For example, for a while she still made huge quantities of food. Sometimes, when the cooking bug bit, she would wander into the kitchen, cook up half a ton of wonderful food, and put it all in the fridge to eat the way the women prefer to eat - six to ten nibbles a day.
Then for a while she didn't cook at all. That wasn't bad either.
Most recently she seems to have achieved a rational balance; cooking once a week or so, when the mood hits, eating stuff the rest of the time.
For example, on a crappy gray rainy day a week or so ago she raided her fridge and cupboard and made a lovely pot of Tuscan chicken soup:
browned together:
a red onion
a red bell pepper
whole peeled garlic cloves
Leftover pre-roasted chicken, picked off the bones and chopped
added:
a can of diced tomatoes
spinach
green olives with pits
a cup or so of dried garbanzos (chickpeas), previously rehydrated in home-made broth made from the chicken cadaver and vegetable trimmings
dried rosemary (left from a potted bush bought at Christmas)
It sounds simple, but was utterly yummy.
Great! So yesterday she decided to try that again. She dumped another
roast chicken corpse - a lot of the meat already used for sandwiches and the like - in a pot of broth along with a container of frozen home-made roasted veggies, then added onion, carrots (stolen from the horses' supply, and chopped up), the rest of the spinach, some very nice braised mushrooms......
And it suddenly began to look like dog food. So she dumped all of it (except the large leg bones) into the food processor and ground it up to mix with the dogs' kibble at supper time. The dogs love it. Cassandra ordered a pizza.
So what does she eat?
She doesn't eat out. She very, very rarely gets carry-out Chinese. She makes burritos with sauteed onion, red and green pepper, sharp cheddar, sour cream and salsa. She gets deli food like pre-made salads. Lots of fruit. Steamed or roasted veggies of all kinds. Sharp cheddar cheese with extra-hot hot sauce. Avocado on toast with lots of salt and pepper. Unsweetened, unflavored Greek yogurt. A Papa John's large pizza almost every Friday that lasts for several breakfasts, sharing the 'bones' with the dogs. Turkey Hill ice cream. Baked white and sweet potatoes. Potato chips and onion dip. Once every two weeks or so, from the neighborhood Korean-Indian-Hispanic grocery, the Korean carry-out dinner for one that is always different, costs $4.99, includes soup, rice, two kimchees and a main dish, and lasts for three meals. Lovely canned Progresso soups and Hormel chili, bought on sale. Pre-made soup (kimchi soup! Yum!) from the Korean market. Once a month or so, the three-piece Popeye's dinner (extra spicy, cole slaw, mashed potatoes and gravy, wonderful biscuit). Breakfast is OJ, a veggie burger patty with Heinz ketchup, 4% large curd cottage cheese with a heavy dusting of paprika. She loves popcorn, and pops her own in a stovetop Whirly. Lunch at work is usually leftovers brought from home, Korean-store ramen bowls, or whatever-by-the-pound from the sandwich/cafeteria shop in the office building...
She is in no danger of malnutrition or boredom. So far.
