Locavore Thanksgiving, the recap

My first Thanksgiving dinner was a smashing success! The food was delicious, and all hot on the table at once. With 7 dishes, that's not an easy feat! I didn't have any meltdowns, even in the last minute hectic get-it-on-the-table rush. Everyone raved about the meal and seemed interested in hearing where everything came from, which made for fun dinner conversation.

I loved the turkey method from The New Best Cookbook - it was juicy, cooked through but not overcooked, well seasoned, and the skin was nicely crisp. The drippings made the most amazing gravy. Deeelicious. I ran out of butter before we got to the apple crisp (yes, a whole pound of butter was used in the meal before dessert!!) so we had baked cinnamon apples (without crisp) and ice cream. Still delicious. After dinner, we all played with play dough and sang kid songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old MacDonald - weird, I know, but there were two toddlers to keep entertained, and we all had a good time. I am so fortunate to have a warm home, plenty to eat, and a loving family who will happily sing Row, Row, Row your boat in rounds.

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of good food, friends, family, and fun, and that you've had the opportunity to reflect on the things that you're grateful for in your life.

Move over beef, the pork is on its way!

Awhile back, we ordered 1/6 of a grassfed pig from TLC Ranch, and it will be ready on Saturday! I'm ridiculously excited about having tasty organic, pastured pork stocked up in the freezer. I've bought several pieces of TLC Ranch pork at the farmer's market over the summer and it has been delicious every time. I also ordered 3 extra pastured, hormone free turkeys, as they're half the price of my organic chicken source, so we'll have beef, pork, and turkey at the ready for months to come. I still have some chicken from the last big stock up, too. Yes, the freezer will be full and we'll eat well!

As a preview to our Thanksgiving menu, I'll tell you that pork will make an appearance. I'm making a bacon, apple, sage, and caramelized onion dressing from The New Best Cookbook. This is the first Thanksgiving that I'm cooking, and the menu has been planned out for weeks. It is not Core (sorry to disappoint) but it will be a locavore meal, with everything sourced within 250 miles. Most everything is within 100, but my grains (and thus bread for dressing, rye rolls, and pie dough) are closer to 250.

Daily menu for Sunday, November 4

It's day four of November's pantry challenge, and I haven't purchased any food until today. I haven't eaten out, and have been pretty consistently on plan (besides the blintzes at yesterday's pot luck.)

Our CSA box this week includes the following veggies:

Red Daikon
Spinach
Pomegranates
Kabocha Squash
Leeks
Lettuce
Corn
Tokyo Turnips

From the newsletter this week:

The food grown at Full Belly Farm has not been irradiated, fumigated, chlorinated or pasteurized. It does not contain genetically modified organisms, hormones or antibiotics. Nor have we implanted it with tracking devices. For these reasons, the food safety technicians may tell you that it is not 'safe.' On this we have a difference of opinion: Full Belly strives to deliver nutritious, tasty food in its pure state and we have 100% confidence in its high quality and integrity.

Hooray for Full Belly Farm, giving us food in its natural state!

I'm excited about pomegranates! Do you have any favorite ways of using them?

We're having corn and clam chowder for dinner, using up two cans of clams from the pantry and several ears of corn that are sadly shrivelling in my fridge from last week. I'm also adding celery, leeks, and new potatoes from the fridge and pantry. The recipe calls for1/2 c. heavy cream for 6 servings, which is definitely not Core, so I'll be counting the small amount per serving (2 Points per serving of heavy cream). I'll be buying milk, a tiny container of heavy cream, and clam juice to complete the recipe, and eggs for the week, for a low, low weekly food expense of under $20. There are advantages to eating out of the pantry!

We're purchasing 1/3 of a local, pastured pig later this month and I'm so excited about the flavorful, humanely raised pork that will soon fill my freezer! TLC Ranch, where the pig is from, has been at the farmer's market over the summer and I've bought small hams from them. Not all pork cuts are Core, of course, just like the beef that we've been working our way through, and some pieces will have to be counted. It's worth it! Some of the sausage will be used in my Thanksgiving stuffing - I'm making an apple, sausage, sage, and caramelized onion stuffing with home made bread. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Daily Menu
Breakfast
Cereal with soy milk

Lunch
Lentil-barley soup with kale and tomatoes (yummy leftovers!!)

Dinner
Clam-corn chowder in the pressure cooker (not local clams, dairy from Clover Stornetta, local produce from Full Belly Farm)
Pomegranates

Farm Fun at the Hoe's Down

Jax, Mr.M, Mr.M's mom, my friend B, and I spent Saturday at Full Belly Farm's 20th Annual Hoes Down, locavore heaven! We had a great time! Jax and Mr.M spent most of the day climbing through the straw fort, with occasional breaks to pet the goats and climb on tractors. The childrens' area also had quite a few workshops and activities for bigger kids, like making acorn bread, painting gourds, making clay creatures or corn husk dolls, story time in the tipi, ice cream churning, felt making, an obstacle course called "Peas and Chaos," and pumpkin carving. Next year, perhaps Jax will appreciate more than the straw fort, but he had a great time just climbing!






