Food Makes the World Go Round

I could pretend that we plan our week around high minded ideas of volunteer service, meditation, reflection, and exercise. That would be a complete line of B.S. In reality we plan our week around food and when we can eat in relation to work. Yes, how lame is that?

The calculation of how much or how well we will eat during the week is a complete function of how well I can plan and pull off cooking for and during the week. This is in turn impacted by how strung out I/we feel about work; whether we're both in the same country; and whether I actually make it to the store and shop for the magical menu I say we're going to consume.

I've also noticed I fail at inserting good food into my schedule when it is compressed. For example, if I am slated to meet my trainer at 7am, I try to figure out what I could possibly shovel in my mouth at say 6:15am with zero effort and then what I will shovel in my mouth between 8:45-9am when I am running out the door to the office having just sprinted through getting ready after the gym. I never think of weekday breakfast as a leisurely activity. Rather, it's a riddle that most days I completely fail to solve.

Bananas. Yep, that's the answer I reach most often. And, really? How many bananas can one girl eat?

I've also realized that if I fail to plan something super tempting, we'll often default to eating out. Total idiot move on my part. Why not revise menu planning to include something more exciting than steamed bok choy and salmon... and not entirely crockpot based.

So this week, I am attempting to just start with the act of actually cooking. Not eating out because we're too lazy to plan and to eliminate throwing food out. More on this in another post, I'm completely mortified and intrigued by how much food we're wasting in the U.S.

Since we've started our subscription to Arganica, it's like Christmas morning on Sundays to find out "what's in the local box." This week we were delighted to not only find the potatoes, turnips, sweet potato and onion we expected to see (based on the time of year)- but also beautiful mushrooms (two varieties); those gorgeous heirloom cherry tomatoes we've had before; fresh rosemary; and two types of fresh lettuce.

Making sure we don't waste our delicious (yuppie) front door delivered produce is certainly an added incentive to cooking regularly as well.

So far this week (and yes I started cooking on the weekend) we've got Split Pea Soup made and ready to go in the freezer; Barefoot Contessa Turkey Meatloaf (we ate one half and I froze the other half to make another day); Hashbrown Quiche (just trust me); Barefoot Contessa Spinach Pie; Weight Watchers Mac & Cheese; fresh greens.

Still to make this week chicken quesadillas, quick beef bourguignon (thank you N!), and a new squash soup recipe. I'm hoping at least the soups will bridge into multiple weeks with some freezing.

Hashbrown "Quiche"

• 3 cups frozen hashbrowns
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup ham steak diced
• 1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1 jalapeno pepper diced
• 1/2 cup onion diced
• 4 oz. shredded cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt/pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Press frozen hasbrowns into a 9 inch pie crust, pour melted butter on crust to set hashbrowns. Bake hashbrown crust for 25 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees. Layer in ham, pepper, jalapeno, onion, cheese. Whisk together eggs, milk, s/p and pour over layered items in dish. Bake again for 25-30 minutes until knife comes out clean and eggs are set.  Reheats really well.

No Good Very Bad Waste

Sticky, icy, mysterious, stinky, and abandoned. All of these could be used to describe food in my fridge at one point or another. Visions of rigorous weekly refrigerator cleanings do not always manifest themselves. As a result, from time to time an unaccounted for container or more often abandoned veggies or fruit in a drawer are extracted and found to be less then edible.

This food waste is a regular red flag for budget keeping. If you spend the money to buy the food, why on earth would you keep wasting it by letting it rot. DH points this out constantly. No one ever goes through the produce section and picks out broccoli with the ambition of not steaming it. I don't stand their and handpick green beans only to extract them frosty from the fridge later, rendered tasteless by the days spent in the veggie drawer.

Yet, my very first world problem keeps rearing its ugly head. And this New York Times piece notes that it could equal $40 a week totally $2,275 a year of wasted food and cash.

As I blissfully wandered through the store this week, I was determined to not only stick to my shopping list, but to also not buy more than we can consume before it expires.

In theory, all of the produce sitting in my fridge at this moment, will be consumed this week. As in the next 7-10 days. No veggie or herb will be left behind.

In addition, my meal planning this week focused on using things I already have in my pantry. I've enacted a self-imposed dry carb purchasing ban for the moment. No more purchasing of dried pastas, grains, legumes, etc. until I've put a serious dent in what's already in my pantry. Why on earth do I keep amassing new types of rice when I have four already on a shelf at home. What are we stock piling for? An emergency 30 person dinner where we can only use what we already have in the house?

Hello Thai Chicken Skewers and the can of coconut milk you'll use up from my pantry and Toasted Israeli Couscous Salad with Grilled Summer Veggies that will clear out some couscous and stock.  And, waiting in the fridge already made for tonight's dinner is what promises to be a tasty Corn Chowder that used up some bacon and onions from the drawer.

