Tonight we had a scrumptious tomatillo gazpacho with shrimp and avocado garnish. I served it with some homemade cheese and black bean quesidillas. This meal was a majority of local ingredients, but not totally (the avocado, shrimp and beans were the exceptions) It was quite tasty though and will be added to our list to make again sometime.
I went to the local natural food store today and bought a few more items including some local organic chicken breasts and ground lamb. I also bought a couple "non local items" - the avocado, some turkey breast for my 5 year old and a few green olives for the soup's garnish. I chose all organic ingredients as I could not find local. Also, for the avocado, I chose the USA one, not the imported. That's got to count for something, right?!?From this trip I spent $19.79 on local food and $6.98 on non-local items.
Previous total: approximately $41 -- all local food dollars. So adding the grocery trip from today and the $30 I gave to the local farmer tonight at the drop point for a chicken and 2 dozen eggs.....the cumulative total is $91 local items, $7 non-local. Wow! I didn't realize how much $$ goes to food in our house. It's only the 6th day of the month!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Day 5 Eat local challenge
So.....trying to catch up on this.....in summary, Sunday was fine. We chose a local, organic fair-trade coffee shop to sit in and enjoy a mocha instead of Starbucks as we had a half hour to bide time since our initial plans were rained out (literally). We took the kids to ride the carousel and then went to a neighborhood pumpkin patch/farm stand and chose some small pumpkins (we're hoping to make it to the "real" patch this coming weekend, weather permitting) and got some fresh pressed cider, pears, butternut squash and onion. Spent another $16 in all local produce. We enjoyed the squash for dinner along with a couscous/veggie/curry medley and some homemade naan.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Day 4 Eat Local Challenge
BREAKFAST:
I think my DH is cheating and sticking to his traditional oatmeal for breakfast most mornings, but I am not going to wake up at 6 am to check! The kids and I are doing better though...we had local farm fresh eggs (mine fried, kids’ boiled) and a piece of toast (also local).
I also got around to making 2 loaves of nice fresh whole wheat bread today so we’ll be dining on that all week! It was from mostly local ingredients, with exception of the yeast and oil.
After breakfast, we went to the Farmer’s Market today. The weather forecast was for rain all day and it was obvious that most of the vendors took that to heart and stayed home. The produce was still plentiful though and we got a nice variety to supplement our CSA bin:
$2 for 5 red peppers
$2 basket of jalepenos and basket of tomatillos
$1.40 for 6 red pears
$2.35 cantaloupe
$6 shitake mushrooms
$3.75 for 3 onions (2 red, 1 white), 1 garlic and a small pie pumpkin
TOTAL : $17.50 (all local produce!)
Previous total was $7.16, so the total for the month so far is $24.66, ALL local dollars!
LUNCH: consisted entirely of leftovers from the fridge. I am not even sure what everyone ate as we were trying to get one kid out the door for an activity and the other off to her nap. I had leftover baked potato.
DINNER: Cheesy Cauliflower soup (all local ingredients - even the homemade chicken stock - with the exception of the salt and pepper) and the homemade bread.
DESSERT: Melon from the market.
Note: I also spent a good part of the afternoon preserving local produce for use in the months when it is not so plentiful. I am canning tomatoes, drying tomatoes, freezing peppers, greens and cauliflower and I made up a batch of pesto to put in an ice cube tray and freeze. Mmmm….mmmmm…..I know I’ll REALLY appreciate these in the fall and winter!
I think my DH is cheating and sticking to his traditional oatmeal for breakfast most mornings, but I am not going to wake up at 6 am to check! The kids and I are doing better though...we had local farm fresh eggs (mine fried, kids’ boiled) and a piece of toast (also local).
I also got around to making 2 loaves of nice fresh whole wheat bread today so we’ll be dining on that all week! It was from mostly local ingredients, with exception of the yeast and oil.
After breakfast, we went to the Farmer’s Market today. The weather forecast was for rain all day and it was obvious that most of the vendors took that to heart and stayed home. The produce was still plentiful though and we got a nice variety to supplement our CSA bin:
$2 for 5 red peppers
$2 basket of jalepenos and basket of tomatillos
$1.40 for 6 red pears
$2.35 cantaloupe
$6 shitake mushrooms
$3.75 for 3 onions (2 red, 1 white), 1 garlic and a small pie pumpkin
TOTAL : $17.50 (all local produce!)
