Day 6 Eat Local Challenge

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Eat Local Challenge

I have been somewhat stalking http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/ for some time awaiting a new locally eating minded challenge, so I was so happy when they posted one to take place the month of October 2008. For the last year or so I have made much more of a concerted effort to buy local. In ways such as continuing our involvement with a local CSA, supporting Farmer's Markets instead of grocery stores and, more recently, buying meats and eggs from a local farmer. It has evolved to local honeys, nuts, cheeses, soaps and whatever else I can find! I am eagerly awaiting this challenge to really help me stretch a bit further and see what other local gems I can discover!

To begin this challenge the participants were asked to answer a few questions:

My definition of local:

I will use the 100-mile diet definition of local, using a 100 mile radius. I find the tool at http://100milediet.org/get-started/map especially helpful in this endeavor!


Exceptions:

Coffee – although we home roast and only use sustainable, fair trade, organic beans.

Eating out – will make an effort to only frequent places that promote local eating.

Spices and grains that are already in my cupboard (but I will not purchase new ones that are not locally available)

Kids – in an effort to get my children to eat a well balanced diet an occasional exception may have to be made.


Goals:

To try and incorporate local eating more in the children’s diets as well as ours.

To discover new local items that I was not previously aware of.

Preserved Items Summer 2008

Here's the most up to date list of the items I have squirrelled away so far this year....

½ pts
1 BBQ sauce (A.V.M. recipe)
1 Apricot Vanilla Bean Syrup
5 Sweet and Sour Sauce (A.V.M. recipe)
4 Chutney (A.V.M. recipe)
7 Jars Blackberry Sauce
6 Raspberry Jam
2 Whole Blueberries
1 Gooseberry Jam
1 Currant Jam
7 Strawberry Syrup
5 Strawberry Jam
8 Apricot Halves in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup
2 sundried tomatoes
2 pickled carrots/celery

Pints
3 diced tomatoes
6 tomatoes
5 golden roma tomatoes
1 chutney
5 Sweet and Sour Sauce (A.V.M. recipe)
1 Chutney (A.V.M. recipe)
3 BBQ sauce (A.V.M. recipe)
2 Apple Slices in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup
1 pickled beets
1 sundried tomatoes
1 strawberry jam
1 whole blueberries
1 apricot vanilla bean sauce

Challenge done!

Okay, I didn't get around to posting the last couple days of the challenge. I also didn't have time to itemize each meal we had as much as I would have liked to, to be true to the challenge. However, I did come to the realization that.....(1) it is nice to not HAVE to budget so tightly each week (2) it would be difficult to stock up, and thus save money doing it this way (3) we don't eat too extravagantly anyways - with the exceptions of cheese and alcohol, mostly. Not that we are huge drunks or cheeseheads, but these 2 items would put us over the limit quickly!

My next blog mission.....to post weekly menus (after the week is over) so I have a record of what we eat. I often make things and would make them again, but I try so many new things that I can't remember them all (or where they came from) or if we liked them.

And then........coming soon......the eatlocalchallenge. I believe this will be in the month of October and I am looking SO forward to it. Lots of time to stockpile local foods in the freezer and pantry before then.

Budget Challenge – Day THREE

Well, our morning got off to an early start with 8 am dentist appointments for both of the kids. As a result, our day was a bit piece-meal food wise. The kids each had a yobaby yogurt before we left and some oatmeal. I just had coffee! When the appointment was over the little one had a banana in the car and then we had leftovers from the freezer for lunch. Pizza for the littles, tamale for me. Dinner isn’t looking a lot better since we have a meeting to be at that is at a park at 5 pm tonight. I’m off to search the freezer for something to take along for that one!

We did go to the park after the dentist today and picked a whole bowl of blackberries that I have freezing as well as some small apples (not sure what I am going to do with those yet!) And I have strawberries in the dehydrator right now (from our plant outside and a few from the produce bin this week!) That foraging has to contribute positively to the whole budgeting project!

Budget Challenge – Official Day TWO

Our milk, eggs and half-n-half (for coffee) were delivered today…..and I went to the Farmer’s Market......and Lifesource. I am fairly certain that I would have gone over budget today, but I had a $20 voucher for Denison Farms at the Farmer’s Market and most of the other stuff I bought went in the freezer for future use. It would be interesting to figure out how much is actually spent per week in our household, but I am such a stock-piler that it would be nearly impossible for me to figure out….and quite frankly that’s not what I want to expend my energy on!

