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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Locavore

As I mentioned in my previous post, my husband has gone totally vegetarian.  I'm not quite there yet, but I'm darn close, usually only eating meat once a week, and at this point it's only at a restaurant or at my parents' house. 

One area where I have pretty much committed is eating local as much as possible.  Yup, I'm a locavore.

Here's this past weekend's farmer's market haul:


I wound up roasting a lot of those veggies for dinner on Tuesday and served them with some gnocchi.  There were basically no leftovers.  I think I need to make more time for those kinds of meals, because they are easy to prepare (I was able to quickly clean and chop up the veggies while Amelia amused herself in her high chair), and they are actually quite inexpensive. 

That's the neat thing about shopping at the farmer's market:  When you're buying produce, it's often both fresher and cheaper than the grocery store stuff, and quite frequently it's organically grown as well. 

The budget busters at the farmers market tend to be the pre-made foods.  $6 for jam, $4 for black bean hummus... I could certainly get those things cheaper at the grocery store, but the truth is that the local stuff truly tastes better.  Those are our splurges, which we justify because overall we're still saving money.  And when I get the chance, I make my own hummus, which is even cheaper than buying it at the grocery store.

Have you seen the USDA Food Plan charts?  They're updated monthly.  For June, the "thrifty plan" for 2 adults aged 19-50 is $378.90/month.  I'm pretty sure we did go over that a bit this month, but most of the time our food budget is in the $350-ish range.  That includes non-food groceries and my extra 500 calories a day.  As long as you don't live in a food desert, it's definitely possible to eat well on a budget.  And for the record, we found ourselves relying on convenience foods more than usual this month, in part because I went back to work full-time and was working off-site a bunch.  We went over budget by something like $100.  Time to start menu planning!

So, which plan do you fall under on the USDA charts?  Is it just me or do those numbers seem kind of high?  Or do I just have our farmers market and mostly cooking from scratch to thank for our comparatively low budget? 


And here's some fun stuff that's been going on with Amelia lately:


Not even 6 months old and the kid can already stand while supporting herself on furniture!  Time to start baby-proofing??


Elvis was kind of wary of this new little person at first, but yesterday he jumped up on our bed and laid down next to her.  He was letting her hold his paws and touch his face, and it was adorable.

Here's a picture Glen took of the two of them:


Amelia's face in that picture is pretty much the greatest thing I've ever seen!  

5 comments:

  1. Those two are so cute -- Elvis looks like he's taken to that brother thing very well!

    I am eating a lot of veggies over pasta. I just cut lots of them up, toss them in a baking dish, add wine, EVOO and any other sorta spare liquid/broth on hand. I can bake that at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour while I get other stuff done. It's fresh and easy.

    I miss the farm stand that used to be two blocks away. I could get local produce any day except Tuesday.

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  2. I've been a mostly vegetarian (only out at restaurants and the occasional frozen chicken nuggets at home) for years. I think we need a new name for these kinds of vegetarians...a social meat-eater? I dunno.

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  3. Sounds like you all are doing great with your meals. Your roasted veggies sound delicious. Amelia and Elvis are so adorable together.

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  4. I think you're lucky with your farmer's market hauls. We only have one farmer's market near my work- it's only on Wednesdays (when we're working) and only until October. And only vegetables. In the summer, we can get local seafood, but that's about it. No local meats/milk/etc. From October to June, it's all grocery stores. I would say we probably spend about $400 a month on food, including the lunches or dinners we might buy elsewhere.

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  5. Hope you and your sweet family had a wonderful Christmas and that this New Year brings you an abundance of Gods blessings!! Hope you will post some updated pictures soon. Would love to see how Amelia is growing!

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