Locavore Challenge Day 5: I’m a Winner!

I ate a lot yesterday, oh yes I did.  I ate half a cantaloupe, almost half of the white watermelon, an apple, spelt flake cereal with huckleberries and honey, huckleberry smoothie, mashed potatoes with garlic and garbanzo beans, and corn.

Most importantly, I survived FBC without drinking.  Okay, that’s not completely true.  Monique came with a secret weapon and we find ourselves outside a bar drinking from her jug.  But don’t worry, it was still alcohol within the limits (Organic China Bend white wine…that doesn’t look white and tasted horrible)!

Us at Caterina Winery having a good time…without any drinks!

Today, my first meal was at Santé.  I had the tofu, pear salad, and a brownie.  I couldn’t have asked for a better after-challenge meal.  I tried tonight to make some vegan cookies and cream cupcakes but they didn’t turn out that great.  Ah well.

I had a great time doing this challenge.  I learned a lot, and have a new understanding and appreciation for where my food comes from.  I enjoyed the movie Fresh and I can’t wait for the Main Market Co-Op to open! I really wish I had more time during this challenge to make more thoughtful meals.  I didn’t use any herbs, and I should have.  There were a lot of things I would have changed, but alas, I won, anyway!  Congratulations to Paul, Monique, Hank, and Rachel for also winning!

Day 4: “It’s Not About Competition, It’s About Completion”

My heading is true in so many ways.  Why is it true this time?  Because there is almost no competition left!  Okay, there are some hardcore awesome people still in the game (Rachel, Hank, Monique, Paul and ME), but we lost a few more today (Stephanie, Mark, Geneva, Remi and Andrew).  Wow.  I never thought I would make it to the fifth day (20 more minutes), but I have.  I have never gotten this far in any of the challenges, yet!  However, if I wasn’t so busy, I might have failed already. Thank goodness for work, all the appointments, and everything else that has gotten in the way of my boredom.

I’m not going to list my meals, because honestly, today I didn’t have time to actually prepare anything, so here is what I ate: half a cantaloupe (yep, I said half), huckleberry smoothie (same as yesterday), a carrot (thanks to G Rachel at the Fresh movie), and an apple.  Yeah, I suck at eating.  Tomorrow I’m going to actually make something.

I can’t wait till it hits midnight tomorrow night!

Locavore 7vs7 Challenge: Day 3 and I’m still in it!

I had a very busy day today, so I didn’t eat as much as I would have liked to, but I did make myself dinner tonight.  In fact, I’m still trying to eat it and it’s creeping up on the 22nd hour of the day..too late to be eating dinner.

I was able to stop by the Farmers Market today for about 10 minutes and pick up a variety of squash, cantaloupe, and some watermelon-looking fruit from Elithorp Farm and Nursery (Deer Park, WA). 

Breakfast: Peach

Snack: Apple

Mid afternoon lunch: Emmer cereal with some whole milk and honey.

Went work and came home with three ziploc bags of frozen huckleberries!  Yum!  My coworker picked them in the Priest River area.

Because I have these awesome huckleberries now, I had to make myself a smoothie!

Made from huckleberries, milk (I’m trying to love you right now), and honey (although it didn’t really need any honey).

Dinner I had this:

Same as Mondays dinner (wheat berries, tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic AND onion..I semi-forgot the onion on Monday..from Eleven Acres), with dried roasted potatoes and garlic.  I got a little impatient with the potatoes and knew they were going to suck.  That’s the reason they are in the background being blurry.  I don’t know what to do with the wheat berries, still.  I’m trying to figure it out.

But anyway, I’M STILL IN IT!  Hands down favorite to be the next person to crash out?!  I haven’t yet Spokane Food Blog!  But other people have…Bart and Crystal…who knew (Bart? Obviously. Crystal? Didn’t see it coming).

Now that people are falling, I can’t wait to see who comes crashing down tomorrow…

Locavore 7vs7 Challenge: Day 2 and I’m a Grump

I don’t want to make myself dinner.  I just got off work and by the time I make something it will be 8:30-9 and that’s just too late.  I wish I had a bottle of wine for dinner instead.

Breakfast: peach smoothie (same as yesterday)…and um, yeah..the whole milk and I are fighting.  Let me know if somebody wants my milk.

Snack: Apple

Lunchish: hot emmer cereal with honey

Right now: A glass of apple cider

My bicycle fell apart on me on the way to work tonight, and that is mostly why I’m grumpy.  My derailer (or derailleur if you want to be French about it) decided it wasn’t going to do its duty.  Hopefully it’s fixable and I don’t have to replace it. And hopefully it’s all better by Friday!

I might also be grumpy because of the lack of caffeine.  However, I refuse to blame caffeine for my irritable behavior (because being addicted to caffeine is just plain stupid)!  I blame my irritable behavior on my dad for making me Italian! Ha!

Okay.  I need a little more variety on my food.  I’m going to the Farmers Market early tomorrow morning, and hopefully I will be making a visit to my friend Jaime and Chris’s house.  They basically have a farm in their backyard with chickens and all sorts of herbs and vegetables.

Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be in a better mood.

Locavore 7vs7 Challenge: Day 1

Day 1 on the Locavore Challenge is coming to an end.  Here is what I ate today:

Breakfast: Garlic

Lunch: Honey with Garlic

Snack: Honey

Dinner:  Garlic on Garlic with Honey

Okay, just kidding.  Obviously.