Meanwhile, I went to a few of the workshops with my friend B., including sheep sheering, a tour of the farm led by farmer Andrew Brait, and "What's Your Beef?" with Jim and Mary Rickert of Prather Ranch explaining what it means to be grassfed, natural, and organic when it comes to beef. The tour was especially interesting to me, learning about where the food in my CSA box comes from each week and talking to one of the men who puts it there. Here's a picture of the brand new broccoli, which we'll be enjoying later this winter.



Other workshops offered were a tour of a straw bale house (we arrived too late for that one,) blacksmithing (Mr.M caught that while I was learning about beef), cow milking, composting, a native plant walk, olives and olive oil, organic strawberries, fruit trees, chickens and eggs, bees, grapes, farm insects and diseases, and farm equipment. Old fashioned games like sack races, apple bobbing, a watermelon eating contest, and a manure pitch-off were held. Live music could be enjoyed at either of two stages, and a large group was learning to square dance as we were getting ready to leave. The Herb Yurt offered a variety of activities learning about herbs, and a wagon ride led by draft horses continually circled the farm for those wanting a bit of a break from all the activity. The California Indian Culture and Arts area offered demonstrations of basket weaving and how to make pine nut bracelets.

Additionally, a farmer's market was set up in the center square so we could enjoy the many seasonal fruits and vegetables, along with stands offering Prather Ranch organic hamburgers, chicken dinners with Rosie organic chickens, Drakes bay oysters, grilled veggies, baked goods, organic ice cream and popsicles. Our burgers were excellent, as was the grilled sweet corn and vanilla ice cream. It was not a Core meal, but it was worth it! WERC (Whole Earth Reusable Cooperative) provided reusable plates and flatware for all of the food, and composting was readily available for anything left uneaten. For an event this large (5,000 people were estimated to attend) you can just imagine how much garbage was kept from the landfill by reusing, recycling, and composting.

I had a chance to meet Jessica Prentice, author of Full Moon Feast, the local foods wheel, and one of the Locavore founders. Of course, I gushed that finding the locavore movement changed my life - I'm happier, healthier, and lighter since starting the journey.

One could spend the entire day and not see everything. Had we stayed overnight, we could have spent Sunday river rafting trip, learned about biodiesel, or taken a more extensive tour of walking tour of the farm. Next year we're camping overnight so we can enjoy more of the festivities!

A reporter from Woodland's Daily Democrat heard me compliment Andrew Brait, the Full Belly Farmer who led our tour, and interviewed me for the paper. You can read her story about the Hoes Down here.

How I got here in the first place

I received an e-mail today from Vickie in Iowa, who is also eating local on CORE (and makes her own yogurt, butter, and cheese!) Here is an excerpt from that e-mail:

There are only a couple of other Core folks at my meeting so the flexers can get very fixated on what you can fool your body into thinking is food.....I've had it with the fat free cool whip cheers. That's not food...

I find you particularly interesting because we share something: a sincere commitment to healthy foods, and yet we're both pretty overweight. I can't get my head around that really. Sometimes I think that I'm overweight because I'm obsessed with food, (that comes from my family,) and the localvore CSA slowfood movement just helps me to channel that obsession away from cookies and into making yogurt. On the Core I still get to think about food all the time, but in a positive way; that works for me. Nonetheless, I'm still fat, and the other people in this movement around here are not. If we're who we claim to be, how can we be fat in the first place?????

So how did I get so fat? It certainly wasn't from eating locally grown, organic foods in moderate portions like I am now. Before I started to learn about agribusiness and the industrial food industry, before I understood the importance of buying local, I was the woman who ate everything. I was a chubby baby, kid, teen, and young adult, slipping into obesity somewhere around my 16th birthday and never getting back out of it. I was on Weight Watchers half a dozen times before this, starting with the Exchange program when I was 12, but it never stuck. I never had the determination. I knew what I should be eating and patently ignored it.

I used food in a lot of ways, but filling physical hunger wasn't always at the top of that list. I was not picky, and unfortunately ate fast food, junk food and processed crap far too frequently and in huge quantities. Why I am heavy is not such a surprise to me, although there is certainly more to it than this, and it is not because I ate whole foods in reasonable amounts.

It took becoming a mother to get me to wake up to what I was eating, how I was living my life, and made me step back and evaluate. I was feeding my son all organic baby foods, carefully making sure he received balanced nutrition, but I wasn't giving the same nurturing care of my own body. I realized that as his role model, it was my job to demonstrate healthy eating habits so that he doesn't grow up overweight and with the food issues I've struggled through. Also, if I didn't get healthy, I couldn't be the kind of parent I want to be. I couldn't easily chase him around the park or get on the floor to play with him, and I wouldn't be as healthy or live as long if I remained obese. I didn't want that for him, and I started to change my eating habits not for me but for him. In the process, it has become about me.