Sweet Rainforest Destruction

As we were racing northward in our mini carpool to PA this past weekend, my globally minded other half mentions an article from The Economist about palm oil. Collectively, we all turned and muttered some version of, "what are you talking about?"

Well, it turns out that palm oil (enjoy the lobbying arm link) is a very useful ingredient that happens to be the reason Indonesia's tropical rainforests are being destroyed, locals and their land are being exploited, species are dying and corruption is abounding in the region.  Great you say, why should I care?

At a minimum, 50 percent of the products we purchase at the grocery store are likely to contain palm oil. Directly supporting the ongoing supply chain issues that the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is trying to address. There's also the Green Palm initiative that consumers and manufacturers can be involved in.

Researching what contains palm oil takes time, so is it fair to just boycott products that you hear about containing palm oil? There's a handy short list I found about some candy products: plain M&Ms okay, but put down that Snickers. But what about all the other products?

More research required.

Ode to Summer Fruit-Wish You Were Local

Peaches, cherries, watermelon. How I have missed you. True summer fruits, you never taste the same in other seasons or plucked from the freezer. Nothing seduces me into summer-style cooking like cherries. Suddenly, my interest in the oven wanes. I want to subsist on caprese and fruit for pretty much every meal. Throw in grilling just about anything and everything and I'm good to go.

Since diving head long into summer eating in the last week or so, I've been noting where the fruit is coming from... news flash, eating local is hard.

We didn't get into a CSA for the summer (too much travel to know that the food would always be used), so local farmers markets and stores are my go-to sources. In DC, we have wealth of markets to choose from, so its more about effort and organization to take advantage of them.

Exploration of the markets (new and familiar) is still to come, but for now I'm debating Whole Foods and how "local" they really are. As I searched for peaches yesterday, I noted they had two sources, South Carolina and Mexico, $1.99/lb. and 2.99/lb. respectively. I opted for a blend of both based on my need for really ripe fruit, but wondered if the price difference was a reflection of the longer distance the peaches traveled or something else. Of course, peaches don't grow right around DC, so there's no true "local" source for me. So should I not buy them at all?

But what about cherries? Whole Foods and Trader Joes both are carrying "USA" cherries, but when you inspect the packaging they both come from California. Now, I have nothing against farmers and orchards in CA, but it's not exactly even close to local. Should I skip until Michigan or Pennsylvania cherries arrive?

What about blueberries? They're not from Maine, not even close.

So what am I willing to NOT eat because it comes from too far away? And what's too far? The Mississippi? The Mid-Atlantic? The eastern time zone? I'm torn. What's local to you?

Fetching Organic for Fido

Woof. Owning a dog, a large dog in particular, introduces you to a whole series of products and choices you really didn't care to ponder previously. Up front, let me clarify that our dog (all 75 lbs.+ of him) does not wear clothing, get massages, or ride in a stroller. He's a dog. We love him and his long, blue ears, but we are not trying to turn him into a toddler. (Not sure what toddler goes to the spa, but somewhere, someone is totally thinking about this.)

However, our four-legged friend has continuously presented us with a series of challenges as it relates to his diet over the past few years. During one of his training classes we were guilted into changing his food from Iams to Nutro because it was a healthier choice. He lost all of his hair along his back a week later. Turns out after a frantic trip to the vet, he's allergic to lamb. Awesome. After special pulverized, centrifuge food- the kind you can only buy from the vet, we eventually settled on Blue and Mason's been enjoying the sweet potato and fish for a couple of years now and still has all his hair.

Now, there are far more organic choices out there, including the raw food diet that I flat out refuse to entertain for my dog. By some accounts, this makes me a bad owner. I'm willing to deal with that. I don't think the pup is deprived.

Separate from food, I've recently begun evaluating the other products we buy for him. Take treats for example, if the product has too much excessive packaging, it's off the list. If it contains artificial coloring or superfluous processing forget-about-it. And then there's the dog bed. The reason I thought this post was worth writing at all.

We've been perfectly happy with his dog bed from L.L. Bean for the past four+ years (I can't speak for the dog, but he seems agreeable). We even ordered a replacement cover at one point. But a few months of listening to the dog turn, and turn, and turn, to try and nest in the bed made us realize maybe the stuffing is a bit worn out.

But what to buy? Crazy daisy, there are a lot of beds out there. We were inspired by our hip friends in KC to look at eco beds. We ended up with a West Paw Organic Bumper Bed that is 100 percent recycled plastic soda bottles. It is currently en route from Montana to our door step. Was it worth it?

Does my buying organic dog products really matter? How large can that supply chain be anyway? Well, at least I know our weim won't be poisoned by his own bed. Now his polyester chew toy that he can't live without is a whole other matter.