Organic Wine on the Cheap

I'm not much for wine usually, but while in Trader Joe's the other day, I found a sign that advertised an organic wine for 5.99 a bottle. 5.99 is a cheap wine any day, and to have it be organic? I was sold.

This Albero sparkling white wine was from Spain. It was very smooth and it went very well with our Italian-flavored dinner, including chicken and a risotto. Yum!

Now, my husband and I can almost never finish a bottle on our own with dinner. Our friends got us an awesome wine preserving decanter for our wedding. It looks something like this. It is an expensive initial investment, but it saves our wine, and we can have it for another meal. Even after several weeks, I can still use the last bits for a great white wine sauce when it's been vacuumed in with one of these doohickeys.

A reminder, check out other tips about finding cheap wine here. Also keep in mind your carbon footprint. If you live on the East Coast like I do, your carbon footprint is less for a wine from Western Europe than the West Coast. Go figure.

Get Physical With Your Food: A Simple, Hands-On Meal

We'll start today with a shout-out to the Mass Farmer's Markets and their loving local blogathon going on right now! Click on the previous link to find a lot of local bloggers who are sharing recipes and other ideas from their findings at local Massachusetts Farmers Markets. I've found some delicious recipes I'd like to try in the near future from my fellow bloggers out there, including this delicious looking Spanish Tortilla recipe I have got to try when I get my tomatillos from my Silverbrook Farms CSA this week!

Today, I'm talking about getting physical...with your food. We get so separated from our food, especially our meat. We can buy melon cut up into perfect cubes, chicken that looks nothing like the bird they came from, and the list goes on. But someone out there cuts that melon, someone out there kills that chicken (or runs the machine that does so.) I think it's only fair that once in awhile, we get our hands dirty, get a little more involved with where our food comes from.

This dinner was ALL HANDS ON; we had to work for all our food, but it was worth every effort.

The physicality is why I LOVE lobster. You have to work for your meat, but it is so worth it to bite into that juicy, briny flesh. For those living in New England, take advantage of lobster as a special occasional treat! We're lucky to have world-class seafood, the kind people will get shipped all over the world, right here and local. The Sustainable Seafood Watch has Maine Lobster as an acceptable seafood choice as well. Lobster is expensive, but not that expensive when it's local and you're buying from a Lobster Pound, which specializes in Lobster and buys direct from lobstermen. Our lobster were 6.99 a pound in Southern Maine.

I have no problem boiling my lobster, but I don't have a pot big enough. Thankfully, most places will cook your lobster for you for free. Make sure you have lobster crackers on hand!

You can dip your lobster in clarified butter, but I like olive oil, garlic, and some fresh local basil (from the CSA) instead.

Boil some farmers market-fresh corn for a delicious, messy, hands-on meal.

This is an expensive meal by my standards. It works out to a little under 10 bucks a person with the lobster and the corn and dippings. But this would be a great way to have a romantic meal, very Like Water for Chocolate. It's also a great way to celebrate a special occasion with your family. Lots of kids love taking their food apart and giving the lobster and autopsy!

Don't live in New England? If you live near the coast, try some local seafood, perhaps even a whole fish baked with lemon and herbs! Don't like seafood? Try some melon, corn, or other fruit or veggie that needs your hands-on work. You'll have fun with it!

Faux Pho Failure

I apologize for the delay since my last post. My husband and I have been eating on other people's dime for the last week or so, and there's no cheaper meal than a free one!

I would like to admit our first real meal failure. I will explain what we did, how it went horribly wrong, and how we realized it could actually be delicious next time.

Crockpots and soups are good ways to stretch a dollar, but it is the summer, so we didn't want anything too heavy.

I decided we should try to make Pho. Which, in making the link to Wikipedia to explain what it is, I realized I have always mispronounced. (I guess it is "Fah"). Pho is a Vietnamese soup with lovely cilantro and lime flavors.

So we set some organic and free range chicken broth chicken broth in a crockpot with some water in it as well. We used about one carton. We then put in two free range chicken breasts. Then...this is where we went horribly awry, we decided to "flavor" the broth all day. In went a ton of chopped cilantro, and a lime: chopped in half, but the whole thing, rind and all. Mistakes one and two right there.

We get back, and we add ramen last minute to our individual bowls. A pack each, at .10 a pack. What a bargain! Then we took a sip.

BITTER. Our Pho was a Bitter failure. Instead of the bright, citrus broth we had hoped for, the rind of the lime and the cooked down cilantro made the soup have such an aftertaste that we couldn't drink any more of it. We ate the noodles quickly and dumped the rest of the crockpot out.

However, I think this will be a success next time if we flavor the broth at the end, at the same time as adding the ramen. So, a successful faux pho recipe looks something like this.

Add chicken broth and chicken breast to a crockpot. Cook all day on low. Come home, spoon into bowls, add a package of ramen per bowl. Offer fresh lime, cucumber, and cilantro for flavoring. Enjoy.

Price per serving if this meal had been successful? About $1.50

I'll try again soon, once the bitter agony of defeat is out of my mouth.

The Uncompromising Banana

This commercial gets me every time. It's super-cute, that's for sure, but it also highlights a pretty obvious problem with bananas. They travel a very long way to get here. Bananas are one of those never was, aren't now, and never will be local foods that we probably shouldn't be eating. But Americans sure love their bananas, in vast quantities. Americans, on average, consume more bananas than apples and oranges combined.

To quote from the previously-linked NY Times Op-Ed piece:

"That bananas have long been the cheapest fruit at the grocery store is astonishing. They’re grown thousands of miles away, they must be transported in cooled containers and even then they survive no more than two weeks after they’re cut off the tree. Apples, in contrast, are typically grown within a few hundred miles of the store and keep for months in a basket out in the garage. Yet apples traditionally have cost at least twice as much per pound as bananas."

But I love bananas! And so does my husband! They're delicious by themselves, with peanut butter, or honey, or chocolate...

When Barbara Kingsolver set out on her Animal, Vegetable, Miracle project, trying to live completely locally, each member in her family got to pick a free pass item: something that they would get even though it wasn't local. One chose coffee; another chose chocolate.

If Kingsolver can do it, so can I. I choose bananas (and, okay, chocolate too maybe.) Why do I think it is okay to continue to include these items? The help me stick to my resolve to eat more responsibly.