At about the same time, I read an article about the 100 mile diet in the Utne Reader while waiting for a doctor's appointment and it resonated with me. I'd never considered the source of my food before, and didn't think I could do it. It was the push I needed to do more research, and I read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, the book that changed my life and view of food 100%. If you haven't yet read it, I highly recommend it. I learned about industrial agriculture, monoculture, subsidies, and our entirely screwed up food system, and I wanted out! I went into it with no notion of how food got to my plate, and I quit eating industrial meat cold (pastured) turkey in January of this year. I wasn't watching my weight, but I was watching where food came from and started buying organic and paying attention to buying local.

In May, I rejoined Weight Watchers with a commitment I'd never before had, and with a new way of looking at my food. I'm making conscious food choices not entirely based on the calorie count, but on the quality of the food, and I've found something surprising: I don't need a huge quantity if the food is high quality. A small amount of good, real cheese is so much more satisfying than a whole package of fat free cheese product.

Another surprise to me: I've become picky! My list of things I will eat is now smaller than the things I won't for the first time in my life. (I never expected this!) This is wonderful for my health, and for the first time, I'm eating according to my values. I don't want animals to live in inhumane conditions so I can eat meat, but I don't want to give up meat. I don't want to eat genetically modified foods or chemicals dressed up as foods. I want nutritious, flavorful food that hasn't spent weeks in transit, hasn't been sprayed with toxic chemicals, and isn't leaving the environment (and people growing and harvesting it) irreparably damaged. I'm enjoying the "hunt" for new sources, the success of new recipes, and real, whole food - none of it individually packaged and frozen. So I skip industrial meat, conventionally grown fruits and vegetables, genetically modified foods and artificial colors/flavors/sweeteners/preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated fats, and so in short, almost all packaged foods.

I've said the same thing as Vickie: I'm still obsessed with food. I am not sure that will ever dissipate, but it has found a new focus. Instead of constantly wondering how I'd get my next fix of sugar and deep fried (fill in the blank), I'm searching for new sources for healthy, sustainable foods. I'm excited when I find local beans and pastured chickens. The obsession may never leave me, but my life and the lives of my family members are better off for the obsession finding this direction. I am not cured of my food issues and I still struggle with fast food cravings and wanting to eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's to console myself over bad news, but I'm now making conscious choices and learning to feel the feeling instead of feeding it. That hard work is outside of the scope of this blog and I'm not getting much into it here, but it's going on behind the scenes.

My son, who will be 2 years old this month, is a great eater. He'll eat just about whatever I put in front of him and eats the same daily menu that I post here with a few modifications - more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and whole milk, for example. So far, he loves fruits and vegetables and has never had a chicken nugget. I'm striving to keep it that way.

Fruits of our neighbors

Mr.M and Jax went on a walk last night and brought home a bag full of goodies. It seems that they stopped to chat with each neighbor with a fruiting tree, told them about our quest to eat local foods, and were given as much as they could carry. They brought home apples, oranges, lemons, a big grapefruit, and mouths smeared with blackberry (they don't travel well in the company of bigger fruit!) The blackberry bush's owner said we were welcome back, so I'll be back to get a batch to freeze. Same goes for apples - applesauce is coming our way with these sweet, tart beauties.

What is growing in your neighborhood? Most of the tree-owners we've encountered are happy to give fruits away from their trees and it never hurts to ask if you could enjoy a few. It doesn't get much more local than that!

***

I took off what was gained last week, and then some, so I'm feeling good about today's weigh in. I'm now down 24 lb. in 11 weeks and making strides toward my goal of 10%/31 lb. by September 23. My BMI, still well within the obese range, is down 4 points.

***

The Weight Watchers leader substite I didn't like (see the June 22 entry) was back again. She started the meeting by saying she'd gained 5 pounds and the scales must be off. Well, I lost 3.8 lb and am counting on them being right! Then she goes on to talk about how she started out SO fat at 170 lb. and how did she let herself get so big, and talking to a new woman about how it's good that she started WW before really getting heavy. Um, HELLO!? I'm starting out at 311 lb. and my GOAL is 165. I'll be THRILLED, jumping up and down and hugging anyone who will let me, when I reach 170 and even then it will take more than a year of hard work to get there. I almost left in the middle of the meeting, but I wanted to tell her how discouraging that was. She talked again about how she doesn't exercise, but she has heard it can help. Our regular leader is at a bowling tournament and she said the regular leader was "almost fanatical" about exercise. WHAT?

After the meeting, I told her that I found talking about the weight in numbers really discouraging, since she was feeling so horrible about being at my goal weight. She said that's not what she meant, and I'm taller and she has smaller bone structure besides (taller by two inches and who can see my bone structure under all this padding?), and that she was eating unhealthy and not at a good weight for her. I said she should say she was eating unhealthy and was uncomfortable at her weight instead of saying how terrible 170 is. I'm still feeling discouraged and will be mentioning it to my regular leader next week. (I find my regular leader inspiring and incredibly helpful. She has lost 140 lb. and I can identify with her.)

***

Budget

I've been eating primarily local, organic, CORE foods and doing it on the USDA's Thrifty Plan for cost of food at home - just about $92 a week for my family. I went over a few weeks and under a few weeks, but my average is right about $90 for the past 6 weeks. We're adding an eater to our family, as I'm cooking lunch and dinner for my mother in law (for here or to go) in exchange for childcare when I go back to school next month. She eats here frequently anyway, but now it's a bit more of a formal arrangement and I'm adding her into our cost of food. With that addition, my weekly budget is now $119.80. Thank goodness for all the free fruits, since I bought only $73.57 this week so far.

