Lenten Fast 2013: The Cupboard Fast Continues

Here's the rundown of our life so far, based on only eating what we have and replenishing just the produce and milk if needed.  Don't be scared - I haven't written a synopsis of every single day.  You will reach the end, reader!  Prevail!!

Day 1: Ash Wednesday (February 13)
So very excited for the interactive meditation service our church provides on this night... and so very upset with my stomach for making me writhe on the couch.  No awe-inspiring Lent kickoff for us.  Chris made us turkey sausage he'd defrosted with sauteed bell peppers (both had been on sale) and served them on toasted hot dog buns he got for free from work.  Truly, one was plenty.  (I'd eaten mother nature's stomach soother of saltines before dinner - from The Cupboard. score.)  For lunch, I'd finished the other half of a can of soup, a stick of Crazy Bread (drool), and a banana. Chris ate leftover salad from the night before.
Fridge = 4
Freezer = 1
Cupboard = some saltines from cupboard.  Not really closer to crossing those off the list.  I don't think they'll ever deplete.

Day 2: Valentine's Day
Boring stuff first - lunch between two of us = leftovers and banana.
Last year, Chris surprised me by planning a date for us (key to my heart = plan something for me!) to Lebanese Taverna's Mezza night.  On Valentine's night, you pay a fixed price and get all you can eat small plates of most of their menu.  All. You. Can. EAT.  Therefore, we went again this year.  Why mess with a glorious thing?!  Our waitress informed us we'd out-eaten every other table she'd had.  Darn straight.  We don't mess around. 
Fridge = 2
Cupboard = none.
Restaurant budget = pretty much spent for February. So worth it.

Day 3
Lunch - leftovers, banana.
Dinner was leftover sausages on more rolls, and Chris concocted a chicken noodle soup from bits of a chicken we'd roasted, stock I'd made from it, and the classic veggies and macaroni.  The "concentrate" for it has been in the fridge for... probably too long.  We're not sick yet.  Hallelujah.
Fridge = 6
Items from cupboard = macaroni!
Leftovers = soup for later.
...are you getting a picture of the state of our fridge when we started?!  Holy leftovers!!

 These are not ours.  Ours are never that neatly arranged.  Please.

WELL!  You don't want to read more of THAT for 40 days.  Boring.  So, highlights from days 4 - 14:

Day 10
C&J talk about their work days.
C: "...and it went great, and I got two Snack Wraps from McDonalds for lunch!"
J: "Really?? Why?"
C: "We didn't have anything for lunch."
::cue crazy eyes from Jenna and heated discussion:: 
...marriage teaches you so much about another person.  Where I see multiple Lean Pockets in the freezer and Easy Mac and soup in The Cupboard, Chris sees two things he's already eaten once this week so are off limits and will not give him the energy to get him through the rest of his day.  Who knew?!
We were on our way to a taco and game night because our show in Reisterstown got cancelled at the last minute (please say none of you tried to go. tell us immediately if you did. we will make it up to you.).  We are generally abnormally excited to eat meals at other people's houses.  Lent is intensifying this, bar none.  I had to consciously engage a friend in eye contact and stop trying to fit more mango salsa than humanly possible in my tortilla.  Oh, mango salsa.  How incredibly fresh you are.  Wait - that's PRODUCE!  Store trip? Maybe??!!  (conscience/The Spirit says it's extravagant produce and not really the point.....)

Day 11
I had my first real sacrifice dilemma.  We wandered into Williams-Sonoma.  (WHY, you ask?  Are you some kind of masochist?!  Yes.  Yes I am.)  They had their hot chocolate on clearance.  Have you HAD Williams-Sonoma hot chocolate?!  It is a gorgeous tin filled with tiny delectable chocolate shavings and whatever additional flavor you select weaved throughout.  You cannot use water - you must melt it into milk on a stove.  And then drink molten chocolate.  It is HEAVEN.  In a cup.  And the Chai Hot Chocolate was $5.99.  I was trying to smell it through the metal.  I mean, we don't keep Hot Chocolate in The Cupboard!  We keep it in a drawer!  Totally separate!!!
J: "What do you think?????????"
C: ::shrugs:: "It's up to you."
Thanks for the wisdom and moral support.
In the end, I didn't quench the Spirit enough to fork over my debit card, so I put it down and walked out.  The spirit of the law, Jenna, not the letter.
Luscious hot chocolate.  I pine for you.

 

If you are not fasting from such things, get it before it's gone.  

And maybe mail me a cup.

Day 12
It's Sunday.  We have Bible study on Sundays.  Chris and I get one dessert a week on Year of Health guidelines (I will spare you my mourning and itemized list of moments of definitely NOT cheating).  We started The Cupboard List with at least 4 cake mixes.  I'm making a darn cake, even if I can't eat it.  I will not tell you how long this Tastefully Simple Apple Cake box mix has been up there. 
Come to find out, by "Apple Cake Mix" they really mean "Regular cake mix. Hope you have a ton of fresh apples handy."  Applesauce to the rescue!  And it's a Cupboard item, to boot!  GONE!  Powdered sugar will be a good sub for icing.  Throw in some old bananas and we have a pretty bangin' cake to force feed to our small group folk. 
(Addendum: it was amazing.  Yes, I ate a bite.  And I am despairing that we only had one of these in The Cupboard.  Come back, apple cake.  Fill our Cupboard with your excess deliciousness.)

