Sharon Fruit, Rhubarb and Lychees, and the likes, should be sold under LICENSE ONLY!!

[QuintessentialShadows]

My husband has discovered that he loves grocery shopping. He loves the Idea of Good Food. He is on a low carb philosophy, and believes in heaps of veg. Fine.

Only, we cannot really afford for him to go shopping.

He is literally filling the fridge with weird and wonderful (and pricey) items such as celery, sharon fruit, lyches, star fruit, rhubarb, blueberries, insane amounts of cherry tomatoes, two fresh fillets of lemon sole, two duck breasts (we are a family of 4), purple asparagus in large quantities, and brussel sprouts.

What sort of meal can I possibly make of the above?

The duck breasts could be sliced and stir fried with the veg to make them feed 4. The asparagus will go well with the sole, as would oven roasted cherry toms. Braised celery is nicer than raw imho, and it works well in soups.

Eh? How can anyone thing that buying brussel sprouts is a good idea? I thought their sole purpose was to torture children at Christmas.

*think not thing

only two soles though. Neither of us are great cooks.
I am not great at throwing random stuff together to make it nice.

So we end up wasting a lot of food. The fridge is small, usually stuffed to the point of bursting, so we cant see what food is there, so it goes bad.

I just wish he could do a planned shop where he get the ingredients with specific meals in mind, rather than throwing a whole heap of stuff that looks great on its own together.

Is celery expensive? I'm with you on the rest of it though.

Maybe you could couch it in terms of 'this is such lovely food but neither of us knows how to use it to the best. Why don't we sit down and pick out some nice recipes and buy the stuff'. Or is that too cringey for words?

Not unreasonable to ask him to menu plan, especially if you have to watch the cost and you're the one that does the cooking!
He is being v silly.

He bought it, he cooks it

Make sure you're out of earshot with a

I agree with purple. He must be made to make the meal. and ensure no food gets wasted.

Or do an internet shop instead?

Bung the cherry tomatoes under the grill with sliced garlic and basil leaves. When they are a bit brown, squash them up a bit and stir in some single cream. Serve with pasta and parmesan grated on top. Takes 15 min and is food for the gods.

Freeze the sole and the duck and get two more of each next week.

Make asparagus risotto, pasta with tomato sauce (although chopping the cherry tomatoes will be a faff) rhubarb crumble and a fruit salad. Which will last you about 2 days.

Cook duck for two people and sole for the other two with mash and veg.

Write him a list before he goes out shopping. Write the dish down and then the ingredients underneath. Then tell him to do the list himself in a similar way next week.

Rhubarb is gorgeous, you can grow your own easily.

Rhubarb is the absolute favourite thing in our house. Make a rhubarb crumble. Delicious

In fact I'm now off to pick some rhubarb !

Would it make sense for you to go shopping together for a few times ? Each time he picks something up to put in the trolley, you can be there, asking which meal that is for / how he's going to cook it / which day you are having that, etc. to "train" him, if he's not been used to doing the weekly shop ?

Moo - send me some please! I Love rhubarb

I can't grow it for love nor money - I've tried 3 separate years to try to plant some, all for nil return