Miki over at Theory of the Daily recently wrote that knowing how to cook meant a lot more than assembling a gourmet feast now and then—that really knowing how to cook meant menu planning, budgeting, shopping, putting it all together and dealing with leftovers, on a near daily basis.
I thought she was right, differentiating cooking as feat, which aims to impress, from cooking as craft, which aims to nourish.
But while menu planning, shopping and slaving over the stove all present their challenges, dealing with leftovers is generally the answer to my lunchtime prayers. Kipp isn’t as fussy as his dad when it comes to the idea of second-day food, so for lunch it’s usually just heat and serve around here.
On the occasions when I haven’t cooked or nothing is tucked away in the fridge, I like to reply on pantry staples and yesterday I discovered something I know I’m going to want to keep stockpiled: TastyBites.
Here I go again, shilling for a consumer product, but I thought this pouch of spicy Madras lentils was one of the best things I’d ever plucked off the shelf of a grocery store and eaten. I bought it at my little town’s alternative grocery store, Kiki’s Simple Abundance, and I suppose it was expensive ($3.69), given what plain dried lentils cost, but cheap at twice the price, given what fast food costs. One pouch contains two servings.
Seek out Tasty Bite products if you can. Even though the name is silly and reminds me of Twinkies, the food rests at the other extreme of the nutritional spectrum.
3:34:42 PM 
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