Here’s what we ended up eating today:
Breakfast: Leftover waffles (husband) and cereal (me and kids)
Lunch: Kids – peace noodle mac n cheese/ Me – leftover salmon quiche from freezer
Dinner: Kids – black bean and cheese burritos/ Us – homemade tamales from freezer (reference in earlier post) with homemade guacamole, salsa and homemade baked corn tortilla chips – served with black beans from the freezer

I started making big batches of beans a while ago and freezing zip lock bags with amounts of them – black beans, white beans, pinto, garbanzo – they are great to take out of the freezer and use just like you would canned beans…..but cheaper and without the waste of a can!

Budget Challenge – Official Day ONE

So…..this morning started off with a bang! We were out of milk and eggs (I can’t remember the last time this happened in our house….it has been literally years!) And, of course, I forgot and promised the kids waffles for breakfast. So, thankful for the internet, I sat myself on the computer and did a google search for vegan waffles. I found several recipes that I had the ingredients on hand for and the kids chose this one……

Healthy Vegan Waffles – found from various sources on internet

* 1 ripe banana, mashed
* 2 cups water
* 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal
* 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix banana and water. Add dry ingredients and mix, leaving lumps in batter (the lumps keep the waffles from becoming too rubbery when cooked). Cook on waffle iron. You can use the same batter to make pancakes. Serve with maple syrup. Can also add small berries (my little one liked them with blueberries)

Next time I make it I will omit the nutmeg and sub a little more cinnamon as I think I would like this flavor better. Overall, they were tasty though. My oldest ate a whole waffle and little one ate most of a waffle. I ate one too and, admittedly, they were strangely filling.

Lunch will be leftover whole wheat penne noodles with butter for the kids and green beans that I cooked up last night. I’ll have a slice of the salmon quiche and a salad.

Dinner: BLTs (with some added oomph – avocado and red onion) on Salem Sourdough Bread from Cascade Baking Company. Bacon is from Abundant Life Farms. Lettuce and Tomato from our CSA Bin and the avocado I bought at Roth’s yesterday. We will be having a green salad with pears and blue cheese with the sandwiches.

Dinner tonight....

Even though I am not starting the $$$ part of the budget challenge until tomorrow I thought I'd post what we are having for dinner tonight. The kids had a pear and some scrambled eggs with Tillamook cheddar cheese. The adults will be having a quiche that I just made with a frozen pastry shell, leftover salmon, a shallot and green pepper that I did a quick saute on, grated Tillamook cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, eggs, half and half, milk, thyme and basil from the herb garden and some salt and pepper. It's still cooking and in a bit I'll fry up a few red potatoes that I have from the CSA bin to go along side. I already ate a piece of homemade multi-grain toast with fresh raspberry jam, but might have to have another if it takes much longer!

Figuring out the Challenge.....

Since our produce bin arrives tomorrow I thought I'd start off the challenge then too! That way I can do menu planning and the budget challenge all at once. If only I'd penciled it out earlier today I might have stocked up more at Roth's than I did! (Cheating??? Perhaps!) But I didn't, so it is a moot point!

$60 weekly budget ($15 per person x 4 people)
-$20 (prepaid CSA Produce)
-$15 or $20 (estimate of pantry and freezer items already on hand….we are really well stocked!) $20 or $25 left to spend each week

Hmmm…..that’s not a lot. I spent more than that on wine and cheese today at Roth’s!

Oh, and then I remembered that we get a dairy delivery from the Dairy King each week. A typical order would send me to the limit, but we were planning to downsize the order this week anyway.....here's an estimate on the pricing for what we will be getting on Wednesday:

Gallon of milk 3.89
Eggs 2.99
Butter 2.99
Half and Half 1.99

Total: 11.86 ($12.00 for the sake of rounding and that I didn’t add on the gas surcharge as I can’t remember it…..)

So....that leaves me with (drum roll please!!!!!)

$8-$13 left to spend --- for the sake of simplicity I am going with $10 this week as I am planning to use a decent amount from the freezer and pantry too! I am going to begin the bugetary week on Tuesday (tomorrow).

A previous week….and today’s lunch

So a couple weeks ago I was really proud of myself for my menu planning and am still enjoying the benefits in the form of food in the freezer!

First day….I roasted a whole chicken with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and some fresh herbs. It was delicious and my littlest one loved it all too (added bonus!). After dinner I made chicken stock with the bones and salvaged the rest of the meat.

Second day….I made a chicken “stew” of sorts with homemade biscuits from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (using my new biscuit cutter that the girls got me for Mother’s Day). The soup was fabulous and SO easy! I threw in some of the chicken, chopped the leftover potatoes, carrots and onions, added some curry powder, thickened with a little half and half and cornstarch (but it wasn’t very thick still!) and just let it simmer away all afternoon.

I also made up a batch of homemade tamales (my first time ever using soaked corn husks….although HTCEV also has a version where they are baked in ramekins and forego the husks altogether!) The corn mixture was easy to make and I filled them with chicken, zuchinni and onion (and some got a little cheese). I sampled a couple after they steamed and they were quite tasty! I froze 3 bags of them for future dinners.

So, after a couple delicious meals, I still have 2 containers of chicken stock in the freezer, a bag of chicken meat and 3 bags of tamales. Oh, and I am going to have the last of the soup today for lunch. Mmmm…..

Menu for the week - Part I

Since our CSA Produce share arrives on Tuesdays, I have learned not to meal plan past that day or else it all has to be re-written anyways....So, here's Part I of the menu for the week

Sunday: Leftovers (pizza from the party, veggies with hummus, squash saute and salad)

Monday: Scrambled eggs with grilled salmon, onions and peppers, fried potatoes from CSA, toast

Tuesday: Rataouille (or something similar) with eggplant, tomatoes, green pepper and onions - probably served with brown rice



Rest of the week - TBA!

Baby's Second Birthday!!!

We just finished up our Glamour Dog themed birthday party for my 2 year old (she chose the theme all by her "own self" as she says....) I tried to be as good as I could with the party fare, but having just come back from a week long vacation and having multiple family members still staying with us, it was hard to do! Here's what we had:

Take and bake pizzas (clearly not local or organic)
Strawberry lemonade (organic lemons, fresh strawberries pureed)
Water (from the tap)
Veggie tray (with all veggies from the Farmer's Market yesterday)
Homemade hummus
Cantaloupe and Blueberries (also from the Market)

Superbly delicious cake (from a friend who has an awesome local baking business....check out http://www.bittersweetbaking.com/ for more info!) it was triple chocolate with a strawberry cream filling and it also used local strawberries.

I'm not counting these in the "budgeting" cost as the cake alone would put me over, but.....hey, it's not everyday your baby turns TWO!

Food on a Budget Challenge

I was invited by the local Green Salem group to participate in a challenge of sorts...

Here are my self-imposed and self-developed rules (warning: I have always liked to change the rules as I go though.....):

$60 a week budget for the household ($15 per person for a household of 4- 2 adults and 2 kiddos)
On hand supplies do not count (all those frozen and pantry items will come in handy!)
Big long-term purchases do not count (as in the 1/2 a pig I have ordered for Sept/Oct....and I don't have the time or desire to figure out per piece cost, etc)
Buy local (first choice) organic ingredients whenever possible
Buy whole foods - not processed junk

So......that being said, it's hard to start this right now as we have been vacationing at a beach home for the past week and currently have 5 extra bodies to feed staying in our house. We went to the Farmer's Market today and stocked up on lots of fresh produce (peaches, blueberries, eggplant, green beans, tomato, cantaloupe, green pepper, cauliflower, and more that I am forgetting....) We're having a 2 year old birthday bash for my youngest tomorrow so have to feed 25 bodies lunch that day. I think we'll be starting the official challenge later this week!

Tonight we had some yummy salmon filets, sauteed zuchinni squashes with onion and garlic (from the meager garden we have), tomatoes, green salad and some delicious olive bread from (my personal favorite) Cascade Baking Company. You can never go wrong there!

Challenge Continues....

Last night was a bit of a success.....I made some Mexican "Pizzas" which consisted of a corn tortilla topped with a homemade black bean dip, shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes and some cheese. The kids had burritos with the same shells, beans and cheese. (Oh, and they ate leftover Chuck E Cheese pizza.....hee hee)

Preserving up a STORM!

I wanted to inventory the canned goods that I have made thus far so I can see how many I use up before next year (basically so I can keep track of what I needed more of/less of/etc.) Here's what I have got so far (in cans, this doesn't account for the frozen goodies.....I'll get to posting about those later!)

7 Jars Blackberry Sauce
6 Raspberry Jam
3 Whole Blueberries
1 Gooseberry Jam
1 Currant Jam
7 Strawberry Syrup
6 Strawberry Jam
8 Apricot Halves in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup
2 Apple Slices in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup

Challenge Day 3

Well, I am going out to dinner AGAIN tonight without the kids (this is a rarity, believe me!) But for lunch we were at the local art fair and B1 and I split a bean burrito from the Oregon Peaceworks booth that was quite tasty. B2 decided she didn't like the whole wheat tortilla and "spicey" beans so she ate off of the pistachio nuts, blueberries and Pirate's Booty that I packed for snacks.