Previous total was $7.16, so the total for the month so far is $24.66, ALL local dollars!
LUNCH: consisted entirely of leftovers from the fridge. I am not even sure what everyone ate as we were trying to get one kid out the door for an activity and the other off to her nap. I had leftover baked potato.
DINNER: Cheesy Cauliflower soup (all local ingredients - even the homemade chicken stock - with the exception of the salt and pepper) and the homemade bread.
DESSERT: Melon from the market.
Note: I also spent a good part of the afternoon preserving local produce for use in the months when it is not so plentiful. I am canning tomatoes, drying tomatoes, freezing peppers, greens and cauliflower and I made up a batch of pesto to put in an ice cube tray and freeze. Mmmm….mmmmm…..I know I’ll REALLY appreciate these in the fall and winter!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Day 3 Eat Local Challenge
Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs (from local farmer)
Tillamook cheese (local)
Honey wheat bread from local bakery
Lunch:
Last of the homemade tamales (see previous day’s post for locality of these)
Dinner:
Baked potatoes (local russets from CSA this week)
Steamed broccoli (from previous CSA bin)
Roasted golden roma tomatoes (from this week's CSA bin)
Cheese (Tillamook again….our old standby, thank goodness it is local!)
Butter (Tillamook, so local again)
Grocery Store: (My DH wanted to track how much of our food budget is spent on local food…..so I shall attempt to keep track of that too this month! It’s sure to increase by quite a bit after my trip to the Farmer’s Market tomorrow.)
All local purchases – woo hoo!
2 half gallons of milk: $2.29 each
2 pints half and half: $1.29 each
TOTAL (100% local goods): $7.16
Observation of the day: baking with all local ingredients will be a bit of a challenge…..I’ll have to explore this some more later. Also, I need to try and make some bread this weekend. The previous week I didn’t have time for bread making and I spent about $15 on bread. I need to find time to bake some instead!
Scrambled eggs (from local farmer)
Tillamook cheese (local)
Honey wheat bread from local bakery
Lunch:
Last of the homemade tamales (see previous day’s post for locality of these)
Dinner:
Baked potatoes (local russets from CSA this week)
Steamed broccoli (from previous CSA bin)
Roasted golden roma tomatoes (from this week's CSA bin)
Cheese (Tillamook again….our old standby, thank goodness it is local!)
Butter (Tillamook, so local again)
Grocery Store: (My DH wanted to track how much of our food budget is spent on local food…..so I shall attempt to keep track of that too this month! It’s sure to increase by quite a bit after my trip to the Farmer’s Market tomorrow.)
All local purchases – woo hoo!
2 half gallons of milk: $2.29 each
2 pints half and half: $1.29 each
TOTAL (100% local goods): $7.16
Observation of the day: baking with all local ingredients will be a bit of a challenge…..I’ll have to explore this some more later. Also, I need to try and make some bread this weekend. The previous week I didn’t have time for bread making and I spent about $15 on bread. I need to find time to bake some instead!
Day 2 Eat Local Challenge
Breakfast:
Coffee (from home roasted beans, bought from www.breworganic.com)
Apple (from local orchard – CSA bin)
Drizzle of local honey purchased at the Farmer’s Market
Lunch:
Leftover tamale from the freezer. Most of this was made with local ingredients (masa, chicken, zuchinni and cheese) some of the binder ingredients were not local – oil, salt, pepper, etc. but that was minimal.
Snacks (I hosted a healthy kids’ snack forum at my house and asked everyone to bring a snack) Most of these were store bought and not local
Dinner: (On the run) At 7 pm I caved and went to Burger King. Nothing local or organic on the menu. Unfortunately, there were no quick stops that would have been any better. And the day’s schedule and the kids’ bedtime necessitated this stop. Of course, if I had more time to plan this week out I could have had a homemade alternative (PB and Js or something, but I A**ed out!) I’ll get better…..I hope!
Coffee (from home roasted beans, bought from www.breworganic.com)
Apple (from local orchard – CSA bin)
Drizzle of local honey purchased at the Farmer’s Market
Lunch:
Leftover tamale from the freezer. Most of this was made with local ingredients (masa, chicken, zuchinni and cheese) some of the binder ingredients were not local – oil, salt, pepper, etc. but that was minimal.
