In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah interviews Allison Schaaf, founder of PrepDish, a company that provides menus and shopping lists for various tastes and dietary needs. Allison talks about running a business while raising her kids, and her guidelines for prepping ahead of time. She talks about her favorite kitchen tools and how to re-use ingredients.

In the Q&A we brave the waters of a debate between a listener and her husband: Do swimsuits and towels need to be washed after every pool visit?

Please give the episode a listen and let us know what’s on your meal rotation these days. In my house, we’ve been doing pasta on Mondays, breakfast for dinner on Wednesdays and make-your-own-pizza on Fridays…

Anyway, in finding space for the second bushel we brought home this past weekend, I noticed that we still had about a dozen apples from the last time going bad in the fruit drawer. No one was likely to eat them. So I used the simple recipe that  (if I recall correctly) Calee posted last time (just simmer and mash it, peels and all!) and made a big batch of applesauce that I have been eating this week. It turns out that even going-bad apples can make good applesauce!

One of my little sources of satisfaction in life is using things up. Working from home allows for a lot of that with lunches. My husband and I heated up some Costco pulled pork on Sunday night, which made enough to take us through at least two lunches apiece this week. On one day I decided to use up some kale by frying up the pulled pork and kale in some olive oil in a pan. It was quite tasty, and a very palatable way to eat a ton of greens.

On Tuesday night we had pasta. I cut up some peppers that were lingering in the fridge, plus some spinach that was on its last legs, and put those in the sauce. I have found that almost any wilting veggie can be accommodated quite nicely with some rice and pre-cooked sausage, all pan-fried together. It’s a double bonus if we happen to have some sort of sauce left over from one of our Sunbasket meal kits.

Anyway, there’s a balancing act here. Theoretically, using it up means we could go longer between shops, or buy less. But when the larder looks bare, the kids just don’t eat as many fruits and veggies. I need to have their favorites on hand.

But I can still enjoy my thrift. Now if you need me, I’ll be over here putting water in my shampoo bottle to extend its life for a few more days…