Day 13
I went to the grocery store.  Technically, I broke the fast.  But these ingredients were not for us, they were to make a meal for a friend who'd had surgery.  We both feel 100% fine buying stuff for somebody else.  Can I tell you how FAST my grocery trip was??  I didn't wander to the clearance rack in the back or graze the aisles for sales on anything we could possibly use.  Chicken, noodles, mini chocolate cake, OUT.   (In case you're curious, our go-to quick meal for someone in need is a casserole of egg noodles, chicken cooked with spices, 2 cans cream of whatever soup, and whatever canned or frozen vegetable we have on hand, topped with crushed cheddar cheese crackers.  So, if you're having a baby or an injury soon - cat's out of the bag.  Also, the word casserole should be outlawed, because it makes people automatically think they'll hate it.  Call it Noodle Bake.  Except that also sounds gross.)
I did suffer from my constant inability to estimate quantity and volume - I swore one bag of egg noodles didn't look like enough, so I bought and cooked two.  Quickly realized it would come NOWHERE near fitting into one casserole dish.  So, we had leftover sinful noodles to eat ourselves.  Augh.

Day 14
We devoured said sinful noodles tonight!  With a jar of alfredo from The Cupboard and Old Bay sausage and veggies and cheese from the freezer - oh my gosh.  Had to forcibly sit on couch to avoid shoving my face in the leftovers.  Chris is especially good at thinking of yummy combinations of ingredients we have.  I don't know what he'll do when we run out of meat in the freezer.  I suggested we save edamame for then, since there's so much protein in it.
C: ::blank stare:: "I said MEAT.  I did not say protein.  MEAT."
...we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 
I also grieved our Lenten goal of using what we have when we contributed to our American wastefulness tonight.  I pulled out a green pepper from the fridge - totally moldy.  Ick.  I hate that our produce drawers are opaque; if we could see through them, maybe I'd remember better.  Before we took the alfredo out, Chris reached into the fridge and produced a half jar of marinara and the Little Caesar's marinara dipping sauce from the Crazy Bread (please don't do the math. please.) to use, proudly offering them up for our meal...
J: ::look of horror:: "Um, that's MOLDY!"
C: "Where?  Where is there mold?"
J: "There!  How can you NOT see that?!"
::three minute investigation into proper evidence of mold::
Both containers went into the trash with the pepper.  I'm sorry, world.  I promise to be more vigilant about camouflaged pasta sauce and veggie drawers. 

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

So, these are some estimates - the whole not-creature-of-discipline-thing means I've way lost count on some of what we've consumed.
Fridge = looking emptier for sure!  As we make these meals from what we already have, we definitely contribute leftovers to the fridge, which are getting eaten for lunches.  I was even okay when my fridge lunch meant the rest of some yogurt with some granola.  I'm a hot lunch girl.  But I lived.
Freezer = the perpetual avalanche is starting to diminish.  We have no shelf in our freezer, so it's basically a box on its side that we shove stuff in and slam the door as quickly as possible while praying the next time we open the fridge won't bounce the freezer open (have you played this game?).
Cupboard = 11 things gone!  Two have leftovers in the fridge currently.

Slowly, slowly, slowly purging our cabinets is putting me in a purge frame of mind.  I am revisiting my closet for at least the 4th time in 6th months to weed out more (it's embarrassing. truly.).  I have more of a desire for our apartment to look clean than ever.  (This is saying something.  Self-proclaimed clutter monster. And chore hater.)  And I feel lighter.  (Not from sausage and alfredo.  But from having less stuff, even if it's just a little.)

By the way... I'm finally reading this little book called 7 by Jen Hatmaker.  I saw her speak at a conference about 9 months ago.  If you do not read her blog or follow her on Twitter/Facebook, I highly recommend it if you'd like some serious truth and a good guffaw.  They gave us her book for free!  And it has sat on my shelf because I have been scared to death to read it.  I got convicted enough at the conference, thankyou.  Basically, she designs an experiment where she identifies seven areas of excess in her life and devotes a month to fasting from each one.  But now, I am facing myself and reading the thing.  I mean, Lent is as good a time as any, right?  I'm already fasting!  How bad could it be?!
And God is using her hilarious and brutal honesty to a) remind me how much I miss writing frequently and that He's given me that gift to use rather than ignore, and b) wreck my life.  I can literally feel things crumbling.  I can look around our apartment - which I swear, to the average eye, is not that full of stuff - and tears start welling up.  I wrote one song about this idea already, and it will be on the next Chris & Jenna album that will God-willing be made this year.  I started another one tonight.

I don't want to be in love with death
And if you'd ask, I'd tell you that I'm not
But peek inside my chest
And it'll tell you all the rest
Tell you that I am in love with death

I don't want to run after decay
But lookin' 'round my home, that's what I've done
Cleverly arranged
All the things I've toiled to gain
That show that I have run after decay

I swear, it's sweeter-sounding than what the lyrics suggest.  But that's the point, I think - the sweetness of life and hope for something more, juxtaposed with the ugly, selfish, self-preserving truth that disguises itself as yummy meals and trendy decor and new outfits and "necessities."  I haven't gone off the deep end and given the whole house away and sewn burlap sacks to wear.  ...yet. ;)  But I don't think we're meant to pray for comfort as often as we do.  Nor do I think we're always meant to perceive comfort as blessing.  Not blessing that we keep to ourselves and enjoy solely privately, anyway.

So, we're 2 weeks in to Lent, 4-ish to go.  If we've only touched 16% of what's in The Cupboard and we're 33% of the way through... eesh.  We have so much more than we ever realize.