May Local Eating Challenge: Recap

The Last Few Days
The last bit of my Local Eating Challenge left me with these thoughts: "Just a few more days to go!  I'm craving tomatoes so badly.  And watermelon."

I didn't buy much at the farmer's market because I went to the McLean one which is smaller and I went without a very coherent plan for the week.  I just needed to make it to Wednesday.  I spent $46 at the grocery store and $35 at the farmer's market (asparagus, 2 bunches of onions, a few cucumbers, ground lamb, 4 zucchini, 1 bunch radishes).  We also went strawberry picking so we're all set on fruit.

Plan for the rest of the challenge:

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday, Tuesday: Burgers with grilled vegetables (lamb or beef, lettuce from the garden, asparagus, zucchini)

Monday: Neighborhood BBQ

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Black bean tacos (lettuce, onion, radishes)

My lunch: Quinoa & black bean salad (onions, radishes, cucumbers, parsley from the garden)

Husband's lunch: Pasta carbonara (leftover bacon from last week...don't worry...it was put in the freezer)

Recap
Where the last Local Eating Challenge left me feeling encouraged & uplifted, this one left me exhausted and frustrated.  Part of it certainly was the less interesting, IMO, produce for much of the challenge.  Greens of all sorts are indeed delicious, but one can only endure so many stir-fries, pestos, salads, braises and soups.  Add to the fact that greens take a lot of time to clean and prep as well as are relatively expensive (several bunches cook down to nothing) and aren't terribly filling left me constantly annoyed that I couldn't buy things already washed & prepared.  Another part of the picture, of course, is that I'm working 3 jobs and have less free time to search for recipes and cook.

I'll certainly stick with the next challenge month (August), but if I wasn't blogging about this experience, I would have bailed after the first week.