That said, if I'm going to eat bananas, I better eat better bananas, more responsible bananas. I would like to get fair trade bananas, but I haven't found anywhere in Boston yet that stocks them. Whole Foods, however, does sell their "Whole Trade" labeled bananas, and we have begun to buy those. While they do not go through the Fair Trade Certification process, Whole Foods does promise to meet certain standards about the sourcing of its products.

Yes, they're nearly twice as much per pound, but if I'm going to eat a food product with such an enormous carbon footprint, the least I could do is spend the extra money for a product with a better grower-justice history.

For a list of where to buy various fair trade certified products, including coffee, fruit, and chocolate, look here.

We Grow Our Own Herb(s)

Once upon a time, I was in a grocery store and wanted some mint. For mojitos. I had three options. There was dried mint. Not really an option for mojitos, but it was mint. There was a section of fresh herbs, individually packaged a few twigs at a time in plastic. The price? Close to $4. I gagged. Maybe I didn't want a mojito after all. At this price for the mint alone, when you added in the rum and lime and...maybe I should go buy one at the bar.

Then I saw it. A tiny little plant, tall and spindly, just roots and twigs really. It wasn't even potted. But it was 2.99. It was grown hydroponically. It was alive, and the package said it would last up to two weeks in its wrapping. I brought it home, and instead of keeping it in its little snug wrapping, it found a home in a tupperware container with water in it.

And there it grows to this day. That sucker has made it several months now, happily feeding our occasional mint needs. We change the water out every once in awhile, but that's it. What a bargain!

This happy little mint plant inspired us to try to add to our "herb garden." We have recently added a small basil plant to the tupperware. There is no soil, no fertilizer, just water. The plants get plenty of sunlight and are very happy.

We don't have a yard, or a porch even. My husband and I live in a tiny glass box apartment suspended high in the air, which comes into our place courtesy of an H-Vac. But even we can have our very own tiny hydroponic garden. You can too. Just get out that tupperware you never use.

Tofu Scares Me

A lot. I enjoy those delicious little white cubes, particularly in a stir fry of noodles or rice and veggies and an appropriately spicy sauce. I don't know how to make tofu, though. I mean, is it cooked when you buy it? How long do you cook it for?

Besides, isn't stir fry expensive? Tofu's not exactly cheap, and all those vegetables must certainly add up.

So I set out Sunday evening to make stir fry as economical and delicious as possible, while still thinking about how responsible my food sources were.

First, my rice is organic short grain brown rice from Whole Foods. I realized the other day that Whole Foods (as do some other grocery stores, particularly smaller co-ops), sells some of their grains loose, in bulk. This saves on packaging both for the environment and your wallet. This meant that I could buy organic brown rice for the same price as non-organic, and I can bring the same container back to the store to refill when I am out.

I also included some snow peas from the CSA, as well as some shell peas, asparagus, and red pepper from Haymarket. Now, Haymarket is not a farmer's market. The vendors sell goods they have acquired from a wholesale market in Chelsea. Basically, these are the leftovers. The produce equivelent of the reduced price item section in a supermarket. On a grand scale.

This is an ethical dilemma. Is it okay to buy these goods? On the yes side, I would argue that this produce will be thrown out otherwise. Also, the vendors at Haymarket are "local" in the sense that they are running their own local small business, i.e. their fruit/veggie stand. On the no side, these items come from anywhere and everywhere, with little thought as to source, amount of miles traveled, carbon footprint, responsibility of the grower, etc.

I think the yes side can win out if one shops carefully at Haymarket. First, many packaged items, such as berries and lettuces have their place of origin on them. With a little careful looking, I found strawberries that were not from Chile but from California. California's not great, but for the same price I chose something with several thousand miles less of a footprint. You can also occasionally find organic produce at Haymarket, especially lettuces. Just watch the labels (on the produce, not the handwritten signs by the vendors). Lastly, I try to make some simple, smart choices. Are there blueberries from the U.S. being sold at Shaw's, Whole Foods, and Stop and Shop right now? Yes; okay, then I can buy blueberries at haymarket. They're likely from the US too. Kiwi? Those are never really in season in the US, so I avoid more exotic fruits and veggies. I also try to avoid items like apples, which could come from New Zealand or the US right now.

So, my stir fry veggie total from Haymarket was a whopping $3. This picture is deceptive. We had stir fry leftovers for lunch until Thursday following Sunday dinner.

My tofu was firm organic tofu.

After pre-cooking the rice and the vegetables, I mixed everything in a wok with tofu and some szechuan sauce from Super 88. Was it good? Absolutely! Would I make some changes before serving stir fry again? Again, absolutely.

1. Next time I will buy extra firm, or super firm, or firmiest of the firm tofu. "Firm" wasn't "firm" enough. It crumbled.

2. I will add the tofu to the wok a couple minutes early with the sauce so it can pick up more of the flavor. It was a little bland.

3. I will cook the rice longer and the veggies less. I thought the former would "finish" with the stir fry and the latter would be fine. The opposite was true.

So learn from my mistakes, and have no fear! Tofu won't hurt. I think. I should try again before making any promises.

We'll Bring Dessert!

Friends asked us over for dinner on Friday night. Accepting their generous offer to cook, I asked, "Can we bring anything?" The answer: dessert.

Simple enough, but what were we going to bring? I didn't have a lot of time, I didn't want to go buy a bunch of ingredients. Should we just stop by at a bakery and pick something up on the way there? It was tempting, but I thought I could spend less and know where my ingredients were coming from. So I opened my refrigerator, looked on my shelves, and realized I had what I needed for a crisp.

Crisps have all the goodness of pie without all the difficulty of making a pie crust.

Take about 6 cups of local blueberries (or whatever fruit you have on hand). Mix in a little brown sugar and a little flour and lemon juice until the fruit begins to look like it's coated in something. I used a tablespoon of each.

Take 1/2 cup of oats, 1/2 a cup of flour, and 1/2 cup of local butter (cut up into tiny chunks.) mix together, add enough cinnamon to darken the mix a little, and sprinkle on top.

Bake at 375 for 30 or so minutes or until it looks brown on top and a little bubbly on the inside.

Now, this was a "healthy" recipe, but if I was making it again, I'd use a little more butter.

You might raise the fair question..."I thought you said it wasn't supposed to take long! 30 minutes is WAY to long to bake something."

Actually, put it in one of these lovely pyrex dishes with a lid. Dessert baked while we ate dinner. The dessert took less than 5 minutes to prep.

Way less than a blueberry tart I was eyeing at the bakery. That thing was $12. My dessert? Less than 5, even with all those yummy blueberries.

