Spokavore Challenge: Day Winner (I mean Five)

That’s right I’m all over that DOMA coffee. Bring it on!

Looks like Remi decided to stick in there this time. I wonder if he bailed somewhere right before midnight. hmmm… doesn’t matter ’cause I made it easily.

So, short and sweet.

Pre-breakfast: 2 delightful rosemary-butter shortbread cookies with coffee:

Breakfast: Same as Day One and oh so tasty with 1/2 pot of 4 Seasons Purrrfect blend.

Snack: apple, carrots & small planet tofu dip (the last of it).

Lunch: shredded carrots, garbanzos, lettuce, red bell pepper and tofu dip wrapped in a DeLeon flour tortilla.

Snack: tortilla chips and salsa.

Dinner: mushroom, red bell pepper, tomato, kale and Quillisascut curado in a warm and crusty calzone accompanied by a 22 oz. Northern Lights Brewery Pale Ale. By the way, husband discovered the hard way how much more it costs to purchase the 64 oz. Growler than 3 – 22 oz. bottles…

22 oz. bottles= $4.50/each or 3 for $9, Growler 64 oz = $22.50 but you keep the jug which has refill specials on Sundays.

Here’s my lovely calzone:

The husband couldn’t stand to be left out so here’s a picture of the monstrous calzone he made for himself (notice it barely fits on the plate and resembles a beached whale).

Spokavore Challenge: Day Two

Cruising right along. I’ve decided to get by without butter for this one only because I can’t bring myself to buy more when I’ve already got a bunch in the freezer. Same goes for coffee, I’ve got loads of “Seattle’s Best” on hand so I’ve been walking over to The Little Garden Cafe and having them fill up my jam jar so I can stretch it out. I came across some Four Seasons coffee I have but it’s whole beans and I don’t have a grinder. urgh.

So, here’s the food intake for the day:

Breakfast: Homemade pancakes (Shepard’s Grain of course) with Hidden Acres huckleberry syrup and a fried egg. The Hidden Acres was a complete surprise. I forgot I won it along with a bunch of other local goodies in December. I have a bottle of their huckleberry vinegar as well (Score!).

Lunch: Garbanzo bean salad with shallots, parsley, red pepper, broccoli and a vinaigrette (using local camelina oil & honey mustard- both available at Fresh Abundance).

Snack: The usual braeburn apple and carrots dipped in Small Planet Tofu Dip.

Dinner: Tried a new dish. The gals at Spokane Seed gave me a recipe for lentil taco “meat” when I stopped in there for the first locavore challenge. Now was a perfect time to give it a go. I followed the recipe with minor changes: I used homemade bouillon (I made a few weeks ago) instead of cubes and cooked the mixture on the stove for an hour instead of crock-potting it. Wrapped it up in those DeLeon tortillas with some lettuce, homemade salsa, onions and avocado. I apologize for the picture it shows off the guts and isn’t so pretty.

Spokavore Challenge: Day One

The Spokavore Challenge is the second locavore challenge I’ve participated in. Unlike the first this is less about adhering to extremely strict guidelines regarding eating only foods grown and raised within 100 miles and more about highlighting locally-sourced foods within 150 miles. Want coffee? Sure, we’ve got loads of local roasters. Olive oil? There’s a local distributor (and infuser) in Coeur d’Alene. Even butter! Geneva points out that Petite Chat has butter!

Fortunately for me the first day of the challenge happens to be a holiday which means I’ve got a little more time to spend in the kitchen extending my “Spokavore” options.

Breakfast: 2 beautiful scrambled eggs (from Quail Ridge Ranch), wrapped inside locally made corn tortillas from DeLeon’s Mexican Deli, topped with homemade canned salsa from last summer, mashed avocado and some shredded WSU Cougar cheddar. mmmm..mmm… tasty.

Lunch: Braeburn apple from Rainier Farms, carrots (Fresh Abundance) with Small Planet Tofu herb dip.

Snack: My attempt at Snickerdoodles substituting homemade applesauce for the butter. They ended up more like snickerdoodle cakes but all the girls at the Birthday craft party ate them.

Dinner: Pizza with roasted tomatoes, basil & Quillisascut Curado cheese; pizza dough made using Shepard’s Grain Flour (findthefarmer.com reveals my flour came from either Reardan or Colville).

Gearing up

Thought I’d do a little early research and start tracking down additional local food vendors. I caught the tail end of the Community Roots Market and picked up these roma tomatoes from a nice fellow named Art whose farm’s name escapes me except that it had Hill in it -dang it, I’ll post the name when I get it. He also gave me the most luscious peach that was so ripe it wasn’t worth him holding onto. The beautiful orbs in the container are from Fresh Abundance.

I also decided to stop at the “Simply Produce” stand on the corner of Garland/Empire and Division to see what they’ve got. Maurice is the Purchasing Agent there and is extremely helpful. He even went through the trouble of writing down for me a list of where all my produce came from. I picked up corn from Medical Lake, cantaloupe from Moses Lake and this crazy enourmous head of Late Flat Dutch cabbage from the South Hill that is shaped like a disc (although you can’t really tell in the photo).

The fabulous folks at Fresh Abundance are letting me place my produce order (build-my-own) with a request that they only send items on my list that fall within the 100 mile rule. I ♥ Fresh Abundance.

I’m in!

Here’s the lowdown: 5 days to eat food grown or raised within a 100 mile radius.

I’m already completely stumped as to what I’ll end up with considering I have access to flour yet no yeast,  no baking powders or soda, no olive oil. I’ve got a few ideas but I’m not going to give anything away yet; I might just have a few good ideas up my sleeve.

There’s no doubt I’ll learn a lot more about what is and is not available locally.

not minding running late…

If I don’t make the time to prepare my lunch the night before I usually end up running late in the morning or missing out on breakfast. On good days I’ll remember it takes only a minute to toss some yogurt and fresh fruit in a jar to eat once I get to work. On the other mornings when I’m too scattered and bleary-eyed to remember this I’m blessed with my backup breakfast: Madeleine’s ham and cheese croissant.

I love going to Madeleine’s. Having recently visited Paris for the first time I appreciate seeing beautiful pastries and baked goods much like I saw there. This particular morning the place was running late with opening and because I didn’t have time to spare I headed to a nearby coffee shop instead. I stepped inside and  turned around as soon as I noticed the baked goods were wrapped in plastic.

I’m not saying they weren’t fresh or local but across the street they are fresh from the oven in the same space! mmm-mmm-mmmm. So, I headed right back over there just as they were opening up and got myself a cup of Doma and that ham and cheese croissant I mentioned earlier. I’m surprised I don’t find myself running late more often.

I keep passing up their baked maple bars (which is good for my figure but torture to my taste buds I’m sure). I hear they are heavenly so I’m going to make an event of it and perhaps bring a girlfriend along to share in the pleasure.

Yeah, and after I grab my goods this is the walk I get to take to my office. Aren’t I lucky?

 

Sorry, I couldn’t bring myself to edit out any more of these photos because they document all that I love about my morning walk.