Like most of us, food is the biggest consumer purchase I make.
The effects of our quest to become conscious consumers have spread naturally to my girlfriend Lauren. She has come up with a list of area restaurants in Providence that serve local food and has been a strict vegetarian since our last class. When going to restaurants the first two times, we forgot try and get local beverages as well. This is something we are working on. Anyone know where I can get a local martini?
Thankfully, Providence has a brewery and Rhode Island is home to a handful of vineyards. So, I do not need to worry much about alcohol barring martini purchases. A friend of mine was recently visiting and left me with some homemade schnapps. Good timing!!
We also attacked Lauren's biggest offender in the world of processed foods: fake-meat patties of all kinds. Chick-patties, veggie burgers, fake sausage patties, and black bean burgers have all been known to grace her freezer. Sometimes all of them are present at once and they are delicious! I have often fallen victim to their inviting convenience and wonderful taste. It is important that we both have convenient food available in our homes because our schedules are so busy. She is a medical resident and I am . . . everywhere.
Our strategy was to make a huge vat of delicious ginger spiced veggie burger mix and freeze a bunch of the patties. This worked out wonderfully especially since we had the help of a friend who we rewarded in veggie patties.
The real test will be to see whether or not we can keep the things in stock!!!
The next area of challenge was caffeinated beverages. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning and a cup of tea in the afternoon. I have been known to suck down three cups of Gen Mai Cha tea while completing a homework assignment at Tealuxe. Tealuxe may as well be my office, I am there so often. I make my own chamomile tea, but that doesn't cut it for my caffeine fix.
I had to face the cold hard truth that tea, coffee, and chocolate, though they may be prepared locally usually come from places such as South America, Africa, and Asia. Too often the people that harvest these products are not paid enough money. When I do purchase coffee or chocolate, I try to stick to fair trade organic. There is also another designation called "direct trade" which as far as I can tell, negotiates a fair price for not only the small farmers, but also to the middlemen. All participants are under the same contract which stipulates how much each individual party will get paid (http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Direct_Trade_Coffee).
I was working an event recently where a local CEO of a coffee company in Providence called the Coffee Exchange was speaking. Their specialty coffee is fair trade organic. One of the original owners of the Coffee Exchange formed a group called Coffee Kids in an attempt to try and give back to the families in regions where coffee is grown. www.coffeekids.org.
Hooray for homemade! I spend at least one day per month as an "intense cooking day." I get three stock pots, my crock pot, and my oven going, and make most of my meals for the month (at least all of my lunches). It's great - saves me a lot of money, and forces me to plan my meals a little more carefully (which always helps me make better health and environmental choices).
ReplyDeleteMy favorite trick of the trade? Cheater canning. Imagine: You just made a MASSIVE batch of soup. You don't want to eat it for every meal for the next week before it goes bad - so how can you preserve it? Well, you could freeze it, but, if you're like me, your freezer is already full and can't fit 15 bowls of soup. You could can it, but then you have to get the massive canning pot out, boil 5 gallons of water, sterilize your jars...and, let's be honest - I'm just too lazy. SO, what I do is, while my soup (or curry or stew or risotto or cabbage or pretty much anything else) is still really hot, I fill a clean jar as full as I can without making a mess. Using a hot, clean rag, I wipe the lip of the jar, then put on a lid and secure it tightly. Then, I leave the jar on the counter for an hour or so to cool. As it cools, the air trapped inside will shrink, pulling the lid tight. So, the jar is not technically "canned" (it's not safe to leave it in your cabinet or on your shelves), but it's sealed enough to last for MONTHS (literally) in your fridge! At present, I have no less than thirty jars of deliciousness waiting for me, and it only took a few hours of veggie chopping and cooking on one day! I highly recommend it. (Note: It's even more fun when you can get your friends in on it and swap jars. I started a soup exchange at work and it is delightful...)
Karyn I thought your attempt to eat local veggie was so interesting! I am going to have to get the veggie burger recipe from you!
ReplyDelete@ KP. That is most awesome. Can one use old spagetti sauce jars for that kind of thing?
ReplyDelete@ Kris. I just roughly followed a recipe online.
You need some oatmeal and one or two eggs depending on the amount. . .This serves to hold the burgers together. The rest is up to you. Mushrooms are recommended in a lot of recipes. In addition, we added sweet potatoes, green beans, onions, parsnips, carrots, a healthy amount of ginger, and a touch of some curry we had. You can spice how you like.
Once your veggies are either grated or food processed, you can mix with the oats and egg to make patties. Then just cook the patties.