Meatless Mondays: Breakfast for Dinner

Riding the T around lately, I've noticed advertisements asking me to "Go Vegetarian" for dinner tonight. While on the whole the carbon footprint (check out the previous link for an awesome calculator) for most meats is greater than a vegetarian meal, the same might not hold true if your vegetarian meal consists of conventionally grown fruit, vegetables, and tofu grown and shipped from all over the world (a recent trip to Whole Foods showed apples from Chile and asparagus from New Zealand, for example). And, if your meats are more responsibly and locally sourced, you are probably off-setting your carbon footprint. Besides, don't all those fruits and veggies and tofu and tempeh get expensive?

So the other day I set out to make an inexpensive, more locally sourced vegetarian dinner. I also wanted something a little easier, so I didn't want to spend a ton of time on it.

The result may not be the most nutritionally balanced meal I've ever made, but it was delicious. And relatively affordable. And incredibly local.

Make breakfast for dinner.

We started off with some pancakes. I LOVE Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking Mix. It makes the most delicious pancakes ever! A box is less than $3 and just 1 recipe took only about 1/4 of the box. This was the least responsible of the items, but again, it is a dry good. Smaller footprint.

I made the recipe using oil I had, eggs from my Silverbrook Farms CSA, and some frozen Maine organic wild blueberries from Trader Joe's. Those blueberries really made the difference. I used just a little Kate's butter to make sure the pan didn't stick.

Then, I used the rest of the eggs from my CSA share for the week to make a nice scramble with some Cabot reduced fat cheddar cheese.

Last but not least, you have to invest in some real maple syrup. You know, the stuff made from the sap of maple trees. Your major "syrup" brands, no matter what family-friendly face they plaster on their sticker, are basically corn syrup with coloring to make it look like maple syrup. Yes, it's expensive, but it is local for New Englanders. I watch and buy when it's on sale. A little of the real stuff goes the long way.

So try breakfast for dinner, and enjoy!

What are you Drinking?

I used to drink a lot of soda. Diet soda, particularly. Now, there's always controversy surrounding every artificial sweetener out there, but that's not the point of my post today. I am no chemist, but I did stop drinking soda for two good reasons. First, it's an expensive and carbon-footprint-heavy habit. At the height of it, I was going through nearly 24 cans of soda a week. Even on sale, we're talking 8 bucks a week for my caffeine fix. Second, I appreciate the food I eat a heck of a lot more now that I don't drink soda. I notice flavors more, because my palate isn't overwhelmed with sweetness. I particularly like more kinds of fruit now. And no matter what side of the sweetener controversy you fall on, fruit is better than soda.

However, I still like to have something other than water to drink sometimes. No more 8 bucks a week for me, though, now I spend much less on what I drink.

First, for those of you who are going to stick with the soda, you can save some money and make your own. It's a little expensive as an initial investment, but if you're committed to soda, it saves in the long term. Also, you can reuse your bottles, so you make a big reduction in your carbon footprint.

However, I recommend switching to iced tea. I make my own. Buy one of these tea balls (you're going to want one at least this size), fill it with tea, and boil some water. Attach the tea ball to a pitcher, pour the water in, and refrigerate. After a few hours, you have your favorite flavor of iced tea. I've had mango green iced tea, pineapple ginger black iced tea, red iced tea. You don't only need to use loose leaf tea. Just stick four or five bags of tea in. You usually can use a tea ball twice. Two pitchers of tea with 8-10 glasses each in exchange for four or five bags of tea. A much better deal per glass than soda.

Where do I get cheap tea? First, I often get tea as a stocking stuffer or gift. I haven't bought tea in MONTHS and am still trying to get through all the tea I have been gifted over the years. However, you can also buy cheap tea at dollar stores, Christmas Tree Shop, Marshalls or TJ Maxx, or online. Happy tea hunting!

For a little more flavor, mix in a favorite lemonade, limeade, juice, or other flavor combo. Whole Foods had organic limeade on sale the other day for $2, and it made mango green tea taste like a virgin mojito..with caffeine! It was a bit more expensive and it has plenty of calories, but you only have half a serving when mixing it with the tea. So 6o calories instead of 120, and .15 instead of .30.

So try being your own tea barista, and drink up!

Making Do With What You've Got...But You Can Microwave Quinoa!

Just because we made the pledge to eat more responsibly a few months ago now doesn't mean that we still don't have some slightly more irresponsible food lying around. Particularly those items in our freezer. However, I think one of the most irresponsible thing one can do with food, responsibly acquired or not, is waste it.

So this is how I ended up baking this delicious pre-seasoned pork loin for dinner. It comes from Shaw's and had been sitting in our freezer. It was an excellent bargain. Normally $10, it had one of those $3 off stickers on it, and it was already on sale at about $7. So $4 for nearly 2 pounds of pork, preflavored. Not too shabby. However, this best I can say about this pork is that it is "all natural." What does all natural mean? Well, that depends; I don't know, and neither, I suppose, does the FDA. Seriously, however, there were no chemical additives or artificial or synthetic ingredients in the pork. Not so bad, when you think about it. No promises, however, about what Mr. Pork ate while still alive, his living conditions, and whether he was treated with anti-biotics. Oh well.

Accompanying this were some delicious snow peas obtained from our CSA. I can't tell you what they cost, because I purchased a subscription, paid for in full a few months ago, which means I am paying $335 for fruits and veggies during a 26-week growing season. I get several items every week. It's been a pretty good deal so far.

Last but not least is quinoa. Pronounced KEEN-WAH, it's pretty delicious stuff. I tend to be more flexible about the locality of my dry goods, particularly grains, because they take much less of a carbon footprint to get here, with no special refrigeration, etc. required. It's a delicious, nutty grain, and it's high in protein and fiber. A box may cost close to 2.50, but seriously, this stuff stretches much farther than couscous. A quarter cup prepared is more than enough for 2.

My favorite thing about Quinoa? YOU CAN MICROWAVE IT. Just follow the directions on the box. I promise. It's just as good that way.

So, in conclusion, what did I do to cook this meal? Stick a thing of pork on a dish and stick it in the oven, removing at the right time. Rinse some peas, stick them in a steamer insert with some water and steam. Microwave quinoa. Pretty easy stuff. And, if we're honest, a significant improvement in responsibility from our normal eating habits.

Enjoy!

