I've been feeling down this weekend...wrapped in blankets of ice. When I shlepped off to do the grocery shopping the other day, it was not in the best of spirits. This was definitely reflected in my miserable excuse for a meal plan. I was clutching two lists: some general items, and the ingredients to two slow-cooker recipes from a cookbook. It was disorganized, incomplete and largely useless.
And I decided to just ignore it. Instead, I started looking at the stuff on the shelves: Hmm, canned bamboo shoots. I love bamboo shoots. Oh, curry paste.
This should have led to disaster. Nobody is ever told to improvise at the grocery store. But it worked for me. I got better and better, eventually rolling out of there with a week's worth of meals that you'd think must have been planned.
I did forget to buy milk. Had to go back for that.
But I'm not complaining. I foraged, and it worked. It worked better than planning! Sweet!
As Cathy Guisewite once put it, "There are no small victories." I'll take it.
Most of all, though, it cheered me up to really look at the things in the store, to investigate them for what they were instead of eliminating them for what they weren't (an item on my list). Each offering, looked at correctly, was a tale of possibility. I was able to assemble a little story for the week.
It gave me the oddest feeling, too..."interconnectedness" would be much too grand a word to describe it, but it was something like that. Instead of trudging through a list created at home, i.e. somewhere other than the store, I stopped and let the store talk to me. I saw what was actually there, and built my plans up from that.
I think most of us are kind of taught to see the grocery store as our enemy. A relentless pusher of cheap carbs we don't need. Conventional wisdom warns us to beware: go in with a list and a plan and stick to it! Don't let the siren call of the shelves seduce you!
I discovered something different that day. The store can actually help you if you let it.
And it can be...fun.
