Love Local

This month was a pretty easy one.  I almost wish I had made it harder and only ate local food but then I thought back to January and am glad I didn't :)  As long as I made it to the farmer's market every week, we had a bountiful supply of great food to eat.  My grocery budget was definitely higher this month but it was because I bought a fancy chicken, fancy shrimp, prepared Indian food, and lots of gluten free cookies.  I plan to continue shopping at the farmer's market every Saturday we are in town because you can't beat the fresh produce.  I will also continue to buy most of our fruits and veggies organic as they are also easy to find at our HEB just down the road.  We are blessed to live in Austin, TX where local "stuff" is plentiful!

I don't have any pictures to post this time so you get a picture of my kids at a local park (Zilker) getting ready to ride the Zilker Zephyr :)

 

See you next month for some utility savings!

Jester King Brewery

 Some friends and I toured Jester King Brewery this weekend.  It's a local brewery Southwest of Austin and they have some unique beers.  We had such a good time tasting and hanging out that we skipped the tour.

 Us girls :)

 Cheers!

 The brewery.

Dennis was sick and couldn't go so we plan to do some more local brewery tours soon!

Pesto and Juice

Things are going well.  I think I made this month too easy by being able to eat local or organic food but I'm not going to complain.  I am really enjoying the Farmer's Market and know how to get in and out with what I need pretty quick.  I got a giant bunch of basil for $2 this week and made some homemade pesto.

And I used it as the sauce on our gluten free pizza crust.  So good!!

Another way we've been enjoying local veggies is by juicing them.  We got our juicer a couple weeks ago and have fallen in love with green juice.  I usually put cucumber, celery, green apples, kale, romaine lettuce, and half a lemon. It does take time each morning but it is totally worth it. 

Green yumminess!

Local Stuff

We found some more great local food to eat this week!
  At the farmer's market, I bought some prepared Indian food that I plan to serve over organic brown rice.  And I got some spinach feta cheese spread that is soooooo yummy on veggies, chips, etc.

 When I eat these tortilla chips from Forth Worth, I feel like I am at a restaurant.

At Whole Foods they were giving samples of this vegan queso and we were sold.  Most vegan cheese is processed soy and, frankly, tastes like crap.  This "queso" is delicious, made in Round Rock, and contains: water, chopped green chili peppers, tomatoes, nutritional yeast, unbleached flour, salt, distilled vinegar, mustard seed, citric acid, calcium chloride and spice. It will go nicely with our chips from Fort Worth.

Who knew that artichokes bloom this amazing purple?  Got this for a buck at the farmer's market...I thought it would be a nice Mother's Day gift to myself :)

The Good, The Bad, and the Yummy

My favorite food we purchased from the Farmer's Market last weekend is the spinach.  I have sauteed it with garlic, put it in smoothies, salads, and stuffed portabella mushrooms.  It is much heartier and fresh tasting than the stuff I usually get at HEB.
The stuffed mushrooms turned out sooooo yummy!  For the stuffing, I sauteed garlic, onion, tomato and spinach and tossed it with fresh basil from our garden :)  Then I combined some local breadcrumbs with some organic cheddar cheese.  After cooking the mushrooms by themselves a while, I added the stuffing and topped it with the breadcrumb/cheese mixture and broiled it for a bit. 

 

The chicken is another story.  I knew how to fix it up because I watch my Aunt Beth and my Dad prepare the turkey every Thanksgiving.  I stuffed it with rosemary, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and garlic.  It tasted fabulous!  BUT  I had  an extremely hard time handling and cooking it myself.  Even though it was a pasture raised heirloom chicken I still couldn't get over it.  The whole chicken looks so chicken-like.  This experience reminded me of one of the reasons I was vegan and vegetarian in the past.  So, besides the shrimp I already bought, there will be no more meat for us.  At least we will save money the rest of the month because this fancy little chicken wasn't cheap.

Since we tried some local wine last week, we decided to try some wine that is organic, ethically produced, and fairly traded.  It is Stellar Organics Shiraz from South Africa.  It was about $10, because that's as much as I am willing to spend on a bottle of wine, and it was good.  My definition of good may be different from  yours but regardless, I felt good drinking it :)

Farmer's Market

We ventured to our local farmer's market this morning, got lots of goodies and spent a ton of money!  I usually decide what I am cooking for dinner each night of the week in advance and shop accordingly. This week I didn't know what would be available, so I reversed it and bought what looked good and then came up with our menu.  Here is what we will be eating this week:

Steamed Artichokes and Cumin Cheese
Asparagus Frittata
Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
Whole Chicken with Sauteed Spinach
Shrimp with Zucchini and Squash
Homemade Pizza with Gluten-Free Crust

May Already!?!

May is eat local/organic month!  We were out of town last weekend and didn't get to visit the farmer's market so we will start this Saturday.   I would like to only eat things that are local AND organic but will settle for local or organic, if necessary.  Our local grocery store has a pretty good organic selection but I will venture to Whole Foods at least a few times this month.  I am most excited about exploring our local farmer's market and hopefully checking out a local brewery.
When we were out of town last weekend we got a jump start on this month.  Driftwood Winery is near Wimberly where we were staying so we enjoyed some cheese, local wine, and a beautiful view. Sorry I only have a picture of my husband's ugly feet and my finger toes.