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O/T The Menu Hijack

thinkthrice's picture

Submitted by thinkthrice on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 9:05am

Now that I am semi retired and have taken the kitchen back from Chef, I have planned meals that make use of grocery specials for the week and in some cases leftovers.

Gone is the huge waste of food and high grocery bills with Chef impulse buying (based on HIS cravings at the time) at high priced grocery stores. Then making enough for an army.  

I don't have it planned out for the week but I do have it planned out at least a couple days in advance.

Today for example it is cool outside but bright and sunny so Chef texts me and says he is going to postpone what I had planned for dinner A k a leftovers from the new smoker I got.

He wants to go to buy some pork chops for grilling.

Umm NO!  I have quite a bit of cooking to do for Easter today and tomorrow (Awesomeson, DIL and DGD are coming over) and we end up having lots of food again that is wasted!

Does anyone else out there have this problem?

I texted him back saying the leftovers won't last to Easter Monday AND I have food cooking for Easter Sunday, so no!

Aaarggh!

Comments

thinkthrice's picture

Submitted by thinkthrice on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 9:24am

Is the messy, unorganized frig with mystery contents, stuck on spills and three of everything, all opened.

Same for the cabinets.   Everything is labeled, neat and organized. 

Exjuliemccoy's picture

Submitted by Exjuliemccoy on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 9:41am

With the cost of groceries being shockingly high ($3.99 for a can of soup?!?), I don't blame you for taking over the kitchen. I used to be more like Chef, winging it, making impulse purchases, and keeping far too much in the freezer for "someday". Now I try to be as efficient and waste as little as possible. I bet your cabinets look amazing!

Shieldmaiden's picture

Submitted by Shieldmaiden on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 10:21am

Yes! My DH chronically overbuys meats and stuffs them into 2 freezers "in case of a zombie apocalypse or something..." so that I can't even fit a box of frozen toaster waffles in my freezer. Then he NEVER prepares the meat and it gets freezerburned, or the freezer outside gets unplugged and it all goes rancid. (That time he unplugged it so he could use the outlet for a circular saw. Then forgot until a week later and we smelled rotting meat...)   

Ugh. I try to point out that his hoarding of meat is wierd, and that we could better use that space for stuff we actually eat. Nope. He still does it. I throw it away as it gets old and nasty, without telling him.

 

PS. Our neighbors are vietnamese, and most of them don't speak English well. I'm pretty sure they thought we were disposing of a dead body that summer when we were dumping out the rotten meat. It stank soo bad, and the trash truck didn't come for 2 days. We tried to explain, but they ran back into their house when DH walked over to them. Ha.

thinkthrice's picture

Submitted by thinkthrice on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 11:37am

Knock on wood we haven't had a freezer episode other than one time a new freezer went out in the middle of July which I was rescuing the food from.  Fortunately the chest freezer is on a dedicated receptacle.

Chef recently unlaterally decided to buy a half of beef last Fall and then split it with his co worker.  Who lives with his elderly mother...no other occupants.  Chef has also gotten suckered into buying from traveling frozen food salesman without consulting me first so we were stuck with a lot of low quality items (eye roll).

All of the meals I make are to Chef's taste. And to a lesser extent mine.   I've always ate what was put in front of me ever since a child.  Chef, who was spoiled and the last of many children to two elderly parents on second marriages that had given up on discipline unless they were thoroughly annoyed, not so much.

I think the food hoarding comes from being born into a fairly low socioeconomic status.  We weren't much better off and lord knows MY parents were born in abject poverty but they never food hoarded.   They budgeted and mother planned family meals for the week around the store specials. 

My secret weapon is a high end vacuum sealer!

 

Winterglow's picture

Submitted by Winterglow on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 12:16pm

 I was a very broke student in the early 80s and I admit that I am happiest when my cupboards and freezer are full because that means I have a CHOICE! Gawd. I hadn't made the connection until now. However, I do all I can to supply my daughter at college with food she loves but can't afford.

 

Shieldmaiden's picture

Submitted by Shieldmaiden on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 2:41pm

Oh that is too funny!  Your DH and my DH sound like twins. I was experimenting with being a vegetarian when I met DH. That didn't last long. I will eat most anything, but DH and fam are meat, potatoes, and mac n cheese clones. They won't deviate or try any vegies. I tried cooking for them for about 6 months, but got tired of turned up noses and their unwillingness to try anything new. 

Now DH is post-heart-attack and won't eat anything except no-salt breakfast burritos that he makes himself. So I just eat alone/cook for one most nights. I only eat steak, pork or chicken once in awhile, but we have a freezer full of pork, chicken, and steak that NO ONE touches unless I get it out and prepare it for myself.  Sometimes DH will get a wild hare  and pull out some steaks and cook for me. Not sure who he is buying this for, since I've told him he can stop buying meat for me. ( I like mine fresh, not frozen, when I do buy it.)

thinkthrice's picture

Submitted by thinkthrice on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 2:50pm

Sushi, oysters, Indian food, you name it when I met him.  Now he has expensive tastes.  I've created a monster!

notsurehowtodeal's picture

Submitted by notsurehowtodeal on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 3:51pm

My DH is the same with meat in the freezer! He buys it, forgets it is there, then buys more. I also occasionally throw out the old stuff. He once got upset because the freezer wasn't full enough. It is a wierd quirk.

Kloewent's picture

Submitted by Kloewent on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 7:30pm

We had that happen after a storm knocked out the power and it didn't come back on. Wehad just bought half of a pig. It was vile!! Luckily I was pregnant so I got out of the cleanup. My darling BIL helped hubby get rid of it. We had a tallow company in town back then so we were able to dump it there. Nauseating!!1

CLove's picture

Submitted by CLove on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 10:30am

We are constantly throwing food away. Husband is a staunch carnivor and I love my veggies. And sometimes salad. He also loaves shrimp and crab so he will jump on things that are on sale in that area.

Right now loads of leftover type things in fridge = mashed potatoes etc.

With money being tighter, I am going to try to do some meal planning.

thinkthrice's picture

Submitted by thinkthrice on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 11:32am

a high end vacuum sealer so that you can buy in bulk then portion food out.

Cover1W's picture

Submitted by Cover1W on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 10:39am

I am in charge of most grocery shopping and actual meal planning for the week (two to three days ahead of time). If YSD is here I do nothing. Sometimes DH spontaneously cooks, but with stuff I get. Because it makes meals.

DH tends to get those spontaneous buys, smoked fish, prawns, special stuff for YSD, things for himself but rarely thinking ahead or maybe replacing something of mine he ate. That's why when I do my big shops for general things and we split the cost he pays a little more, because of the above and my time and effort that he doesn't have to do.

ndc's picture

Submitted by ndc on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 10:45am

We do occasionally end up throwing leftovers away when they get buried or DH doesn't want to eat them, but I have no worries about him taking over the kitchen and either grocery shopping or cooking dinner.  Back when he was a single dad he managed to shop for and make mac and cheese from a box, spaghetti and frozen pizza. His domestic talents are otherwise non-existent, EXCEPT he can fillet and cook to perfection the fish he catches. Go figure. 

TheAccidentalSM's picture

Submitted by TheAccidentalSM on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 10:52am

That sounds so annoying. I'm blessed that DH doesn't like food waste so I don't have this problem.  Plus we have an undercounter European fridge so there is no space for random food to hide.  (Think like the size of an undercounter kitchen cupboard).  And our freezer is equally as small.  It means we have to meal plan as a fact of life.

thinkthrice's picture

Submitted by thinkthrice on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 11:35am

And with the cost of electricity skyrocketing, all those freezers plugged in, well not so economical after all.  I also make a note of stuff we've just run out of in the Our Groceries app (nod to Rags).  Of course Chef never uses the app so it's mostly for me. 

la_dulce_vida's picture

Submitted by la_dulce_vida on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 12:29pm

My BF was very poor growing up and he has displayed a bit of food hoarding due to childhood food insecurity.

When we started dating and would go on adventures, he would pack enough food for 5 people for a week. I used to tease him about it until realized where it came from. He loves shopping at Costco! We don't throw much away. Even if it's freezer burned, he'll probably eat it. LOL

 

Rumplestiltskin's picture

Submitted by Rumplestiltskin on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 2:10pm

Yeah, my SO too. They were taught that for each grain of rice you waste, you get an extra hundred years in purgatory or something. I have found myself having to secretly throw out rotten food to keep people from getting sick. I could be less wasteful, i know, but i'm pretty frugal and still struggle to not look like i'm wasting! I know that it is mostly a good habit to be efficient with food, though! 

Merry's picture

Submitted by Merry on Mon, 04/10/2023 - 9:08am

I keep eyeing the fridge, kitchen cabinets, DH's closet, and the garage, trying to decide what to tackle first when I retire. I don't relish all the work of sorting through, tossing, and organizing, but I can't stand living in DH's clutter. I'm no neat freak, but utter chaos is beyond my coping skills.

I'm not a big meal planner, but we do waste too much, and I just hate that.