Times, they are changing....

If you are wondering why we have been so quiet lately, well, we have been working on our redesigned logo, toured the Midwest to bring you new, exciting products made right here in the agricultural belt of the US and were busy setting up our new website, updating over 30 seasonal recipes that are easy to prepare and very yummy. So please excuse our lack of communication over the past months. We are now back in full force, although we have migrated to our new blog on our updated website www.scrumptiouspantry.com

We would be happy to see you there!!

Best
Lee

PS. To receive convenient updates on our blog, new recipes etc. you can either follow us on Twitter (ScrumptPantry) or on Facebook!

I am an urban farmer now (well, almost)

Although I am far from being militant, I do feel that our society is fighting a battle on the nutritional front, so I love the idea of reviving Victory Gardens and bringing vegetable gardens into city neighborhoods. The Peterson Garden Project is a Chicago community garden on the site of a WW2 Victory Garden, and it is opening its grounds to 140 happy gardeners the beginning of June.

I have been happy as a clam since I secured my plot a couple of weeks ago and started a crash course in vegetable gardening in Chicago’s climate & growing conditions– the corner of Peterson & Western is not really the ideal spot to be growing grapes. Plus, I would like to see (eat!) the fruit of my labor sooner than in 20+ years.

Lucky me I know Vera. She is an amazingly talented Michigan Farmer who not only grows the most beautiful veggies on Videnovich Farms, but also hand spins her sheeps’ wool & dyes the yarn with natural colors using flowers she grows herself! And although she has a ton going on at her farm right now, she was patient enough to point me in the right direction regarding veggies to grow and to introduce me to the method of Square Foot Gardening. Totally fascinating concept. I cannot wait to get digging, thus you can imagine my joy when my seed orders arrived in the mail today.

As I believe in the Slow Food saying “Eat it to save it” I was determined to order as many rare heirloom varieties I could get my hands on (well, and that I could reasonably grow in 24square feet and a short growing season). My point of reference was the Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit focused on preserving our rich agricultural heritage. Members have access to a catalog of more than 25,000 seed varieties… 25,000! I was like a kid in a candy store. Click, click, clickclick: one packet of seeds after the other ended up in my shopping cart. Starting with kale, spinach and chard, I also got some herbs – I found Genovese basil with them, which is THE variety for pesto, so that is exciting. Although I am not a great lettuce eater or lover of radishes, I bought some seeds for those, too, cause I figure I need to make the most of my plot and they grow pretty fast. After all, I should be eating the way the land feeds me, right? So I guess I better start liking salads…

Not all seeds available at the Seed Savers Exchange were available as certified organic varieties, which is what I had set my mind on, so I went to for carrots, turnips and some yellow beets with California based Seeds of Change. They complement each other splendidly! I spent a lot of time today studying my seed packets, storing them in the fridge, going back to look at them, storing them, glancing at the pictures one more time… you get the idea.

Two more weeks in which the beds of the garden will be prepared and then those seeds will be gingerly placed in the soil and do their part of bringing the Peterson Garden to life!

Further reference:

Peterson Garden Project
Videnovich Farms
Seed Saver Exchange
Seeds of Change

Day 59 - Value Eating on 05/11/2010

Today was one of my hungry days. I started the day with a happy sunny side up (.33) with a sprinkle of Roberta’s Roasting & Grilling salt (.05) on a slice of home baked chive potato bread (.25). Very yummy.

Lunch was two slices of bread (.5) with a serving of …. Chili! Still some left. Luckily I like it a lot, cause I will be eating it another couple of days. That is the challenge you face when buying your meat with small farmers at the farmer’s market: it comes frozen, so once you unfreeze it you have to eat it. If it were fresh, leftovers could be frozen, but as I am frozen meat to cook with, re-freezing is a no go. Maybe I should just invite a bunch of people over to share a meal and a good laugh!? One serving of the chili is actually 1.59$, there is just much more in that pot than five servings only! 2.06$ for lunch. An espresso followed in the afternoon for .4$

