Eat Local Challenge: Week 4

MONDAY

Breakfast: sandwich of smoked salmon and a local egg white on whole wheat toast

Lunch: leftover Colasessano's pepperoni roll with some local sweet and hot peppers

Dinner: Shrimp Pesto Fettucini. The pasta and the pesto are all local.

Snacks: roasted local pumpkin seeds, hard boiled local egg, Cabot light cheddar cheese snack and a Martinsburg apple.

TUESDAY

Breakfast: smoked salmon and egg white sandwich

Lunch:

Dinner: leftover shrimp pesto fettucini

Snacks: Cabot light cheddar and apple

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast: smoked salmon and egg sandwich

Lunch: Roasted tomato soup (frozen made from all local ingredients) and baked potato (local)

Dinner: ehh. I had gnocchi planned with homemade marinara sauce, but the gnocchi didn't turn out--dough was too runny and I ran out of flour trying to stiffen it up. So ... we had a Bertolli frozen skillet meal. Hey, I tried.

Snacks: cabot light cheddar and an apple

THURSDAY through SUNDAY afternoon:

I was at a conference in Denver... Most of the food was provided by the conference. It was not very local. I did reach the very disturbing part of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilema about factory farmed pork while I was on the flight out. I diligently tried to avoid eating any factory farmed meat this weekend, although having food provided presented a challenge. Luckily, I was under the influence of the book a few weeks ago when I made my conference reservation and requested vegetarian meals.

SUNDAY

Dinner at home: Stuffed shells with white sauce. I remember making these this summer and freezing them. I was doing the "Penny Pinching Pantry Raid" and was cleaning out the pantry and fridge. I had a ridiculous amount of zucchini on hand, given to us by Jeremy's uncle. So, I cleaned out the fridge and made stuffed shells with zucchini, green peppers, spinach and basil mixed with cottage cheese and parmesean, and made a quick bechamel sauce to cover them, then froze them for an evening when I didn't want to cook--i.e. last night. We split a mini black rasberry pie that my in-laws brought back from Amish country (local, yes!) last weekend for dessert. Delicious and easy!

Now, I'm in the last week of the challenge, and I'm reflecting. It has definitely been a challenge, and there were times when I wish I'd done better or been better prepared. On the other hand, I feel like I've at least raised awarness to those around me. At the conference I went to last Friday with my mom at Tamarack, she told our table that I was doing the Eat Local Challenge. One young lady started asking me about it, and I told her about the Monroe Farm Market. I hope she found her way there on the world wide web...

Some things I've missed. (I'm really craving some chili. I use Spicy V8 to make it. It's the first thing I'm gonna make in November). Some things I'm surprised that I haven't missed. (Cereal. I used it eat it everyday. I don't even miss it.) The one thing that I've noticed, though, is, with all the travel I did, I wish there were more restaurant options for local food. We have a couple good places in Charleston, but I suspect there are more eateries around that just don't advertise that they're using local food. Hello?!? I will def give you my money if I knew you were!!!

We put a lot of emphasis on food in America. Maybe other places do, too, but food and family events always go hand in hand. Cultural observances are tied to food. Eating locally has heightened my awareness for what's in season. And another way to relate food to observances. Late summer = tomatoes. Fall = apples, pumpkins and squash. I know I'll be looking forward to early spring for the first asparagus of the year as well as spring lettuces. And, because I've put off buying the South American asparagus I saw in Sam's Club a couple weeks ago, I'm hoping the spring asparagus tastes that much more delicious!