Eco-chic Lifestyle Change reflection continued

There were a couple things I didn't fully address in my previous post regarding looking over the full SMART goal, local eating process.

My SMART goal didn't change very much over time.  I did add another local meal towards the end.  I didn't change it for a few reasons. I didn't come up with any great ideas to add besides frequency. I didn't want to overload myself in adding too may meals that, with my schedule, wasn't going to work well. I knew I had particular times to cook and didn't want to over stress that. I made an effort to make left overs for myself and was enjoying feeling the success of being able to do that and add to my local meal count, or partial count, with the left overs.  I also enjoyed focusing on local eating, being aware of what I purchased every time I purchased food, but not being pressured to force meals in. I think, for me, this created less stress but more enjoyment of the process and allowed me to see what I could do without molding meals to fit criteria, I was able to notice what was or could be possible. Challenging oneself is great sometimes, but there are times when being real, sticking to what is working and adding to that more organically as opposed to structurally, has it's place. That was one thing about behavior change this helped me get in touch with.  Getting to a good place in a goal and not just pushing for pushing sake.  There are times when you can benefit from maintaining and not needing to top myself. I relaxed into new thought processes instead of blowing past them.

I certainly benefited in learning how GOOD some of the root veggies are in soup and in general. It reminded me that I need and really want to incorporate things like turnips and parsnips. I also learned that, if I focus on seeing what is at the farmers market and making a meal out of that, it makes it easier to take advantage of the local foods. That was a great benefit.

Benefits that were gained by my eating locally, as somewhat mentioned above, the food I ate traveled less fossil fuel miles. Did I have a grand effect on the planet?  probably not, the other food that I would have eaten had I not eaten this way still traveled. However, hopefully if I vote with my dollar for local, and other do as well, the scales will tip regarding demand and thus more local will be demanded and available.

(Side note - I was at a conference last night about local food and sustainability and some farmers said that there is a lot of underutilized farm land here that farmers own and if farmers have the demand for local food, they will plant more and make more available to us.  )

I enjoyed this process. It was good for my body, as I probably ingested less pesticides from talking to some of the farmers. I ate some very fresh food which has it's benefits in nutrients. I enjoyed not having my money
funnel through Cub foods, then their supplier and who knows how many others to get to the farmer.  It is really cool,  I get to support this person's livelihood in a real and direct way. And, hopefully making that person feel good as well directly knowing that they and their work are appreciated.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Weekly Review and Final Reflection

 My goal this week was to have 2 full meals that were fully local.  I certainly made that goal.   To the right is one of my meals. It is an egg, chicken sausage and purple potatoes. We were just gonna have eggs and the potatoes but then we discovered that the chicken sausages were local and they LOOKED SO GOOD!.

I had another fully local meal and many that were left-overs or just incorporated a lot of the food I had around that was local.



Cole brought up Joel's Hydroponics system in a comment to a past post so I thought I'd post a photo.  Currently, as you can CLEARLY see, he is just growing lettuce. We have now harvested and eaten a good 1/3rd and that leaves some room for him to start growing something new.  I'm not sure what he will try.  




When I think about challenges, I'm grateful we did this assignment in the fall rather than the dead of winter. There have been great foods to eat so having my local meals has been very doable. The challenges were more with the toppings. Things like pepper, salt, butter and other spices.  Fresh spices were pretty easy, but I did use some of what I had and knew would make something flavorful.  I still managed to get some local spices and created flavorful meals. I looked to local before using my standbys.

As winter goes on I think it will be harder to find the local food. I'm going to keep trying however. I would love to know what is out there that I'm just not thinking of yet. I want to keep finding ways to do what I feel is the right thing. I also have enjoyed learning a little more about the possibly of sustaining more locally. During this project the Co-op had their member owners meeting and i learned about a huge project to challenge some great minds and pull together information on what land in Minnesota is available to grow on, how is the soil, and what can be grown realistically in the climate and on that land.  They have put together a pretty complete diet. I learned that Hazel nuts grow here... I didn't know that.

I feel benefited in my awareness of eating local food. I really want to eat more local and like how voting with my dollars makes me feel. I enjoy buying from the guy who busted his chops to grow decent veggies when I buy at farmers markets and I like to see a high number on the "local purchases" on my Whole Foods receipt.  I feel like I'm supporting people who are trying to do a good job and provide a good product. The money goes through less hands and I'm saving miles of travel and that saves fuel as well as gives me fresher food.  I like that. I do enough to screw up the planet, it is nice to make some adjustments and lifting even a little burden and demand on her.

I also learned that I really like root veggies in chicken soup!

What did I learn?  That with some effort, this wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I think I surprised myself at how good it felt.

For others looking to make a lifestyle change, I highly recommend sitting down ans making some sort of plan. Thinking through what you perceive the tough parts might be before you start so you can see success before the roadblocks, if they even come up.  For me in this situation it was thinking about where my local options were, could I get there and when would I go, what would I be making out of my local goodies.

I have one more thing that I'd like to share...

