Farmer's Market Finds

I was excited to be back at the farmer's market this morning after three weeks away for classes. I spent $20 today for peanuts from C. Farm in Sanger, fresh cranberry beans from Full Belly Farm (aren't those gorgeous?), Brussels sprouts on a stalk from Green Oaks Creek Farm, Red Flame Grapes, and corn on the cob. We're going to eat well this week!

I'll probably spend an extra $15 on milk and eggs, but this will be a low-spend grocery week overall. My budget for September is up to $347.24, well under my budget of $520 (based on the USDA Thrifty Food Plan in August.) I've been including my mother in law in my monthly budget, but she is not eating here as frequently as expected and I'm bringing my budget back down to include just me, Mr.M, and 2 year old Jax, $421.85 per month. I expect October to be well under this amount.

Today's CSA box includes:

Basil
Eggplant
Red Russian Kale
Onions
Gypsy or Flamingo Peppers
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Surprise Melon

***

Daily Menu

Breakfast at the Farmer's Market

20 oz. Watermelon juice (6 Points - OUCH!)

Corn tortilla (1 Point)

2 T. queso fresco (3 Points)

beans, cabbage, salsa

Lunch

2 c. milk

orange

Dinner

Quinoa picadillo in acorn squash boats

Corn on the cob, 1 t. olive oil

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 10

WPA points available: 29

Activity points today: 4 (Walk Away the Pounds 3 miles video)

Activity points this week: 4

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines

1. Fruits and veggies - 5+

2. Whole grains - quinoa

3. Milk - yes

4. Healthy oil - 2

5. Protein - yes

6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes

7. Water - 8+

8. Multivitamin - yes

Hear me on Stanford Radio!

Last month, I was interviewed by Bonnie Swift of Stanford Radio for a piece she was writing on farmer's markets, and here it is! You can hear me a few times throughout the interview, but I'll let you try to figure out which is me.

http://www.stanford.edu/~bswift/farmers%20market.mp3

Chickpeas: They're What's For Dinner

Curried chickpeas, melon, and cucumber, originally uploaded by momaste.

Tonight was a use-up-the-veggies night. I had a head of cauliflower, an eggplant, several tomatoes, and a ton of carrots that were all about to give up the ghost, so I cooked them in the pressure cooker with chickpeas, onions, garlic, and curry in veggie broth, adding whole wheat couscous in the last five minutes to thicken it up. Sprinkled with lime juice and cilantro, it was a yummy, hearty dinner that the whole family enjoyed. I served the stew with slices of melon and cucumber. Yum!

Curried Chickpea Stew

1 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 head cauliflower, cored and chopped into florets
1 1/2 c. dry chickpeas, soaked overnight
2 t. cumin
1 t. garam masala
1 t. turmuric
1/2 t. cardamom
1/2 t. red pepper flakes (more to taste)
4 c. vegetable stock
2 tomatoes, diced
1 eggplant, peeled and diced
1 c. uncooked whole wheat couscous
cilantro and lime wedges to garnish

In the pressure cooker over medium-high heat, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. Add carrots, cauliflower, chickpeas, spices, and stock. Stir well to combine. Add tomatoes and eggplant on top but do not stir in. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes, quick pressure release. Using a potato masher, mush the tomatoes and eggplant into the sauce and break up carrots and cauliflower. Add couscous, recover, and let sit off heat for five minutes. Serve spritzed with lime juice and topped with cilantro.

Project Birthday Party was a rousing success!

Jax (left) and his cousin "driving" the fire engine.

If you have young children, consider the fire station as a birthday party location! We had 7 kids under 3 and their assorted grown-ups and everyone had a great time. The fire men talked to the kids briefly about not playing with fire, then one showed the kids how he could get into his uniform quickly and how to crawl on the floor in a fire. He told the kids that if there was a fire, he would come in dressed like this to help them get out, and they should go with him. The kids could touch his uniform, and he kept saying, "See, it's me outside of the uniform, and still me inside the uniform!" Some of the kids were hesitant to touch him with the mask and helmet on. They let the kids try on the uniform, too - so cute!

Then, they got to help the firemen use the hose and spray water. After that, they could climb on the fire truck, ring the bell, and "steer". There is a restored 1935 fire truck in the station and the kids were allowed to climb all over it. They each got a "junior fire captain" sticker and hat. Even the shy kids got in on the action, climbing on the truck and ringing the bell.

We had snacks and cupcakes in the station. We had about 2 hours of little kid heaven, playing on the trucks and playing with the firemen (who were amazing with the kids and grown ups), and we left before anyone hit melt down stage. All in all, a perfect toddler birthday. It would be equally fun for pre-schoolers and school aged kids, with more age appropriate educational information.

The snacks were all a big hit, too. I made 5 plates of finger sandwiches and a big bowl of melon, and all but one plate of sandwiches and a few pieces of melon were eaten. (The veggie platter was left at home, and it's just as well - there was plenty of food.) I ran out of steam when it came to cupcakes and succumbed to the Safeway bakery department. Bad locavore! I tried three local bakeries, all of which were closed Sundays, before resorting to the grocery store and their brightly-colored cupcake-cake - cupcakes all iced together to look like a cake. The kids all loved them, but I found them way too sweet. The leftover cupcakes went back to the dorm with a college student cousin, as someone else had dropped a dozen cupcakes off at the firehouse that morning and they did not want any extras!

Preparing to Party

Jax turns two tomorrow (when people say "they grow up so fast," they really mean it! It feels like he was just born!) He's been all about the fire trucks these days, calling them "Woo-woo chucks!" and playing with his wooden woo-woo chuck almost exclusively for weeks. To celebrate his birthday we're heading over to our friendly neighborhood fire station for a tour with half a dozen of his toddler buddies and their assorted adults, and I can't wait to see Jax's face when he sees the fire truck up close! They'll even pull out the fire truck so we can have snacks and cupcakes in the station.

What kind of snacks and cupcakes will be enjoyed at our little guy's party, you ask? It is a menu of tried-and-true toddler favorites in our house: finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off, carrots and celery with hummus, and melon, with chocolate-zucchini cupcakes for dessert.

Finger sandwiches that Jax has known and loved
Chicken and apples with yochee-cream cheese on raisin bread - Soul Food Farm chicken, apples from my CSA box
Carrot, raisin, and sunflower seeds with yochee-cream cheese on raisin bread
Low-fat Egg salad on rye - Soul Food Farms eggs
Smoked salmon and caper spread on rye
Cucumber and cream cheese on wheat - cucumbers from the farmer's market
Peanut butter and jelly on wheat (it is a 2 year old's birthday party, after all!) - Peach jelly from a neighbor, who canned it with peaches from her own tree

Carrot and celery sticks with hummus - hummus made from Phipps Country Store chickpeas
Melon Trio - watermelon, cantaloupe, and a mysterious yellow melon from my CSA box
Chocolate-zucchini cupcakes - I've never made this recipe before. If it comes out well, I'll post the recipe.

The entire menu is home made and organic. Just about everything in the finger sandwiches is local, with a few small exceptions like sunflower seeds, peanut butter, and cream cheese. (With all the local dairies, I'm surprised that local cream cheese isn't available!)

The cupcake ingredients are not local, other than the zucchini from a neighbor's garden and eggs from Soul Food Farm. I'm making an extra dozen cupcakes for the fire fighters; they deserve chocolatey goodness with a little healthy zucchini mixed in!

Yochee-cream cheese is a half and half mix of strained plain fat free yogurt (the yochee) and low fat cream cheese. It makes a nice low-fat substitute for mayonnaise, with the creamy texture and mild tartness of mayo but significantly lower in calories, fat, and cholesterol. I'm using the yochee-cream cheese in the egg salad, but also add about a tablespoon of real Canola mayo to a round out the flavor. The Canola mayo, made by Spectrum, has such a strong mayo flavor that a little goes a long way.

Here is one of Jax's favorite sandwiches. It's not CORE, but is very healthy, full of fiber, and is very tasty. My mom made a similar carrot-raisin combo with cream cheese when I was young, and that's another yummy combination.

