Zucchini!

This weekend, we visited the farmer's market on a mission to get broccoli and cabbage.  We got that but then saw the box of zucchini.  For $4, we got a ridiculous amount of one of my favorite vegetables.  When we got home, we went a little crazy with our purchase. 

While cooking, we talked about where the zucchini came from.  I had assumed it was local, since it looked like the last of the crop in farmer's garden.  However, Gregory said it could have come from anywhere, since most of the "farmers" at the market are wholesale sellers.  I wish it was easier to tell exactly where everything came from.  We are going back to the market next Saturday, and when we go I want to see if we can find out where what we are buying is being grown.

Recipes for some (the cupcake is Gregory's creation) of the above zucchini creations:

Quick Pickles, Latke, Butter, Meatballs

P.S. After making all of the above in large quantities, we still had enough left over to freeze a large bag for later and have five currently waiting to be turned into bread.  Best four dollars I can remember spending.

The Futura II

I'm really excited about this 1976 Singer sewing machine I bought from Craigslist.  I have absolutely NO idea how to sew.  It took me about thirty minutes to thread the needle last night (but I'm going to blame the red wine for that).  Then I somehow broke it.  Luckily, Gregory's mother taught him how to sew so tonight is my first sewing lesson!

So, now that I am about 1/3 of the way through a year of not buying new clothes, it will be super helpful to know how to fix little holes and hem pants.  I am very excited to get started!

What I'm Eating

This weekend, Gregory and I spent most of the day in his kitchen making a mess, breaking the garbage disposal (oops), and successful cooking enough vegetarian food for our whole week.  We spent about $35.00 dollars on all the groceries.  The recipes came from my new book obsession: Veganomicon.  Everything so far has been delicious and has challenged me in the kitchen.  Also, before the picture of our weekly menu, I have to at least mention my second obsession which is acorn squash.  I could eat it every meal (and most likely will be eating half of one with every meal this week) because they are a. good for both me and my taste buds, b. cheap (try 2 for a $1.50), and c. LOCAL!  Yay!  I really cannot find any reason not reason not to completely overindulge in this amazing fall produce over the next few weeks.  

Insane!

Life has been insanely busy and stressful later.  I am waiting to hear back from dental schools at the end of this month and its so stressful.  I can't take my mind off it.


I am though "celebrating" National Vegetarian Month this October and so far have been having a great time making squash pot pies and vegan po'boy sandwiches.  :) 


Christmas is approaching as well which is really hard for me since 1. I love clothes so very much and 2. love buying other people presents.  Its been almost 4 months since I've purchased a piece of clothing and I am starting to miss J. Crew a lot.  I'm proud of myself though for keeping up with the goals I set, like buying nothing new (unless its is essential like toothpaste), not eating a fast food establishments, and staying aware of trying to waste as little as possible.


Little reminders that make me proud of the things I've kept up with since I started this blog are my growing set of dishes I keep at work, my silly pink cow-print reusable napkins from the thrift store and my removal of diet coke cans from my life (and office desk).


So, I am stressed but also proud!  I hope I can come back to blog more often soon and get to work on more dyi projects.  It will be so nice to know what my life is going to be like next year!

Mission Missouri Menu

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:

• 4 chicken breasts

Dry/Canned Goods:

• 19 oz red kidney beans
• Breadcrumbs
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• Dried thyme
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Miracle Whip Lite

Chicken Salad is Causing Me Grief

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.

A Conflicted Consumer

It's a miracle!  I only spent 15 dollars on all the food for the week.  I even doubled the lentil soup recipe (which is currently on the stove) so my boyfriend and I could split it for the week.  When shopping, the store that we went to didn't have carrots so we bought canned, bay leaves so we passed, or chicken broth so we bought bullion cubes.  Now saving this money is awesome.  But it is not really even close to eating local food (who knows where those carrots came from, who picked them and when).


We did buy two pounds of tomatoes from a farmer in Clarksville, MO for two dollars.  I blanched and seeded them, which was a very time consuming process.  I used those instead of the canned tomatoes the recipe called for.  I want to be able to eventually use all local veggies like that and be able to prepare them quickly and skillfully.


At the farmer's stand, a middle-aged woman was carefully looking over the tomatoes, saying to the farmer that her mother could only hold the little ones now when cooking.  She also told the farmer, when he told us he had no more zucchinis for the season that he should have come to her house, as her garden was overflowing with them.  I think it is people like that, who don't go around with any goal or mindset of being "green" or even think of eating local that have it right.  How to get to that point from where I am now though is not clear.


So as I was cooking my lentil soup, the excitement of saving a lot of money started wearing off because I wanted to write a blog about my adventures along the path to being a local consumer-not a budget/cooking blog.


But it is a process and I think I am moving in the right direction.  I want to be able to eat local ingredients, be cheap (or perhaps frugal is a better word), and still eat delicious food. Right now, I've realized I do not know how to do any of that.


A lot of people have already accomplished both- eating locally and cheap.  This blog is on my reading list of this week to hopefully further inspire me!