A Belated 4th of July Post: How to Feed More Than 10 People on a Budget

It has been a crazy week, and so I am much delayed in posting on the 4th of July party we hosted. Originally planning to picnic on the Esplanade, the half-million plus crowds combined with the 90+degree heat led us to change our plans with less than 3 hours before people started to arrive. Yet, with a quick trip to Whole Foods and Panera, and with a little creative stretching, we served about 12 people on leftovers and about $35. Pretty awesome.

First, we didn't serve a full "meal" per se, but the amount of noshes we had was more than enough for "dinner" for everyone.

First, we took a page out of our own book, and the base of our meal was about 4 baguettes from Panera (about $10), and some cheese. However, fancy local mozzarella was not in the budget for this many people, so some concessions were made to locality for budget's sake. Now, brie may sound fancy for a dinner party on the cheap, and it is, but we have found a super deal on it. President's Brie now comes in easy-to-slice brie logs, and since it is a new product, they offer a coupon for it! You can get $3 off a brie log. Fill out the info and you can print your coupons. Now, supermarkets like Shaws and Stop and Shop will put $2 and $3 dollar off coupons on cheese (and other deli products) that are close to their expiration date. If you look through the cheese section you can usually find some. So, on the 4th, we got 2 brie logs which are normally 6.79 each for about 1.79 each! Slice thinly, and these go a long way.

We also added some somewhat local blueberries and strawberries from Whole Foods which were on sale, some other random things we had lying around the house, and we made a delicious spinach salad. You can buy a whole giant container of baby spinach at Whole Foods right now for about 6.99. That sounds expensive, but we only used half of the container for our salad to feed 10-12 people.

Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Baby Spinach, sliced strawberries, +cheese (optional, feta or goat is highly recommended)

Dressing...mix balsamic vinegar, a little olive oil, and poppy seeds together. It's delicious!

So, with a delicious meal, we settled down for an excellent view of the fireworks...in air conditioning!

Buy in Bulk, or, How I Continue to Receive an Education Every Time I Go to Whole Foods

When I hear the encouragement to "buy in bulk" when I hear tips about saving money, I usually cringe a little. See, I've made buying in bulk mistakes before, like the time we bought about 120 rolls of toilet paper because it was the cheapest per roll price. There are now toilet paper rolls stuffed in the few conceivable storage places we could find in our tiny apartment (and some in some inconceivable locations as well.) Yes, we save .01 per hundred sheets, or something like that. Was it worth it? Probably not, although we have not had to buy toilet paper in a year. A full year.

However, buying in bulk sometimes makes sense. If you use a product or item frequently, and it goes on sale infrequently, then you should buy enough when it is on sale to last you until it is on sale again, as long as you have space and it won't expire.

That said, if you like Stonyfield yogurt, it is currently on sale for .50 a pop at Whole Foods. So now half of the top shelf of our refrigerator is yogurt. Seriously, we spent close to 25 dollars on yogurt alone yesterday. Why? Because, even with our yogurt-obsessed kick of one for breakfast and maybe one for lunch, we have enough to last us the next three months. It was over half off, and even sale prices on mass-producers dannon, yoplait, and the like are comparable to that price.

So think about what you like to eat. That thing you will always have, no matter what, with a great deal of frequency. Then go out and buy it when it's on sale. Easy enough.

However, no trip to Whole Foods is complete anymore without me learning something new. This time, I learned two important facts.

1. Whole Foods, as well as many other retailers, now offer recycling for #5 plastic, which is the heavier duty plastic found in, for example, my beloved yogurt cups. They'll also recycle your Brita Water Filters. An awesome tool to find out who near you recycles #5 can be found at the Gimme 5 website. There, you can find drop off points for #5 plastics, as well as learn how you can even MAIL IN your #5's if there is no place near you!

2. The cashier looked at us bug-eyed when we checked out with so many yogurts. He kept joking with us about how we were "setting records" on yogurt purches. Then, a manager saw our purchase and came over to tell us that Whole Foods will give you a 10% discount when you buy a case of something, or in bulk, such as say the yogurt, when it is not on sale. So, even if we ran out and yogurt had not gone back on sale, we could just ask and get a 10% discount. This holds true with all of their products!

Date Night Addendum: Wine!

I received some lovely advice from Kelly, a close friend and reader. Kelly has experience working in wine distribution, and had the following advice about getting a good deal on cooking wine.

"Keep an eye out, or ask a retailer, if they have any discount wines. Sometimes you can get them in 375mL, which is perfect for cooking. Retailers will have vintages that aren't selling well, so they want to move them out to create space in their store. OR... they know that particular vintage is going to start to turn, so they want to get something for it. I've seen bottles of wine, only fit for cooking, selling for $2.50-$3.00. I'm not sure what the prices would be in Boston, but at least you can get something from the US at a reasonable price.

We used to have deals for "cooking wines" at the distributorship for wines that sat in the truck a little too long in transport. It's worth asking your local retailer if their distributor has any deals on wines that might have turned and are now better suited for cooking. Your retailer will probably not think to ask that question to a distributor. Something to think about if you plan on doing more cooking with wine."

And, while we're on the topic of wine, please think about the carbon footprint of your wine. Not surprisingly, most of wine's carbon footprint comes from the transportation, not the fertilizer to grow the grapes, etc. This is a fascinating map telling (depending on where you live) whether it is less of a carbon footprint to have wine shipped by plane from Bordeaux, France, or to be trucked from Napa Valley, California. So think about where your wine comes from, and enjoy!

Date Night: Dinner and a Movie

This past weekend, I made dinner for date night. Date night often can mean dinner out, which is probably going to be at least 10-12 per person, so when I cook for date night at home, I allow my budget to run a little higher, because it is still a marked improvement over even burgers and fries at a local joint. This fancy-looking but simple meal was a real hit for date night!

First, I went to my local farmer's market and picked up some fresh veggies. I looked for something a little exotic but still tried to keep it cheap. I don't need any $9 salad...I went with these rainbow carrots for $2.50. They were beautiful, tasted delicious, and were easy to prepare; I just steamed them like regular carrots, but since they were beautifully rainbow-hued they looked like something from a fancy restaurant menu.

Then came gnocchi. I usually get it at Trader Joe's. It's really simple to make; you boil water, put the gnocchi in, and when they begin to float they're done. I toss in a little pesto (same stuff as on the pizza). They're usually well under $3 for a package, and there are almost always leftovers.

Now, I need to make an honest confession here. The gnocchi were NOT a hit this date night. I think they had soured or something. We took one bite and said, something is funny about these gnocchi. It wasn't the pesto. It was the gnocchi. So I'm going to have to look for a cheap but good alternative for the gnocchi at Trader Joes. Which is probably a good thing, since I realized that the gnocchi had come from Italy. That's too big a carbon footprint for my comfort.

