I decided to make a simple salad for the family. Chicken salad. I even had some leftover cooked chicken in the fridge that nobody seemed interested in anymore.

The recipe called for pineapple chunks, so I opened a can and used the fruit. That left me with a whole cup of pineapple juice.

Drink it? Didn't feel like it.

Pour it out? What a waste.

Then I remembered a cake recipe that called for pineapple juice. Perfect! So I baked the cake. The recipe only needed egg yolks, though, which left me with a bowl full of egg whites.

Well, I couldn't just throw those away.

I could put them in the fridge, but let's be honest—they'd probably end up in the trash later anyway.

Then inspiration struck.

Meringues!

Easy, quick, delicious.

The recipe called for lemon zest. I grated the peel off a lemon, and suddenly I was staring at a sad, bald-looking lemon. If I left it sitting around, it would dry out.

What now?

Oh! I could make a lemon dressing for a salad.

The dressing used half an onion.

Now I had half an onion staring at me from the cutting board like it expected a future.

What do I do with that?

Spaghetti sauce!

I found a jar of homemade tomato sauce in the pantry. I only needed half of it. But then I couldn't just let the rest go bad. I had spent an entire weekend canning those tomatoes last summer.

So naturally, I decided to make a big pot of soup.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any potatoes.

Off to the grocery store I went.

I came home with potatoes, cheese, sour cream, toothpaste, a six-pack of socks that was on sale, a pair of slippers I absolutely didn't need but couldn't pass up, three bars of soap, paper towels, and a giant bag of coffee because it was "too good a deal to miss."

While I was out, I stopped by the bank, dropped off a package at the shipping store, picked up a prescription, and grabbed fresh sandwich rolls for the kids' lunches.

By the time I got home, I could barely carry everything inside.

I made the soup.

At that point, I no longer cared whether anything was left over.

I collapsed into my favorite chair. My back hurt. My legs hurt. I couldn't feel my arms.

And sitting there, completely exhausted, I had one thought:

I should have just drank the pineapple juice.

— Author Unknown