Lent(e)ment

If I remember correctly from my school times, that´s French for slowly. Which is exactly how things on the weight loss front are moving. The weekend´s five-pound (ugh) gain is coming off at a rate of a pound a day, which means it´s still somewhat over four pounds to the Promised Land of No Longer Obese.
With Lent beginning today, I have decided to stick to a meatless diet until Easter, which means plenty of fish and poultry instead.
It also means changing my breakfast habit from "bacon and eggs" to just eggs. As DH still will be eating meat, I prepare two portions of eggs every morning- one with and one without bacon.
That means I use two small pans, too. Yesterday, in preparation for this morning, I thought about what I needed today, and, being at work, went to look for a small stainless steel pan (no teflon coating) to use. Only when I stood in the mall in front of a display of small stainless steel pans, did I remember that I had bought one exactly like that- last year. Which, of course, is still perfectly serviceable. So, it was like "duh, I´m forgetful" and I had my lesson on where all those double items in my household must have come from. Remembering that I need something and completely forgetting I already have it.
Before starting on my shopping embargo, I would not have thought twice about buying another of those pans. I consider it a step forward that this time, I realized in time that I was about to spend money to re-buy something I already had.

Something else, unfortunately, seems to have gone completely missing, namely, the stainless steel pans with a larger diameter I used to have. I can remember taking them out of my pot rack after buying several teflon-coated pans. I had thought that they were in the cellar along with the extra china, but it looks like they got tossed along with some cheapo pots I used to have. While these weren´t exactly high-quality, I have read enough by now on the dangers of teflon and such to kick myself for buying a set of nonstick pans at all. So, if I really did declutter those steel pans, that would make them the one and only thing I really regret tossing out. Replacing them won´t be easy, nor cheap, as most shops around here seem to have nothing but nonstick pans any more, unless you are ready to pay half a fortune for some professional-quality pan. At least, I still have a single-portion-sized stainless pan which means I can do my fish frying without having to resort to the nonstick ones (for meat, I use my cast iron ones, but if you use these for fish, the smell will linger for a long time, and I don´t have a spare cast iron  pan to dedicate to just frying fish). I´ll have to go through the cellar once more, perhaps I did yet keep those pans.
Until then, I´ll have to live with the results of my decisions. Doesn´t everyone.


Julia