Carrot, raisin, and sunflower seeds with yochee-cream cheese on raisin bread

1 c. shredded carrots - mine are from Earthbound Organics
1/3 c. raisins - mine are California Thompsons from Sigona's farmer's market
1/4 c. sunflower seeds - mine are organic from the bulk bin at Country Sun
1 t cinnamon
1 T honey
1/2 c. yochee (about 1 c. yogurt, strained overnight through a coffee filter) - mine is Wallaby
1/2 c. lowfat cream cheese - mine is not local, bought at Country Sun
raisin bread - I'm using Alvarado St. Bakery bread

Mix together everything but the bread. Spread a thin layer on the raisin bread, cut off the crusts, and enjoy. If you're not a picky toddler, you can leave the crusts on. :) This is also tasty with pineapple tidbits, but that's WAY outside local, so we're skipping those this go around!

Goal Accomplished!

Beef Provencal, new potatoes with thyme, mustard glazed carrots, originally uploaded by momaste.

I weighed in today, since I'm in an all day class tomorrow, and I was thrilled with my results: I lost 2.6 lb. this week, bringing me down to 32.4 lb. I reached my goal of 31 lb. by September 23, and hit my 10%. I'm jump-up-and-down excited and motivated to keep working at it!

My next goal is 50 lb. gone by Thanksgiving, and if I continue at my current pace I'll make that goal, too.

***

Between school, babysitting, and family obligations, I have not been fantastic about keeping up the daily menus, and that has been such a wonderful tool for me to stay on plan, so I'm committing to post the daily menu for the next week. This week I was on plan, packed my lunches and ate my yummy freezer dinners, and just neglected to write it down.

On Wednesday, I made Beef Provencal (pictured above) in the pressure cooker from the Lorna Sass cookbook "Pressured Cook." The roast was marinated overnight in red wine with onions, carrots, thyme, and anchovies (it doesn't taste fishy at all.) It came out so, so tender and made delicious leftovers. Next time, I'll roast the potatoes for more flavorful brown bits, but overall it was a great dinner, and done from start to finish in under an hour. Have I mentioned how I love my pressure cooker?

***

I went to the Grocery Outlet in Redwood City this week and spent $40. I bought 6 loaves of Alvarado Street Bakery bread at $1.50 each!! I've been spending upward of $4 a loaf for it, so I bought a bunch and socked it away in the freezer. For Jax's birthday on Sunday, I'm making a variety of finger sandwiches, a veggie tray, and cupcakes, so a loaf or two of the bread will go for party food.

I also bought organic crackers and organic chocolate soy milk for Jax, canned Muir Glen tomatoes (grown locally, industrial organic), and a block of locally grown organic Monterey Jack cheese.

If you take a trip to the Grocery Outlet, you'll find the organic packaged food on the shelves above the freezer section. They also have frozen organics - Amy's dinners and pizzas, frozen veggies, and occasionally meat substitutes like Morningstar - at great prices. You just have to watch the expiration dates.

My September food total is up to $312.24.

***

Daily Menu

Breakfast
Non-fat latte - not local, bought at Printer's Cafe in Palo Alto, an independent coffee shop

Lunch
Chickpeas with eggplant-tahini sauce and spinach (1 Point) - Chickpeas from Phipps Country Store, eggplant from Full Belly Farm, local, organic spinach, tahini is organic but not local
Cantaloupe - Full Belly Farm

Dinner
Leftover pot roast - Chileno beef, with Frog's Leap wine and Full Belly Farm onions
New potatoes - Full Belly Farm
Carrots sauteed in olive oil- Earthbound Organics carrots (local, organic, but industrial - I usually try to stick with small farms), Hare Hollow olive oil

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 1
WPA points available: 35
Activity points today: 2 (Walk Away the Pounds video)
Activity points this week: 2

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - None today
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - 2
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

For the Freezer: Almost DONE! Daily Menu for September 17

I now have 16 meals in the freezer, and will be making the pot roast in the crockpot tomorrow. I'm so pleased with myself for getting it all done, but am even more impressed by the rockin' pressure cooker! I prepped the next meal while the last one was in the cooker, so it was easy to make a number of meals in short time. I finished 4 meals (2-4 meals of each, making 12 dinners) in about 3 hours. The crockpot kicked out another, and I had only one stove top meal on the list. Once I finish the pot roast and make it into shephard's pie, I'll have put about 6 hours into 16 dinners, almost entirely local and all organic. And, even better, on nights when I'm too busy to cook, we can eat a healthy, quick, home made meal. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday!

