Day 7

For the last day of my eat local challenge, I pretty much gave up. This mostly happened because I went to a memorial for a girl I knew in high school. It was a potluck-style memorial, so there was so much food and I was hungry! That isn't really the kind of situation where you ask people where they bought their food from......

I didn't even bother to take pictures that day, so sorry for the emptiness of this post.

Since this is the last day, I will sum up what I learned, how I felt, etc.

I think that I like the ideals of eating local more than the act of doing it everyday. It would be pretty hard to completely stick to this kind of diet for a long period of time-rather than just 7 days. Here are some thoughts:

• I am a college student with a part-time job living alone; paying for all of these local products is not reasonable for me.
• It is also not convenient to shop only at a farmers market for produce, meat, and dairy products. At this point in my life, living near a market and natural grocery stores (Whole Foods and PCC), it works, but not every city has the opportunities to eat locally that Seattle does. Where I grew up, Camano Island, there is not a farmers market like any in Seattle. I would have to make a long drive from my house to find one, when I might as well buy from the random fruit stands selling berries on the roadside.
• In my home community, there is a QFC (Stanwood, WA). Surprisingly, they are marketing local produce just like the stores in Seattle do. I believe that this is a recent thing, because I worked there three years ago, and I don't remember that happening back then.
• In my opinion, the important aspect of the Eat Local Challenge should be the ethics involved with how the food is produced, rather than the exact miles of where it comes from. Just because something is made in your city, is it sustainably and organically produced?

If you want more information about eating local:

Eat Local on Twitter:  http://search.twitter.com/search?q=eatlocal
Facebook group for Eat Local Challenge
Eat Local Challenge website

• Whole Foods to Grow its Own Produce (food.change.org)
• "Hungry Girl" Encourages Dieting A La Cool Whip Lite (womensrights.change.org)
• 15 Ways to Save Money Buying Natural Foods (mint.com)
• Local Dirt Helps You Buy and Eat Local Food (appscout.com)
• What is a locavore? (greenanswers.com)
• Food For Thought (newamericanvillage.blogspot.com)
• Local-Food Movement: The Lure of the 100-Mile Diet (time.com)
• Whole Foods vs. Trader Joe's

Day 6 - Bellingham

Today I went up to Bellingham to hike with my brother and two friends. When I left Seattle, I bought a sandwich and a bottled juice beverage at PCC in Fremont.  They were both pretty good, but more than I would pay for similar non-local products at Safeway for example.

The fruit smoothie was like an Odwalla, and the sandwich was yummy!

After our adventures on the Interurban and Larabee trails in Bellingham, we decided to get dinner at La Fiamma, a restaurant that has AWESOME pizza. They get all of their ingredients locally too! I guess it is Bellingham after all....

We had this pizza, but the meat version, which had steak on it :) So good.

I sort of cheated later on, because we got gelato afterward. I think it's imported.....but so delicious, so I had a really hard time feeling guilty!

Day 5

During the day I think I just snacked on cherries and cereal. The heat made my memory bad.....Oh yes, I finally remembered. In class today we did a taste test comparing organic and conventionally-farmed/produced foods, which was basically my lunch. So it wasn't necessarily all local, even the organic products were from out of state I believe.

It was friday, so I had leftovers for dinner. It was all definitely local: lettuce, carrots, and peas from the University District Farmers Market, and I already talked about the chicken recipe.

My friends and I hung out during the evening, so my beverage consumption was not local.....I have found it hard to stick to the local challenge when it comes to beverages-like when I want a cold drink on a hot day at the nearby convenience store :)

Day 4

I'm a bit delayed with posting this, but it was just too hot yesterday to think.....

I didn't end up making my dinner last night because I went to Agua Verde with two of my friends after our class trip to Theo Chocolate!

Totally awesome field trip by the way :)  Our class got a tour and lots of tasting of chocolate!

Eating at Agua Verde fit perfectly into my challenge, because they get all of their vegetables and meat locally if they can.

Here are pictures of the ship canal cause it was so pretty yesterday :)

 

Day 3 - hot weather?

Okay. The hotness is making cooking my own meals very annoying this week! But I soldiered on....handwashing dishes and using my oven when my apartment was 80-90 degrees.....so not what I wanted to do. These sudden hot days are always a joy :)

So anyway....

I suffered through the heat to make a wonderful recipe from the Food Network, courtesy of Rachel Ray.

You can see the original here.

Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breasts with Tomato Basil and Potatoes with Peppers and Onions

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds fingerling potatoes or red skin baby potatoes
• 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
• 1 Italian mild green pepper, cubanelle, seeded and thinly sliced
• 1 medium yellow skinned onion, thinly sliced
• 4 large cloves garlic, cracked away from skin
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Coarse salt and pepper
• 2 cups shredded Parmesan, available in tubs near deli -- make sure to get shredded cheese, not grated
• 4 (6 to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 4 plum Roma tomatoes or small, vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 15 to 20 leaves fresh basil, pile leaves, roll then thinly slice -- chiffonade

Directions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Cut fingerling potatoes into halves or quarters, depending on thickness of fingerlings -- thin, small fingerlings may also be left hole, larger potatoes should be quartered to speed cooking process. If you are using small red potatoes, halve or quarter them in the same way.

Cover a large cookie sheet with foil. Place potatoes on cookie sheet. Combine with peppers and onions, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Coat the potatoes, peppers and onions with extra-virgin olive oil just enough to coat vegetables in a thin layer, 2 to 3 tablespoons. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Place potatoes in the oven and roast 20 to 22 minutes, until potatoes are just tender and peppers and onions are crisp at edges. Toss mixture with tongs, turning the potatoes after 15 minutes. When the potatoes are cooked, transfer them to a serving dish and peel the foil off the cookie sheet and discard for super-quick clean up!

While potatoes cook, prepare chicken. Roll out a 2-foot piece of waxed paper or foil near the stove top. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat -- your pan must be very hot when the chicken is added. Pile the shredded cheese on the work surface created with the waxed paper or foil. Season your chicken breasts with black pepper but no salt; the cheese will add enough salt to the taste of the dish. Press the breasts firmly into the cheese. Coat both sides of breasts with as much cheese as possible. Add 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil to the skillet, 1 turn of the pan. Set breasts into the skillet and cook 7 minutes on each side, until cheese forms an even, golden casing around the tender chicken breasts.

While chicken cooks, combine chopped tomatoes with basil in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to your taste.

Drain off any excess oil from chicken as you remove it from the skillet. Top chicken with big spoonfuls of raw sauce and serve with potatoes, peppers and onions.

I found this recipe months ago, and it's now the first one that appears when you go to the Rachel Ray section of the Food Network site, so it must be pretty popular. This was the first time that I made it, and it is VERY good! If you want a great dinner, make this!

Here's my lovely food for your enjoyment (or jealousy):

And the before pictures of the tomatoes and potatoes:

Tomatoes-some farm in WA that I can't remember

Potatoes-somewhere in Canada? I bought them at Trader Joe's, and the tag said "Product of Canada"

This made way too much food for just me, so I have plenty of leftovers! I'll definitely make this again.

I'm probably just going to have a hearty salad tomorrow night--the high is supposed to be 95 degrees!

Day 2

Today I had scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast:

                                                                   

*Bread from Arlington, WA

*Eggs from Yelm, WA

My lunch was leftovers from last night-the pasta skillet recipe.

It is pretty warm in my apartment, and I really don't want to turn on the oven to make dinner :(  
Having an easy dinner is just fine with me.


Plain fat-free yogurt & Raisin Bran + bread:

I also snacked on some cherries! They were grown in Eastern Washington I think.

Day 2, check!

Day 1

So here it goes.

I went to a Mariners game, and it was pretty hard smelling the garlic fries people kept buying.....plus my family was eating popcorn and cookies that I couldn't partake in. So eating local can be a little tricky. But I did make myself dinner before the game, so at least I wasn't hungry.

My brunch (I slept in):

My dinner:

Here's a look at some of the local products I used:

Turkey/Beef Bow Tie Skillet

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 pound ground turkey breast 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil 3/4 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped green pepper 1 garlic clove, minced 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth 2 cups uncooked bow tie pasta

1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes 1 tablespoon vinegar 3/4 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt (optional) 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large skillet or Dutch oven, brown turkey in oil.
2.	Add celery, onion, green pepper and garlic; cook until vegetables are tender. Remove the turkey and vegetables with a slotted spoon and keep warm.
3.	Add broth to the pan; bring to a boil. Add pasta; cook for 10 minutes or until tender.
4.	Reduce heat; stir in the tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, chili powder, garlic salt if desired and turkey mixture. Simmer for 10 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com

Recipe courtesy of AllRecipes.com

I couldn't find ground turkey at PCC, so I used extra lean beef instead, and rigatoni instead of bow tie pasta. This recipe is really easy to make, and it tastes good!

Since this recipe makes 6 servings, I have leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day.  I have discovered so far in this project that it seems most reasonable to make your own pasta rather than buy $4-9 per lb fresh pasta at a local specialty store. If I had a real kitchen and more time, that would make sense. But if money isn't a problem for you, go ahead and visit Pasta & Co as much as you like!