I’m currently fasting.
As a Bahá’í, I fast from sunrise to sunset for 19 days of the year, which this year is March 1 – 19. That means no food or liquids while the sun is up.
And as a result, I’ve been contemplating my diet and nutrition quite a bit. Naturally, several questions popped in my head related to how I eat and prepare food.
The first question I asked myself was: “What is the minimum number of appliances we would need to make the greatest variety of food?“
The answer?
Instapot, Wok, and a Toaster Oven. I think with those three things you could make almost anything (or at least, almost anything that I know how to make).
Then that led me to the question: “If you could only have one appliance, which one would you use?“
My answer? Probably either our rice cooker/steamer or our Instapot.
And then I thought, well, what is even more minimalist than that?
And I realized that the most minimal kitchen would be one where you didn’t cook anything and just used a knife and cutting board to eat a variety of raw fruits and vegetables (and I guess sandwiches? nuts? seeds?). A raw vegan lifestyle is pretty minimal (and cheap) but I still kind of like cooked foods sometimes.
So then I thought it would be good to have a way to make soup or warm foods.
Perhaps the most optimal minimal setup, which still provides whatever I need, is to use a rice cooker/steamer so I can make congee or soups, steam vegetables, and then also cut up raw fruits and veggies too. (Honestly, the only reason I’m picking a rice cooker over our Instapot is that it takes up way less of our limited counter space. But an Instapot could also work.)
Hmmm, what about coffee or tea?
Our Nespresso Vertuo, which is pretty sweet (and thanks to our 100% recyclable pods, pretty good for the environment too) works quite well, even if it does require a dedicated space on our counter. Those coffees end up being about $1 each, which is a good price. But we still use our electric kettle for tea, which is another addition to this mix.
I suppose if we wanted to go minimalist on our hot drinks we could just use our Aeropress and electric kettle. But who am I kidding? That Nespresso is just too darn convenient.
Two years ago in the second incarnation of Walk the Pla.net (This is the third, FYI), I did minimalist challenges where I would challenge myself for a month to optimize one area of my life (clothes, food, etc.). It was fun, and I’m thinking that I might try one of these for April.
Once the fast is over, I can spend the last 2 weeks of March figuring out the details, and then start on April 1st to try to go for 4 weeks with a minimalist (and optimized) food preparation.
There is still a lot of things I need to figure out, but it is really tempting.
Of course, tomorrow I might just say no to this whole idea.