This week, I've spent:

$26.00 for two chickens and a dozen eggs at Soul Food Farms
$33.57 for bread, polenta, yogurt, milk, applesauce, spices, spaghetti, dried tomatoes, feta cheese, a bottle of Bragg's Liquid Aminos, and an apple bar for Jax at Country Sun
$14.00 for two blocks of smoked sharp cheddar from Spring Hill Cheese

I also sent in $180.00 for the Grain CSA payment. It has been a bad couple of weeks for fishing so the whole salmon isn't in quite yet, but that will be here soon adding to our monthly budget. Also, I'll be renewing my produce CSA box at the end of the month, adding another $185.00 to the month expenditures.

***

Daily Menu

Breakfast
1 slice California Style whole grain toast from Alvarado Street Bakery (1 Point)
1/2 t. butter from Spring Hill Cheese (yummmm!), 1 t. Strawberry Rhubarb jelly from Phipps Country Store (1 Point)
1 c. plain fat free Wallaby yogurt
1/4 c. steel cut oatmeal
2 apricots

Lunch
leftover Chicken cacciatore with whole wheat pasta and 1 t. olive oil
Apple from a neighbor's yard

Dinner
We ate at Fresh Choice. I had a bowl of pho noodles (1 Point for the noodles), a huge salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a brownie (3 Points).

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 6
WPA points available: 32
Activity points today: 3 (Walking)
Activity points this week: 3

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - oatmeal, whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - yes
5. Protein - yes (chicken)
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

Fresh, pastured chickens and eggs: it doesn't really matter which came first, they're both in my fridge

Today brought a new adventure in local food scouting. After the discovery on my morning walk of a neighbor's front yard zucchini garden with a "please take these zucchinis!" sign (I took one enormous zucchini) and another neighbor's offer of homemade peach jelly, made fresh from peaches grown in her yard, I headed up to Vacaville to buy certified organic, truly free range whole chickens and a dozen colorful eggs direct from Soul Foods Farm.

Chickens greeted me as I pulled into the driveway past the hand-made "Soul Foods Farm" sign and another simply stating "PEACE." I parked in front of the garden, where a few more chickens wandered loose. A slew of them were fenced into a large area behind the house, and wire baskets of multi-colored eggs were in the foyer as I was greeted by Morgan, the teenage daughter of farmer Alexis Koefoed.

I had spoken with Alexis on the phone to arrange picking the chickens up, but she hadn't arrived home when I got there and I had a pleasant conversation with her Morgan in their modern, stainless steel kitchen overlooking the chicken yard. Morgan is a vegetarian and was excited to hear that we'd bought a cow but quite startled by the fact that we had a quarter of it at home in the chest freezer (and the whole conversation was held over two bagged, plucked chickens, heads and feet included!)

When Alexis returned we talked about how good real food is and how great it is to raise kids eating it - her teenaged children still prefer oatmeal to processed cereal, so some of those whole food values really do stick - and the importance of supporting local farms. If you have the opportunity, buy from a farmer! They'll be happy to talk to you about the food that they've grown for you, it will be fresher not having spent 7-14 days in transit (the chickens were dispatched this morning), more nutritious, and you'll be supporting an actual farmer who is making a living making real food in your area, not supporting faceless corporate agribusiness. Alexis was recently interviewed for an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about pastured eggs and their recent resurgence among foodies and those who just want honest-to-goodness eggs with the dark yolks, tender whites, and flavor that warehoused chickens just don't produce.

I also visited my parents while in Vacaville and Jax (22 months) had a chance to play in the kiddie pool with his 3 year old cousin, a pool noodle, rubber ball, and a plastic watering can: a guaranteed good time for the toddler set. We had to drag them into the house, shivering and grousing, as it started to get dark. After many kisses and hugs (Jax says "moooWAH!" when he kisses) we drove the hour and a half home, chickens and eggs nestled in a cooler in the passenger seat, and Jax babbling contentedly in the backseat.

A good day was had by all, except perhaps the chickens.

Edible Landscape Review and Daily Menu for July 29

Squash in boxes, an attempt to deter squirrels

Artichoke flower

Neighborhood composting program - what a great idea!

Espaliered pears - each branch is a different variety, so the tree bears bartletts, boscs, and more.

We took the Edible Landscaping Tour around gardens in Palo Alto yesterday, sponsored by Common Ground and Valley of Heart's Delight. These gardens were amazing and inspiring! Some were lush, extravagent, and tended by full time gardeners; others were hobby gardens with such fun additions as a duck pond, chickens, and bees. All of them provided such gorgeous organic fruits and vegetables and I appreciated the opportunity to see the variety. A big thanks to all of the gardeners who gave us a chance to be voyeurs in their yards.

