I've really been digging the latest season of Tsh Oxenreider's podcast, The Simple Show. In this season, she takes a 'yes and no' approach to each show topic. Each week, Tsh and her guest summarize what they are saying yes and no to as relates to the topic at hand. It's an easy way to structure your thoughts on a topic, so I am going to start my own "Yes and No" series of my own. Sometimes I'll borrow topics from her show, sometimes I'll come up with my own (pretty sure I'll be doing several on pregnancy and parenting!).
For the first post in this series, I am going to borrow the topic from Episode 90 of The Simple Show: Eating Locally. Below I'll share what I say yes and no to as it pertains to eating and sourcing our food. But first - a disclaimer. Like many things (or really, nearly everything) in life, choices like how I eat and source our food is a "you do you" type of decision; there is no right or wrong answer. Sure there are some general guidelines, like drinking enough water and eating enough fruits and vegetables, etc. But beyond that, every person has to make their own choices. I'm far from perfect and I don't expect anyone to adopt or admire my approach to eating and sourcing food. This is just me sharing what works for me/us.
I/we say yes to:
- Not eating every meal together. Phil and I are busy people with full schedules (especially me!) so it's not possible to eat every meal together. Plus I am just not in the position to make dinner every night of the week. If I cooked every night, we would waste more food because we can't eat that much food in a week. Instead, I say yes to cooking 2-3 times during the week and we eat leftovers or simple meals on other nights of the week, like eggs and toast (for her) or cereal and yogurt (for him).
- Buying most of our meat from a local farmer. If you read a couple of books about the agriculture industry, it changes your view of meat that is sold in the grocery store. I had been searching for a better solution for awhile and then about a year ago I realized the meat seller at the farmer's market I frequent had a year-round meat-share program - kind of like a CSA for meat. We split a half-share with another friend because we are not huge meat eaters. Each month, we get a frozen organic chicken, a dozen eggs, 2 pounds of ground beef, and the 2-4 other things such as bacon, steaks, pork chops, brats, pork sausage, etc and we split it up each month. It's kind of fun to pick up the share each month and see what we we will be splitting!
- Packing my own lunch 4 out of 5 days of the week. I'm a creature of habit and don't mind eating the same thing day after day, so I will make something over the weekend, like a soup or stew, or I will prep all the toppings for a salad, and then that is what I will eat for lunch 4 days of the coming week. I do let myself buy my lunch one day of the week as a treat.
- Growing our own food and canning what we can't eat while it's still fresh. Luckily there is a community garden close by, otherwise we would not be able to have a garden since our yard is pretty small. Our growing season is limited in the Midwest, but I make the most out of the season and get over to my garden 1-3 times a week so I can pick what's fresh before it spoils. I've also gotten on board with canning and do not find it at all intimidating. I know it's not for everyone, but it's a great way to preserve food from your garden, or food you buy in bulk from a farmer's market. I'm sad that my tomato crop was disappointing this year as I was hoping to can some marinara. However, my tomatillos have produced like crazy so we'll can lots of salsa verde to use throughout the winter and gift to family and friends.
I/we say no to:
- Eating out often. In general, I would say we eat out for dinner about 3-4 times a month. It varies depending on what we have going on - some weeks we eat 2 meals out; some weeks we don't eat out at all. But in general, we view dining out as a 'treat'. That is how we were both raised so we are on the same page on this matter. In my parents' case, it wasn't exactly a choice to not eat out because there weren't really any restaurants in my tiny town (the population was 500 people). And it was far more economical for my mom to make dinner for our family of 7 than to take us all out to eat. Plus it taught us kids that eating out was something special and not something you do on a daily occurrence. We personally get sick of eating out very quickly so I don't view it as a sacrifice to eat out infrequently.
- Packing a lunch for Phil. He is a light eater since he's pretty much the same size as me, so it's inexpensive for him to eat out each day. He says on average he spend $6-7. There's no way I am going to pack his lunch (I know some people make lunches for their spouses but I don't have time/make time to and he wouldn't want me to even if I was willing) and he has not interested in packing a lunch so eating out every day works for him.
- Buying all organic produce. This is an area of opportunity for me. It's easier to buy organic during the farmer's market season as the organic produce looks great there. However, after the farmer's market season ends, I would have to rely on my local grocery store and some of the organic goods just are not appealing. I always buy organic lettuce but besides that there isn't anything that I consistently buy organic. My goal is to work towards buying organic for items on the dirty dozen list (12 produce items with the most pesticide contamination).
What do you say yes and no to when it comes to eating and sourcing your food?
Showing posts with label eating locally. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating locally. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Try This at Home Tuesday: Freeze Preserving Food
Earlier this summer, I shared my first experience with canning. I was pleased to find how easy it was to can, albeit a bit time-consuming. But I recognize that it's intimidating to a lot of people and not something they want to try. However, preserving foods by freezing them is very simple and not at all time consuming, so I thought I'd talk about some of the foods I've preserved by freezing them.
1. Green beans
I have picked soooo many green beans this summer. This was my latest haul that I picked last weekend, which is the last batch of beans I will pick.
There are only so many fresh green beans that 2 people can eat, so I've frozen quite a few - over a gallon in fact! Here's how you freeze green beans:
1. Wash the beans, trim the ends, and cut them into your desired size.
2. Blanch the beans. To blanch the beans, bring a pot of water to boil. When it reaches a rapid boil, add the beans to the water and boil for about 3 minutes. Remove beans from the water and put them into a bowl of ice water.
