Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Eat Local Day #2

Day 2 of the Eat Local challenge-
Here's what I've eaten so far:

Breakfast
Garden tomato sandwich on 3rd Street Bakery bread (Duluth, MN) with homemade mustard and non-local Veganaise
Garden green beans simmered with non-local garlic and onion

Lunch
Shredded vegetable salad (about 60% local)
Shanghai dumplings (not local at all)

Blackberry biscuit....
Let me tell you about this one.  Last night I wanted something a little sweet and a lot local.  So I mixed up my usual biscuit dough using locally grown flour.  Then I patted it out into a rectangle and smashed garden blackberries into the top and sprinkled it with sugar.  I baked it just a little longer than usual biscuits and then sliced it into squares with a pizza cutter.  I highly recommend this covered with ice cream, but it was also good cold as a snack!

Dinner
I just picked up some lettuce and ears of corn from the co-op, so I might use those for dinner.  Still not sure.  I didn't get very far with planning my meals this week.  Need to practice what I taught at the local challenge class tonight and plan my meals!

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On a different note, but related to eating locally...

It's time to update you snobbery readers a bit.  A few months ago I started eating a bit of local, organic cheese.  I'd say my diet is still about 95% vegan, but I want to be totally transparent with you folks.  You see, I'm not ethically opposed to dairy on principle, but know I need to avoid it because I have fibrocystic boobs (too much information?!?!) and allergies.  My diet has shifted away from lots of really processed foods and I found myself preferring the thought of simple locally made dairy cheeses to various industrially-made non-local soy cheeses.  So I'm giving a little dairy a try.  I understand if you don't agree and that's okay.

One thing I'd like to try soon is to make my own cheese.  I figure that I need to fully understand and participate in the making of my food- whether it's growing my veggies or baking my bread or making cheese.  So I'll let you know if I do that.  But otherwise, I don't think the content of this blog will change much.  Just wanted you to know since this blog is all about the food I eat!

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Yesterday's post was my 500th one!  Woo hoo!

8 comments:

Catherine Weber said...

Liz, I support you in your reintroduction of small amounts of dairy. Do what's best for you!

(P.S. I'm all for local and minimally-processed being more important. That's why we switched from margarine to Hope butter at our house, among other things. When are we going to get a local tofu manufacturer, anyway??) :)

The Kuntrageous Vegan said...

Liz: I appreciate your honesty. This is something I have been considering lately as well. Fake cheeses are really processed; so I've stopped entertaining even purchasing them and just make cheeses out of nuts...which i'm certain aren't local; but at least they're not processed.
Those biscuits sound awesome.

Mrs B said...

Liz,
Can you post some resources about cutting dairy for fibrocystic mammaries? I have the same problem, but don't have any info about nutritional therapy. I typically start my day with a large glass of Cedar Summit whole milk & Yeti cold press concentrate. If this is exacerbating the issue, I'd like to learn more.

Jessica said...

Congrats on your 500th post! I'm enjoying reading your local challenge. Even when you're not all local, it's good to think about what is local and where the rest of your food is coming from.

I'm a long-time vegetarian and new vegan, but I'm not sold on vegan cheeses. I don't care for the taste, much less the processing. I did want to get away from mainstream dairy, though, and I'm feeling great about my decision so far. If you make your own cheese, I'd love to read about it.

Stacy said...

This article really changed how I felt about eating cheese:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/12/is-cheese-vegetarian.html

You might find it interesting.

Anonymous said...

you totally should try making your own cheese. I recommend starting with mozzarella because it's freaking easy and takes 30 minutes. That's about as instant of a cheese gratification as you can get. :D

Pearl said...

wow 500 posts. congrats!

I veered from cheese, not for ethics but not sure how the body really likes eating it. I'm back nibbling. ice cream: it's the gateway dairy.

those berry biscuits sound good.

Anonymous said...

I really love your blog, and I'm a little disappointed that you're eating cheese again. When its something that is so easy to stay away from, whether real or soy replacement, I don't entirely understand why you would go back. Particularly since you have a medical reason to stay away.

That said, I do hugely appreciate your honesty, and though I won't read your blog if you begin to introduce dairy into your posts, I have enjoyed reading while you were vegan.