The highlights for me were varieties I'd never seen growing. At Gary and Carmen Bacon's home, I saw asparagus out to seed for the first time, and the feathery plant bore so little resemblence to the asparagus I buy that I wouldn't have recognized it. Gary showed me his tomatillo plants as well. Tomatillos are ready when their shells fill out; before they're ready, they're like papery balloons awaiting fruit. The Bacons also had the largest sunflower I've ever seen!

Deborah Rose showed us her new espaliered apple tree, an heirloom variety called Ashmead's Kernal that was popular in England in the 1700s. She is also growing muskat grapes, a variety difficult to find for the table because they're so commonly used for wine. Bob Niederman's artichoke is pictured above. His is truly an edible landscape with just a small no-mow lawn tall fescue, I believe - it looks wavy and rather ocean-like, and was much softer than our prickly, mowing required lawn!

Christel Casjens and Susan Osofski have a forest-like yard, growing mushrooms on oak logs, under a big shady tree. They also offer the neighborhood composting program, pictured above. Daniel Steinberg's deep lot houses at least 20 trees, including citrus, apples, cherries, figs, peaches, pears, plums, pluots, and nectarines, and he produced the sweetest plum I've ever tasted, a variety called Howard Miracle.

The most manicured garden belongs to Marva and John Warnock, and it is amazing. The espaliered pear tree and scarecrow with squash boxes pictured above is from this garden. They had a variety of produce growing in raised beds around a gazebo, which must be a wonderful place to relax.

***

Daily Menu

Breakfast
about a cup of plain, fat free Wallaby yogurt (made in Napa)
peach from Full Belly Farm
strawberries from Green Oaks Creek Farm and Retreat

Lunch
More lentil tamale - I think we'll finish the pan of it today!
Milk

Dinner
Snapper Veracruz, with fish from Pietro at the Farmer's Market and heirloom tomatoes from Full Belly Farm
Polenta corn cakes with corn from Full Belly Farm
Green beans

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 0
WPA points available: 35
Activity points today: 0
Activity points this week: 3

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - polenta in tamale pie and corn cakes
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - yes
5. Protein - yes (lentils, fish)
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

Beans, Beans, the musical fruit...

Yesterday, we drove out to the coast for lunch in Half Moon Bay (I had halibut and double veggies) and down to Pescadero for beans, of all things. I'd found Phipps Country Store online and was excited to check out their locally grown, heirloom varieties, and I was not disappointed. (I got a camera for my birthday, and what did I take pictures of? Beans, of course!)

The store itself is adorably quaint, with old appliances given a new life as display cases - a century old Maytag washer houses peanuts, for example. The dry bean section held more variety than I've seen in one place, and more varieties than I've seen, period! Many of them are grown on site. Orle, the friendly gentleman working in at the counter, suggested Gigantes, a huge white bean that is good for salads, and Green Flagiolets, a small, immature bean that doesn't need to soak. I also bought some gorgeous Jacob's Cattle Beans, Red Calypsos, and Buckskin Beans. I just stocked up on lentils or I would have bought more there - they had quite a variety, including whole lentils (as opposed to the more common split lentils you would see in the supermarket or bulk bins) and I was told they're grown in Lodi, so here's my local lentil source! Black garbanzo beans were another interesting find. I bought a jar of strawberry-rhubarb jam as well.

They also have a pick-your-own berry farm, a small area with farm animals, and a great greenhouse-type room with plants and birds. We saw a friendly cockatoo (he and Jax said "hello" back and forth for quite a while!), lovebirds, parakeets, quail, pigeons, pheasants, and chickens, plus a bunny. The whole place was just great for someone like me, interested in local foods, but also a nice pit stop for fresh food if you're ever in the area and want a picnic.

I spent $19.83 on beans and jam, and I'll definitely be back the next time I need beans!


***

Today's weigh in was great, with a 4.8 lb. loss this week, bringing my total down to 23 lb. gone in 9 weeks. My goal of 30 lb. by September 23 is well underway. I think I'll meet that by mid-August at the current rate.

Today's meeting topic was exercise, and just another kick in the pants to stay on track exercising! That is the easier place for me to falter, and it can be easy to talk myself out of it even though I feel so good after. My plan is to exercise 4 days this week, earning 16 Activity Points.

***

The farmer's market is in full swing, with fruits and veggies in great abundance and variety! My CSA box includes:

Blue Lake Green Beans
Sweet white corn
Basil
Eggplant
Melon
Torpedo onion (a torpedo-shaped red onion)
Potatoes
Mixed heirloom tomatoes (so pretty!)

I also picked up a few zucchinis, grapes, strawberries, bell peppers, and more tofu from Hodo Soy, spending $15.00 on colorful, nutritious produce. I'll be making grilled eggplant stacks again tonight (see the July 15 entry for the recipe), since my produce box gave me eggplants and it was such a delicious way to use them!