Dinner will, once again, be from the leftovers in the fridge, so no rating again tonight.

Boy, I am getting off to a great start, huh?

Challenge Day 2

So......I went out tonight : ) to Mexican food with friends, leaving husband with children and thus absolving self of all responsibility feeding them! I did make them nice plates of grilled chicken breasts, whole wheat spaghetti with butter and steamed cauliflower. I don't know that they ate much of it though -- especially since I discovered a newly made (but not eaten) bowl of mac-n-cheese in the fridge when I got home.

As I wasn't home, there is no rating for today!

Roasting Coffee....the EASY way!

After month's of roasting my own coffee in the oven and creating a plume of smoke (that, for some reason didn't set off the smoke detectors.....which means we need to check their batteries) and a strong aroma in the house that lasted for hours, we decided to upgrade to a coffee roaster. After MUCH online comparisons and reviews I settled on the i-Roast2 as it seemed to meet all our needs and was in our garage sale money budget. I just finished my first batch and it is so glisteny and smells great. I have to wait until tomorrow to try it out!

Day #1 of My Challenge

Day # 1

Dinner Meal: Scrambled Eggs with cheese (Mommy/Daddy version also had bell peppers, greens and onions), Milton’s Whole grain English muffins or toast, Morningstar sausage patties, yellow cauliflower that B1 picked out at the Farmer’s Market this morning.

Mommy rating: Breakfasts are usually a hit with the kids, so I thought I started out easy. However, I had a moment of inspiration when I was cooking the kids’ eggs and I added some sautéed beet and radish greens to theirs. This was a mistake as B2 picked them all out and I had to feed B1’s to her so she didn’t see the “green stuff”……arrgghhh! So much for trying to be healthy!

Kid review (from eldest child (B1)): “I loved it. I didn’t like the green stuff. I would like to have it again without the green stuff. And my sister didn’t like the green stuff either. She said “Blech stuff” and spit it out!”

Locavore rating: 2/5 ingredients were local: eggs, cheese and veggies in scramble. English Muffins and Sausage patties were not local.

New focus on life (perhaps)

Okay, meal planning is a bit of a passion (read obsession) of mine. BUT after a horrible day yesterday and the kiddos not eating ANYTHING that I made I was more than a bit frustrated. I have been trying really hard to eat locally, enjoy whole foods instead of food products and processed items and preserve food for the fall/winter when we don't have access to luxuries such as fresh berries. However, making 3-4 meals at each meal time to appease everyone is NOT working for me. So......here is new focus on my meal planning/life in general. One word:
S-I-M-P-L-I-F-Y. It is my newfound goal in life to make a dinner meal that everyone will eat (at least part of). I realize that I might have to sacrifice some of my previous food goals to achieve this nirvana, but I am hoping to make a slow transition to the healthy locavore-themed lifestyle I would like to live while also cooking meals that we will all eat.

So, without further ado.....here is the menu for the next few days:

Today (Wed): Scrambled eggs with Tillamook cheese (adult variety with spinach, green peppers,
onions - all from our CSA produce share)
Morningstar sausage patties (from freezer Costco stash)
Milton's English Muffins (also from freezer Costco stash, although I think these are
the last ones!)
Thursday: I am going out to eat for the night with some girlfriends so the husband and kids will be on their own with whatever is in the fridge/freezer

Review of previous weeks' menu

Falafels were delicious as usual and KAF WW Pitas were great with it. Froze really well to take dough out and cook.

Enchiladas with a green sauce were really good. Have another can of sauce, so will remake and freeze for an easy meal (had made with leftovers from a rotisserie chicken)

Whole Wheat Penne with Toasted Almonds, Chard and Raisins - definite repeater! So easy and so good. Served with roasted asparagus and it did need a side veggie to be really filling.

Turkey Burgers with Avacado Slices and all the Fixins' -- my FAVORITE for the week....Costco turkey patties ROCK!

Chard and Potato Red Curry....uh, no!

Menu Week of June 2- June 8

Monday
Falafels (leftover pitas)
Grilled Zuchinni
Spinach

Tuesday
T: Enchiladas from Freezer
Leftover beans/rice
J: out Kwan’s

Wednesday
Chard Dish – Blackeyed Peas, Sausage, etc.

