Cheap food

The cost of food has been going down since the start of the industrial age. Please look at the increasing cost of medical care. See anything fishy? They are pretty much inverse. As the price of food went down, and cheaper calories from added-value foods were made more readily available people began consuming more and more... crap.

This is the topic I am obsessed with: food access, local food economies, food availability, changing the subsidy structure of the US.

Quick dinner

steamed summer squash (some lil' fellas I got at the farmer's market last weekend)
pasta (I bought a whole bunch of pasta at Costco during the summer, still using it up, wishing it was whole wheat though...)
Cheddar cheese (I get flack for this all the time, because I put cheddar on everything, even spaghetti with marinara sauce, but it's so so good!)

Quite a simple dinner.

Oh, and fresh mint tea: fresh leaves of mint and hot water. So tasty and supposedly helps aid digestion! It also takes me back to morocco (minus the dirt and sugar commonly found in the tea there... and fewer leaves because I just have the one plant- and I want it to last ). This is totally my new favorite. I think it's better than green tea.

I might have some ice cream later. I probably shouldn't have bought the ice cream, but I like it so much! Maybe a milkshake, I need to use my milk before it goes bad.

I'm looking forward to doing a bit more cooking this weekend (amidst prepping for my midterm). It feels so good to make food. I miss having people to share it with though.

*Sigh* moving/long distance relationship/new town

Farmer's market trip

Rainy days are my favorite for farmer's markets, fewer people and still fresh tasty local produce! I went to the Farmer's market today with $22 in my pocket for food for the week (in addition to my 2.5 hour grocery shopping last week) and this is what I came out with:

$6 Rosemary plant
$2 4 ears of corn
$1.5 pumpkin
$6 1/4 peck of Ginger Gold apples
$3 large bunch of kale
$1.5 quart of small squash
$2 head of broccoli

$22 TOTAL
All local, fresh, in season, some of it organic (but I didn't,honestly, check that).

So meals for the week might include:
baked apples for dessert!
Roasted Acorn Squash (from last week's grocery store visit)
Potatoes (past farmer's market seconds at $1.5/pound!) with rosemary and kale
Steamed broccoli with elbow noodles, cheese and pepper
Sauteed baby squash and kale
Roasted Pumpkin soup

I finally bought bread last week which took forever because I didn't want it to have sugar in it. I finally found a loaf of organic bread with honey sweetener. I am still trying to avoid processed sugar. I bought a small amount of maple sugar at the co-op ($3 worth, a tiny little bag when it costs about $13.50 a pound!) in case I need to sweeten something. I also have honey from my summer in Vermont, honey from my brother in Oregon and maple syrup from Vermont (but that's mostly reserved for acorn squash!). I have still been thinking a lot about making bread. I also have a bunch of plums I bought last weekend that I might make a baked good with... I'm really feeling the baking jones. Need to make something!

Fall dessert, finally, baked apples again!!!

Baked apples are probably one of my favorite desserts. Especially with vanilla Ciao Bella gelato, however I don't have that. I do have some whipping cream so I'll probably whip some up (assuming it's still good, the sell by date has passed, and I don't know how long it stays good after that).

I'm not sure what kind of apple I got but it's flesh is pure white and it tastes like real apple. It is the best apple I've had in a while. I love apple season!!!!

Baked apple for me (for one :) )
1 apple (in a tall ramekin) cored (I left the skin on, but I wish I hadn't)
some butter
some oats
some raisins
some cinnamon
some sliced almonds

set oven to 350 degrees
bake for 30 minutes

mix up all the stuff except the apple, keeping the butter in little cold chunks, and pour into cored cavity of apple in ramekin

top with ice cream or whipped cream or yogurt or sour cream

About to come back from a summer of uninspired meals

Grad school is about to start. The budget is still smaller than I'm used to but the desire to eat well has grown exponentially because I just saw Food Inc. It was infuriating, frustrating , though provoking and inspiring. I'm going to try to eat on a budget but eat well. I've already decided that I want to reduce my sugar intake and no HFCS so this will mean some alterations to recipes and seeking out alternative sweeteners. I already know about honey, agave and applesauce but I'm also thinking about how I read that most recipes had a lot of excess sugar in them. So I'm going to try to wean myself off sugar, eat well and still within budget. The most encouraging part is that I will have a whole fridge and freezer to myself so I look forward to trying some preservation techniques.
I hope that anyone who reads this blog regularly or in passing will leave encouraging comments and think about how they are voting with their money.