***

Between the beans and produce, my total spending on food for the week is a whopping $34.83. We'll need more milk later in the week, and still have lots of leftovers from last week, so it will be a low-budget week. I seem to run every other week higher, and the whole salmon is coming in next week so that will bring my food bill up! :)

***

Daily Menu

Breakfast
Non-fat latte
Strawberries

Lunch
Chili
1 oz. grated smoked sharp cheddar from Spring Hill Jersey Cheese (this stuff is AMAZING - such a deep, rich, smoky flavor that a little goes a long way! (3 PT)
Whole wheat couscous

Dinner
Grilled eggplant stacks (1/2 oz. goat cheese and sauce - 2 PT)
Corn on the cob
Tomato-basil salad

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 5
WPA points available: 34
Activity points today: 4
Activity points this week: 4

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+ (it's a veggie-heavy day!)
2. Whole grains - couscous
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - yes
5. Protein - yes (beef and beans in chili, milk and cheese)
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

The Bounty in the Neighbor's Yard

It's an abundant time of year for fresh fruits and vegetables, and our neighborhood has its own unused bounty sadly falling onto the sidewalks. On my walk with Jax this week, we discovered a plum tree whose fruit is littering the yard and sidewalk, lemons, oranges, and apples (not yet ripe), and a big rosemary bush. The lemons have been offered to us by their kind owners (and our occasional babysitter) and today I asked to pick some of the ripe, juicy plums, coming home with a nice sized bag that are already half eaten. This week, I'll ask about the oranges and rosemary, and I'll go back for more plums! I'd love to find a bay tree in the neighborhood; I'll have to keep an eye out on future walks!

One of our neighbors has chickens and a lovely garden, supplying some of her neighbors with occasional eggs. Another neighbor grows zucchini by the bushel and it is a regular late-summer gift to all of his neighbors. At the end of the street, a small garden is growing between the street and sidewalk, with staked tomatoes, strawberries, and squash. Our suburban street is flush with fresh, flavorful, foods!

My garden plans have been sadly neglected, but I'm more inspired to start with late season seeds and join the grow-my-own club. There is an event scheduled at Common Ground in Palo Alto called the Edible Landscaping tour, described as a self-guided tour to

Learn what motivates your neighbors to grow their own food! Discover how folks weave edible plants into both garden beds and the landscape! Meet the gardeners and get inspired by the special features of their gardens!

I'll be joining just to see what else is growing in our neighborhood that I don't even know is edible!

***

Today's weigh in showed a drop of 1.6 lb., for a total of 18.2 lost. Next week should bring me to the 20 lb. mark. At the meeting today, our leader Jennifer started a travelling food journal. A different member takes the journal each week and tracks what they eat that week, passing it along at the end of their week for someone new. I thought it was a really neat idea, and a good way to get new ideas. I took it for the first week, and hopefully I can take a look at the end of the book to see what other people have been eating. I'm a food voyeur! :)

I did my shopping after Weight Watchers and made up for my very inexpensive shopping week last week! I didn't end up buying any more milk last week, so my total was only $17.45. This week, I needed more lentils, beans, oatmeal, milk, yogurt, a few spices, and of course produce, plus a few incidentals. I asked the buyer at Country Sun where the lentils and black beans come from, but she couldn't say specifically, only "back east". Many of the bulk bins are local, including Lundberg Farms rice, locally grown nuts and such.

I spent $51.50 at Country Sun, $25 at the farmer's market (including Spring Hill smoked sharp cheddar and a piece of snapper), and another $42 at the Grocery Outlet, where I bought 12-grain bread by Vital Vittles, whole wheat pitas by Soli's Bakery, corn tortillas by another local company, and a case of canned vegetable stock (not local), case of canned organic tomatoes (not local), two blocks of organic cheese from Petaluma (and only $2.99 a lb!) and a jar of pickles for Mr.M. He likes Clausen pickles and only Clausen pickles, but I rarely buy them.

Yesterday, I bought eggs (local and organic) and Garden burgers for the boy-o (not local) at Costco for $12.98. My food expenses for the week thus add up to $131.48. Tomorrow, I'm buying more produce to can and freeze, and I ordered another whole salmon, coming in next week; I'm also sending in a check for the grain CSA, so it will be another pricy week but the food will be eaten for several months with what is being spent for the next few weeks.


This week's produce box included
Basil
Blue lake green beans
Nantes carrots
White sweet corn
Two small melons (a watermelon and a cantaloupe)
White Lady peaches (YUMMY!!)
Heirloom tomatoes



***
Daily Menu
Breakfast:
nonfat latte
peach

Lunch:
Split pea soup
1 c. milk
3 plums

Dinner:
Grilled Eggplant Stacks with goat cheese (3 Points)
Small piece of grilled snapper
Corn on the cob
2 t. olive oil
bulgur

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 3
WPA points available: 35
Activity points today: 4
Activity points this week: 4

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

Eat Local: Lower your Carbon Foodprint

A quick read of The Ethicurean is always worth my while, as it reminds me over and over again why it is important to know where my food comes from and support local agriculture. They collect articles and commentary on food issues in one place, making it easy to get an overview of current issues in mindful food choices. Reading it tonight, I came upon this video that I wanted to share with you.



This video from The Nation traces how food travels to get to your plate. The average meal in the US travels 1500 miles from farm to fork and comes from 5 countries outside of the US. (The term "Carbon Foodprint" comes from Zoe Bradley at Edible Portland.)

