What's to Eat?

I suspect most people eating better than I do, by which I mean their meals aren't quite so random.

I typically come up with my meal by using one of three effective and well-practiced means. First, I often getting a craving or yen for some particular meal, and that's what I eat. I have this theory, see, that when my body needs whatever the hell it is that brocolli supplies that I'll want brocolli. So, for that reason, I take these cravings seriously.

Also, they seem to be fairly diverse, so that goes along with that moderation thing.

Unfortunately as I've gotten older my tastes have become somewhat more complex. About half the time, in spite of my cravings, I don't have the necessary ingredients to make the meal I most want. Yes, chicken soup would be good, but I don't have the requisite heel of bread to go with it. I've learned the best way to eat a big bowl of soup or stew is with a heel of bread to soak up much of the liquid and give me something to do while the meal cools down, and without the bread I can't proceed with eating.

Which brings up the next meal determiner: availability. Although I don't get yelled as often for it any more, one good way for me to choose my meal is to open the cupboards and refrigerator and stare inside, looking at what's on hand. This way has the advantage of insuring that I won't want a tasty omelette when, in fact, I have no eggs, but it doesn't always work. In fact, more often than not, I stare and either forget why I'm looking, or end up grabbing something completely unsuited for a healthy dinner, such as a jar of pickles.

That also explains all that earlier yelling.

The method I use as often as any, and the one I'm forced to use tonight, is the expiration method. No matter what I want, I have food that absolutely must be eaten today or else it will go bad. I hate throwing food away and can ill afford to do so, so tonights's dinner will have to incorporate the rest of those cute pearl tomatoes. Of course, this also brings up the "ingredients on hand" problem, since I need to come up with something that will permit me to use up the last of those tomatoes, and right now I have no idea what that will be.

Also, under the expiration method, is the sub priority of the above-mentioned cost. A ham that's threatening to become as green as my neighbor's lawn is more critical to eat than, say, those tomatoes. I'd prefer to lose the two dollar vegetables over the ten dollar ham, so I'm supposed forced to eat the most expensive thing that's going bad.

Sure, it's a system, but I'm not sure it's a good one.