Holy Groceries, Batman! (12/12)

So, my last haul was one of the best (if not the very best) dumpster experiences of my life. Very rarely will you have enough from one dumpster to fill the entire bed of a pick-up truck (don't worry, I'm not being greedy - literally no one dumpsters where I'm living right now except for me or people I've shown them to). So yeah, FULL PICK-UP TRUCK BED. With a ridiculous amount of variety (produce, packaged food, frozen food, MEAT, pasta, dairy, baked goods - EVERYTHING)! We divided the plunder amongst 3 households and grabbed 3 big bags of bread to bring to Occupy Baltimore's encampment (sadly, they were raided the morning I was going to bring the bread to them...so now I'm trying to figure out how to donate someplace else). I have a Christmas pot-luck coming up Sunday, so it may be perfect timing to make a bruscetta or bread pudding or something.

An aside - winter is one of my favorite times to dumpster. It's really cold outside, which sucks for your fingers...but the cold also acts as a natural refrigerator. This means you can dumpster meat, frozen food, or dairy more safely than in the summer months, adding a lot more to your haul. I always still do a smell-check, visual check for signs of it going bad, and take a gander at the sell-by date. If it passes all those, then I'll take it. If I'm even remotely on the fence, I leave it to the dumpster. Also, the colder refrigeration temps means you can afford to come in the morning instead of the wee hours of the night, depending on the trash pick-up times or load-in times for your grocery store. This can save you some sleep. Also, some grocery stores throw out certain foods in the morning instead of at night. I'd urge you to experiment with daytime dumpstering (but be INCREDIBLY careful about getting caught).

As for me, here's what I picked up this haul:
- 1 loaf whole wheat bread
- 2 baking potatoes
- 2 avocados
- 6 large sweet potatoes
- 2 white onions
- 5 pears
- 1 pomegranate
- 3 persian (small) cucumbers
- 1 bag lemons
- 3 limes
- 1 pkg "Mediterranean feast" (hummus, tabbouleh, pita, etc)
- 1 pkg sour cream
- 1 premium black angus grass-fed beef top sirloin filet!!!
- 1 pkg Chile Spiced dried mangos
- 3 gourmet chocolate bars
- At least 2 boxes worth of whole wheat spaghetti
- 15 oz. extra firm tofu!!!!
- 4 vine-ripened roma tomatoes
- 1 pkg dates
- 11 eggs (one was broken)
- 1 bag spring greens
- 1 pkg asparagus
- 3 heads baby bok choy
- 1 pkg cherry tomatoes
- 1 pkg green beans
- 1 loaf ciabatta
- 6 ciabatta rolls
- 2 brie cheese logs
- 2 orange bell peppers
- 3-layer hummus (regular, cilantro, and red pepper)

(Holy crap, right?!)

So stoked on the beef and tofu! I haven't cooked a real steak in ages and have hardly ever cooked with tofu (although I've eaten a lot of it in college and when I was a vegan). The amount of cooking/good eating I'm going to need to do to keep up with all of this is exciting and astounding. Viva la Dumpster!