Dietary abnormality
posted in Uncategorized |A semblance of normalcy is something I’d dearly like.
The Shoebox has a little dormitory refrigerator. It’s a very nice dormitory refrigerator, but as a place to store any amount of food, it kind of sucks.
So, this week’s menu, so far:
- Fresh salmon, from our B&B manager’s freezer. It seems that she regularly has guests who fill her freezer with fresh-caught salmon. She asked me, somewhat desperately, if we were interested in some salmon. Har. This had the advantage of not using space in our mini-fridge.
- Salmon salad, using leftover salmon from the night before. The salmon took up a small amount of space in a zippie. The spinach for the salad is now eating up large chunks of free space.
- Grilled cheese sandwiches. Cheese is small. The bread goes in a drawer.
- Bar-B-Q from a tub. The tub doesn’t take up too much space.
- Tuna Helper.
We are used to buying milk in gallon jugs. The first gallon we stored on its side on the second shelf. The second gallon, the second day, leaked–which we discovered upon seeing a small white river oozing out from underneath the Shoebox Fridge onto the nice pine flooring.
The end result of these dinners (and similar gourmet delicacies) is that:
- I am on the verge of a carnivorous hunt for vegetables. Stalking, searing high-intensity focus on the prey, that kind of thing. Lock your veggies up, because I will swoop down upon them and scarf them up with a red predatory glow in my eyes, my tongue lolling out.
- We are eating far too many carbohydrates.
- We are eating far too much cheese.
- We are spending far too much money.
That last one is a real issue; the others don’t bother me as much, except that my hunt for vegetables may cause problems with folks in Small Town Alaska as I swoop through their gardens wreaking havoc.
But, damn, it eats up your money to not be able to buy food and store it. Given that food costs are a tad more in Alaska to begin with, I end up feeling like we’re hemorraghing money. (For instance, the price of my little frappucinos? Oy! What had been $5.50 with a savings card in Small Mountain University Town is running $7.50 with a savings card here. ::whimper!:: So I’m trying to be good with the fraps…)
It makes me realize just how difficult it could be for people who live in shoeboxes on a regular basis. What if you can’t afford anything more than a room or two, and you have a family? Setting aside the psychological effects of the crowding (and trust me, all those studies of rats in crowded conditions are highlighted in my memory these days!), the difficulties of creating a balanced healthy diet when you have limited storage space for raw ingredients and you can’t store leftovers.
