Lockdown Day 309: Leftoverage
Jan. 19th, 2021 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI realized today it's been almost two weeks since I've eaten restaurant food. Any streak away from restaurants continues to surprise me as I used to be such a devoted restaurant-goer. Prior to the pandemic I went out for lunch pretty much 7x/week and dinner at least 5x/week. When we realized in March that shit was getting serious with the Coronavirus we agreed sitting in restaurants was too risky. I switched practically overnight— well, it was more like between lunch and dinner one weekend day— and ate 100% at home for 31 days straight.
After that initial sprint of eating at home I gradually mixed back in takeout food. First it was takeout once every two weeks, then about once a week, then twice a week or more. Now, though, that the virus is well into its third surge in the US (or is the the fourth?) I've ratcheted back on restaurants again.
The curious thing about eating at home the past two weeks is that I haven't wanted to go out. I mean, I have— or at least I thought I might. Several times last week I thought to myself, "I think I want takeout for dinner; I'd like the variety and I don't want to cook anything." But each time I found adequate food at home. A big part of how that's worked is leftovers.
Leftovers definitely solve the "I don't want to cook anything" piece of that problem. Even if they're reheated, that's less effort than cooking something fresh. Often it's as simple as sticking something in the microwave and pressing "+30 sec" until ready. But they don't solve well for the "I want variety" half of the problem. Leftovers are, by definition, not variety.
It turns out, though, leftovers can represent variety... if you've got enough of them! And that's part of how I've been happy with eating out of my own kitchen for two weeks. With a few different choices of leftovers at any point, plus a few different choices of low-effort foods like tasty sliced meats and cheese for sandwiches, I can pull together a lot of my meals in a week without really having to cook all that often. Ease and variety!
After that initial sprint of eating at home I gradually mixed back in takeout food. First it was takeout once every two weeks, then about once a week, then twice a week or more. Now, though, that the virus is well into its third surge in the US (or is the the fourth?) I've ratcheted back on restaurants again.
The curious thing about eating at home the past two weeks is that I haven't wanted to go out. I mean, I have— or at least I thought I might. Several times last week I thought to myself, "I think I want takeout for dinner; I'd like the variety and I don't want to cook anything." But each time I found adequate food at home. A big part of how that's worked is leftovers.
Leftovers definitely solve the "I don't want to cook anything" piece of that problem. Even if they're reheated, that's less effort than cooking something fresh. Often it's as simple as sticking something in the microwave and pressing "+30 sec" until ready. But they don't solve well for the "I want variety" half of the problem. Leftovers are, by definition, not variety.
It turns out, though, leftovers can represent variety... if you've got enough of them! And that's part of how I've been happy with eating out of my own kitchen for two weeks. With a few different choices of leftovers at any point, plus a few different choices of low-effort foods like tasty sliced meats and cheese for sandwiches, I can pull together a lot of my meals in a week without really having to cook all that often. Ease and variety!