As I was thinking about my week and the local meals I have been eating I had a really cool realization... This week, as most people who have been anywhere near me know, Robert Kenner, Director of Food, Inc. was here presenting at UMD.  Duluth Grill was one of the sponsors for this event. Tom, the owner, offered to host a dinner for Robert before hand. The dinner was 100% gluten free and they focused on local. First of all, they have gardens on Duluth Grill's property, in the owners front yard and they also source as much as they can local.   Almost everything was local.  Tho Belgian chocolate that covered the local cherry was not local. I know there were a few other things, but I honestly can not recall.

Below are the pictures of most of the food.

This was our salad. The raspberry dressing is sweetened with local honey.

This was our main course. The roast is a local bison pot-roast, Minnesota wild rice. The food in front is squash, apples and all sorts of amazing flavors.

They serve something close to this for their Sunday Special.

I'm really NOT trying to torture you. I SWEAR I'm getting to my larger point.

This summer when I was first working on choosing sponsors for the Kenner event, I asked Duluth Grill to be a part of it. I never thought that, that decision would be influencing 20 people, months later, on one night to come together and all be eating a local meal. So much fun to have that unexpected bonus.

So, what do you say? Sunday, Duluth Grill... FIELD TRIP! :)

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3: Weekly Update

My goal was to eat commit to one local meal a week.  I did achieve my one meal and more.  I did have one local meal. The only part that was not local was the balsamic vinaigrette I used for dressing on my salad, the salt, pepper and basil spices.  Last week we had fresh local basil but were out of it.

The challenges were thinking ahead to have a local dressing or maybe put some other local something on the salad that would have substituted. Also, the salt and pepper got used without thinking about it.  We could have used some additional veggies to take the place of that perhaps?

Getting the food was pretty easy. However, this week the farmers market didn't have any meat so we had to buy our local meat from Whole Foods instead. Still local.  We had chicken soup last week and I was hoping to get some mutton/goat meat.

Here is our meal!

Yup, even the water is local! 

It's even possible that the water glass, aka old spaghetti sauce jar, came from a local source as well. 

The salad are greens that Joel grew in his apartment 6 blocks away in his hydroponics system. 

We didn't get too creative this week on our meal from last week, but last weeks was SO GOOD!  This week wasn't quite as flavorful. Perhaps because the chicken was a little but more plump?

Here are the recipes... 

The first soup 

Potato and Leek Chicken Soup

1) Make Chicken Broth.  (I will include this process recipe in a later post)

2) Add Vegetables, etc.

Ingredients:
4 Leeks
1 Onion
6 Potatoes
1/2 cup rutabaga
1 cup carrot
1 tablespoon Ginger
1 cup fresh basil
Salt and Pepper to taste (approx 4 tablespoons salt, suggestion)

3) Simmer on low for at least 1 hour

The soup pictured above

Chicken and Turnips

1) Make Chicken Broth

2)  Add Vegetables, etc (and extra chicken, if wanted)

Ingredients:
Approx 6 quart pot
1 Large Turnip - (2 cups)
4 medium Potatoes
2 cups Carrot - cut in medium to small pieces
3 leeks
1 Onion
Salt and Pepper to taste (approx 4 tablespoons salt, suggestion)
Pinch of Basil

3) Simmer on low for at least 1 hour

This was my main, local meal focus.  We had left overs so I have been eating soup at other meals.  I also got various other veggies that I have been having for other meals and snacks too like purple potatoes, red pepper, kohlrabi, apples, broccoli, and red pepper.  

It has been fun to integrate more foods in more meals. It feels good. And, it tastes fantastic!  

I will continue with my goal as is. Not that I don't want to engage in new challenges but I have a lot going on the next few weeks, I don't want to over stress by trying to add additional local required meals, and I want to just let this be more of a new habit that is settling in. 

Read'n'seed to Eco Chic Lifestyle change.... the switch to the SMART goal.

In a turn of events I have switched to focus on a lifestyle change instead of my original plan for the Read 'n'seed.

My SMART goal?

I'm going to commit to one, but attempt to eat 2 local meals a week.
I wanted to do this last year when the locavor challenge was a focus at Whole Foods. They were encouraging even just 1 meal a month minimum just to get started. I didn't do a great job. I did, however start becoming aware of what was local at the co-op and made some more local food choices. This time I want to commit to a local meal one time a week but push for 2. I love the idea of buying from people that live in my area who work hard to provide us food. I love that it is closer to home. That you can more easily meet the people who grow the food. I love that it has traveled less time in a truck and taken less fuel to get to me. I also love that it is more fresh than some foods that are picked before they are ripe and the nutrients are not ready for our bodies to process, sprayed with chemicals and colors to make them look ripe.


My success so far?

I was encouraged when we were eating soup for Sunday's lunch and realized everything we were eating was local in our soup. It was chicken soup with a lot of root veggies. Joel had cooked off the chicken and saved the broth. It was SOOOO GOOD! The chicken and the root veggies and parsley were purchased at various farmers markets here in town.

This time the success of the goal came without planning. I have had thoughts of paying more attention to this and we have been attempting to get to farmers markets more. Now with this goal it is less of a casual thought and becomes a planned event to get food for my meals. It will be fun to go to the market and create a meal or two when I'm there.

I learned that local food can be SO YUMMY! That soup ROCKED!

I will continue my goal as is for the moment.