make your stomach happy 

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The "Use What’s in the Fridge" chef follows three basic tenets of culinary procedure:
1 Look what’s in the fridge (incl. freezer/ pantry/ roommate’s leftovers)
2 Cook what’s in the fridge.
3 Eat the cooked what’s-in-the-fridge.
An unwritten 4^th tenet might be: prioritize items in order of nearest expiration date. This means using opened packages, half-eaten vegetables, and things stamped "refrigerate after opening" which have already had a good two weeks since the lid-button first popped.

INGREDIENTS
(Make sure you first check out  The Lazy Shopper's kitchen essentials) I’m all for the easy-cook stuff. I love gourmet food as much as the next guy/girl, and sometimes I’ll splurge, but we’re talking real cooking here (again, this is actually what’s in my fridge). Plus, plenty of "gourmet" ingredients and procedures just aren’t cost-effective, time-effective, or...plain effective. I use jarred things, packaged things, and frozen things. And I’ve had no complaints yet (at least not from anyone who was hungry).

• Meat. I usually use chicken. It’s easy, tasty, and healthy. Go to Costco or your neighborhood gargantua-mart and get a monster bag of frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts or thighs. They’ll last forever (a relative term--DigsMagazine assumes no liability in event of food poisoning). Just pop a couple in the microwave for 7 min. on Defrost. Or, if you really have it together, take ‘em out of the freezer and put them in the fridge the day before. As for ground meat, you can get 1 lb. chubs of frozen ground chicken or turkey for about 99¢. Nice single size, lasts forever, and cheap. Again, just pop the whole thing in the microwave to defrost (without opening first), or set in the fridge the night before.

• Vegetables. Veggies are the cheapest part of your bill and the easiest things to spark new life into your dishes, so try new ones. The oldies but goodies: cabbage (lasts long, very healthy), broccoli (ditto; if you’re really lazy, you can also get a bag of pre-cut florettes), onions (a MUST), garlic (a MUST). After hitting the produce aisle, head on over to frozen foods. Fresh veggies are great, but unless you go to the supermarket everyday (c’mon, you average once every three weeks, don’t ya?), you’ll need something to carry you through. Also, some frozen vegetables are actually more nutritious than fresh ones that have been sitting around a few days. Get frozen bags of mixed veggies (various kinds like broccoli/cauliflower, not the cafeteria carrot/peas/lima beans, please). Get frozen spinach since fresh spinach goes bad about 3 minutes after you buy it -- I prefer frozen bags to frozen blocks, since the bag lets you use only as much as you need whereas you have to defrost the whole block.

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