Learning to Leave a Little

I hate to waste food. Wasting food to me is what buying ice is to my brother-in-law Jim. I try to plan menus that will use what I have on hand; in fact, many dishes that have been described and photographed here were born of a desire not to waste, a trait I was born with--undoubtedly carried on the X chromosome inherited from my mother and modeled by her mostly in her soups. I won't give myself food poisoning or anything, but I will make a duxelle from mushrooms that are starting to "go," and pasta dishes and pizza seem to be a great place for veggies on the verge.

Leaving a two dollar container of mushrooms to rot in my refrigerator is wasting; leaving food on my plate is my new tool.

I have a kitchen scale, and I use it frequently. I measure out 28 gram servings of almonds and 3 ounce portions of ground beef. I use my measuring cups as frequently if not more. That is, I feel like I have gotten portion control under control and use tools to help me. So:

• portion control: √
• exercise: √
• healthy choices: √

Yet the scale isn’t budging.

(And the wine isn’t going away, so get over any silly notion you might have about that.)

So lately I’ve been trying to leave a few bites alone at the end of my meals. I figure a few bites at every meal will add up to a few meals eventually, and maybe I’ll start to see a difference.

A few bites of food I can leave alone. The wine that goes with? Fat Chance.

Don’t judge me.