3. Put the beans in a freezer bag, being careful to get as much/all of the air out before sealing. I have been using quart-sized ziplock freezer bags.
These are the most time-consuming vegetable to preserve out of what I've preserved, but it will be worth it when we are able to enjoy garden-fresh green beans during the cold winter months!
2. Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a vegetable that is available in the store or farmer's market for quite awhile since it's a hearty vegetable that lasts for such a long time. So it's not something I'd go out of my way to preserve. That said, I recently cut up a butternut squash for a recipe that called for 2 cups of butternut squash. I knew I wasn't going to use the rest of the squash that week so I decided to preserve it. This method would work on any kind of squash.
1. Cut up the squash and put it on a baking sheet in a single layer (you don't want pieces of squash on top of each other).
2. Put the baking sheet in the freezer. (Tip: make sure the baking sheet fits in your freezer - I had to do some serious maneuvering to get mine to fit!!)
3. Once the squash pieces are frozen, remove and put in a freezer bag, being careful to get as much/all air before sealing.
3. Zucchini
Last, but not least, I have preserved quite a bit of shredded zucchini. Because of the high water content of zucchini, you can't just preserve large chunks of zucchini - it only works to shred it first for use in baked goods. Zucchini is one of those vegetables that I prefer to work with when it's available locally, because when it's not zucchini season, the zucchini in the grocery store are so tiny and sad-looking. Here's how I preserved zucchini for future baking;
1. Shred the zucchini in a food processor.
2. Squeeze the zucchini in a paper towel, cheese cloth, or dish towel to remove as much water as possible (I recommend a dish towel or cheese cloth).
3. Freeze in 1 cup servings. I put each cup in a sandwich-sized zip lock bag and then put 2 bags in a quarter freezer bag. You can get 2 sandwich bags to fit in a quart bag if you flatten out each sandwich bag of zucchini (which also makes storage much easier).
4. When you are ready to use the zucchini, thaw it out and squeeze out any excess water using a paper towel, cheese cloth or dish towel.
So there you have it! 3 vegetables that are very easy to preserve in your freezer. I know that in some parts of the country, it's not as important to freeze foods since you have easier access to locally-grown produce throughout the year. But for those of us who live in the north, preserving foods is an important step if you want to try to eat more locally!
Do you ever preserve foods in the freezer? I often freeze leftover soups and stews. This is the first year that I've preserved produce, and given how easy it is to do, I plan to do this each summer.
1. Green beans
I have picked soooo many green beans this summer. This was my latest haul that I picked last weekend, which is the last batch of beans I will pick.
 |
| Delicious green beans + some tomatoes |
There are only so many fresh green beans that 2 people can eat, so I've frozen quite a few - over a gallon in fact! Here's how you freeze green beans:
1. Wash the beans, trim the ends, and cut them into your desired size.
2. Blanch the beans. To blanch the beans, bring a pot of water to boil. When it reaches a rapid boil, add the beans to the water and boil for about 3 minutes. Remove beans from the water and put them into a bowl of ice water.
3. Put the beans in a freezer bag, being careful to get as much/all of the air out before sealing. I have been using quart-sized ziplock freezer bags.
These are the most time-consuming vegetable to preserve out of what I've preserved, but it will be worth it when we are able to enjoy garden-fresh green beans during the cold winter months!
2. Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a vegetable that is available in the store or farmer's market for quite awhile since it's a hearty vegetable that lasts for such a long time. So it's not something I'd go out of my way to preserve. That said, I recently cut up a butternut squash for a recipe that called for 2 cups of butternut squash. I knew I wasn't going to use the rest of the squash that week so I decided to preserve it. This method would work on any kind of squash.
1. Cut up the squash and put it on a baking sheet in a single layer (you don't want pieces of squash on top of each other).
2. Put the baking sheet in the freezer. (Tip: make sure the baking sheet fits in your freezer - I had to do some serious maneuvering to get mine to fit!!)
3. Once the squash pieces are frozen, remove and put in a freezer bag, being careful to get as much/all air before sealing.
3. Zucchini
Last, but not least, I have preserved quite a bit of shredded zucchini. Because of the high water content of zucchini, you can't just preserve large chunks of zucchini - it only works to shred it first for use in baked goods. Zucchini is one of those vegetables that I prefer to work with when it's available locally, because when it's not zucchini season, the zucchini in the grocery store are so tiny and sad-looking. Here's how I preserved zucchini for future baking;
1. Shred the zucchini in a food processor.
2. Squeeze the zucchini in a paper towel, cheese cloth, or dish towel to remove as much water as possible (I recommend a dish towel or cheese cloth).
3. Freeze in 1 cup servings. I put each cup in a sandwich-sized zip lock bag and then put 2 bags in a quarter freezer bag. You can get 2 sandwich bags to fit in a quart bag if you flatten out each sandwich bag of zucchini (which also makes storage much easier).
4. When you are ready to use the zucchini, thaw it out and squeeze out any excess water using a paper towel, cheese cloth or dish towel.
So there you have it! 3 vegetables that are very easy to preserve in your freezer. I know that in some parts of the country, it's not as important to freeze foods since you have easier access to locally-grown produce throughout the year. But for those of us who live in the north, preserving foods is an important step if you want to try to eat more locally!
Do you ever preserve foods in the freezer? I often freeze leftover soups and stews. This is the first year that I've preserved produce, and given how easy it is to do, I plan to do this each summer.
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