First menu of the new year!

Dinner
Week 1:

Homemade pasta with mushrooms, onions, spinach and cashew Alfredo sauce (http://www.hotforfoodblog.com/recipes/2015/9/16/creamy-vegan-mushroom-fettuccine-alfredo)
Chili + cornbread
Broccoli/cauliflower bake with navy bean white sauce
Pumpkin sausage soup + cornbread
Mediterranean sweet potato bowls with spiced chickpeas and hummus dill sauce (http://minimalistbaker.com/mediterranean-baked-sweet-potatoes/)

Week 2:
Fajitas with homemade corn tortillas, sauteed portobello strips, bell peppers, zucchini, and onions, spinach, salsa, guac, sour cream
Stir fry: ground beef, ginger, onion, garlic, purple cabbage, red peppers, carrots, broccoli, soy sauce
Pinto bean and rice chipotle bowls with kale, guac, salsa, and sour cream
Bubble & Squeak: potatoes, butternut squash, and cabbage with beef and onion gravy
Sweet potato/leek/coconut red dahl, rice (http://thefirstmess.com/2014/12/11/sweet-potato-carrot-dal-with-coconut-leeks-and-a-wine-country-ontario-giveaway/)

Week 1:
Soup x2: kidney beans, butternut squash, green beans, spinach, onions, zucchini
Green leaf lettuce with veggies, beans, and avo-lime dressing, bread and butter
Hummus and veggie sandwiches
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Lunch
Week 2:
Soup x2: lentils, carrots, peas, kale, onions, yellow squash
Spinach with three bean salad on top, bread and butter
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Hummus and veggie sandwiches

Caleb's lunches, same both weeks:
Refried bean burritos
Rice, ground beef, spinach, and onion stir fry x2
Spinach with 3 bean salad + tortilla chips
Soup of the week + tortilla chips

Here's the recipe for the sour cream I'll be making:

http://www.glutenfreeveganpantry.com/the-best-damn-vegan-sour-cream/

Grocery list for two weeks:

Costco: spinach, frozen broccoli, frozen green beans, Normandy mix (frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots), butter, canned chickpeas, canned kidney beans

Aldi: 2 avocados, zucchini, bell peppers, celery, yogurt, lemons, stewed tomatoes, 16 oz. cremini mushrooms, garlic, salsa, white beans, raisins, clementines, bananas 

Hyvee: bulk bins-coriander, cinnamon, dill, salt, rosemary, red lentils

Kroger: leaf lettuce, lentils, ginger, 6 portobello mushrooms, purple cabbage

2nd week pick up 3 avocados and baby kale

The beginning

This journey began over three years ago when we started buying all of our meat, milk, and eggs from local farmers. We also visited the farmers market periodically, but the majority of the rest of our food came from the grocery store. This past spring I planted my first substantial food garden since leaving Italy in 2013 and our homestead there with a mature orchard and 1/2 acre garden. We also signed up for a CSA that lasted from May to November (picked up our last basket for the year this weekend) and over the summer my drive to find local farmers to produce the rest of our food grew and I began researching. I read "A Nation of Farmers" by Sharon Astyk and Aaron Newton, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver, and "Plenty" by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. So far, in addition to produce and animal products, I have found local sources for popcorn, wheat, oats, corn for flour, black beans, and red kidney beans. We are expanding our garden to six raised beds and in the spring will also be utilizing some community garden space to grow potatoes, onions, corn, and watermelon (crops that take up too much valuable space in my little city garden). We are also adding two apple trees to our mini orchard that already includes two peach trees and two cherry trees and adding four raspberry bushes as well. I plan to volunteer with grape harvesting at a local vineyard next September and receive grapes in return (and to try my hand at making red wine vinegar from their wine). I learned of www.fallingfruit.org and have mapped out a list of places to forage peaches, apples, apricots, blackberries, and walnuts next summer and autumn. I hope to learn how to ID a few of the most basic wild mushrooms this spring, since any non-local mushrooms will be out of our diet by May (sad face!). This journey for the next six months will include keeping track of what I buy at the grocery store with the goal to reduce that by May 2017 to imported spices, fair trade coffee, tea, and chocolate, and some baking items like baking powder and vanilla extract. It will also include my meal plans and recipes for reducing dependence on imported foods and utilizing the abundance available all around me. Join me as I journey towards completely local eating! Buon appetito!