Another Meatless Monday is upon us, and here's today's menu:

Breakfast
2 c. Clover milk
apple from a neighbor's tree

Lunch
Chickpeas with eggplant-tahini sauce, bulgur, and spinach (1 Point) - Chickpeas from Phipps Country Store, eggplant from Full Belly Farm, spinach from Salinas, tahini and bulgur organic, not local

Dinner
Black bean and rice burgers - beans from Phipps, rice from Lundberg
Zucchini from Full Belly Farm
Green salad with basil-olive oil vinaigrette - lettuce and basil from Full Belly, olive oil from Hare Hollow

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 1
WPA points available: 35
Activity points today: 2 (Walk Away the Pounds 1 mile video)
Activity points this week: 2

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - bulgur,
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - 1
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

For the Freezer: In Progress!

I'm taking a break from cooking and cooking to tell you how it's going! So far, I have completed and packaged the sweet and sour lentils, un-stuffed cabbage, chicken cacciatore, and beef picadillo with quinoa. Meatball chili with pumpkin is in the crock pot right now. This evening, I'll finish the mushroom-barley soup, and will prep the stuff to go in the pot roast and chickpeas, which I'll cook in the morning. The shephard's pie will be the pot roast and gravy with extra veggies and a mashed potato topping, and I can make the mashed potatoes while the pot roast is finishing up in the crockpot tomorrow evening.

Right now, there are 8 meals packaged in the fridge. When I finish, there will be between 16-20 meals ready for me to defrost and enjoy when I don't feel like cooking. There will be no excuses for eating junk!

We went to Costco, Country Sun, and the California Street (Palo Alto) farmer's market this morning to get everything I need to cook more than a dozen dinners. I spent just under $80 and got eggs, milk, bread, spices, a jar of smoked ketchup made in Calistoga, and lots and lots of yummy local, organic veggies. I also spent about $40 last week for milk, eggs, salad fixings, and crackers. My total for the month is up to $272.24.

A loss is a loss

I went to my Weight Watchers meeting today and was surprised to be down .2 lb. (29.8 lb. total.) I certainly expected a gain with the out of control eating earlier in the week, and am ready to be back on track to reach the goal of 31 lb. by next Sunday. That last 1.2 lb. to goal is certainly doable this week.

My measurements show a loss of 43.25 inches since June, with over 10 inches gone in the past month and 8.5 inches off my waist since I started! Wow!

I have been 16 weeks on program, a milestone for me. I've never gotten this far, either with length of time or with amount lost! At the meeting, I received a little charm to go on the 10% keychain, which I hope to receive next week (31 lb. is my first 10%.) I'm really proud of myself for sticking to it this long. Even with an off week every now and then, I'm on a consistent downward trend.

The topic this week was exercise, and that has to be a priority for me to lose like I want. Plus, I'd hate to get to my goal and have lots of extra saggy skin, and while age and genetics play a big role in that, exercise and water are supposed to be helpful in avoiding the extra skin. This week, I plan on walking 2 miles a day for 5 days this week, and I'll do The Firm twice.

Meatball Chili with Pumpkin recipe

Meatball chili with pumpkin
This is really tasty and creamy with a bit of back-heat from the chipotle. The pumpkin is a mild flavor and you wouldn't necessarily be able to identify it if you didn't know it was there. You could substitute canned beans and eliminate the beef broth, or maybe reduce it to 1 cup.

