Everyday Systems

S days are also baking days. I make cookies for my Son in Afganistan. I was trying a new recipe and thought I cooked them the right length of time, but they came out a little over done. A warm one was good, but after cooling a couple of hours they were very crispy, too crispy to send as it takes 4-6 weeks to get them there. Even with vacuum packing they would not be etible. My Husband and daughter (both skinny) wouldn't touch them. So I closed my eyes and tossed them into the trash. I wasnt going to waste my s days on bad cookies. There was a time that I would have eaten them anyway. Am I becoming a food snob or what.

Debbi

Nope, you made a very good decision.

I am older, with grown children. My father grew up during the Depression and he wouldn't let us waste a drop of food without ranting. My poor mother had to find ways of disposing of unwanted food without his knowledge. I, too, have problems throwing food out. (I think that goes back to my Dad) I always heard about those poor starving children in China......although, I don't think it will be long before the children of China are hearing about the poor starving children in the U.S.......considering how the price of groceries is climbing!

Annie

I couldn't help but laugh at what you said. I dads must have been brothers. I grew up with that about the poor starving children in china. My parents also went thru the depression. We were told to eat everything on our plates. Your eyes are bigger that your stomach rule was applied strickly. We had to take smaller portions and if we wanted more than we could have seconds. (Guess what habit the induced.) I too am older (63) My kids are in there 40s. I figure it might take me the rest of my life to get this right but the alternative is not good.

Debbi

When I was growing up, it was "starving children in India."

One of the times I got in DEEP trouble as a kid was when I didn't want to eat something, and my mom used that line. I said "give me a box to mail this to them and we'll all be happy."

I never, never repeated that line.

(But it still makes sense to me. How will MY over-eating help starving children elsewhere?)

So I closed my eyes and tossed them into the trash. I wasnt going to waste my s days on bad cookies. There was a time that I would have eaten them anyway.

Debbi GREAT JOB!


I also LOVE what TEREZ posted on another thread on this very same issue

"Does it really make any difference if it [goes] straight down the drain or if it goes through my digestive system first before going down the drain?"

Blueskighs

Had to laugh at this post. My signature is a quote from my grandfather, who also lived through the depression and was never wasteful to my knowledge, but never had a problem with weight, either.

It's going to waste, it's just a question of how

A couple of months ago I made a casserole for dinner. It didn't look "right" while I was making it and I kept checking and double-checking the recipe. I wasn't doing a thing wrong. After it was done I tasted it and, in a word, it was AWFUL. I pitched the whole thing and we got takeout!

Funny thing is -- that recipe got tons of positive comments where it was posted. Has me wondering about those cooks...!!!

Poor starving children in Africa made sure that I always cleaned my plate and we had frequent leftovers nights.

Now, as the chef in charge, if we don't like it, we don't eat it. Life is too short for bad food.

I agree with all of you. If you're eating just to get rid of something, then basically you're treating your body like a garbage can. And if it's something unhealthy, it will harm your body in the process, whereas it can't hurt the trash can!!!

On a similar note, when I was in the hospital having my son, the nurse filled a syringe to give me Demerol. I told her to only give me a half dose, because I didn't want to be whacked out. She looked at me incredulously and said, "What, you just want me to throw out half this dose?" I replied rather crabbily, "Well, I don't want you to throw it out into my body!" Women in labor are not always polite!

MissyMoo wrote:I agree with all of you. If you're eating just to get rid of something, then basically you're treating your body like a garbage can.

Now that's a powerful metaphor. We don't need to treat our bodies as a garbage cans.

I wonder how many kids in Africa, China, Ethiopia, or even right here in the States will get a decent meal if I eat everything on my plate and never throw any food away. Seems to me it's just another way of using guilt as a manipulator. And No-S has really helped me learn that guilt does not work for me!!

Well, here's how to assuage 1950s era guilt and be kind to animals at the same time: feed the birds. That's what I do with all my food meals. As for desserts that suck, down the drain they go without any guilt on my part.


f

Somebody on this board (was it Reinhard?) once said something like, "There is absolutely no reason why garbage food has to make it's way through your body before it is permanently disposed of! Eliminate the digestive process and just throw it out!" When my father's "Waste not, want not" warning echoes in my brain, I try to remember the former statement.