Like everyone else, I want to eat better. Trite but true.

In order to aid my evolution towards better eating, I’ve come up with some food oriented goals for 2010 and beyond. I’m posting it here to hold myself somewhat accountable. The good thing is that none of these goals really require giving up anything. I just have to try a little harder and think about what I’m eating.

1. Eat fish (or seafood) at least once a week. We eat it about twice a month now…but I’d like to start eating fish or seafood more often instead of heavier meat-centric meals. Added bonus: fish and seafood are quite often easier (and faster) to prepare than meat dishes.

2. Eat vegetarian at least once a week. That’s vegetarian…not vegan. I can’t promise to go that far. I like eggs and dairy too much. Not much more than a year ago, I scoffed and “icked” at the idea of vegetarian meals. I’m a carnivore at heart. But I’ve slowly come to realize that I’m okay with a lot of vegetarian choices. And if you throw mushrooms into the mix, I’m nearly as happy as I would have been with beef or chicken or pork or duck or lamb or turkey. I’ve also realized that just a hint of meat in a dish can sometimes satisfy my carnivorous ways. A few slices of bacon in a quiche or a little bit of sausage in a bean soup actually gives the dish enough meaty flavor for me!

3. Eat vegetables and lots of them. And make them local if at all possible. Once farmer’s market season is in full swing, I plan for the farmer’s market to be my first source of food ideas each week. We’re also already planning a larger garden this year. We’re trying to learn about when to plant what so that we’ll take full advantage of all of the growing seasons we have here in Virginia. In addition, I’d like to pick lots of fruits (and veggies) at pick-your-own farms when they are in season. There’s a chance we’re going to need a bigger freezer and a very large pot…

4. Eat non-industrial meat and poultry. Yes, it’s going to hurt the wallet but I’d really like to find local sources of grass-fed beef, humanely raised pork and cage-free chicken and eggs. We’ve got plenty of possibilities between the local farms and the farmer’s market. And the somewhat famous Polyface Farms (located on the other side of the state) actually delivers their goods once a month to a home here in Williamsburg that happens to be located only about 10 minutes from my office.

5. Buy even less processed food than we already do. We’re pretty good about this already but there’s always room for improvement. I’d really love to be able to stop buying anything containing high fructose corn syrup and/or a list of ingredients a mile long but I’m not sure this is entirely possible. In trying to accomplish this goal, I’ll definitely have to bake more breads, cookies and other treats. Fortunately I’m not at all opposed to expanding my baking repertoire. This goal is also a way to help cut some costs in the food budget. It’s a lot cheaper to bake a loaf of bread than it is to buy one at the store. Same with cookies and cake and granola and so on. We can then spend the extra money on the more expensive but better for you foods I’ve already mentioned.

P.S. I’m already off to a good start on goal #5 with the bread in these pictures. I baked it myself last weekend for sandwiches rather than buying a loaf of grocery store bread!

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Behold the fruit (or vegetable) of my not so terribly intense labor. These little guys really weren’t ready to be picked but I was making potato salad and my potato salad needs green onions. These are the first green onions I’ve picked from our herb and vegetable gardens. It’s so nice to just walk out the kitchen door and grab just the amount of herbs I need for whatever dish I’m preparing.

After pining for an herb garden and/or vegetable garden for the last several years, I’ve finally got a little one going. Space at the new house and weekends off have finally given me the opportunity. I started the herbs on our deck very very shortly after the last frost but we kind of procrastinated about the vegetable garden. I honestly didn’t think we’d do it this year. But we did and I actually kind of squeal with delight every time I look at the garden and the quickly growing plants in it. Which means I squeal every day as I can’t resist looking at the plants.

