The 100 Day Eat-at-Home Challenge Summary

Fresh Lentil Soup Ingredients

Its over. The experiment worked. It worked so well that it ended with a whisper instead of a bang. Instead of gorging ourselves on a big fancy restaurant feast, Alex and I stayed home and ate pot stickers with mung bean soup. 

My kitchen looks much different now. I bought many applicances to facilitate this challenge. I am now a proud owner of a dehydrator, a pressure cooker, a kitchenaid mixer with pasta attachments, a dutch oven, a wok, and proper measuring utensils. I also bought a kitchen hutch for extra storage and I reorganized the kitchen cabinet with labeled cubbys. The cubbys really make it so food can't hide in the back expiring unknowingly.


I also have bought a new dining room table with matching chairs.

Alex brings the table home

 I think I can justify these purchases because our meals have been MUCH cheaper. A filling lentil soup that will last for two days and four meals will only cost 3 dollars. And it is filling wonderful soup that I look forward to eating.

We have much better habits about going to the grocery store. Every time we leave the house we wonder if do an inventory of the refrigerator and cupboard, thinking two meals ahead to ensure we have enough food.

I think going to the grocery store is fun now. I see a beautiful fresh vegetable and  I get excited at the possibility of coming up with a new recipe to accomadate it.

Making new foods has been a rewarding way to add simple beauty and variety to my life.

Before I started cooking, my photography suffered from a lack of subject. I could take photos of landscapes and situations but I didn't have the passion to tell fascinating stories with these images unless I was on vacation. I can't be on vacation all the time. That artistic hobby started making me feel bad about my life because of how bland it seemed aesthetically, despite my rich inner life (har har).

Not that my food photography is crazy freaking amazing or anything. It does manage to provide sufficient challenge.

Now would be a good time to announce my new blog.

http://www.stovetopsoliloquy.com/

You may have noticed that during my 100 day eat at home challenge I was posting pictures of new staples I was making. I got so excited about the food photography and keeping track of the recipes that I decided to make a whole new blog dedicated to my recipe book. I didn't want to go into describing my complicated relationship with food in the title so I decided to avoid the issue entirely and go with "Stovetop Soliloquy" because hell, its hard to explain. I can't very well call myself "Gluten-free vegetarian but eggs are okay sometimes" Well I could, but it would have to be a tumblr.

I am treating Stovetop Soliloquy like my own personal food diary. I am not making up genius recipes or making my food fantastic works of art, but it is what I am eating, and there is beauty in the everyday.

When I asked Alex what he learned about the 100 Day eat at home challenge, he mentioned something about independence. As someone who as always prided themselves on never letting lack of knowledge keep me from the things I've wanted, its surprising how long I've been depending on the restaurant industry to keep me fed. No longer.