Local Eating Challenge: Week 4

Sorry it took awhile for me to post this week.  It is finals week full of tests and final projects, but as of 12pm today, I was *done*.  Until next quarter, of course! I've got a backlog of things to show you...especially my new herb garden area!

Review of Week 3
Nothing really earth-shattering happened.  I made a meal plan, we mostly followed it.  It was delicious.  I felt like I was really in the hang of it.

Lessons Learned
I really miss chicken.  For the markets nearest to me, only the Annandale market has chicken...and it's only available in half-chickens.  No boneless thighs (which we eat a lot of), just half chickens that are like $10 each...so, expensive.

I'm also starting to miss canned tomatoes and celery which seem to be in all of my favorite fall comfort foods.  For the time I'm either avoiding those recipes or just leaving that ingredient out.  Needless to say, I've already penciled in a large batch of slow-cooked, local-meat-but-canned-tomatoes bolognese sauce on Nov. 1st.

Week 4

I did amazingly well with budget this week. From the grocery, I got $28 worth of products.  From the farmer's market, I only spend $45 and got: 1 bunch turnips, 1 bunch kale, 1 bunch lettuce, 3 onions, several potatoes, several very large handfuls of green beans, 5 roma tomatoes, 1 bunch scallions, parsley, 2 bunches carrots, 2 zucchini, 1.5 lb broccoli, about 1 lb of Italian sausage and 2 lb ground beef.  Total for the week is $73 which is well under budget.

See the baby feet in the picture?!?

Here's the meal plan for the week:

Friday: was leftovers

Saturday, Monday: Cream of Broccoli Soup with crostini (onion & broccoli and maybe some sage from my garden for the crostini)

Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Meatloaf with Root Potato Mash and Green beans (onions, carrots, pototoes, turnip roots, and green beans)

My lunch: An oxymoron- Vegetarian Cassoulet (carrots, scallions, parsley, tomatoes, zucchini)

Husband's lunch: Sausage and Kale Pasta (sausage, kale and onions)

Weekend lunch: Falafels (tomato, lettuce)

Breakfast: Steel cut oats topped with pomegranate kefir