For dinner I started out with some cheese nibbles from artisan cheeses I had bought in Wisconsin (.6) with a biodynamic pear from Argentina (yep, forgive me, but no real seasonal fruit yet! .7). After a couple of hours I was a bit hungry again and followed Michael Pollan’s brilliant food rule: all junk food is ok if cooked from scratch at home: an organic potato (.3) sliced thinly and pan fried in some good Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Cosimo and a pinch of Roberta’s Roasting & Grilling Salt (.45) were just what I wanted, together with a cup of organic Castle Rock milk (.4)

Total Food Cost for Today: 6.42$

Day 58 - Value Eating on 05/10/2010

So, brunch today was a leftover frittata, using some of Carlo’s delicious pasta, two happy eggs and a teaspoon of Roberta’s Sun-dried Tomato Spread – all whipped together and briefly cooked in a frying pan (when making fritatta, just make sure to let it rise slowly over low heat. Do not stir. You do not scrambled egg – it only get’s hard that way and looses its taste!). 1.46$

For late lunch I finished off one more serving of my chili & rice: 2.09$ and enjoyed a cup of herbal tea (.15$).

For dinner, I munched on the second leftover bunch of celery sticks and a small multigrain roll from Cook au Vin (1$). At this point my fridge is almost empty (two more beets to go!!!) and ready for the start of the Farmer’s market season 2010! Whoaa!

Total Food Cost for Today: 4.7$

Day 57 - Value Eating on 05/09/2010

Bfash was an organic grapefruit – two more oranges to go and my citrus is cleaned out – horrah for strawberries!! (0.9$) and green tea (0.15$), lunch was chili & rice (3$) and dinner was a pretzel roll w. cheese (0.80$) and an organic beet (two more to go, 0.5$) and some shopped up organic celery stems (0.8$).
At this point my fridge is almost empty and I have started to tackle my freezer as well. I actually feel as if I have accomplished something!

The Farmer’s Market season has started in Chicagoland, and I am very excited! Looking forward to Tuesdays – will be my first market visit of the season, as I skipped yesterda’s Saturday market kick off in Evanston. I just hope that the recent drop in temperature will not affect Midwest farmers to much. No, that was put wrong: it has already affected farmer’s in the Midwest, especially fruit growers in Michigan have suffered losses already – a warm April and frost in May is not a good combination. So let’s hope that this bumpy start into the 2010 growing season has exhausted what nature has in store for farmer’s this year – for an abundant crop for everyone to enjoy!

Total Food Cost for Today: 6.15$

Day 56 - Value Eating on 05/08/2010

I woke up today and was not feeling too great. The hectic pace of the last weeks was getting to me, as did the temperature change… not good to be cold when on a bike! So I assigned myself to my bed and some hearty food that was to warm me from the inside, too. I strongly believe in the ying & yang concept of foods. And I totally and absolutely am a cold person needing hot food. So I prepared a huge pot of chilli to munch on over the weekend (and days to come) and cooked some rice, of which I used a cup for breakfast, mixing it with organic raisins, some organic almonds, a tablespoon of local organic honey, an orange and some grated fresh ginger. Very yummy, warm and filling. Cost: 1$ rice, 0.2$ raisins, 0.2$ almonds, 0.6$ orange, 0.15$ honey and 0.1$ ginger = 2.25$

Lunch was a small serving of the chili – one does not really burn a lot of energy sleeping and so I was not really in need of food, but wanted some of the chili peppers (dried chili flakes and a fresh organic Jalpaneo pepper I had bought at the green grocer – did you know that if you want a hot pepper, you should go for the more shriveled ones – you did? Oh well, I learned that yesterday…) Overall I used 1.1$ for onion & jalpaneno pepper, 0.9$ beans, 0.8$ organic canned tomatoes, 0.25$ for other spices (chili flakes, cumin, salt) and 6.50$ for a pound of local pasture fed happy cow ground beef (which I pulled from the freezer in my attempt to clean out that part of the kitchen, too). Total of 9.55$ for approx. five servings – so let’s out the rate at 2$ per serving. I had a small serving and some rice for a total of 2.5$ lunch cost.

For dinner I met friends at a restaurant – a new place that serves Soul Food and live music with it. Dee’s Place was delightful, it was good to get out of bed and enjoy a crispy and not at all greasy fried chicken (and yummy appetizers, sides and pecan pie). 23$ for dinner & entertainment.