In addition to the obvious benefits of very-locally grown food, I keep thinking of the money we’ll save by gardening. A large portion of our weekly grocery spending goes to fresh fruit and veggies…cutting just a portion of that will save a lot of money. Getting the garden set up was cheap. We spent $11 on dirt from a local source and about $30 on seeds and other garden necessities. Think of how few vegetables $41 buys at the grocery store. A bunch of basil alone will set you back several dollars. We’ll recoup our expenses in no time…if the bunnies don’t get to the veggies first.

Because I planted the herbs earlier, we’ve been enjoying cilantro for quite a while. It was a great accompaniment to the carnitas I wrote about last week. I used it in the fresh pico de gallo I made for those.

And then there’s the basil. I made a pretty tasty Israeli cous cous salad last week with lots of torn fresh basil in it.

The basil looks like it’s going to be tremendously prolific. I’ve already shared a little of the basil as there’s plenty of it and there’s more on the way for later in the summer. A lot of that will probably get made into pesto that I’ll keep in the freezer to use later in the year.

I’ve also got some rosemary, parsley and chives planted in the deck based herb garden…but those don’t make me quite as happy as the cilantro, basil and green onions do. The rosemary is still really small…but I expect to get all excited about that once it grows a little.

We planted our “better late than never” vegetable garden at the end of May figuring that the part of Virginia we live in has a pretty long growing season. The boyfriend wisely put up chicken wire to try to keep the woodland critters out of our veggie plot. Our house is really close to a small woods and we have an insane number of rabbits roaming the neighborhood. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the chicken wire will keep the bunnies out of the garden as I don’t want to have to share with them!

In our small garden, we’ve planted 2 kinds of green beans, lima beans, cucumbers, Roma tomatoes, butternut squash, broccoli, basil and green onions. We’re not really expecting the broccoli to do well and if it doesn’t, we’ll plant more later. We’re also going to plant some spaghetti squash a little later in the season as I’d love to have a supply of that for the winter.

If this year’s garden does well, we’ll probably expand it a little bit next year. We’re starting small…but we’ve got big hopes.

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Continuing on with the old pictures I need to post…

Here we have what I consider to be my best yet potato salad.

I wasn’t really a fan of potato salad as a kid. I think this is because I don’t care for the type of potato salad with lots of mustard and hard boiled eggs. I don’t love mustard but I can deal with it in small quantities. I love hard boiled eggs…but I don’t want them in my potato salad. I also don’t like raw regular onions in my potato salad (or tuna salad or any other salad). Anyway, I never ate much potato salad as a kid because of the mustard, onions and eggs but I’m a pretty big fan of it now.

This potato salad was made with red and white new potatoes from my local farmer’s market. After cooking and draining the potatoes and letting them cool for a little while, I tossed them with a few heavy splashes of rice wine vinegar. I lightly mashed a few of the potato chunks as I think it improves the texture of my potato salads. From there, I added chopped celery and green onions, a heavy splash of lemon juice, a little bit of dijon mustard, mayonnaise and sour cream. I added some salt and pepper to taste and the salad was complete.

Sorry that I don’t have a more concise recipe for this potato salad. Everytime I make salads of this sort, I kind of make it up as I go. A little of this, a dash of that…until it tastes right. This salad definitely tasted right. So right that I ate it all nearly by myself in just a couple of days.

On to the non-food stuff: I’m on vacation. Woohoo! I’m looking forward to lots of reading at the beach. I might even knit a little since I probably won’t be cooking much this week. I’ve got a few projects that I need to work on…like Christmas stockings for us for the new house. I started one months and months ago and haven’t touched it since. I also promised a coworker a pair of fingerless mitts. I have the yarn for them and they’re a pretty quick knit so I’m going to attempt to start and finish them next week.

I’m currently reading the Julia Child biography My Life in France. I absolutely love the book so far. If you like food or France at all, read it.

The house is still in progress but a walk-through has officially been scheduled for a week from now. Finally. But we’re still not sure when we’ll move.

That’s it for now…I think it might be time for a sunset walk on the ocean. Try not to be too jealous of me.

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