This shouldn't have been so hard. All I wanted was a few small vegetables and a small portion of meat or fish to make dinner for two. Turns out, the grocery store doesn't sell much that is both fresh and in a small portion.
So I searched high and low for individual items to turn into a meal. My rule was to stay cheap (throws organic out) and stay with a size that wouldn't be more than I needed. I could have negotiated an end to the writer's strike in less time than my shopping took.
I managed to find a small squash that was about half the size of its counterparts. The same goes for a red pepper, which had a similarly sized brother, but both were again twice the size of the rest of their friends. I didn't even bother considering the baking potatoes; they are probably visible from space.
And looking for a small amount of fish made the decision really easy: The smallest portion was about half a pound of fresh catfish; the next biggest was about a pound of the southern delicacy, and the same went for every other kind of fish in the cooler.
I added all that to a few small mushrooms and some boxed brown rice (the smallest container was about five times what I needed). A bit of butter and some seasoning turned it into a meal that probably would have served three, not just my fiance and myself.
Basically, I lucked out. The meal's ingredients picked themselves; they were the only ingredients I could find in a very large grocery store that were small enough that I didn't have any waste, and weren't off the organic shelves. If I went back and did it again, I don't know if I could produce a different meal under the same rules.
Why is it so hard to find normal-sized food?
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