Total Food Cost of Today: 27.75$

Day 55 - Value Eating on 05/07/2010

Today was a hectic and food wise totally screwed up day. I was working a tasting in Evanston until the afternoon and skipped all food till I got home around 4pm for my last serving of leftover soup and a nice piece of the Red Hen baguette with organic butter. I love bread and butter. Which is why I try to keep little of both around. Has not worked too well the last months, cause I really like the salted organic butter you can buy in the US. Butter in Italy was a no-go. Terrible. Inedible. But why would they need to worry about butter if they have such an abundance of great olive oils? They even bake their pastry with olive oil and all cakes I ever baked that way turned out great! My favorite is a sponge cake w. orange juice and orange zest. Terrific. But I guess with it being May now, the recipe for this cake has to wait till winter … Be strong!

Total Food Cost for Today (and I am not proud of today’s screwed up diet): 2.5$

Day 54 - Value Eating on 05/06/2010

For breakfast I enjoyed a nice cup of latte macchiato – double serving of milk with a strong café and an organic orange: 2$, early lunch was another serving of my fridge cleanout soup: 1.5S… and one more serving to go (luckily I froze two smaller servings yesterday… I could have never finished all this soup… but I will get back to it soon, cause part of the fridge cleanout is also a freezer cleanout… some local veggies still in there I froze when there was more of them still around).

For dinner I treated myself to something special: I was in the area of Dirk’s Fish on Clybourn, and he has the best fish ever. And the best seafood salads. So I bought three little portions of three different salads to enjoy over the next couple of days – and with it came a beautiful, crusty Red Hen baguette: today’s share 5$.

Total Food cost of Today: 8.50$

Day 53 - Value Eating on 05/05/2010

For breakfast I continued to finish up the food bought by the friends that had house sitted in my absence. Cause I have huge difficulties throwing food away, I munched on what is the Trader Joe’s version of shredded wheat “frosted maple & brown sugar”. And what is written on the package is what you get: sugar, sugar, sugar. Very sweet, but no wonder if ingredients no. 2 and 3 after “whole wheat” is “sugar” and “brown sugar”… No mentioning of Maple Syrup an an ingredient though (and what is the “frosted maple” supposed to make a reference to??) The cost? Never buy this stuff myself, so let a box be… what, 4$ - assuming 13 servings in the box that comes down to 30cents and 50cents for my lovely organic Castle Rock Creamery milk! And a strong caffe and an orange to offset all that sweetness! 1.1$.

For lunch I dived into my leftover veggies soup – a BIG portion - let’s put that at 2$.

Dinner was simple frittata made out of one egg and a pinch of Roberta’s Roasting & Grilling Salt w. a slice of organic, artisan bread 0.33$ + 0.1$ + 0.1$+ 0.1$ to line the pan with Cosimo’s extra virgin olive oil.

Total Food Cost of Today: 4.53$

Day 52 - Value Eating on 05/04/2010

Breakfast was my last croissant w. French Lentil Jam- I will never get over the fact that someone invented something as delicious as lentil jam and it took me 35 years to find it. Actually, it took me 33 years to find it, and then another two to open the jar…. That is what you get when you buy food in every occasion… you stuff it in your pantry and stumble upon it years later. Anyways, delicious. Made in France with lentils that are actually a Slow Food Convivium. Better that Nutella, Crème de marron and Peanut butter together. Ridiculously good. Now, honestly, I do not remember how much I paid for a glass of jam two years ago. It was at the Salone del Gusto, the bi-annual Slow Food event in Turin. That is for sure. Funnily enough the price on almost every item was 5 Eur. Want real vanilla from Madagaskar – 5 eur. Dried figs from Tuscany? 5 Eur. A bag of dried beans? 5 Eur. So would you agree that we put the price tag of 5 Eur also on the jam? That would bring my breakfast to 3.40 for croissant & jam, plus 90 cents for my cappuccino.