But the best part of the meal was hands down the chicken. Now, the chicken was the usual Whole Foods deal, but this time I baked it in a white wine beurre blanc. Wow. It was that good. You, too, can impress, with a little slightly-past-you-want-to-drink-it-out-of-a-glass white wine.

Take two chicken breasts, season with garlic, a little salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Stick in an oven at 375 and set the timer for half an hour.

In the meantime, take leftover white wine and add it to a saucepan. Turn on med-high heat, and bring the wine to a boil. Let it bubble a few minutes to let most of the alcohol burn off. Turn the heat down to medium, and begin to add small chunks of cold, salted butter. Whisk hard while adding the butter. Add as much butter as it takes to make it look more like a sauce than wine in a pan.

Remove the chicken, pour the white wine sauce over the breasts, so they're just sort of bathing in the goodness. Return to oven, and finish the 30 minutes of baking or so. Use a meat thermometer to tell you when they're done!

A little butter goes a long way in this recipe. I highly recommend Kate's of Maine or Cabot's. Both are local and use a consortium model to gather the products of smaller farmers. Both are competitively priced with other butters on the market, and are available at Shaw's, Whole Foods, Stop and Shop, and most other retailers.

Final tally on the meal? I guesstimate about 6.25 per person. A good deal for such a fancy date night. Next time, more white wine sauce and less gnocchi.

Save Money: Pack Lunch

We're busy. Really busy. We don't need another thing to do. Or maybe it's social pressure. Everyone does it, so we should just do it too. Whatever the reason, plenty of people buy their lunch during the workweek. Once a week, twice a week, every day.

It's an expensive habit. Let's say you spend 5 bucks a meal every day at work. That's $25 dollars a WEEK on a single meal. And where exactly is that meal coming from? If you've committed to trying to make somewhat responsible eating choices, can you honestly say you know where your lunch money is going? Is it supporting whole trade products? locally sourced items? A well-balanced, healthful meal?

If you pack your lunch, every single day, you could save a lot of money off of your food bill. With a little prep time on the weekend, it only takes an extra five minutes in the morning. When you buy fruit on the weekend, make up some little single-serving containers. Same goes for chips, snacks, crackers, or whatever else you would like with lunch. Then all you need to do in the morning is make a sandwich or grab some leftovers, add a yogurt or fruit or snack, and go.

How much can you save? Let's have a look at lunch today. $1 on leftover pizza. Probably about .75 cents on blueberries. .50 cents on my yogurt. (On sale at Whole Foods last week for .50 each!) Maybe about .50 of little snack crackers. A whopping total of 2.75 for lunch. That's nearly half off if you're amazing at finding $5 lunch deals.

So, save the $2.75 per week, or any other multiplier, and pack your lunch.

A last bit of food for thought. What are you going to do with all that money you save? I challenge you: Try giving %10 of it to charity. Eat out twice a week? Saved $5 this week on your lunches? Give $.50 to a charity this week, and pocket the rest. Do a little extra good (you won't notice the difference, since it's money you usually spend anyway), and save some money as well. Then do it next week too. And the week after that. It will add up quickly

Happy lunching!

The Absolute Cheapest Meal I Know

So I have received some reasonable criticism from some of my midwestern readers. Yes, my meals are a great deal per person for good old Boston, but sometimes we need to eat CHEAP. Cheap for everywhere, cheap, cheap cheap. But it needs some nutritional value, and it needs to not taste like cardboard.

This is my staple: rice and beans. Make it with brown rice, and it is a high fiber, high protein, low fat, and delicious meal. There are many variations, and I doubt mine is even close to the most authentic, but it is healthy, quick, and CHEAP.

Jen's Rice and Beans

1 cup brown rice

1 can organic dark red kidney beans

1 can plus a little of water (refill the empty bean can)

cumin

red chili powder

nonstick pan spray.

Spray a saucepan or wok. Heat on high until the pan is hot, then put in rice. Add LOTS of red chili powder and cumin (enough so that the rice begins to take on a reddish brown hue). Toss or stir so that the spice disperses evenly, then add 1 can of red kidney beans, including the liquid that is in the can. Refill the can with water, and add that water plus a little more into the pan. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook until the water is absorbed. Using white rice, this will be about 15 minutes. If it is brown rice, it's closer to 25.

Serve immediately, and enjoy!

Now, how much does this cost? 1 cup of rice is maybe .25 cents if you buy it in bulk, a can of beans is .99 even not on sale, (you can buy organic too! for about the same price if you watch sales), and even though I use a lot of spice, it's no more than .50 cents of spice. You can definitely use less spice than I do if you like it mild.

The recipe makes 3 very filling lunch servings for a total of 1.75. About .60 cents per serving.

Now that's responsible on a budget. You're eating a vegetarian meal, with a pretty light environmental impact...just make sure to recycle the bean can!

You can also add toppings if you like: a little shredded cheese, or salsa, plus some tortilla chips. However, this also raises the cost.

ENJOY!

Navigating the Waters of Eating Fish

I used to think fish was difficult. It was difficult to cook, difficult to select, difficult to know what was okay to eat, and most importantly, difficult in terms of price. Take a walk into Whole Foods, a fish market, pretty much anywhere. Fish is EXPENSIVE! I have found some resources, however, that help navigate the ethically murky waters of responsibly selecting fish on a budget.

Many species of fish, having come into vogue at some point in the last 15 years, are drastically over-fished, and for those species that are slow to reproduce, this can be devastating to the populations. However, there are organizations that exist to monitor these levels and let the general public what fish to avoid in order to be sustainable; if you want chilean sea bass, for example, don't, and maybe your kids will be able to know what a chilean sea bass is some day. The Environmental Defense Fund and the Monterey Bay Aquarium both keep excellent lists of which fish species to avoid and which to choose. Monterey Bay Aquarium has even come up with an app for the Iphone called "Seafood Watch," so you can use your smart phone while shopping to compare sale prices with ethics.

Anyway, I would love to introduce you to dinner last night: the Silverbrite salmon, wild caught from the good old US of A, which goes anywhere from 4.99/lb to 5.99/lb (at most) at Trader Joes. This is way less than other salmon, and a pretty darn good deal when it comes to buying fish. Sounds lovely right? Silverbrite salmon also goes by the name...chum salmon. Now, you're probably thinking, "Hungry Grad Student, this is the fish equivalent of eating stale ramen noodles in the name of a cheap meal!" Au contraire, I reply. If you click the link on chum salmon, you will see that chum salmon has the LOWEST oil content of all salmon (i.e. is lowest in fat), and for those of you who don't like fishy tastes, is the most mildly flavored as well. I'm telling you, it's delicious.

