Day 7 - Superbowl

I did not spend any time cooking today, since I did so much prep work yesterday.
Breakfast was an egg fried in a little butter with cooked beet greens, lime and orange juice from partner Danielle, and some tea from partner Otto.
I took a huge plastic container of salad greens to the Quaker potluck, to be mixed with salad toppings brought by another diner. She usually brings a huge wooden bowl for the salad, but this time she brought two so the salad would be easier to serve. The salad included fresh avocado, garbanzo beans, red pepper, tomato, cheese and vinagrette dressing on the side. I brought the large pot of vegan vegetable soup. We also enjoyed moussaka, lime bars, corn chips, veggie chips, hummus, rice salad and lemonade.
Dinner was light, just some leftover vegetable soup with additional turkey from partner Cindy, steamed peas, broccoli and rice with a dab of butter, and pomegranate seeds from partner Alex.
I had an evening snack of roasted garden squash seeds, dried apple slices from partner Colin, and an almond cookie from partner Lisa.
And the Super Bowl TV commercial winner is: Audi!!!! I just loved and was scared by the green police, especially the helicopter bust of the guy throwing away those orange peels.
I did not purchase any food on Day 7, so I will have $1.69 available for day 8.

Day 2 - Berries for breakfast

I did a fair amount of cooking early this morning, waiting to see if we would have additional weeks of winter. (The sun finally did come out.) I cooked (and tasted) some basmati rice medley from partner Matthew in some vegetable broth I made from yesterday's scraps. Then I pressure-cooked some wheat berries from partner Nichole that I had soaked the night before. I haven't cooked wheat berries in awhile, and these were much better than the bland and watery concoction I had tried right after I went macrobiotic. Maybe I am just more used to bland food, or just really hungry after yesterday's light eating.
I thought the berries needed a hint more sweetness, so I put a dab of honey from partner Alex on top. I also enjoyed a mix of tangerine, lime and aloe juice. The aloe comes from my own garden. I finished breakfast off with a dish of greens, seasoned with a dash of olive brine, with a mug of tea from partner Otto.

Our last Official Potluck for the year

Now we are into full-scale winter hibernation. There are no more official locavore potlucks for the rest of the year, AND the farmers' market is closing. I stopped by the community garden and almost no one else was there. The majority of gardeners aren't really into winter crops, so they don't come as often.
There is no better way to celebrate a hibernation than to make a big pot of soup. This morning I cooked up a pot of turkey, rice and vegetable broth. To the mix I added my last carrot, a good bit of celery, a leek, more string beans, fennel, broccoli, peppers, chard, kale, Cinderella pumpkin, baby butternut squash, dried and frozen zucchini, dried peas and some dried herbs.

October exceptions

This month's selections: Rice, cinnamon and something else. Not sure yet. Not sure I care anymore. Now that the dry beans are harvested I am perfectly fine with a wide variety of vegetarian foods for now. Perhaps I will choose milk. I can find local milk, but I miss aged cheeses. I fear that if I pick it as my main protein option, cheese is all I will eat all day long. Any suggestions?

June Exceptions

A new month!, and already so far into it. I guess I am starting to behave like some others on this challenge. I am not eating or craving the exceptions as much. As the summer garden produce upticks, I find that I am going for plates of fresh-picked stuff instead of the usual staples. This month I will continue with rice and sesame, but add wheat and nix the fish. In the summer, I minimize cooking in the kitchen, so quick-cooking pasta dinners work. I probably won't fire up the oven until some of the winter squash comes in.

May Exceptions

I've had a hankering for my soul food, macrobiotic food. I chose fish as my animal protein selection for the month, along with rice. I didn't use my third selection until yesterday, because I couldn't decide whether to select soy or sesame. After cooking a pot of rice, I decided that sesame would win for the month. (OK, and I also couldn't find the wheat-free tamari on a back shelf somewhere.) Now I have a stylish glass container of gomasio on my kitchen counter, along with the beet chips, which substitute for nori seaweed, and the rice seems more down-home now.
I make my gomasio with a real mortar and pestle after toasting the seeds on an electric stove. Of course, if I were a true macrobiotic locavore I would toast the seeds on a shovel stuck into my hearth. Oh, well, too much of a fire hazard lately, and my shovel is still sitting in the back of the turnip truck, covered with chicken manure.
A gardener friend grew sesame, but decided it wasn't worth it due to the long season and low yield for the amount of space it took. It sure did like our hot hot summers. I might try it next year, but this year I am gardening as if it really matters and I have less space for experimentation.