Lunch was the continuation of my fridge clean out. I just want to get rid off all these root veggies, potatoes, chard, kale, onions – IT IS SPRING NOW! Bring out the asparagus, the rhubarb, the peas…. So I just threw a wild combination of root veggies, potatoes and chard into a pot, briefly sautéed in olive oil and turned it into a soup with a little of Fabio’s & Nicoletta’s Originario Rice from The Scrumptious Pantry. The whole pot holds 7$ of food and from what I have been eating today, I got at least seven portions in that pot. So that would equal 1$ for lunch.

For dinner, the quest to empty my fridge continued. Some chorizo sausage I found after friends that I had lent my place to had left behind, some EVOO, the last of the fresh chives – all over some pasta: 1$ pasta, 0.3$ chorizo (not local, not sustainable, comes in some weird plastic wrap. But cannot convince myself to throw it away. It is some sort of food, somehow. And other people are starving…), 0.25$ EVOO, 0.3$ chives = 1.85$.

Total food cost for today= 7.15$

Day 51 - Value Eating on 05/03/2010

Now, today was scary. I needed to run all up and down Chicago’s Northshore and had planned to be home for a late lunch and skip breakfast, cause it was either sleeping 15 more minutes or preparing a sandwich to take with me on the trip.

Then, at one of my stops en-route, at Sunset Foods in Highland Park, I took a sample bite of the carrot cake that was sitting on display in the bakery. Although I was not hungry before, the moment the sugary cake had been swallowed, my system was screaming for food. Very crazy reaction. So I obeyed to my body calling for sugary treats and bought myself a chocolate double muffin (1.11$). Now comes the scary part. That muffin put me on a level of sugar and energy - I was not even thinking about food for the rest of the day. What a mean piece of cake. I had to force myself to prepare a decent dinner at home, and that fairly late, cause the idea of eating nothing but a double chocolate muffin for a whole day gave me the shivers. Learning: Sunset Food has very yummy baked goods. But be aware that a muffin can be a meal! Share with someone or keep one half for later. Try to stick to that as a general rule when it comes to "snacks"!

For dinner I started my annual spring fridge clean out: half a bunch of organic Red Chard (1.29$), two organic spring onions (0.5$), a tsbp EVOO from Cosimo in The Scrumptious Pantry (0.4$), a hot pepper from the local Mexican store (but neither organic nor local) 0.2$, a tsp of freshly squeezed lime juice (0.3$) and a pinch of Roberta’s Roasting & Grilling Salt (0.3$), all over some pasta (1$) = 3.99$

Total Food Cost for Today 5.10$

Day 50 - Value Eating on 05/02/2010

Breakfast was late, a delicious Croissant from Gerhard’s Patisserie in Lake Forrest with a nice Cappuccino – 3.90$.

For dinner I had planned to stir up some veggies, but I went to check out my new garden plot in the afternoon and ended up going to dinner with a friend in a Serbian diner kind of place she recommended. Delicious Cevapcici. Childhood memories. We had a (then still Yugoslavian) restaurant close to home in Germany, and if the family went out for a treat, we got to choose between Turkish food or Yugoslavian. I loved to go there, cause I would have double portion of Palatschinken with chocolate sauce for lunch, while my Dad had the Cevapcici. Officially. Inofficially, I nibbled enough Cevapcici of his plate that he went home hungry. Anyways, for 6US$ enjoyed dinner in good company, talking about Square Foot Gardening. I am very excited to have my own gardening plot for this season. Although I am pretty sure that it will be hard at times to get to the garden often enough in the hot days of summer – especially as I do not own a car and the plot is 6 miles away. But I am not complaining. I cannot wait to have my first crops - wanting lots of different chilli pepper plants, eggplants, tomatoes, beets, potatoes and some squashes. My goal is to take a decent amount of this year’s harvest into the root cellar in autumn and feed myself with it over the winter. All very exciting!

Excitement came for free, the Food Cost for Today was 9.90$

Day 49 - Value Eating on 05/01/2010

Today was a fruit & veggie day. After all the sampling & trials for the asparagus pasta, I was ready to detox.

Breakfast was 1 banana, 1 organic grapefruit and one organic apple sliced and shopped into a refreshing fruit salad for 1.9$
For lunch I had a big serving of the freshly picked, local & organic arugula salad, tossed with a little of Guido’s Balsamic for 1.5$

Dinner was a mistake. Or not. Better: it was a temptation I could not resist. I had seen a very delicious recipe on the fabulous blog “Lucullian Delights” (see in navigation: Other blogs I like) for potato bread with chives. Turns out I had a bunch of local, organic chives in my fridge, which came in my weekly produce box. Plus, some old organic local yams – testimonies of a winter that finally passed (although Michigan did have frost last week, which unfortunately destroyed some of the fruit already blossoming). So, I was wondering, could potatoes be substituted with yams? How about the starch content? Was it similar? I decided to take the risk, using the Lucullian Delights recipe, adding another cup of organic whole wheat flour and more chives. What can I say. It was delicious. And so was dinner: I almost ate 1 quarter of my bread, slathered with butter. And just to be precise: we are not talking about a small loaf of bunny bread, but a large wheel! The taste of the chives mingled with the slight sweetness the yams brought to the bread. And the dough was perfect. Fluffy, moist – soooo yummy. Baking bread yourself is really not that difficult. The two important things to have are: a) patience – you need to give the dough time to rise. I had it sitting for five hours before baking it; b) make sure you have an oven thermometer, so you can finetune the temperature. The exact temperature is very important for bread baking! So, now how much did this dinner cost me? 1.49$ for organic dry yeast, 1.8$ organic flour, 1.2$ for Cosimo’s EVOO, 0.2$ organic raw cane sugar, 0.6$ for the yams, 0.4$ organic Castle Rock milk, 0.3$ chives = 5.99 for the bread overall. Let me have eaten 1.50$ of it with 0.4$ of butter = 1.90$ and a lot of happiness for dinner.

Total food cost for today: 5.30$

Day 48 - Value Eating on 04/30/2010

It was runny egg yolk w. asparagus recipe development day today. So my food intake consisted of exactly that: two large ravioli, some asparagus nibbled raw, some pieces of trial pasta… overall I spend 4.64$ on my two giant ravioli

Asparagus: 1.5$
Ricotta: 1$
Two eggs: 0.66$
EVOO: 0.45$
Flour: 0.30$
One more eggs: 0.33$
Roasting & Grilling salt: 0.1$
Balsamic: 0.3$

Add an apple and a little yoghurt for a Total Food Cost of 6$

RUNNY EGG YOLK ASPARAGUS RAVIOLI

Now that asparagus has even hit the farmstands in the Midwest, how about a scrumptious celebration of Spring, with some easy to prepare home-made ravioli.
No need to be afraid of the term “home-made pasta” – it is much less difficult that it sounds and you do not need a pasta machine either. Just some elbow grease to roll out that dough!

The following recipe is the result of several trials (varying the preparation if the asparagus for the best asparagus taste!), which I photographed step by step for easier instructions. Of course, this final version saw the camera break down. So, you have to imagine the pictures! But I figured I better share the recipe now, than wait for my new camera to come around! You wanna enjoy that asparagus ravioli while you can!

Why this one is called runny egg yolk ravioli, well, that is the beauty of this dish: you form a crater of your filling (in our case ricotta and asparagus) on a sheet of pasta dough, and nestle an egg yolk inside. As the fresh pasta cooks really quick (about three minutes), your ravioli will contain a warmed, but still runny egg yolk, perfecting the taste of the asparagus!

For the pasta dough (makes ca. six –eight large ravioli)
1.5 cups pastry flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp. Cosimo’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil (from The Scrumptious Pantry)

Method: (forgive me that I believe in working dough with your hands will get better results!) 1.) Mount the flour on an even surface, forming a crater inside, 2.) Whisk the two eggs and 1 tbsp. of Cosimo’s EVOO, 3.) Put liquid in the crater and start mixing in the flour using a fork, 4.) Knead the dough for about five minutes, adding some more EVOO if necessary. 5.) Set aside to rest in refrigerator

For the filling
1 bunch green asparagus (ca. 15 stalks)
1 cup fresh ricotta (if you can get sheep ricotta that is grand, but cow’s milk works just as well!)
2 tsp. of Roberta’s Herbed All-Purpose Salt (from The Scrumptious Pantry)
2 tbsp. of Cosimo’s EVOO (from The Scrumptious Pantry)
six egg yolks
four egg whites
1 tbsp. of Guido’s Balsamic Dressing Sauce (from The Scrumptious Pantry)

Method:
1.) Cook asparagus in boiling water until tender. Do not throw out the water afterwards – you want to cook the ravioli in it! 2) Mix ricotta, asparagus, herbed salt and EVOO quickly in a food processor. 3) Separate the eggs, as you want four of the whites to go into your filling! “park” the yolks separately in espresso cups. 4) Beat egg white till stiff and slowly mix with ricotta filling. 5) Add in a tablespoon of Guido’s Balsamic for little more complexity.

At this point you are ready to roll – literally. Roll out the dough thinly and cut into pasta sheets 4 inches high and 8 inches wide (you are gonna flip them over!). You should have somewhere between 6 and eight pasta sheets. I personally prefer smaller ravioli over lager ones, but feel free to make them in any size you want. Just be reminded that the size of the ravioli will increase in the pot – fresh pasta dough does that.

Put two tablespoons of the filling onto each sheet, forming a crater in the middle. Put egg yolk into crater. Flip over pasta sheet and firmly press edges together (attention! It is not a Danish Pastry, you do not want thick sides!).

Gently place in the boiling water and let cook for about two to three minutes. Serve with a drizzle of Cosimo’s EVVO and a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper.

Enjoy spring!

Day 47 - Value Eating on 04/29/2010

Gosh. How long was I off air? Mamma mia, time flies… in contrast to that ash cloud that hung over Europe and turned a quick visit to Europe’s bigges wine event – VinItaly – in a three weeks stay. Now I am back in the US and back to Value Eating.

And the best part: the month was all it took to go from beets to asparagus. How cool is that!

So today I indulged in half a bunch of fresh asparagus (1.5$) and fingerling potatoes (0.5$) , drizzled with Cosimo’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil (0.45$) – heaven! If I had to choose a preferred vegetable, it would surely be asparagus. The green one that is…. Yumm, a perfect dinner! Spring in every bite!

For brunch I had an organic green smoothie made of rainbow chard (1.50$), a banana (40c) and an apple (30c).

My afternoon snack were one of Nicoletta’s & Giovanna’s Brutti ma Buoni cookies from The Scrumptious Pantry (1.5$), dipped into a strong, black espresso (Dancing Goat, yep!, 0.50$)

Total food cost for today: 7.60$

Tomorrow I will experiment with the second half of the asparagus, fresh ricotta and homemade pasta for a runny egg tortellone. Fingers' crossed!

Day 46 - Value Eating on 03/30/2010

An early morning phone-call announced lunch meeting at noon. That meant that I skipped breakfast, cause I cannot eat earlier than 10am. I just have the feeling that I need to burn some energy, before I consume more! Which is also why I am not at all a person that eats at certain times. I eat when I am hungry, not when the clock indicates a certain time. Anyways, lunch was great. I had a delicious thin crust pizza at Osteria Via Stato. Their bread is to die for, too. I stuffed my face with it… I needed not only the espresso right after the meal, but another one back home (hello, dancing goat! 40c). I am totally addicted to bread. There is nothing more satisfying than bread.. yep, I am a carbs girl. I admit!

So after all the yummy carbs for lunch (price of which was 18$), dinner was a big salad using all my leftovers in the fridge – tomorrow is Wednesday, so I have the new produce box coming from Green Grocer Chicago. Yeah! ½ bunch of organic, but Californian celery stalks (95c), 2/3 organic (and Californian) cucumber (80c) = 1.75$ plus a cup of herbal tea (27c). It is about time the snow buggers of so we can get fresh local produce again!!! Even if one was content with local root veggies (I would) – there are no more to be found… all eaten. Finshed!!

Total Food Cost For Today = 20.42$

Day 45 - Value Eating on 03/29/2010

The weekend was all screwed up. I was doing cooking demos all over Chicago and that does not encourage eating. With all the tasting, re-tasting and tasting again, more food is really not needed…. I munched on some fruit and fennel, but that was all. So we will leave this weekend blank.


