Here is what I am planning to eat this week. Yes, it involves the controversial chicken. But it also incorporates a lot of vegetables and what I buy might deviate from the list depending on what is local and what is not when I go shopping tonight. I am setting a budget and starting at Local Harvest. Out of everything I buy today for my week, I want at least 25% (that's about 6 out of the 19 ingredients of it to be from Missouri.
Monday Dinner: Vegetable and Bean Soup
Tuesday Lunch: Leftover Soup
Tuesday Dinner: Brined Chicken, Stuffed Zucchini Boat, with a simple lettuce salad
Wednesday Lunch: More leftover soup
Wednesday Dinner: My new obsession, chicken salad (e-mail if you're interested in the recipe)
Thursday Lunch: Leftover something (I still have some of that delicious Lentil Soup from last week lurking in the freezer)
Thursday Dinner: More delicious brined chicken, roasted carrots, and another simple salad
Friday Lunch: Something leftover
Shopping List:
Produce:
- 1 red onion
- 2 yellow onions
- 1 bag of celery
- 10 tomatoes
- 1 lb of kale or collard greens
- 1 bag of carrots
- 12 oz. of baking potatoes
- 2 zucchini
- 1 yellow summer squash
- Head of lettuce
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Parsley
Meat:
Dry/Canned Goods:
- 19 oz red kidney beans
- Breadcrumbs
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- Dried thyme
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Miracle Whip Lite
The menu worked out great for the week. I am making next weeks' and shopping tomorrow. However, the chicken that I have become slightly obsessed with (we've eaten chicken in almost every meal that I brine prior to cooking) is from Foodland. I do not know anything about Foodland or where their chicken comes from and am hesitant to look it up because I love it so much at the moment.
I went there today to pick up my second my bag and I looked through all the produce to see if anything was local. I had this secret wish that everything was local and it was like a hidden treasure for locavorires that only I had discovered. However, as another complete sane and not trying to justify buying frozen chicken individual would not be surprised to find out, the only local thing was tomatoes (which in Missouri are local just about anywhere you go). They also had Olathe sweet corn which, from being from NY, I thought might be a town nearby but it is actually a town in Colorado.
Why is buying local food becoming so difficult!?! I mean, I could just go to Wholefoods or Local Harvest and buy what meets my local demands there but that is very expensive. And I think it is expensive because people are capitalizing on the "being green" tag-line, but that is a different issue.
It is funny because I thought not buying any new clothes or household items would be difficult but I started that in June and its unbelievably easy. Food is much, much harder.
Anyways, I'll leave with my dilemmas and use what we have left from our last Sunday shopping trip to make more delicious and unethical chicken salad while pondering how to become the consumer that I want to be.