Snacks (I hosted a healthy kids’ snack forum at my house and asked everyone to bring a snack) Most of these were store bought and not local
Dinner: (On the run) At 7 pm I caved and went to Burger King. Nothing local or organic on the menu. Unfortunately, there were no quick stops that would have been any better. And the day’s schedule and the kids’ bedtime necessitated this stop. Of course, if I had more time to plan this week out I could have had a homemade alternative (PB and Js or something, but I A**ed out!) I’ll get better…..I hope!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Day 1 Eat Local Challenge
October 1st snuck up on me…..but now the challenge has begun! I have to admit that I didn’t do as well as I thought I would. One of the issues was an overcrowded day and poor time management. However, my main problem is that my pantry and fridge have several things in them that are clearly not local (red grapes, avocado, whole grain pasta, etc) but I am not going to waste food in order to adhere to the challenge, so part of the beginning of the month is going to be using up some of that “waste.” I also didn’t make it to the Farmer’s Market today where I *really* needed an onion, but I will go on Saturday. I did withstand the pressure to pick up the onion at the grocery store today where I had to store for some pharmaceutical items. And I placed my order for a local chicken and 2 dozen eggs from Abundant Life Farms which I will pick up on Monday when they deliver to town.
On an up note, I am going to do my very best to not buy anything new this month that is not local. I even explained this to my 5 year old today when she saw Doritos in an ad and proclaimed her desire to have them. (Which is really strange because I am fairly certain that it has been YEARS since I have bought Doritos or any such thing….) Anyway, I told her that we’ll do a treasure hunt of sorts in the store and find local items. She seemed intrigued by this concept. We’ll see how fun it is when she discovers that her mac-n-cheese and crackers are not local products!
Here’s a recap of today’s eats:
BREAKFAST
Whole Wheat English Muffin (locally made, mass produced item)
Fried Egg (local farm)
Slice of cheese (local, Tillamook, yum, yum!)
Morningstar Sausage patty (not local at all!.....from the freezer stash. I think there’s only one left and, unfortunately, my daughter does not like the homemade sausage patties I made from our local pork…..so she may be having the meatless version for the remainder of the month!)
Milk (local Mallorie’s brand)
LUNCH (picnic in the park)
Sourdough bread (local sustainable bakery, www.cascadebaking.com)
Cheese (local Tillamook again)
Local cucumbers and carrots from our CSA share
Grapes (nonlocal, although I am now thinking that I could probably find a more local version if I tried!)
DINNER
Leftovers from the fridge!
On an up note, I am going to do my very best to not buy anything new this month that is not local. I even explained this to my 5 year old today when she saw Doritos in an ad and proclaimed her desire to have them. (Which is really strange because I am fairly certain that it has been YEARS since I have bought Doritos or any such thing….) Anyway, I told her that we’ll do a treasure hunt of sorts in the store and find local items. She seemed intrigued by this concept. We’ll see how fun it is when she discovers that her mac-n-cheese and crackers are not local products!
Here’s a recap of today’s eats:
BREAKFAST
Whole Wheat English Muffin (locally made, mass produced item)
Fried Egg (local farm)
Slice of cheese (local, Tillamook, yum, yum!)
Morningstar Sausage patty (not local at all!.....from the freezer stash. I think there’s only one left and, unfortunately, my daughter does not like the homemade sausage patties I made from our local pork…..so she may be having the meatless version for the remainder of the month!)
Milk (local Mallorie’s brand)
LUNCH (picnic in the park)
Sourdough bread (local sustainable bakery, www.cascadebaking.com)
Cheese (local Tillamook again)
Local cucumbers and carrots from our CSA share
Grapes (nonlocal, although I am now thinking that I could probably find a more local version if I tried!)
DINNER
Leftovers from the fridge!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Getting ready.....
As I drank my Starbucks today, I thought "well, this is it for a while old friend!" While I have my issues with Starbucks like everyone else, the convenience and consistency sometimes win out (like today) and I wind up there instead of the local coffee shop. I am now sitting with my own homemade mocha that I drew a nice heart in the foam of and realizing that I can handle the absence of Sbucks for a month (or, who knows, maybe even longer!)
We get our weekly produce box from our CSA today (www.denisonfarms.com) which is always a highlight of my week. I am waiting to plan the week's menu once I know the contents of the box. Myabe later tonight I'll get a chance to post about that!
We get our weekly produce box from our CSA today (www.denisonfarms.com) which is always a highlight of my week. I am waiting to plan the week's menu once I know the contents of the box. Myabe later tonight I'll get a chance to post about that!
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