Foraging in the Suburbs

Three weeks ago, I had my chance to do some domestic foraging.

Having the house to myself,  I decided not to go shopping during the week, opting to search the territory of my house for sustenance. Whatever lurked in the pantry, the freezer and fridge would be fair game. If I turned over a tub of ice cream and found a whole frozen chicken, I’d thaw it, then separate the bird into grillable parts before dooming the rest of the carcass to a pot for soup stock.  If there were a bundle of buckwheat noodles tied into a neat cylindrical bale, I could figure something out– but it would take imagination.   And if all we had was ketchup and oatmeal, I’d find a way to put the ingredients to use until I could no longer do so.

Of course, I had some cravings and wanted certain meals, but I stayed committed although initially bored with the options. Then, after stewing a bit, solutions became clearer. 

There’s a ton of ingredients in the house– some I haven’t seen in months or ever. All I needed was a little imagination and a few minutes to look.

I found some wings, thawed them, air fried them and had a variety of sauces and spices to experiment with. Then I looked deeper in the chest freezer and found three varieties of dumplings– so I made a simple dipping sauce of chives, sesame oil and soy sauce. Lastly, there was a NY Strip steak, soba and salad. I cut the steak into sushi-thin slices, and savored it more with just a dash of sesame oil and sea salt. 

It would have been easier to go shopping, to add to our pantry and fridge, but the satisfaction of putting a meal together based on subtraction , imagination and domestic foraging was too delightful–  more economical, too. I saved time and money. Going to the store takes 30 minutes to an hour, and the cost of food is outrageous.

But imagine if we committed ourselves to internal foraging when stuck in life. Instead of adding on and looking for solutions outside of ourselves, why not take a deep inventory of our own inner resources, then make something with what we already have. It saves time and  creates more value.  We’re bigger and have more inside ourselves than we want to know, and that's the problem . Knowing what strengths and attributes are on the inside is scary because knowing is responsibility. Jungian Coaching at MINING and SHINING IDEA LAB, LLC,  is here to help. Use this link to book your 20 minute complimentary “Internal Foraging Session” today.