If I had my way, I'd live out on a farm somewhere in Western Washington. I'd have dirty fingernails most of the time, wind-weathered skin and insightful relationships with a dairy cow named Myrtle and a handful on bantam hens. As it is, I'm sitting at my kitchen table in a Seattle suburb listening to my daughter sing Lady Gaga and noticing that my newly painted nails have already chipped. Alas...my next life will be filled with the smell of manure.
As I continue to move forward with changing my family's eating lifestyle and while we're still very much tightening the boot straps, I'm finding solid ways to keep the good food coming (it's really easy to reach for Spaghettios that are .79 cents a can when you're counting pennies). And today was quite exciting as we picked up our first box of weekly organic fruits & veggies from various West Coast farms*. Rainey (10 years) and I drove two miles up the road to a house and there, on the front porch, was MY BOX OF PRODUCE. So really pulling up the driveway and loading a cardboard box of fruits and vegetables into the back of my Honda CRV is pretty much like living on a farm. I did get that "awesome mom" feeling when Rainey excitedly tore open the box and grabbed an apple to eat in the car. The excitement built as we got back home and started digging through the box to see what goodies we had; celery, red onions, apples, pears, beets, oranges, avocados, zucchini, green beans, kale, green leaf lettuce AND 4 kiwi. It's nice to be close enough to California to reap the benefits of their sunny climate. Lots of Washington farms included too. And I can't really explain why the green beans are from Mexico. Really happy with the quality and imperfections of organic produce. So, now my week (until next Tuesday's delivery) will be spent using these foods to create delicious (hopefully) and healthy (definitely) meals for my people. Happy to report that, as I write, Rainey is chomping away at some kale chips I threw in the oven. So tonight, we will be eating the zucchini sauteed with the red onions, some left over red potatoes and a pork loin we've had in the freezer. I promised a little fruit salad for dessert with the kiwi, oranges & apples. Need to pace myself to stretch this all out, but I like this challenge. I have a set budget for meats and grains each week, so it will really be a matter of cutting out the little extras (cookies, wine, etc - it hurts a little). I will let you know if Brad needs to move in with one of you to enjoy a Moon Pie & beer by the end of the week. Until then, I'm going outside to rub some dirt on my face and plan the week's menus.
*We're using Full Circle to get these organic, local veggies & fruits. http://www.fullcircle.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment