Food - It's what's for dinner

It's also what's for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  I'm kind of enthusiastic about eating well.  I like putting good stuff into our bodies, and I try to do it in a way that has the least amount of impact on the planet.  In this post, I want to describe what we eat.

In General...
We buy almost all of our food at our local co-op.  Most of it is certified organic, and we try to eat in season and as locally as possible.  We spend about $300 a month total on food and household items for both of us.  Usually we spend less.  This is about $5 a day per person.  We eat out about six times a year, so we really do not spend much more than this.  I try to buy every bulk item that I can to reduce the amount packaging used to get our food to us.  Bulk is also almost always a cheaper route monetarily, which is a nice bonus.  For example, to avoid canned food, I buy bulk dried beans and make batches of beans in my crockpot when I need them.  Extras can be frozen for later.  I also try to make my own foods (like yogurt) to avoid packaging.

Breakfast
We don't always have a lot of time in the morning, so it is generally cereal or oatmeal with milk.  We buy oats in bulk.  We always eat a banana at breakfast.  I make enough oatmeal on Saturday to reheat a few days during the week.  It is easy to make oatmeal exciting by adding one or more of these ingredients: frozen or fresh berries, bananas, peanut or other nut butter, spiced apples, applesauce, raisins, cinnamon, sliced fruit, maple syrup, nuts, etc.  The cold cereal is an off-brand cheerios that is not organic and comes in a large plastic bag.  I'm not thrilled with this.  I'm working on alternatives.  I'm thinking about breakfast bars or a quick bread, perhaps.

Lunch
Each week I bake either bagels or bread from scratch.  I bake enough for two weeks, so I freeze something each week.  From these, we generally eat peanut butter (ground in the bulk section) and jelly (homemade freezer jam) on bread or cream cheese and sprouts on a bagel.  I'm working on getting us to use yogurt cheese instead of cream cheese since it will be cheaper and will keep us from bringing plastic containers in the house since I make my own yogurt.  Sometimes we eat leftovers from dinner at lunch.  Additionally, we always have a fruit and vegetable (usually cut up carrot sticks).  The fruit depends on the season.  Finally, yogurt and granola or a bit of cottage cheese is often also on the menu.  I want to eventually make my own cottage cheese, too.

Dinner
Our plate at dinner is generally half to two-thirds covered in fruits and vegetables.  The fruit again depends on the season.  We have salad every day with mostly lettuce during the summer and mostly kale during the winter.  Brocolli is a favorite side vegetable of ours, but other veggies make appearances.  We eat only about one pound of meat each month between the two of us, so our meals are mostly vegetarian.  We menu plan each month, so here's a list of some of the things we've eaten in the last two to three months:

• Homemade pizza
• Potato cheddar soup
• Taco lasagna  (made with beans, corn tortillas, etc.)
• Quinoa with sweet potatoes and mushrooms
• Black bean and rice enchiladas
• Stir fry (with tofu)
• Tofu stroganoff
• Chicken pot pie
• Homemade macaroni and cheese (with brocolli added in)
• Fettucine alfredo (homemade sauce, with brocolli added in)
• Black bean vegetable burgers
• Spaghetti with tofu balls
• Crockpot chili
• Vegetarian lasagna

Snacks
We both munch throughout the day to keep our energy up.  I bake granola bars, crackers, and a quick bread (like banana bread) from scratch each week.  I also make granola in the crockpot, and we eat this with milk or homemade yogurt.  I like frozen berries on top.  We froze a bunch of berries last summer.  Sometimes leftover bagels or portions of dinners make it into the freezer, and these are available for snacking.  I also bake a big batch of English muffins once every few months, and we eat these occasionally as snacks.

Desserts
On baking day, I generally make a batch of cookies, so we eat a few homemade cookies just about every day.  I cut down the butter and sugar in my recipe, and I added more flour and oats.

What we aim for...
We try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.  We try mostly use whole grain flour, and we eat a lot of oats.  We try not to overload with wheat but rather eat other grains and legumes.  I make recipes healthier by cutting down on excess oils and sugars.  I generally use butter in cookies, but most other recipes I substitute in  vegetable oil for butter.  If we dislike a recipe, we avoid it because there are so many that we like!  By making so much of our own food, I have a sense of appreciation for my food that I didn't have before.  I enjoy my food.  In the future, I really would like to grow a lot of my own produce.  I want to can, freeze, dry and store food to eat throughout the winter.  I'd also like to make more of my own dairy products directly from milk.  I'm excited to try some new things and see where things go!