More importantly, it is a VERY responsible way to eat Salmon. Salmon is a dangerous choice most of the time. Salmon farming practices are starting to resemble CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feed Operations), and wild populations of the "best" species, such as sockeye, are drastically overfished. Besides, take a walk into Whole Foods. Do you SEE how much they're wild caught sockeye is going for? We're talking 24-28 dollars PER POUND! That is NOT in my budget!

So go for the chum salmon. I'm telling you, you won't be disappointed. And whenever choosing fish, take a look at one of those seafood watch lists and make sure your choice is an ethical one!

Bake salmon at 350 for 25-30 minutes (flake it with a fork to check if it is done). I recommend marinating in good citrus/soy flavors. My default is to try a low sodium option from super 88. It's delicious!

Pizza!

I love pizza. I love pizza for dinner, I love it cold for breakfast the next morning. If I'm not mistaken, I am not alone among college students in this adoration for dough baked with cheese and other toppings. Many of us turn to bad, overpriced, and overcaloried delivery in the middle of a semester or after a long day at work.

There's a much better alternative that takes less than 5 minutes of your time and is ready in less time than it takes to get your delivery. No, I'm not talking about those gross frozen pizzas or even using one of those pre-bake crusts. Those are always too chewy or too much like cardboard, and worse, they tend to be terribly high in calories and sodium. Their ingredients lists also tend to read like a growing list from a chemist's lab rather than anything resembling bread.

No, when I want pizza, I start in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Near where you can find those prepackaged deli meats, guacamole, and the like, or perhaps near the bakery section, you will find pre-made refrigerated pizza dough. It's a little ball of dough, enough for a pie, and it never costs more than $2 (my favorite from Shaw's costs anywhere between 1.29 and 1.99). Buy it, take it home, roll it out on a pizza pan, and add your favorite toppings. Preheat the oven to 425, bake it for about 12 to 15 minutes, and just watch it until the crust is golden.

Above is a slice from my favorite combo of toppings (cold the morning after for breakfast), which comes to less than .81/slice (including the dough).

1-2 teaspoons of pesto, spread over dough in place of tomato sauce.

1 small red bell pepper, sliced very thinly, spread next over the pesto.

1-2 slices of prosciutto or other cured meat of choice; chopped up and spread over the peppers.

1-2 cups of reduced fat local mozzarella or other italian blend cheese. For a fancier version, shred fontina instead (this brings the cost up to about $1/slice.

It's DELICIOUS.

But don't take my word for it. Go get some pizza dough, and enjoy!

That trick your Mom taught you.

I was shopping at Whole Foods last night, when I saw that Applegate Farms turkey was on sale for 6.99 a pound. However, it was 9 o'clock at night, and the deli person told me that they were all out. But the next 6 words she said to me changed my evening, and my shopping..."But we do have rain checks."

Rain checks, those strange things your mom used to go pick up at the grocery store when you were small enough to sit in the cart. A certificate that entitles the bearer to get the product they wanted at a later date, even when it is NOT on sale anymore. You can get them at the Customer Service Desk at your local grocer.

I didn't know Whole Foods did rain checks. I bet you didn't either. So, from now on, I'm rainchecking things that they're out of when I do my late-night grocery shopping. Whole Foods sold out of the fruit on sale? That's okay, RAIN CHECK. Check out that last link for info on how grocery stores are REQUIRED to offer rain checks and how to get them!

Eating Local in the Midwest

I've been in Ohio for the last week, attending a conference. How did I fare at eating responsibly on a budget in Ohio? Mixed results to say the least. You can eat on a budget (at least a Northeast budget) in rural Ohio, that is certain. However, finding local, sustainable food is a little more difficult. With a little reorientation in what it means to eat locally and a lot of help from a local guide, I was able to adjust.

My conference was in Lakeside, Ohio, and we also stayed later in the week in Payne, OH (population 1166). At Lakeside, were staying in a hotel room, and went in search of some breakfast food to keep in a cooler in the room (no mini-fridge available.) We headed to...well, this might require a second set of ellipses...Walmart. There are many irresponsible things about shopping at Walmart, but driving around the area, we could not find another grocery store. We probably missed something (as many visitors do), but it seems like Walmart is the major food supplier in this town. So we tried to shop as responsibly as possible while at Walmart.

Wonder of wonders, Walmart carries Stoneyfield yogurt! Now, this yogurt had a larger carbon footprint than usual, but it was delicious, the only organic option in the yogurt section, and not too expensive. We also bought vanilla chai and mocha cappuccino beverages from Bolthouse Farms. The two lasted the whole five-day conference as caffeine intake and overall deiciousness. We saved on not buying coffee or tea at the coffee shop and spent about 5 in total for the two. Bolthouse isn't exactly angelic, but they do have some investment in the environment and ethical practices. It is always worthwhile to check out whether the maker of your beloved and regularly purchased product has an ethics statement, statement on the environment, etc.

Life as a flexi-locavore means just that, a little flexibility. Despite the hundreds of thousands of acres of food growing around me, much of it was not meant for my consumption or able to be purchased at a nearby store (without heading elsewhere for processing to be sold back to said local store). So, sometimes eating locally when your options are limited means eating at locally owned food establishments. So we ate at several delicious restaurants during our time in Ohio, including Diana's in Port Clinton, a local establishment with EXCELLENT food, including a gyro sandwich meal for 6.45, and many lunches and dinners in the 5-7 range (with enough for leftovers).

I also wanted to mention Essen House, in case any of my readers are ever in Antwerp, OH. This, like Diana's, is the sort of establishment that lacks a website. It is, however, food home-cooked by locals: cheap and delicious. For about $5, I enjoyed a grilled chicken wrap with fresh cucumber, lettuce, and carrots as well as some french fries and an iced tea. Essen House is unique; it is attached to an adult care facility and somehow has something to do with the Amish. I still have not figured out all the lovely details of Essen House.