On Monday, I was on my way of preparing my morning Cappuccino, when I realized that the milk started to be a little off. Now, when that happens, there are two things I usually do: either I have the milk sit outside, go completely sour and then use the cheese to do Polenta dumplings – or I throw some of Fabio’s & Nicoletta’s originario rice from The Scrumptious Pantry into a pot, pour the milk over it and cook rice pudding. Very neat breakfast or lunch. Perfect brunch on this start into the new week. 40c milk + 60c rice + 2c cinnamon + 15c honey + 65c 1 apple, plus an espresso (40c) = 2.22$

For dinner I tossed some leftover pasta (60c) from one of the weekend’s cooking demo with the greens from an organic fennel bulb (50c) and threw the last chunks of blue cheese in there (31c). Whoa, that cheese has been around since mid January.. two months for a piece of cheese… guess it was about time it went… Some Olive Oil to line the pan (25c) = 1.66$

Total Food Cost for today: 3.88$

Day 44 - Value Eating on 03/26/2010

Breakfast: A dancing goat cappuccino and a slice of artisan bread w. yummy honey and an organic apple (50c+12c+15c+65c = 2.42$)

Lunch I tried to keep away from, cause I had a big dinner coming up… I enjoyed one of the herbal teas I had bought at the Empty Bottle Farmer’s Markt – 27c.

Dinner was in a Chinese restaurant that advertises as being a more “real” than the classical American incarnations of Chinese food. Well, I had the pleasure to have lived in China and they do not deep fry all their food to death… but dinner was fun anyhow, sharing food with a crowd of friends is always nice. 15$

Total Food Cost for Today: 17.69$

Day 43 - Value Eating on 03/25/2010

Today was the day of drinking out – coffee that is. I went to Wisconsin to meet with a group of incredible talented people to discuss a potential future collaboration. Four hours driving both ways meat I needed to get up early. Which meant that after 100 miles I needed some coffee. Now, I wish I would have a thermos for these occasions, so I can bring my own. Other than for food, I have not yet thought about that, but after today, I will certainly change that (I brought the other half of the “polenta lasagne” for lunch and that was great, cause just looking at the food available at the gas stations along the way made me feel a slight nausea. Anyways, I got my green mermaid worth of milk drink and made it to Iowa County w/o falling asleep (3.70$). I had another espresso at a small café/bookstore/food store in Mineral Point (the cutest town and a great store, too – Set in Stone is it’s name! 2.05$)

For food, I had leveraged on the fact that there was one last banana left from last week’s produce box and that this week’s included rainbow chard. Yeah, you are right – a green smoothie breakfast! I was curious to see if I would feel as hungry again shortly afterwards, but I figured that sitting in the car and not moving it might be a good opportunity to give the green smoothie his last fair chance. I added an apple and it was fine. Tasted fine and I was not overly hungry (at least not for the first 100 miles, hence ca. 1.5 hours – that is when I had the so called “cappuccino” which in this country contains enough mik to qualify as dinner!) apple 65c, banana 39c, chard 1.25$ = 2.29$

1.99$ for my lunch (the second serving of the polenta lasagne) and 99c for two organic tangerines in the afternoon = 2.98$
On my way back from Wisconsin I decided to take a nap in a rest area rather than spend more money on coffee… Luckily I am one of those people that can sleep everywhere, anywhere!

Back home I dived into my fridge to clear out all the veggies that were from last week and threw them together for a big salat: three turnips, 1/3 cucumber, 3 small radishes, a couple of celery stalks. Finished off with juice of ½ lemon (Tot 2.5$). Went with a sandwich of two slices of artisan bread (24c) and my imported camembert (35c)

To wind down before going to bed I prepared myself a tea I had bought at least weeks Farmer’s market from a little company called …. A herbal tea supposed to relax. It freaked me out at first, cause it smells EXACTLY like CREST TOOTHPASTE! I never ever had smelled that exact smell before anywhere else but in a squeezable tube that contained toothpaste. If there was a smell in this world I had connected with artifical, it was crest. Guess I was wrong. Looking forward to meet the owner of the company soon again at another market, I wanna know what that herb is!! 27c

Total Food Cost for Today: 11.45$