Well, here it is nearly the end of March. I think I have survived.
I posted on February 28th on my personal Facebook account about my routine of making up a batch of pancakes on Fat Tuesday. It is a ritual I have had for quite some time now, ever since I learned it was the traditional thing to do the Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday) before the beginning of Lent.
March 1st was also the beginning of Lent this year. As a child raised Catholic, I remember all those meatless meals and the little UNICEF box on the table. Starving children in China, you know. For those of you who don’t observe, the shorthand on Lent is that it is the 40 days before Easter (leaving out Sundays) meant to symbolize Jesus’ time in the desert before His death.
You most often hear about it as when someone “gives something up” for Lent. Like pop or chocolate. I haven’t been a practicing Catholic for over 20 years, but that ritual has carried with me, mostly because it makes Easter more meaningful beyond Cadbury eggs and bunnies.
3 or 4 years ago I decided to go beyond the rote limitation of a vice to the more overall concept of doing with less for these 40 days. I am by no means a wealthy person but I can go to the grocery store whenever I want to and if I need to purchase something I can do so (within reason, of course). There is not a lot I want for.
I consider myself a thrifty person but compared to many, I have a lot. My rules guidelines have evolved over the years but they look a bit like the following.
Since March 1st, I have made the effort to not buy anything new and every day I get rid of something. Clean out a junk drawer or fill a bag of clothes for the Goodwill. The only exception is gas and $20 a week for fresh fruit, veggies and eggs.
If there is an event that requires going to a restaurant I can participate, but otherwise I do not go out to eat. If I know in advance, I will cut back on the $20 allowance to enjoy a cider or small meal.
I do with what I have in the pantry and freezer, using up what I have instead of just running to the store because I can’t think of anything or something else sounds good. I have never gone hungry, but I may find myself eating sweet potatoes 6 days in a row or debating the shelf life of a near empty bag of organic popcorn (who knows how long that has been there!).
I have found it does a good job of reminding me how good I have it and what I need and don’t need. It gets me back to habits that are important to me like planning my meals, eating at home, spending less, being frugal. A busy life makes it easy to fall in to bad habits like stopping by the store for lunch instead of packing one too many days a week when you have a kitchen full of food.
For example, I realized I have about 2 more loads worth of dishwasher detergent left. I know, first world problems. I quickly was on Pinterest looking up recipes for making my own, with ingredients I already have in my home.
One of them called for a few drops of dish soap. From here, I remembered that I actually have plenty of dish soap. Hmmm, I guess I will just have to do my dishes by hand. Oh, the sacrifice. Sometimes I forget that I have gone 5 years without a dishwasher. How did I ever survive?
I also ran out of tall kitchen garbage bags (oh, the horror!) and I am now using saved paper and plastic sacks that don’t fit the can.
Another example, I wanted to make an underquilt for my hammock before we go to Havasupai Falls for spring break. I already had the quilt but needed to modify it to hang under my hammock. I had looked up a few underquilts online and it didn’t seem that complicated.
However, when I went to put it together like I was thinking, I realized after scrounging through my craft/gear room (those things go together, right?), I didn’t quite have what I wanted. I REALLY wanted to run to the store. Instead, I made it work with what I had. This could either be an example of ingenuity or the fact I have WAY too much stuff in my craft/gear room.
St. Patrick’s Day hasn’t been the same either since I began to do this, it always falls in the middle of Lent. It would be cheating to stock up on corned beef ahead of time and it usually isn’t for sale that early anyway. And the work of making it from scratch didn’t seem worth it (Alton Brown has a great recipe, BTW).
The upside? I have enjoyed researching traditional Irish dishes like bangers and mash (last year) and this year’s lamb shepherd’s pie with “cheesy” cauliflower mash on top, along with Irish soda bread, because that was the meat I had in my freezer. Did you know the Irish don’t actually eat corned beef and cabbage?
I have to be honest and say I don’t always stick to this 100%. Things just come up like being in a scramble class where last minute they tell you that you need some piece of equipment you can’t make yourself or borrow or spring break falls in the middle and there’s no way to reasonably pack all your food for a week AND take it on the plane. Or expect the person going with you to do the same so you don’t have to eat out the whole time.
Sure, I’d wish I was like this all the time. I probably SHOULD do this all the time. But unfortunately, it isn’t my reality and I can’t beat myself up over it. It joins a list of other things I wish I could make a consistent routine.
It’s more of a mentality, and that is why I do it. It gives pause to the things I normally do, taking for granted that I am blessed to be able to do those kinds of things in the first place. It helps me appreciate all I have. I know that I do this by choice, while others do this out of necessity.
Why am I sharing this with you, you might ask? This is a blog about hiking and eating! I guess it might be so someone else might stop and think about all THEY have and realize the importance to taking stock of and appreciating those things. But I think the main reason I share it is because it is a part of who I am and what is important to me.
And that is what blogs are all about.
Okay, for those of you who clicked on this post and made it ALL the way down here because you were hoping to see how I make my paleo pancakes, here is your reward! These are my top 3 favorite pancake recipes.
The first one is because I almost always have those 3 ingredients in my kitchen (and the one pictured above). The second one was the first recipe I ever tried and it helped me get through the transition to paleo. The third is probably the most “healthy”, it has only 2 ingredients (the others have a whopping 3) and is nut free.
Enjoy!
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