Ingredients:
about 1/2 lb. small meatballs, whatever recipe you like
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 chopped red bell peppers
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 c. dry black beans, soaked overnight
4 cups beef broth
3-5 diced medium tomatoes and their juices
1 lb. roasted pumpkin or canned pumpkin (just pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling!)
1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
4-6 oz. diced Green Chiles
1 cup whole kernel corn
1-2 chipotles in adobo, diced fine (this is spicy but has a wonderful smoky flavor. We're wussy and use 1 chipotle and 1 t. adobo, but if you like it spicier, add more.)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3-4 sprigs fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
(I added a few dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg.)

Directions:
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, for 5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Put the vegetable mixture into the crockpot and add all the other ingredients. Stir to combine. Cook on low for 8 hours.

For the Freezer: Getting prepared

I did Once a Month Cooking ages ago when I was working full time, doing a monster cooking day and then just reheating meals throughout the month. It was handy, but the recipes I was using were certainly not healthy. I'm preparing to do a big batch cooking session on Sunday and Monday with Core recipes and local ingredients, a tasty and healthy way of having a home cooked meal even when I'm too tired to cook.

All of these meals will be prepared with locally grown, organic ingredients and will all fit the Eat Local Challenge that I've been so lax about following this past week! I think this will make up for my lack of cooking this week, haha.

Here's the menu:

Meatball chili with pumpkin (Crockpot) pumpkin adds a subtle sweet creaminess and plenty of fiber and vegetal goodness, but no strong pumpkin flavor
Pot roast (Crockpot)
Beef picadillo (Pressure Cooker)
Mushroom, and barley soup (PC)
Chicken cacciatore (PC)
Unstuffed cabbage with meatballs in sweet and sour tomato sauce (PC)
Chickpeas with eggplant-tahini sauce (PC)
Sweet and sour lentils with 5 spice rice
Shephard's pie

To get ready today, I'm cleaning the kitchen and going to the Grocery Outlet and Country Sun today. Mr.M will get the CSA box tomorrow while I'm at school and I'll visit the farmer's market on Sunday morning for any other fresh ingredients on the list.

On Sunday, I'll prepare a big batch of meatballs, mushroom barley soup in the pressure cooker, beans for the chili in the pressure cooker, chop veggies, and put the pot roast in the crockpot overnight.

On Monday, the crockpot will make the meatball chili, and I'll spend the day rotating meals in and out of the pressure cooker. Once it's all done, I'm sure I'll be exhausted, but I'll have two or three packages of each meal in the freezer and can relax about my school night meals for the next month or more.

Confession

I've been really off track this week. I haven't packed lunch for my days at school and babysitting, and have bought junk at the school cafeteria and eaten the kid food I prepare for the boys. I've eaten too much junk food, and it's a slippery slope: when I eat junk, I want more junk. When I eat healthy, whole foods, the cravings all but disappear. And I haven't exercised. At 29.6 lb. gone toward my goal of 31 lb. next week, I feel like I'm sabotaging my own efforts. It's been a lot of work to get so close, and I really WANT to reach the goal, so why am I letting dusty packaged cookies get in the way?

I am back on track this morning but still feeling gross from my week of junk. I'm planning a big cooking day on Monday to make a bunch of meals to freeze so I don't have to cook on busy nights, and then will have lunch to pack from leftovers. Hopefully that will help me to stay on track when everything feels hectic.

Daily Menu

Breakfast
Shredded wheat and milk

Lunch
leftover bean soup, apple

Dinner
big batch of grilled veggies with olive oil, brown rice

Three Bean Soup with Potatoes

It's been a busy weekend! I'm taking all day classes on Saturdays in September, so Mr.M picked up out CSA box this week and I didn't make it to any farmer's markets. This will be it for the week!

Included in this week's box:
Corn
Eggplant
Edamame
Melon
Onion
Tomatoes
Sweet peppers
Peaches

Yum!

***

For Meatless Monday, we're having Three Bean Soup with Potatoes. I made it early in the day to give it more time to simmer, but it would be easy to make in about an hour without a whole lot of hands on time, and makes a huge pot that will freeze well and be super tasty reheated.

I'm using Red Calypso, Black, and Cannelini beans from Phipps Country Store, and am due for another trip out as I'm down to just one little bag of beans! The veggies all came from Full Belly Farm, except for the jalapeno growing in my front yard and cilantro from C. Farm.