(Go ahead, click through to The Ethicurean. It's worth the read. I'll be here when you get back.)

CORE on a budget

Inspired by the Washington Post article, "How Far can your Dollar Stretch" by Sally Squires I'm challenging myself to feed my family this week on the USDA's Thrifty Plan for Food at Home. The USDA has four budgets for food at home, and the Thrifty Plan is the lowest of these budgets; it is also the amount that food stamps are based on. My family'd budget is $91.95 a week (based on two adults and one toddler for the chart from May, most recent available.) I'm still committed to locally grown, organic foods and I'm doing it with a dollar figure in mind. I've been averaging $100 a week since starting Weight Watchers, so this dollar figure isn't such a stretch. My goal here is to show that eating well doesn't have to cost a fortune. Most of us can eat a variety of delicious, filling, organic whole foods and not break the bank.

My family is very fortunate, let me say right up front. We are not on food stamps, and our income adequately covers our expenses (although with a self-employed dad and stay-at-home-mom, some months are tighter than others!) We have access to local, organic foods at a reasonable price, reasonably close to our home. For many, this is a luxury that simply isn't available.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet while receiving food stamps or living on a minimal food budget is understandably difficult. None of my vendors accept food stamps - not the Farmer's Market (although some Farmer's Markets are now accepting food stamps, a wonderful step in the right direction), not the rancher from whom I bought our split quarter of pastured beef, not my local natural foods store, etc.

I have the advantage of time: time to research food choices, make meal plans, and cook from scratch so very, very little of our food is prepared/processed. I am gaining an education in healthy food choices, which has changed how I shop. My family doesn't grumble too much at the many inexpensive vegetarian meals that are served. I also have a vehicle so I am able to shop at a variety of sources. Lacking any of these can make a significant difference for someone struggling to get by. It can be done, but with obstacles.

This week's menu includes:
Muesli and Shredded wheat with fruit for breakfasts
Egg salad and leftovers for lunches
Lentil tacos with Mexican coleslaw
Huevos Rancheros on brown rice with green beans
Salmon cakes with couscous and beets
Tofu stirfry with wheatberries
Crockpot chili and baked potato
Chana masala (Indian curried garbanzo beans) with bulgur and zucchini
Chicken and rice with carrots

Today I did most of the shopping for the week, everything but the CSA box, a few extra veggies, and eggs from the farmer's market on Saturday. Everything is organic and bought at a local natural foods store that isn't known for being inexpensive, but carries many local brands. If I really needed to stretch a dollar, I would have to shop elsewhere. Here's what I bought:

2 qts. fat free plain yogurt - $6.99 (not local - the Strauss yogurt I normally buy was out of stock, so I bought a different variety this week)
1 pt. whole plain yogurt - $2.79 (for Jax; local)
1 gallon fat free milk - $5.99 (local)
1 gallon whole milk - $5.99 (for Jax; local)
1 lb. tofu - $2.19 (local)
Canola oil - $8.99 (not local)
Jar of ginger - $2.19 (not local)
24 oz. Applesauce - $2.99 (local)
1/4 lb. oat bran - $.38 (not local)
Shredded Wheat - $5.39 (M's request; local producer)
$43.89

From Webb Ranch Farm Produce Stand:
2 peaches, 3 HUGE beets, a half-pint of raspberries, and 1 lb. cherries - $8.35

My CSA box costs $14.50 per week, paid in advance, and includes:
apricots (again!)
green beans
cabbage
carrots
white corn
potatoes
squash

I still need eggs ($2.50), bell peppers, jalapenos, and oranges (about $8) from the farmer's market. If I include the cost of foods I have on hand in the pantry or freezer and plan to use this week, I'm right about at budget - 1 lb. ground beef $5, 1/3 a chicken $3, and 6 oz. salmon $3.75, corn tortillas $.99, plus a bunch of beans and grains, probably under $4. I'm not including the spices and condiments on hand.

That puts my total for a week of groceries at $93.98, including meats and grains on hand, or $77.24 spent on food this week.

I'll pass on the farmed fish, thanks; and Daily Menu for June 20

I've stopped purchasing farmed salmon. Our local wild caught salmon (and snapper and halibut...) has such great flavor, and buying it supports our local fishermen and economy, fitting right into the locavore ideas, so I was already sold before reading about how farmed fish is less healthy and causes environmental damage.

Farmed salmon has considerably less of the Omega-3 fatty acids, the heart healthy fats, than wild caught salmon. The color is dyed in; they're given vaccines, antibiotics, and pesticides, which I am avoiding in beef and chicken; and they're grown in tiny cages and fed corn and soy - read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" for the dangers to the environment in the growing of corn and soy. You can read more about the dangers of farmed fish here. http://www.betternutrition.com/document/203

Another scary bit of farmed fish information is that they contain cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyl. This alone is scary enough to keep me buying wild fish. Here's a great site for more information about PCBs. http://www.ewg.org/reports/farmedPCBs/es.php

Wild-caught salmon is more expensive, but to me, it's worth it. I'm near San Francisco and can buy wild-caught salmon at my local farmer's market. While $19 a pound is difficult to swallow, I was able to buy a whole salmon for $9.50 a pound from my market's fishmonger (about $70 for my 7 pound fish), and after portioning it
out, froze it in individual meal sizes enough for 7 meals for the three of us. That seemed quite reasonable to me.

