Doggie Bag

If I’m going to confess the skeletons in my pantry, I may as well describe what I’d call a recent success.

My wife and I went out to dinner last night. Instead of the standard two appetizers and two entrées, we went with the smörgÃ¥sbord approach–four smaller dishes. I find this kind of ordering usually leads to less excess because you focus on what you want to eat, not what they expect you to have. Plus, it’s kind of fun when you’re never sure what dish will come out first!

California roll. Yum.

Grilled manouri cheese with roasted tomatoes. Vanished.

Moroccan Bibb salad. Interesting…

“Santorini Style” flatbread pizza (pictured). Slowing down.

In this situation, here’s how my mind works (for better or worse): I ask myself ‘Would I rather have the rest of this pizza right now or for lunch tomorrow?’ Last night (and usually), the answer was the latter.

I find that this helps avoid “wasting” food by overeating. Now, overating isn’t the same as simply throwing away food, but nutritionists argue that it’s equally negative. I’m not sure I’d go that far, because it’s hard to gauge when you’ve eaten “enough,” and that term is quite subjective. But I do know that I’m psyched to enjoy the rest of that flatbread today.

Instead of eating more pizza, I had another slice of bread from the basket (that would have otherwise been dumped). I left with a delicious doggie bag and plenty of room for a raspberry lime popsicle.