Local Eating Challenge: Week 1

I was rained out of the Annandale market yesterday, so I decided to try out the McLean one today.  The McLean farmer's market is much smaller than Annandale (and much MUCH smaller than Falls Church) but there was one seller that literally had everything I needed.  And, everything looked GORGEOUS...several types of squash, eggplant, radishes (including a pink daikon!), greens, peppers, onions, beans...really anything you'd want.  I ended up getting everything, save 2 pie pumpkins that I'm going to bake, puree & freeze the contents for pies later, from him.

For $29 I got: 3 very yellow summer squash, 8 baby eggplants, 1 green pepper, 2 bunches of kohlrabi, 3 onions, 3 heads of garlic, 2.5 lbs of sweet potatos, a bunch of carrots, basil, 1 head of romaine and 2 pie pumpkins.  I bought a butternut squash from VA at Whole Foods yesterday when I went grocery shopping because I was panicked that we'd be rained out today & not have anything for dinner on the first night of the challenge!  Tomorrow my husband is headed for the Falls Church market to see if he can score another big box of tomatoes and pick up some bacon and maybe chicken.

The only thing that's got me sweating a bit is that I usually have several pantry meals on hand.  This challenge doesn't quite work with some of my old standbys: Indian simmer sauce/chickpeas/frozen cauliflower over rice, paprika chicken roasted with canned tomatoes & frozen spinach and pasta with red sauce.  So, I'm going to get some local bacon to keep in the fridge.  We always have Parmesan cheese and eggs (local if the vendors don't run out...which they usually do because it's hard for me to get there as soon as they open), so Pasta Carbonara is just minutes away on a night when either we don't have time to cook or ate through our meals faster than usual.

Here's our meal plan for the week, pending what my husband picks up at the farmer's market.  Generally, we cook big batches of things & eat leftovers to save time.

My lunch: Vegetable stir-fry with tofu (I'll use the summer squash, peppers, eggplant & the bulbs of the kohlrabi) over jasmine rice

Breakfast: Oatmeal with apples and cinnamon or toast with peanut butter & sliced apples

The husband's lunch: Pasta with raw tomato sauce (tomatoes we'll be getting, basil, garlic)

Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Butternut squash & greens risotto (using butternut squash, onion and the greens of the kohlrabi)/Romaine with marinated apples dressing (lettuce and apples that we picked last weekend)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Tomato & peanut soup (tomatoes we'll be getting, carrots & sweet potatoes) with bread (I may make America's Test Kitchen's quick Irish soda bread)

Snacks: apples (from U-pick last weekend) and asian pears (from last week's farmer's market)