Lastly, I'd like to give a shout-out to co-ops. Heidi, recently vegan and living in the area, mentioned how difficult it was to find local, organic, vegan (or any of the above) options in the area. She had recently found out about a co-operative grocery store that was meeting all of her needs. 3 Rivers Food Co-op was a fascinating (and affordable place to visit), and I am now doing further research on co-operative markets and grocers. Basically, anyone can shop there, but people can also purchase a share in the co-operative in exchange for vote on decisions made by the store as well as discounts. I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

In the meantime, it was back to Boston. More responsible and affordable meals coming soon!

The Takeout Alternative

Wednesday was a long day at work, a true hump day. Trying to stay motivated, my husband and I went for a good long run, but by the end of it, we were tired, hungry, and in no mood to cook. On top of that, we really needed to go get some groceries and do laundry. This is the sort of evening we would normally order pizza, some burritos, or some other cheap and quick takeout.

Instead, we picked up a few things at the grocery store, and for far less than takeout, we were able to eat a healthier, more responsible meal. Grab a good bread, find a few olives, and buy whatever cheese and fruit is on sale. Slice and serve and enjoy!

Our meal came from Whole Foods. Our bread was Iggy's, which was 2.49 for a delicious loaf of sourdough (we only used about half of the loaf on a very filling dinner.) There was some local fresh mozarella from a farm in vermont on sale, and we served about 5 worth of cheese. The tin of olives was by not the most local, but I don't know of any New England olive groves! Besides, the olives were .79. The strawberries were from California, not the best again but closer than some of the other fruit options, and they were a great deal at 5 for 2 pounds. We ate about 1/2 a pound. Last but not least, the deli section had a great deal on sundried tomato marinated chicken breast, 5.99/lb. That's cheaper than most deli meats, and so we bought a couple breasts to last us for the next few days lunch. We sliced up one breast for dinner. Total cost per person? When I do the math, we ate for about 4.40 a person. Still more than a dollar cheaper than the cheapest takeout (which, if you must, is a delicious, affordable, and all natural option) that I know!

So turn your takeout into a quick take-away from the grocery store, and keep the change!

Not Your Average Hot Dog

People have all sorts of grill parties, barbecues, etc. over the long Memorial Day weekend as they kick off the summer. Now nice suburbanites with big houses and budgets might be able to afford steaks, but on a grad student budget, grilling often means hot dogs or sausages. Now, I probably don't need to tell you what comprises a hot dog (woops, wrong link! ;-) ) The first one is a nice friendly link; if you can stand what the USDA has to say about hot dogs, here's the proper link.

All this mystery comes before you even begin to wonder about where your meat came from, what it was fed, what conditions the animal lived in, etc. This is why I was so excited to find that Whole Foods this week had a sale on all chicken sausage. 2.99 a pound for any variety of chicken sausage. Go check it out, the promotion might still be going on, and as I have learned, Whole Foods inevitably has some kind of in-house sausage on sale for about that price. What does 2.99 get you? Well, first, you know what happened to those chickens. Second, you get 4-5 beautiful, giant sausages. (Seriously, these things are big: one is plenty for me!) Third, they're delicious! Fourth, if you're honest with yourself, this is about how much you pay for about the same weight for the nice hot dogs at the grocery store. You know what I mean: the brands you actually want to eat. Last, and certainly not least, chicken based sausage is WAY healthier than a pork and/or beef based hot dog in terms of fat content and overall calories!

So, don't think too much about what's in that hot dog...it will give you a headache. Instead, ditch the dog for a proper sausage, with a bit more environmental responsibility and a bunch more healthfulness, all for the same price!

My husband loved dinner, and it took no time to make. One US of A eggplant grilled up (always salt your eggplant with pressure and papertowels before grilling to remove the bitter juices!) on sale for $1. One package of "beluga lentils" from Trader Joes: about $1.30! 4 Sausages: a little less than $3. Last but not least, another $1 worth of those DELICIOUS Silverbrook Farms pea tendrils from the Copley Square Farmer's Market! Yes, they're still fresh and delicious.

Result: an amazing, healthful, fast, and CHEAP grilled summer menu, at about $3.15 per person, and we have leftovers!

Happy Grilling!

N.B. We are in an indoor apartment with no outdoor space for a grill. We own a George Foreman. I believe an indoor grill is a necessity for the urban grad student with no outdoor space. Therefore University Administrators who may or may not read this blog: No portion of the Lifebook was violated in the creation of this meal.

Got Milk?

At first, I was a little disappointed in myself as I sat down to a dinner of cereal and milk. Nothing worth blogging about, right? Boy, how wrong I was. Recently, I've learned more than I want to about milk. You thought Skim, 1%,2% and whole were the only choices facing you in the grocery store? No way! There's pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, organic, raw, milk with/without rBST (an artificial growth hormone), and the list goes on. Whew! It's a lot to even understand what the different options are, let alone to decide from among them (there is a lot of disagreement and debate in the field). Mapping the Mustache has a helpful glossary, although their own taste test is hardly scientific.

What all these articles don't say is that some of these other types of milk are EXPENSIVE! We're talking two to three times the cost of regular milk, and buying organic milk is not quite like buying organic rice or eggs. Milk doesn't last too long.

Or does it? We have recently made a small change in our milk buying practices that costs nothing, tastes better, and is likely saving big on our carbon footprint. What is this seemingly magical change? We check our milk cartons for a label that says UHT (the law requires UHT milk to be labeled as such), and if it has it, we don't buy that milk. Why is that? UHT means that the milk is ultra pastuerized, or heated briefly to 280 degrees, giving it a shelf life of 30-90 days. That means if you see milk with this label on it, it can sit in your grocery store for up to 3 months before its expiration date. The catch with UHT milk is that it can come from anywhere that is convenient for your local grocery store, and likely comes from much farther away than pasteurized milk.

Pasteurized milk, on the other hand, is heated to either 161 degrees for 15 seconds or 145 degrees for 30 minutes. (You can get this info from Cornell, although this is a word document you need to open). It has a shelf life of only 12-21 days, and thus is likely to come from nearer by if possible (such as in New England).

You also save on your carbon footprint because ultra-pasteurized milk needs to be stored and transported at no more than 38 degrees or it loses shelf life. Pasteurized milk can be stored and transported at up to 45 degrees (although the ideal is still lower). This difference in a few degrees in your milk truck adds up over time!

So look for the UHT, and if you see it, walk away! Unless you're one of those wealthy grad students who is already buying local organic milk from the grocery store. They often ultra-pasteurize their milk in order to help their bottom line as the market is still emerging. However, this grad student is on a budget, and so this hungry grad student is taking baby steps...baby steps away from the UHT.