Thursday
Whole Wheat Penne with Toasted Almonds, Chard and Raisins

Friday
Turkey Burgers with Avacado Slices and all the Fixins'
Oven Roasted Beets, Carrots and Potatoes
Green Salad

Saturday
Chard and Potato Red Curry

Sunday – Gomsruds
Chicken Parmesan
Green Veggie
Spinach-Artichoke Dip with Olive Bread
Smoked Salmon
Salad
Deesert – ice cream pie with choc crust (vanilla with oreos layer and choc layer with fudge between)

Sunday and Tuesday did not fare so well for my attempts at buying locally and eating well. Stops at Costco and Target netted much mass produced, large quantities of non-local, non-organic, non-sustainable items. I will slap myself on the wrist and try harder!!!

Tomorrow (Wed) looks more promising as there is a Farmer's Market downtown so I plan to stock the fridge so I am not tempted to big-box shop for a week (we'll see about that!) I also have a loaf of locally made bread on the "to buy" list this week so we can make some tasty BLTS. Mmmmm, mmmmm.......

My new challenge....

Okay, for some time now I have been trying to buy more locally, make more myself and make our household in general more sustainable and earth-friendly, but specifically in the kitchen (although I did throw out all cleaners in exchange for some good ole baking soda and vinegar!). Anyway, I just began Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" Book and took a Green Cuisine Class recently, so am feeling really stoked for this! With the first week of our Farmer's Market beginning this week I am energized!!

Here's what today looked like:

Farmer's Market trip this morning garnered -
Strawberries
Asparagus
Rhubarb (which I already sliced and froze)
Lettuce Mix (which we had at lunch and will again for dinner)
Cauliflower

Roth's Trip (local grocery)-
Jalepeno
Bananas
Watermelon (kids)
Turkey meat (for kidlet)
Blue Cheese (for salad tonight)
Milk and buttermilk (which I made some cheese with today)
Cheesecloth (see above)
Local yogurts
Bob's Red Mill Barley Flour (to make homemade graham crackers)

In addition to the cheesemaking escapades of today (I made a fresh cheese and a ricotta....which are currently hanging in the kitchen) I also made a loaf of flaxseed bread. Can't wait to try it all!!!

And for dinner.....drumroll please......
Roasted Asparagus from the Farmer's Market
Salad (lettuce from Farmer's Market, pears (grocery), blue cheese and local hazelnuts)
Pork Chop (from a local farm) marinated and pan fried

Well, I have decided to try and post as many of the recipes that I make on here as possible. That way I can look back as a kind of archive. This weekend I actually haven't made a darned thing as we have been slowly finishing off the soups that are in the fridge. Neither is slated to be a repeater for me, but both were tasty, just not so tasty that I feel compelled to make them again!

One was a WEST AFRICAN PEANUT SOUP (from "Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant"). I did not have the scallions and chopped peanuts on top and also only made a half batch, which made a great plenty. It was especially good with some whole wheat/grain crackers crumbled on top!

2 cups chopped onion
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cayenne or other ground chiles
1 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cups chopped sweet potatoes
4 cups vegetable stock or water
2 cups tomato juice
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 Tbsp sugar
chopped scallions
chopped roasted peanuts
Sauté onion in oil until it is translucent.Stir in cayenne and ginger. Add carrots andsauté a couple minutes more. Mix in potatoesand stock, bring to a boil, simmer 15 minutes(until the vegetables are tender). Puree thevegetables with tomato juice (and some of thecooking liquid if necessary) in a blender orfood processor. Return the puree to the pot.Stir in the peanut butter until smooth. Checksweetness and add sugar if necessary. Reheatgently, using a heat diffuser if necessary toprevent scorching. Add more water, stock, ortomato juice to make a thinner soup ifdesired. Serve topped with plenty of choppedscallions and chopped roasted peanuts.

Here are my "babies" that I am baking for!!! They are 1.5 and 4.5 years old, so some may argue that they are not truly "babies" anymore, but I'll just ignore those of you who say that!!

Trying out this blogging thing......

So I just signed up for a baking challenge of sorts called Daring Bakers http://daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com/ and it is recommended that you post your reviews of the recipes and photos, so I thought it might be a good time to start a foodie blog! This is a test post to see if it is working.....

In the meantime, I am back to baking.....I am working on my first ever loaf of sourdough bread, courtesy of a starter sent to me. I am trying out a Farmstead recipe from Beth Henspenberger that uses yeast and the starter since the starter is so new. I also have a pan of cauliflower, garlic and onion roasting in the oven with a little olive oil (and I need to sprinkle it with some sea salt) to make a Roasted Cauliflower Soup. Back to the kitchen!

Jessica