What's in your fridge? 9 June

I guess it is confession time. I am not doing too well. There have been a number of issues I have had to deal with, and that means other things get dropped. And my diet has been among the casualties. Admitted, it could be worse. I'm not resorting to frozen pizzas or take-away, and I have been getting care packages from my mum.

Still, my fridge is not exactly neat.

I am getting a bit worried about the state of some of the veg. Especially as I will be off for the weekend. I am rather worried that the contents of both the saucepan and the large bowl are only fit for the rubbish bin. As is the leftover on the plate.

However, the amount of food I have had to bin because it had died, or in some cases, become even more alive, has gone down. Almost dramatically. The focus on flashing my fridge every fortnight is proving to be beneficial.

I am also getting into decreasing the number of jars. Now, this isn't an exercise in making the contents of the fridge be as small as possible. Especially as I actually have a rather large fridge. The exercise is to only have things I actually use. One part of this means identifying what are must-haves, items without which I cannot exist. Or at least will cause discomfort.

I think my number one item has to be milk. Without milk, there will be no drinking of coffee. Without coffee, there will be no brain activity. (OK, so I can drink coffee without milk or cream, but then I need ridiculous amounts of sugar.)

Currently orange juice is probably a solid second. I am once more in the habit of a glass every morning. This is no longer just because I like it. It is because iron gets taken up by the body easier with vitamin c, and as I am taking those darn supplements, I may as well do my best at getting the most out of them. This means a slightly convoluted morning routine, because coffee hampers the intake of iron. So I try to get up around seven, and then take my iron and juice, and then wait for the 30 or so minutes to pass before I can start preparing coffee and breakfast. When I oversleep, things get complicated.


I think my various liquid stocks are my third must-haves. Even though it has been a while since I used them. But they are so good and handy for making so many dishes. Instant flavour, in case whatever it is I'm preparing turns out to be bland. Mind you, I did realize how much more expensive they are compared to the cubes, so I have started to buy those instead. Not all flavours are available in cube form though.

I think I could pretty much survive for weeks without the other items in my fridge, but these three would mean disaster before long. What do you consider to be your must-haves in the fridge?