Three Bean Soup with Potatoes
Beans
1 c. dry, picked over Red Calypso Beans (can be substituted for any medium-sized firm bean, like pintos)
1 c. dry, picked over Black Beans
1 c. dry, picked over Cannelini Beans
8 c. vegetable broth
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 T. canola oil (to keep beans from foaming)

In the pressure cooker, cook on high for 25 minutes. Let pressure come down naturally. Drain beans, reserving broth for another use. You could also soak the beans overnight and use a stove top method to cook them.

Soup
1 onion, diced
2 sweet peppers, diced (I used one red, one orange)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and membranes removed, diced fine
1 T. olive oil
Cooked beans
3-4 sprigs fresh cilantro
1 T. chili powder
3-4 c. tomatoes, diced with juices
2 or more cups reserved broth, depending on how soupy you want it
4 large potatoes, diced
2 c. corn, fresh or frozen
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, peppers, garlic, and jalapeno in olive oil. When onions are translucent, add beans, cilantro, chili powder, tomatoes, potatoes, and broth. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add corn and salt and pepper and simmer 10 minutes more.

This makes a huge pot of soup. If you want it thicker, you could puree half of the soup in batches. Very tasty!

***

I weighed in on Friday and was down .4 lb., not bad considering the extravagent (for me) meal on Wednesday night. My total is now 29.6. My goal is 31 lb. by September 23, and I should be able to reach it!

Anniversary at Flea Street Cafe

Hello, Eat Local Challengers! My blog was featured on the Eat Local Challenge website yesterday, and I'm excited to have some new visitors reading along! Please comment if anything strikes you (I love comments!), and do come back again.

***


Three years ago yesterday, Mr.M and I were married, and to celebrate our anniversary, we went to the Flea Street Cafe for dinner. What a great restaurant! With a focus on local, seasonal, sustainable ingredients, it's the perfect choice for an Eat Local Challenger. And with delicious food and friendly service, it would be a great choice for a nice dinner whether you care about the source of your food or not.

From the top of their menu:

For twenty five years, Jesse Cool and the staff of Flea St. Cafe have been committed to using local, organic and seasonal ingredients. Our seafood is chosen with consideration of over-fishing and endangered species. We cook with meat that is raised naturally and humanely, without the use of growth hormones or antibiotics. Our free-range chicken is from Marin Sun Farms in Petaluma. We buy all of our produce and dairy products from local farms and dairies. We are committed to a healthier, more sustainable environment involving all aspects of the food we prepare for you. We honor and respect the hard-working, caring individuals who grow and produce these foods. Their efforts in the field, on ranches or on the fishing boats are transformed in our kitchen. We partner, hand-in-hand to create beautiful, delicious and nurturing food.

For an appetizer, we shared the Crab & Smoked Trout Cake with caper tartar sauce and watercress salad. We dug in before I took a picture, but believe me that it was gorgeous in addition to the wonderfully smoky fish, tart, salty caper, creamy sauce and peppery green flavors. We were also served a dish of seasonal flavors - cucumbers and an eggplant spread that even Mr.M, an eggplant avoider, enjoyed.

We shared two entrees. The first was Coleman Pasture Raised Lamb Two Ways, braised ribletts, grilled loin chop, fig chutney, and saffron wheatberries. Juicy and beautifully seasoned, the lamb chop was just perfect, and a fig and red onion sauce complimented it perfectly. The ribletts were also really tasty, but the chop won out in flavor for me.

Our second entree was Coleman Organic Slow Braised Short Ribs, red wine beet au jus, green beans with blue cheese, heirloom tomato salad, and potato salad. The meat was crisp on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth tender on the inside, rich and juicy, and paired beautifully with the tomatoes and green beans.

We shared a trio of chocolates with a truffle, cake, and mousse. I was already full and just tried a small taste of each. All were delicious, but the truffle was my favorite. I'll try the meyer lemon semi froddo next time. After the rich meal, a tart and fresh dessert would have been a better finish.

