and kept fresh in the fridge. But I don’t know how to cook artichokes. (??)

I have always loved to cook at home and it certainly makes my home feel more useful and lived in. Sitting at my dining room table with my aliPod on shuffle and candles shining is much better than sitting in a restaurant with dicey music choices and people talking loudly around you anyway, right? And taking a few moments to go into the kitchen at work to prepare a meal offers a few minutes to chat with coworkers and relax. So for lunch ideas I am going to buy the book [URL=http://www.amazon.com/Brown-Bag-Lunch-Cookbook-Cookbooks/dp/0762727586/sr=1-1/qid=1167945999/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-8656274-2122034?ie=UTF8&s=books]The Brown Bag Lunch Cookbook[/url], at the suggestion of Miss. Lindsey a number of months ago. Any and all suggestions about grocery shopping, recipes or food prep from you lot, are welcome and encouraged! It’s Brown Bag life in 2007…