***

Yesterday was very snacky, and I ended up having about 8 WPAs in goat cheese and jalapeno jelly on celery. It's a very tasty combination, and I ate way to much of it. Between that and going out to eat tonight, I am just wiping out my WPAs for the week and eating only CORE foods tomorrow and Friday.

Daily Menu

Breakfast
oatmeal
1 c. milk
banana

Lunch
Tofu with green beans and brown rice, curry sauce
Coffee with ff milk (I was babysitting and the afternoon was getting long!)

Dinner
Out to eat:
Vegetarian fajitas, 2 flour tortillas, beans, avocado - I have no idea how to count it, but I'm wiping out my WPAs after tonight's meal just to be on the safe side.
1 c. fat free milk

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: ?
WPA points available: 0
Activity points today: 4
Activity points this week: 8

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

Beef Recall: Another reason to be a locavore

There is a beef recall in 11 Western states for potential E. Coli contamination. Eating locally grown, grassfed beef can all but eliminate your exposure to E.Coli, as E.Coli is a scary and dangerous side effect of the industrial food chain. As described (much more eloquently!) by Michael Pollan in his article "Power Steer":

Most of the [E. Coli] microbes that reside in the gut of a cow and find their way into our food get killed off by the acids in our stomachs, since they originally adapted to live in a neutral-pH environment. But the digestive tract of the modern feedlot cow is closer in acidity to our own, and in this new, manmade environment acid-resistant strains of E. coli have developed that can survive our stomach acids—and go on to kill us. By acidifying a cow's gut with corn, we have broken down one of our food chain's barriers to infection. Yet this process can be reversed: James Russell, a U.S.D.A. microbiologist, has discovered that switching a cow's diet from corn to hay in the final days before slaughter reduces the population of E. coli 0157 in its manure by as much as 70 percent. Such a change, however, is considered wildly impractical by the cattle industry.

I'm convinced that I should not eat or feed my family meat grown industrially, and to that end, I sought out locally grown, pastured, organic beef. There are a number of ranches in the Bay Area, including Morris Grassfed Beef, Marin Sun Farms (found locally at Country Sun), Chileno Valley Ranch.

You can find grassfed meats in your area here.

I've bought a a quarter of a cow from Chileno Valley Ranch. Our beef, organically pastured with no antibiotics or added hormones, is being picked up next Saturday and should last us for the next year. I learned only recently that beef is a seasonal product; feedlot beef is not seasonal and can be "dispatched" any time of year.

Grassfed beef is more expensive than the industrially grown beef found in grocery stores (our quarter of the cow is roughly $5/lb., or $430 for a 90 lb. quarter, plus butchering fees), but Mr. Pollan explains how the true cost of industrial beef is much higher than the price tag on the grocery store shrink wrap:

And how cheap, really, is cheap feedlot beef? Not cheap at all, when you add in the invisible costs: of antibiotic resistance, environmental degradation, heart disease, E. coli poisoning, corn subsidies, imported oil and so on. All these are costs that grass-fed beef does not incur.

The Locavore on Core

Welcome to my blog! I'm starting this blog to document my weight loss journey using the Weight Watchers program Core, and eating locally and sustainably grown whole foods.

What is a Locavore?
A locavore is a person making a conscious effort to eat foods grown or harvested within their local foodsehd, generally about 100 miles. I've extended this to 200 miles, because our weekly CSA (community supported agriculture) box of vegetables comes from a farm 125 miles from me, and the only local brown rice I've found is 185 miles away. I'm very fortunate to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where a variety of locally grown and produced foods are plentiful year round.

I will readily admit that our food isn't 100% local; some staples just aren't locally produced, like coffee, bananas, chocolate, sugar, spices, and some condiments, like soy sauce. I'm on the lookout for local grains and legumes and if you know of any, please let me know! All of our produce, meat, and dairy is all locally, sustainably farmed, and those products that aren't local are fair trade and organic as much as possible.

10 Reasons to Eat Local

What is Core?
Core is one of two Weight Watchers programs, wherein I can eat as many foods on an approved list as I need to be satisfied (including fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fat free dairy, healthy oils and lean meats), and count Points for foods outside the list. I have 35 Points per week, plus any Points I earn through exercise. A Point is generally between 25 and 100 calories, depending on the fat and fiber.

I attend meetings and weigh in on Saturday mornings, just before hitting the farmer's market.

Who am I?
I'm 28 years old, wife to M., who is losing weight along with me, and a stay at home mom to toddler son Jax.

Starting weight: 311.6 on 5/21/07
Current weight: 309.4 on 6/4/07

Goals
I intend to meet the following goals, losing a reasonable 1.85 lbs. per week.
10% (31 lbs.) by 9/23/07
Under 200 lbs. by 7/20/08
Goal weight of 155 lbs. by 1/1/09