Shopping the cupboard

Happy May Day! The Laws have begun. I'm sipping water (+ 10 points) while I type, and this morning during yoga (+ 10 points), I considered what to make for dinner at home this week (+ 10 points x 7).

To prove myself wrong that an empty fridge necessitated spending $200 and a good chunk of Saturday at Costco, I made a list of all our main dinner ingredients: proteins, beans and lentils, pasta, grains, vegetables we have in excess, etc. Then I considered combinations, checked recipes, and came up with a list of dinners based solely on what we already have. It was kind of like shopping for free.

Consulting our cupboards and pantry was evidence of our tendency to stock up -- to excess, often: We currently have 15 cans of tuna, 12 packages of whole wheat spaghetti, and almost a gallon of soy sauce (which we rarely even use). I can just see the horizon of our lemon juice supply, which at its peak was equivalent to the juice of 124 lemons (according to the bottle). We recently bought a box of dog biscuits that weighed exactly twice as much as the dog.

So I think we'll survive for a while without going to the store. A few things from my menu for next week:

• "10-Minute" Shrimp Tortilla Soup, from Everyday Food's May issue
• Pasta with white beans and sage (similar to this)
• This excellent lemon quinoa, green beans, and some type of chicken
• Spicy black bean soup with avocado

Now I need to get back to working on that paper for class (+ 10 points).