All in all, we had a wonderful meal and will definitely return to Flea Street Cafe.

Daily menu for September 4

I left early this morning to make it to the gym before school and forgot to pack breakfast, a foolish mistake on both the weight loss and local eating front. The school cafeteria offers no local options and very little that could be considered healthy, let alone CORE. I had 2 c. milk before leaving home and an apple in my lunch, and bought a small package of almonds to tide me over until my packed lunch. This actually kept me quite satisfied all morning and the almonds were from California, so while they're not especially local, and I do have to count them, it was a better option than Fruit Loops or pancakes.

I also had an oatmeal raisin cookie in the afternoon.

I spent 45 minutes at the gym, with 15 minutes on the exercise bike and 30 minutes of weight training. I feel really good about the weights.

Breakfast
2 c. milk from Clover
apple from a neighbor's tree
1 oz. almonds (4 Points)

Lunch
Leftover bulgur salad with tomatoes and 1/2 oz. feta and chicken(1.5 Points)

Dinner
Mushroom - wheatberry pilaf with wheatberries from Full Belly Farm
Mustard carrots
watermelon

Snack
Oatmeal raisin cookie (4 Points)

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 9.5
WPA points available: 23.5
Activity points today: 5 (exercise bike and weight training)
Activity points this week: 14

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - bulgur, wheatberries
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - 1
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

Not-So-Meatless Monday: Daily Menu for Labor Day, September 3

Mondays are usually meatless, but we had hamburgers on the grill for a Labor Day barbecue. We'll have a Meatless Tuesday this week instead.

Breakfast
Kamut Puffs cereal (not local)
2 c. milk from Clover

Lunch
Tex Mex burger with Cajun Mayo
Hamburger from Chileno Valley Ranch, onion, garlic, tomato, and lettuce from Full Belly Farm, whole wheat hamburger bun from a local bakery (not local ingredients, local company), 2/3 oz. cheese from Spring Hill Cheese, canola oil mayonaisse from Spectrum (not local ingredients, local company) (3 Points for the bun, 2 Points for the cheese, 1 Point for 1 t. mayo)
corn on the cob from Full Belly Farm
watermelon from Full Belly Farm
leftover bulgur - grilled veggie salad
grilled peaches and pears from Full Belly Farm

Dinner
leftover tomato salad from the other night
apple from a neighbor's tree


WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 6
WPA points available: 28
Activity points today: 3 (30 minute Walk Away the Pounds video)
Activity points this week: 9

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - bulgur
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - 1
5. Protein - beef
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

Daily Menu for September 2

I spent the afternoon yesterday disassembling the 7 chickens I bought from Soul Food Farm. I broke them down into thighs and drumsticks, wings, and boneless skinless chicken breasts, then vacuum sealed them into meal sized portions.

I separated the carcasses from the heads and feet and made stock with the carcasses. There was enough stock for tonight's soup (with two extra batches of soup socked away in the freezer) and an extra quart of stock, plus meat off the bones for the soup and another meal. Tomorrow I'll be making more stock from the heads and feet. Last time, I did them together and was really grossed out picking the meat from the bones and coming upon the beaks and toenails, so I kept them separate this time and will just discard them once the stock is done. That should make another two quarts of stock for later use, always nice to have on hand.

My freezer now houses enough chicken, trimmed and labelled, for about 15 meals, plus 2 cups of cooked meat, two quarts of soup and a quart of stock. Since the chicken is somehow heartier than conventional chickens, a little goes a long way in flavoring a dish and I just don't need as much to feel satisfied. We had roast chicken at my mom's house the other night (and it was so good!), one of the Soul Food Farms chickens, and between four adults and a toddler only ate less than half of the chicken. Our same family of four would frequently eat the whole conventional chicken in one sitting.

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I bought milk, limes, avocados, corn tortillas, and hamburger buns at Sigona's Farmer's Market for $17.24, bringing September's total up to $152.24. Milk is more expensive at Sigona's than at Country Sun, but I didn't want to make a second stop.

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I slept in (YAY!) and so I didn't have breakfast.