Here are my real meals:

Brunch: Rolled spelt flakes cereal (Lentz Farm) with honey (Green Bluff Honey Farm), peach smoothie with honey (peaches from Walters at Green Bluff, milk from Spokane Family Farm bought at Fresh Abundance)

Snack: Apple (from Walters)

Dinner: Steamed potatoes with garlic (potatoes from Eleven Acres Farm in Green Bluff, garlic from Deer Park Farmers Market), Lentz Spelt whole grain berries (Lentz Farm) with garlic, cherry tomatoes, and green bell peppers, and corn (all from Walters).  The best part of the meal was the corn.  It was really good.  The rest did not go the way I had planned.  I didn’t even bother taking pictures of the meal it was that bad.  But thank goodness for the apple cider I bought at Walters!  I’m with you Crystal, I might have to pick up another gallon sooner than I thought.

Anyway, Monique and Crystal, your meals look and sound great!  I’m sorry to hear John is out of the challenge and the circumstances behind it.  Good luck to everybody else!

7vs7 Locavore Challenge

I’m assuming you are reading this because I am part of the Spokane Locavore 7vs7 Challenge (since I really only post on this when I’m doing a challenge).  Unless, for some reason, you are following me because of this post where I explain how rough my life is because I have curly hair, in which I’m sorry to disappoint you.  If you are waiting for Part II, you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer.

Tomorrow the challenge begins!  Read more about it at Spokane Food Blog on who the contestants are, their blogs, and everything you want to know about the rules and guidelines.

This is my third challenge (out of three, wooot!), and I gotta say, I’m done with this whole losing business.  I believe this one won’t kill a little bit of me like the other two did.  It’s a lot healthier than the first one (where I swear I lost 7 pounds and I had a bald spot from shedding about 1000+ hairs) and I won’t have an arch nemesis tempting me and making fun of me like the 2nd one (or will I?).  However, like the other two, I’m not very prepared for this one.  But then again, when I  have these two key ingredients, I don’t need to be!

Yum.  I might just eat all garlic for the whole challenge.  Honey?  I don’t buy honey ever, I’m an agave nectar type of girl.  But I probably could put down a pound of honey if needed. Anyway, I’ll keep you updated on this rollercoaster ride of a challenge.  Check my blogroll for the other contestants (or just, ya know, go to Spokane Food Blog, or read the Friendfeed, or check the 7vs7 Twitter…)

Ahh yes, another one!

August 31st – September 4th.

Stay Tuned!

Promession

Promession: “an ecologically-conscious method for disposing of human remains by freeze drying. It was invented and patented in 1999 by the Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak.”

The body is frozen using liquid nitrogen. Then the body shatters into a powder and is shallowly buried inside a small biodegradable starch coffin. Within 6-12 months, the body is composted.

So, when I die, promessionize me (I just made that word up). Grow a tree on top of me to humor me. I think this whole natural burial thing is a lot cooler than being buried in a coffin and wasting land, and/or being cremated and polluting our fine air. So, there you go..I just told my parents about it too so if it doesn’t happen, yell at them for me, please.

Note: I just realized this sounds a little suicidal, but have no fear, I have at LEAST 78 years ahead of me…goodness.

The Reason Why I’m Out: Because I’m a Coward.

I really truly believed I could have gone all the way. Honestly, I probably could have if everybody else did. However, I’m a sucker for peer pressure. I don’t like structure in anything I do, let alone with what I eat. Also, I was not feeling myself. I forgot to mention my irritability on the 2nd day because it sounded like everyone was doing well…but I was not doing well. I had a terrible headache and had to take a nap mid-homework. I woke up basically crying. I don’t want to say it is because of my caffeine addiction (I usually go 3 -4 days without caffeine) but my body was going through some kind of withdrawal that was not pleasant. The next day I was so cranky that all I thought about was going home and going to bed. I wasn’t craving anything. I wasn’t really anything at all. Web.md would have diagnosed me with Mild Hypoglycemia, and yeah, maybe I did have low blood sugar (but the only hypo I am is an occasional hypochondriac).

So there you have it, I lost to this:

A Phish Food Milkshake!

Like I said before, I didn’t lose by myself. In fact, I was the third one to taste a delicious Ben and Jerry’s milkshake. As you may know now, Remi and Geneva went out minutes before me. Unfortunately, while they were enjoying some amazing Gorgonzola french fries, I had to go back to work…

ALTHOUGH…after work, I made my arch nemesis drive me to Steer Inn so I could get a grilled cheese and french fries (they have the best fast food grilled cheeses in Spokane, just ask to get it on a french bun). Then, I proceeded to eat a billion chocolate-covered pretzels and pass out (it was wonderful). Like Geneva mentioned in her blog, I advise the remaining contenders not to do something like this because your body will hate you more than you will ever know.

I’m excited I did this competition and to eat more non-processed foods. I actually enjoyed getting creative and making stuff I normally would not have (and by that I mean, the stuffed peppers, and that’s it). Plus, it will help me train for that marathon that I’m planning on doing.

Good luck everyone (by everyone I mean Mark S, Mark G, and Andrew)!

Day 3…

It looks like the day has come.  I hate to be the first to let everyone know that I’m out..but it’s true, I’m out.  I’m not the first to go.  I didn’t go out by myself.  I’m going to wait till they admit it themselves to tell you how it went down.  My arch nemesis had nothing to do with this, but it was definitely peer pressure (and by peer pressure I mean: 3 text messages, 1 missed phone call, 1 voicemail, and a few emails…all from the same person).

Anyway, here’s what I ate:

Breakfast: Apple

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Leftover stuffed pepper, orange

Dinner: ???

Dessert: ???

Anyway, my blood sugar levels spiked, and my body is not agreeing with me. I am, however, extremely excited to have a coffee tomorrow!  Good luck to everyone who is still on it…I know at least two of you will go all the way!