On the first Monday of every month, we take on a ‘mission’ – a shift or habit or inspiration – to work on together. There’s strength (and support) in numbers! On the last Thursday of the month, we reconvene to see how far we’ve come.

This month’s mission was all about eating. Specifically, making better choices towards a healthier, more sustainable food system. Each Monday, omnivores were challenged to go vegetarian, vegetarians were asked to eat vegan, and vegans (that’s me!) were becoming loca-vores. It sounded simple enough, but for me it wasn’t so easy, after all.

I checked in after the first week to go over some of my issues. At that point I decided to approach being a loca-vore more like I approached my month of RAW. See, with veg*nism, you either are or you aren’t. You either eat ‘X’ or you don’t, period. But eating RAW, and eating locally, can necessitate concessions. (I can get raw olive oil, but I can’t get local olive oil. I can get local tofu, but I can’t get raw tofu. Etc.) A Raw Foodist is one who eats over 80% raw foods, and when I was raw I maintained a 95+% raw diet. So I treated eating locally the same, and I’ve maintained a 95+% local diet each Monday since then.





Monday 17 August 2009

I started this day better prepared, having visited the co-op the day before, this time. What a difference a little foresight makes! Breakfast was a big bowl of watermelon and a glass of OJ. I had a midmorning snack of a nectarine (my fave!), and lunch was that incredible plate shown above. All from my garden, red and yellow tomatoes and Italian basil. I also had an entire plate of my mutant carrots – all of them! An afternoon snack was another bowl of watermelon and the last of the foraged blackberries.




Dinner was quite the feast! Homemade Indian stew (Aaloo Channa Masala?) with potatoes, local chickpeas (score!), onion, tomatoes, spinach, and garlic. I served this over farro and accompanied by my homemade garlic naan bread (local whole wheat flour, w00t!). It was divine.

Things I used that were NOT local: The OJ, which I poured and drank on early-morning autopilot before I even realized it, oil (cooking and olive), vinegar, 1 tsp sugar + 1 tsp yeast + 1 tbsp rice milk for the naan.







Monday 24 August 2009

I didn’t really eat meals, so much as constantly grazed all day. From morning through evening I ate 2 peaches, 3 apples, a foraged pear, and lots of local trail mix. Dinner was a veritable smorgasbord of Mediterranean goodness. I whipped up some homemade roasted garlic hummus with those local chickpeas, I oven roasted a zucchini (from my in-laws garden), I tossed up a little salad of garden cherry tomatoes and [in-laws garden] cucumber, served some sliced onion and raw spinach on the side, and finally, some more homemade bread – pita pockets this time. It was fantastic!

Things I used that were NOT local: olive oil, some lime juice and a scoop of tahini for the hummus, a bit of sugar and yeast for the pitas, and some cranberry juice (it’s medicinal, ya know?)





So, how did it go for all of you guys? Were you successful in your new dietary ambitions? What have you been eating?

Just a reminder that this coming Monday is still a part of August. I’ll be announcing the next Monday Mission so we don’t have to wait ’till the 7th, but I’ll also be finishing up this mission and eating all local. I hope you’ll join me next Monday and see this all the way through to completion. You guys are awesome!

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Tags: local, reduce, vegan

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