March Madness, Pantry Style

March Madness. You may think it's all about this:

And it is. We are die hard NC State fans and we made it in. So did Duke, Carolina, and Davidson. Here in North Carolina, with a bunch of teams in March Madness, folks are watching at work and creating office pools, heading to sports bars and watching their phones A LOT.

But there's another kind of March Madness going on in our house. Spring fever! I am in a clean out mode.

I tend to use all fresh veggies from this point on. Local produce is more plentiful at our grocery stores. Our farmer's market friends have been busy in their greenhouses.

My friend Clay who I knew in another work life. Now he's an organic farmer and I buy the best veggies from him!

 So, it's time to revisit my canned and dried goods. There are things on the shelves that were bought in a winter storm induced moment. Things that mean winter weight gain and now I'm looking at a warm weather diet. Ingredients that will be great in summer dishes but others great for donation to the food pantry. I take like items off the shelves and determine what will work best for spring and summer dishes and what heads off to our local ministry's food pantry. 

For instance, rice and bean noodles face off:

  
Rice was great in soups and casseroles this winter. But that meant weight gain. Who's better? Pretty much a no-brainer for this time of year.  Black bean noodles have protein, fiber and hardly any carbs.

Peanut butter versus almonds?

Okay, I'm out of natural peanut butter. BUT almonds led all winter long and they are perfect for hiking. Almonds for the win.

Then there's tuna up against beans.

Whew. This game, I mean comparison, was tougher than I thought. Tuna is a power packed traditional diet food but it does have issues. Mercury levels, sodium in some brands, price. Canned beans are the underdog since they are considered a survival of the cheapest food. But beans of all kinds have a great blend of fiber, carbs and protein and the price is right. They go great as a side dish or cold marinated salad ingredient. Beans pulls ahead.

Lastly, we're moving out of hot cereal season. 

 
One team from the North and one new addition from  South America made this an interesting bracket face off. Oatmeal and quinoa are so close in protein, iron and carbs, flip-flopping on percentages and even gluten-free. Quinoa can be used in salads and sides while oatmeal is great for granola bars and cookies for hiking. I had to call this one a tie.

So, do you spring clean your pantry? Are there staples you consider fall/winter or spring/summer musts? What are winners on your ingredient list? And lastly, are you paying attention to that other March Madness that involves a ball?      

March Madness Begins!!!!!

If you have boys, or a husband, or a sports fanatic daughter, or yourself, you know what this post means simply by the title.

I didn't know what March Madness was until my boys were old enough to LOVE college basketball. Now all we need to do is here the opening notes of the theme song, and they all grin... hugely.

NCAA championship tournament begins tomorrow with the round of 64.... 32 basketball games stretched over four regional venues. Then we close the weekend with the round of 32.... Four days of non-stop basketball coverage and Who's Who in the name of collegiate hoops.

We do brackets. Brackets are sheets with EVERY game listed and you pick the winner and toss a bill into the "pot"... Winner take all. Each round is scored by points. I've had to do that. Seth has done that. Luke has done that.

You know what?

Now Yahoo does it FOR US!  We enter our choices in a Yahoo page, we give all the people the password and they enter their choices.  And then the computer establishes winners per round.

I wonder if that's going to take some of the fun out of the whole thing? No more red pens, no more totaling up points per round...

Sometimes I think technology impersonalizes too much. Everything is push-of-a-button easy. And this is a nice thing because my kids are scattered now, and it's easy-peasy...

But I'm not so sure it's the same because instead of that fun back-and-forth via phone or computer e-mail, we can just one-click into Yahoo and see our scores.

Kinda thin.

What do you think? Has technology made us more impersonal?

Oh, food???? Grinning!!!!  Chips, dip and  pizza from Caraglio's, of course!