Thursday, January 31, 2008

Waste Not, Want Not

My parents used to always tell me when I became a mother that I shouldn't eat off my kids' plate if they didn't finish a meal. Did I listen? Nah...!

It kills me to throw food out and I've always been that way. I can't even say it's survivor mentality because I didn't go through a war of any kind, thank G-d. My parents never instilled a real guilt in me if I didn't finish my food; I was just a slow and somewhat picky eater when I was young and my mother would keep reminding me of that.

I think I just "knew", as a daughter of a survivor, just how precious food was and still is.

But it occurred to me last night, after I'd eaten a FEW pieces (small, or not) of homemade pizza, that I'd finished the last two pieces on the tray because "I didn't want them to go to waste."

So the pieces might not have gone "to waste" but they certainly go "TO WAIST" -- MINE!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My husband also cannot bear to see food go to waste and will finish what the kids leave. I can't scold him for it, knowing his own father was starved in a concentration camp. Just have to let him be.

orieyenta said...

I should lend LO to you. She usually finishes her meal and then jumps over to my plate. If I don't eat fast, I don't eat! I am always in awe of how small she is considering she eats enough for a small army. (If only we could borrow that metabolism for ourselves!)

Anonymous said...

I have heard say that we moms gain weight through sin and crime: It's a sin to leave it, and a crime to throw it out. My solution is to gather the 'clean' (untouched) leftovers onto one plate and fridge it for tomorrow. Either it's my lunch (way better than the usual yogurt) or my 16-year-old's second dinner (when he's still foraging for food 2 hours after real dinner). Worst comes to worst, it sits for days until it's no longer criminal to throw it out -- it's no longer safe to eat! (oh yeah, another daughter of survivors!)