simple eating

In this journey of minimalism, I’ve wanted to expand past the decluttering and streamlining things to food as well. Not so much decluttering that area but eating simpler and eating the same foods weekly to simplify menus etc. We do eat pretty simple but for some reason, I want to even more.

I’ve always bought bulk foods, rice, beans, etc since the 1970’s. Even soaps, detergents, canned goods etc because it’s easier for me and simpler to buy bulk and then not have to think about those things for 6 months. Back in the 1970’s we’d go out to a place called Mother Truckers by Ananda. Mother Truckers is still there and does a brisk business. Ananda is still there although many changes have occurred. It’s still a spiritual community based on Yogananda Paramahansa’s teachings. Anyway, we’d go out there, which was about a 2-hour drive for us, and get bulk shampoo, honey, etc.

Now co-ops are everywhere or Whole Foods and you can great bulk items. I can even get Lundberg organic brown rice at Costco in a 12 lb bag. I can get a 10lb bag of sugar and there’s honey in large jars. I don’t use as much honey anymore so we just get a smaller jar.

I still get 10 lb bags of rice and beans and store in glass jars. I use to buy the 25 lb bags but that was more than we’d use in a reasonable amount to time. I even have some of my original gallon jars I had from the 70’s. I use to go around to the restaurants and ask for their old pickle jars, mayonnaise because you couldn’t really buy the gallon jars anywhere.

I use a weekly menu that’s simplified to some extent but I’d like it to be more so. Maybe as I get older or further in this minimalist journey, I just don’t want to think about things like what extravagant meal do I want to cook. I want my food choices to be simple.

I like wearing the same clothes and keep my colors to black, white, gray and occasionally deep purple or navy blue. So with food, I want to have fewer choices so I don’t have to think about it.

Our weekly menu looks like this

Sunday- BBQ or roast something ( need to refine this)

Monday- pasta something ( this can be mac and cheese,or lemon spaghetti, or ?

Tuesday- Taco Tuesday ( really anything Mexican)

Wednesday- Sorta whatever day ( this is the one I need to work on)

Thursday- crockpot something, usually pinto beans or black beans Then we add tortillas, avocado, salsa,. If its soup in the winter fall, bread along side.

Friday- homemade pizza

Saturday- This turned into sammie Saturday. A simple sandwich of some sort.

I want to work on what foods we’re eating. We like and eat a lot of beans and then I usually use the rice cooker to make organic long grain rice for the week.

Some chicken, tofu, a little beef and a little fish (not too often).

Breakfast is always eggs/toast or bagel/yogurt/fruit

Lunch is a salad or leftovers or 1/2 sandwich

I just don’t want to cook extra fancy stuff too much anymore. I do love cooking and trying new recipes, but I still want a base to work from.

Quincy has a very nice coop that my husband sees as one of his regular accounts. It’s about 2 hours from here so a perfect trip for me to tag along and enjoy slightly cooler weather. We will only spend one night but it’s a really cool B& B , well, actually there is no breakfast, so maybe it’s just a B. Anyway, it’s a nice place with individual cottages with kitchens. I’m bringing dinner to make so we can just relax and not have to go get dinner although that would be nice too. On the way, I want to check out camping at Donne sTAte park. We’ve never actually camped there so I thought we’d do a drive thru. Then I want to go to the really cool hardware store in Truckee and check out getting a Lodge dutch oven for camping. In this fun series I’m reading, Frannie Shoemaker Campground series, she has fun recipes using a cast iron dutch oven. So I thought I’d check it out.

Then I want to check the campground in Quincy out. It seems it’s more for big RV’s but I’d like to check it out. Then check out the library(always). There’s a great walking trail but it’ll be too hot in the afternoon so that will have to be for our walk Wednesday morning.

Our toaster died the other day so I decided to replace it with a toaster oven. Our broiler in the oven doesn’t work because the heat sensor needs replacing, so with a toaster oven we can have toasted cheese sandwiches and even cook a pizza. I’d like to take out our old microwave too but we do use that for popcorn. But it’s easy to make popcorn on the stove too.

I’ve been following Courtney Carver’s 21-day decluttering challenge. It’s ok, maybe a little basic. But I liked her idea of eating the same thing for certain meals. I think it’s like having a minimalistic wardrobe where you basically eat the same thing and it simplifies your life. We do this with breakfast which is either our own eggs in assorted ways with homemade toast. Or homemade granola with yogurt, and/or a bagel. Well, the bagels are more what my son eats. Lunches are always whatever. Maybe leftovers or just a sandwich. So with dinners I have Taco Tuesday, Pizza night Friday, Pasta Monday, Bbq Saturday, the rest just get filled in. So I thought I’d do rice and beans in various ways for a week. So maybe tacos, maybe burritos, or just bean rice bowls. I’ll add some protein in like chicken for who ever wants that. I don’t think I could do this dinner is the same all the time but I think it could simplify menus to have consistent types of dinners. So I’m going to work on this a little more this week as I plan Menus for July.

Beautiful Donner Lake.