Spring break is finally here and I truly need it. Although, I need to get something off my chest—Daylight savings time sucks! I hate that an hour of precious sleep was snatched away from my slumbering body in the name of longer evening light. Never mind that this extra light gives me cause to go outside and tend chores like gardening! Devin and I planned our garden beds and will raise them today. We ordered some open-pollinated seeds and will hopefully start planting in the within the week. This week, I am reserving my spot at one of our growers markets in town, getting a business license, and purchasing a temporary food/health permit. I am planning to sell some of my gluten free baked goods along with fresh fruits and vegetables. I am anxiously excited because specialty food is such a hit or miss product. People have to like the product. I think my baking and cooking taste good and so do my friends and family, but we are biased. I will say that when I do create something, I do so with joy in my heart and would like to pass that joy to others. I am glad that my husband is very supportive of this endeavor and that Devin is going to participate by tending his own garden and displaying his produce at the grower’s market.
Our goal is not simply to supplement our income although this does motivate us just a teensy bit. My primary goal is to become more self-sufficient in a community setting. A secondary goal is to offer something to others who don’t have a lot of choices for food security and this includes people with food allergies as well as those who would actually like to be able to pronounce all the ingredients in their foods. Actually, after writing that, I reminded myself that I have to apply for the New Mexico State Agriculture grant for purchasing ingredient labels. At least, now I have all this daylight to complete these tasks. I just hope my kiddos sleep in a little today. Another objective is for me to get knee-deep in this business for academic reasons. I really want to find out how effective this is for the people who have the most food insecurity—the poor. I think grower’s markets sincerely address this, but there are still so many areas in Albuquerque that do not have equal access to this simple commodity. I want to pinpoint these challenges and try to find ways to help. This one reason why I think a mobile grower’s market/nutrition education booth would help address these challenges. This booth will give growers the opportunity to reach a broader customer base. In addition, the booth workers/volunteers could give food conservation methods demonstrations and cooking demonstrations that can hopefully involve the spectators. I want this to be an economic intervention that provides much needed nutrition and creative ideas to our city’s people.
With the arrival of Lent, I had a hard time narrowing what I will do to help make the world a better place. I am definitely eating less because I have a portion size issue, but I also look at this in a broader sense which is to fight food insecurity. This will be much longer than 40 days and I am hoping that my efforts will span throughout my lifetime because I believe in this so fervently. However, I just don’t know where to start so I will just start at home. I can definitely say as I write this or do any task related to my goals, I feel nothing but joy.
Dinner Menu for the Week for those who are in need of ideas
Sunday-Grilled Fist sized Ribeyes (the boys around here need some meat), Grilled asparagus with parmesan and olive oil salad, baked potatoes with sliced green onions
Monday- We have a ton of left overs (sorry can’t help you all here)
Tuesday- Green chile stew with 6 veggies (cabbage, chile, beans, tomatoes, and potatoes, corn), GF rolls, and salad (Doubling this recipe to freeze for later)
Wednesday-Fideos with cheese and Quelites
Thursday- French Onion Soup w/GF crutons and Mixed Lettuce Green salad w/Belgian endive and toasted walnuts
Friday-Going to Las Vegas!!
½ cup water
½ cup skim milk
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup carrots
½ cup pineapple
½ cup Greek yogurt (regular yogurt is fine)
Handful of raisins
Handful of toasted pecans or walnuts
A couple dashes of cinnamon (about ½ to 1 tsp)
1 tbls of brown sugar
1-2 tsp of honey
Bring water and milk to boil on medium high heat. Add oats, carrots, brown sugar, and cinnamon, turn down heat to medium and cook until liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, mix together honey and greek yogurt. Add to bowl with pineapple, yogurt mixture, raisins and nuts.
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