What is in your drawers?

There is a blog I read, written by a particularly brave teacher.  Now I think all teachers are brave but this woman goes above and beyond, she's taking on the challenge of eating the school lunch for 100 days.  100 days, just the thought gives me a stomach ache and saps my energy.  Let's face it, hot lunch for kids is not what it used to be!  It's just one of the reasons I'm grateful my little one goes to a charter school and hot lunch is not even an option, it's one less argument to have as I navigate the journey with him.  I simply do not believe they fill our child's nutritional needs.  I know, by USDA standards they do, but not by mine.  When my oldest was young he could choose one hot lunch a week in grade school.  He didn't always do it, but that was our compromise.  I know I myself was particularly fond of wiener wrap day and tried to find an excuse to join him on that day, only to find by the time I got up in the line that all the wiener wraps were gone....I was devastated, I still am.

If you have not read Mrs. Q's blog, run, do not walk (cyber speaking of course) over there, the links on the right.  It's a noble thing she's doing, shedding light on a problem that we all know is there but we don't experience first hand, she's making it real.

A couple of days ago she posted a thread about her crisper drawer-yes, I like that word too, I don't use it nearly enough.  She bravely posted photos of her drawers and asked that we, her readers, do the same on our blogs and link them back to her.  Here goes:

Let's see, we've got a bag of kiwi in the left front, a lonely lime left over from a party a few weeks ago.  An assortment of citrus fruits, one big, huge, sweet grapefruit on the right front mixed in with a couple little tiny oranges.  My fresh bag of oranges on the left rear and my fresh bag of lemons on the right rear.  Why so many lemons?  I juice them.  I like to make "green lemonade", essentially greens like kale and celery, or cucumber, juiced with lemon and ginger.  Don't wrinkle your nose, it tastes good!  You can add a little stevia or agave to sweeten if you need it. 

Here we have my head of red cabbage, about to be turned into slaw for crunchy tacos tomorrow night, in the right rear.  A head of broccoli, begging to be steamed and eaten, in the left rear.  A few left over zucchini in the left front that will soon be grilled.  Some baby bok choy in the right front that will soon be steamed.  And we have beets, I juice those or I roast them.  I think there's a few little Serrano chiles left over in there too somewhere. 

My greens, like spinach for my smoothies, take up too much space to go in the drawer so they've taken over the majority of a middle shelf.  I've also got apples hiding somewhere and until I consumed it all yesterday I had a cut watermelon.  It was really, really good!

There you have it, a glimpse into my produce.  This has reminded me though that there are a few things I didn't get a chance to cook this week-my youngest had a track camp every night from 6:30-8:30 so our dinners were all picnic style.  So this weekend will have an interesting array of side dishes!