A WEEK'S WORTH OF FOOD:

Sometimes you just end up buying everything that's on sale at the grocery: Ooh, organic zucchini -- in January! (from Mexico) -- for $1.29 per lb. Red and yellow bell peppers 50 cents each! A huge cauliflower (make sure it's still firm -- and it is) for $1.50. Slightly wilted but perfectly fine organic lacinato kale for 99¢ a bunch. Plus a butternut squash and the usual potatoes, onions, garlic . . .

Then you get home -- and you have to figure out what to do with it all! And when. Because some of the veggies will keep better than others. And some are in perfect condition while some (the sale ones) are maybe not quite. But some things go with others, and some definitely don't. Time to practice the triage method of menu creation?

Here's what I ended up doing over the following week, using some of what I'd bought every day, but obviously also drawing on supplies —dry, frozen, and canned -- that I had on hand, as well.

Day 1: a sauce of sauteed onion and red and yellow peppers with canned (Muir Glen) tomatoes to go with spaghetti and Quorn's fabulous breaded faux-chicken patties. Sauce recipe (Salsa rossa con peperoni) from Julia della Croce's highly recommended Salsa di Pomodoro: Making the Great Tomato Sauces of Italy.

Day 2: leftover peperoni sauce with spaghetti and roasted slices of butternut squash, and a side dish of spinach and peanuts ("Goobers and Greens" recipe from Damon Lee Fowler's Beans, Greens, and Sweet Georgia Peaches).

Day 3: Braised cauliflower with curry and yoghurt (from Jack Bishop's Vegetables Every Day), Alu bhune (curried potatoes) from Dharamjit Singh's Indian Cookery, with rice.

Day 4: The leftovers from day 3 (I did say it was a huge cauliflower?), with a lentil/lacinato kale stew (adapted from Paula Wolfert's Syrian chard and lentil soup recipe in Mediterranean Grains and Greens, replacing chard with kale and cutting back on the amount of water).

Day 5: my favorite home fries, cubes of potato fried with whole raw almonds, (frozen) green lima beans, and black olives. Served with the leftover lentil/kale mixture.

Day 6: Sauteed red and yellow pepper strips and zucchini, with the juice from day 1's large tin of tomatoes, plus olives and capers, thyme, parsley, and garlic. Served over rigatoni with grated pecorino cheese.