Lunch
Barley and grilled veggie salad (leftovers from dinner)
olive oil and vinegar dressing from Hare Hollow
1 oz. Feta cheese from Spring Hill Cheese (3 Points)
leftover tomato salad
1 c. milk


Dinner
Tortilla soup (3 Points for tortilla)
Includes chicken and chicken stock from Soul Food Farm, onions, garlic, and tomatoes from Full Belly Farm, cilantro and green onion from C. Farm, jalapeno from my front yard, olive oil from Hare Hollow, and tortillas and avocado from Sigona's Farmer's Market
carrots (local, left over from last week)
watermelon from Full Belly Farm

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 6
WPA points available: 31
Activity points today: 3 (30 minute Walk Away the Pounds video)
Activity points this week: 6

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - bulgur
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - yes
5. Protein - chicken
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

A Plate of Summer

Tonight's dinner was grilled eggplant stacks with goat cheese and balsamic reduction, a tomato-basil salad with cucumber and red onion, lemon-scented bulgur, and corn on the cob. So yummy!

Eat Local Challenge, weigh in, and daily menu for September 1

I will spend September participating in the Eat Local Challenge. As part of this challenge, I will continue to buy, prepare, photograph, and eat locally, sustainably grown foods, and will blog all about it. I'm commiting to posting my daily menu every day for the month of September. I'll also try my hand at canning, freezing, and dehydrating the local produce available now so that I have it in the winter.

The exceptions: I will eat spices and condiments like soy sauce that are already in my pantry, grains already in my pantry, and will buy the ingredients for my son's birthday cake that aren't locally produced. All are organic and fair trade (chocolate for the cake) and were (or will be) purchased at a locally owned store.

I'll do it on the USDA's Thrifty Plan budget (currently $132.30 a week for my family), not part of the Eat Local Challenge but an ongoing challenge for myself. I hope to lose an additional 8 lb. this month.

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Budget Update

As I anticipated, August was an outliar in the budget. I prepaid for 6 months of grains and a full year of produce through CSAs, bringing the total to a whopping $1056.78. Not including the CSA renewals, my total was a much more reasonable $321.53, well under the $519.13 a month that I am alloted on the Thrifty Budget.

The plus side of this outlay of cash is that my food bill for the rest of the year be significantly lower, with both fresh produce and grains paid for in advance.

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For my first act in the Eat Local Challenge, today I am disassembling 7 local, pastured chickens from Soul Food Farm, packaging and freezing them, and making a big pot of stock, also to be frozen for future use. The chickens cost me $97.00, the first expenditure for this month's budget. I also bought a dozen pastured eggs for $5.

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Today's Full Belly Farm CSA box includes:

Eggplant
Grapes
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Peaches
Summer squash
Peppers
Melon

At the farmer's market, I spent $32 and bought garlic chevre (goat cheese), cilantro, green onion, fresh peanuts (I haven't ever seen local peanuts!), olive oil, and LOTS of red peppers to roast and freeze.

Including the chickens, I'm up to $135 for September's food.

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Another Saturday morning, another weigh in! This week, the scale showed a lost of 2.8 lb., for a total of 29.2 gone. I'm well on my way to the goal of 30 lb. by September 23.

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Daily Menu

Breakfast
Melon from Full Belly Farm
2 c. milk from Clover Stornetta Farms

Lunch
2 eggs
1/4 oz. cheese (.5 Points)
apple

Dinner
Grilled eggplant stacks with goat cheese and balsamic reduction (2 Points) including eggplant from Full Belly Farm, red peppers from Happy Quail, vinegar from Hare Hollow, wine from Frog's Leap, and garlic chevre (goat cheese) from Spring Hill Cheese
Bulgur (locally purchased but not produced) with homemade chicken stock, lemon juice and lemon zest from the tree across the street, and lemon olive oil from St. Helena Olive Oil Company and a bit of fresh thyme
Grilled corn on the cob
A glass of wine from Frog's Leap

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 4.5
WPA points available: 33.5
Activity points today: 3 (30 minute Walk Away the Pounds video)
Activity points this week: 3

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - bulgur
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - yes
5. Protein - eggs
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes