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wrote:
> OK, I will confess.

<snip>

I have been cooking a long, long time - 30 years or more. I keep what
I call "staples" in my pantry - canned tomatoes of various types
(diced, puree, sauce and paste), canned beans (pinto and white), all
baking goods (flour, sugar and shortening, as well as yeast, powder and
soda), pasta, noodles, rice (plain and wild), canned baked beans
(Bush's onion variety), packaged chicken broth (Pacific brand
low-sodium), sauces, condiments, pickles and olives, capers, all my
dried spices, and other stuff I'm too tired to think of.

I also keep meat frozen - whole chickens, whole turkeys, ground turkey,
fresh pork picnic hams, ribs (we don't eat beef.)

I grocery shop once monthly for staples, and once or twice a week for
fresh fruit and vegetables, milk and bread. If I'm out of a staple, I
buy that as well. I buy all fish fresh because where I live, it's
really fresh. I buy partially cooked, smoked hams and store them as
they keep a long time.

When I cook, I cook enough for at least two meals. A whole roasted
chicken becomes soup, chicken enchiladas or chicken with noodles later
in the week. Turkeys and hams are cooked whole, and the (white) meat
is sliced for sandwiches and frozen. The dark meat is eaten as is, or
made into soup, cassrrole, or whatever. The ham is eaten as a meal and
the rest used in omlettes and sandwiches, or cobb salad. Al meals are
served with a starch - either a potato, pasta, dressing, rice, etc.,
and at least one fresh vegetable - usually two.

I plan a meal around what I have and I use NO boxed meal starters or
anything like that. You will find that using freash, simple
ingredients makes for a better-tasting meal and you will feel better as
well, because you aren't eating unnecessary preservatives and "flavor
enhancers".

I managed my kitchen the same way when I was single as I do now, except
I didn't keep as much meat frozen.

If you don't know how to cook, take a night classs through continuing
ed or at a local college if you have one. It's a great way to meet
people, especially other singles.

HTH,
-L.