Yeah what helped me was rotating two or three base recipes each week but swapping out the protein and veggies. Keeps it from getting boring without having to buy a whole new set of ingredients every time.

I had this same problem but with bananas from Sam's Club a few years back. I bought a 5 pound bag thinking it was a steal for $2.50, but by day 3 I had like 14 brown bananas sitting on my counter. My roommate literally taped a note to the fridge that said "no more bananas unless you're feeding a small army" lol. I ended up freezing half of them but then I had frozen bananas taking up space in my freezer for like 8 months. Now I just buy 3 loose bananas at a time from the corner bodega and actually finish them before they go bad. The bulk game is just not worth it for stuff that rots fast, learned that lesson the hard way.

Man that is so exhausting to even think about. It really does change how you see people when you know the stuff behind the curtain. The whole thing about normal people learning from celebrities is spot on. You end up looking at someone's post and wondering if they actually dropped their coffee or if they planned the whole thing out for likes. Must be draining for her too honestly, nobody should have to work that hard for a photo that's supposed to look like it just happened. I feel bad for anyone stuck in that cycle where even your emotions need to be staged perfectly.

@thompson.nathan you're not alone on that... those old rivet patterns have a kind of honesty to them. It's like how you can tell a hand-built wooden barn from a metal shed. Something about seeing the workmanship right there in front of you feels more real than a smooth, painted-over surface. Reminds me of how older cars had visible welds and gaps that just screamed "somebody built this thing," while modern ones feel like injection molded toys. That C-130 toothpaste sealant sounds right too, like they weren't trying to hide the fact that it needed to be put together by hand.

Hotter water and coarser grind actually fixed my extraction issues.