Over-Indulgence with a Little More Dignity

Most grad students I know (and let's face it, most students/teenagers/young people in general) will on occasion sleep in on the weekend. For a morning person such as myself, this means 10 AM. For others, this could mean 3, 4 in the afternoon. Such occasions call for grad student "brunch food."

Brunch can be an extremely dignified meal, with eggs benedict, bagels and lox, pancakes, and other items that restaurants charge way too much to order. This is why this morning, I confess, I ate a "grad student brunch." This is pure (over) indulgence on the cheap. It could be multiple slices of cold leftover pizza, potato chips, ice cream, etc. The recipe is as follows. Eat one thing that you happen to be craving at a time inappropriate for such food, and repeat until you've had too much of it.

This blog may be about responsible eating practices, but that doesn't always mean I eat responsible foods!

This is how I found myself eating double chocolate chunk cookies and milk as my brunch. They were delicious! Just because I found myself mindlessly enjoying my Saturday morning didn't mean I couldn't do it a little more ethically than I have in the past!

I used a baking mix, which requires that I add an egg. I have begun buying cage free, vegetarian feed, eggs. Look for eggs that are American Certified Humane. There are more of these options available than ever in your local grocery store now! You can also pick up eggs from your local farmer's market, and ask the farmer under what conditions he keeps his laying hens! Yes, these eggs are expensive (they run 5 or 6 bucks a dozen), but I normally use only an egg or two for baking. So we're talking a difference of .25 to .30 an egg. It's a quick swap to make your (over)indulgence a bit more ethical!

So what's your overindulgence food? Chips, ice cream, pizza? What might you be able to switch out to make that irresponsible decision just a little more responsible?

Ethical Entertaining on the Cheap

With my husband out of town, I decided to play hostess to my friend Kelly. Together we walked to the Boston Copley Square Farmer's Market. If you're in MA, you can find farmer's markets near you at the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets. For other areas, I highly recommend Local Harvest. You can use their interactive map feature to find farmer's markets near where you live!

Now, just because I was going to a farmer's market didn't mean that I was able to completely avoid sticker shock. At one of the stalls there were these beautiful lettuces, spinach, and other greens lying in beautiful bunches on lightly colored baskets. They looked perfect, and they better have tasted that way... they were $5 for a QUARTER POUND. Ouch! None of that for this hungry grad student! Instead, with a little walking around, I came upon Silverbrook Farm's stand. Now, another couple has signed up with my husband and I to split a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture subscription, with Silverbrook Farms for later in the season. So after chatting for a little while with the gentleman at the stand, I settled upon a box of pea tendrils, for $4. I had a little sticker shock, but as you'll soon hear, I think I got an excellent deal! I also picked up a large bunch of rainbow chard for later in the week from another stand fr $2.50. $6.50 for plenty of veggies for awhile for me was a pretty good deal in my book!

On to dinner. I grilled boneless skinless chicken breasts from Whole Foods. Now, these are more expensive than your average chicken breasts (although not that much more so.) However, the meat is far more ethical; it's nice to look at a meat counter without worrying about what came from where and what was done to the animals who made that meat. Here's a trick I learned by accident at Whole Foods: buying over 3 lbs means a discount! So, when we stocked up on chicken breasts, we got the meat for about 5.99/lb, about a .40 discount per pound! I served a little less than a pound of meat, so while the meat makes up 3/4 of the cost of the meal per person, it's still less than $3 per person. I added some dried salt-free Italian spices, garlic, and lemon juice. They were great!

I also served the pea tendrils straight up. They were amazing! As Kelly said, even thought they were just tendrils, they tasted like peas. So true! They didn't need a thing on them, and I served them raw. They tasted great with the chicken! So fresh and green. Plus, we only had about a quarter of them...$1 of fresh pea tendrils for two people!

Lastly, I made spinach risotto. I enclose my recipe, although I don't really ever do things "exactly" according to recipe. Adjust for your needs!

Makes 8-10 side servings

2 cups arborio rice

1 can of chicken broth (organic low sodium fat free if possible)

1 tablespoon olive oil

frozen organic spinach

parmesan cheese.

Put the oil in a hot wok or other shallow pot. Toast the arborio rice at medium heat until it begins to brown just a little. While it browns, microwave the broth until hot. Pour appx. half of the broth into the wok, and stir. Add water to the remaining broth, microwave to reheat. Once the rice has absorbed most of the broth, add more and stir. Continue to do so until the risotto is cooked through (taste to make sure it isn't chewy). You should go through about 4 total cups of liquid in this process. Remove from the heat, and add as much spinach and cheese a you would like. Keep stirring, and the spinach will defrost and the cheese will melt. Serve immediately!

I couldn't quite figure out how much per person my risotto costs, because I didn't use all of any of the ingredients I used. Suffice it to say that it is a very affordable side dish, and I made enough that I am all set for lunch tomorrow!

In total, I think this fun, quick, yummy, and above all ethical dinner clocks in at about $4 per person! That's cheaper than a night out any day!

Yogurt: Or How I Get Through Breakfast Most Mornings.

I don't exactly cook a full breakfast every morning, and I seriously doubt most of you do either. It is, however, an important meal to start the day. It is also, I have recently learned, an enormous ethical pitfall that confronts you at every turn. Just what exactly is in your cereal? your milk? Yea, those eggs you liked so much? the chickens aren't exactly happy or healthy or even beak-having.

I'm sure I will get to all of those choices at some point, but I don't like to have to worry too much at 7 in the morning about whether I have already transgressed 6 times before I've even showered. I also like a routine.

So I reach for yogurt. Yogurt can also be difficult, but I've found an excellent (and relatively affordable) choice. I like Stoneyfield farms organic yogurt. It's available at most of the major grocery retailers in the Boston area (like Shaw's and Whole Foods). It is also organic and local (Londonderry, NH to be exact). They use cows from local farmers in the New England area to supply their milk. So your yogurt hasn't traveled very far at all. I highly recommend the Greek Yogurt, sold under the brand Oikos. Very healthy and delicious.

In case you're concerned about Stoneyfield farms being one of the "Big Organics," I went to the Cornucopia Institute, a not-for-profit family-scare farming advocacy group, which rates milk product companies. Stoneyfield Farms gets 4 cows out of 5, a pretty great rating.

Now, this does come at a price. When not on sale, the Oikos runs 1.99 a pop at Shaw's and 2.19 at Whole Foods. (See, Whole Foods is expensive, and not always for a good reason). However, that's my breakfast (occasionally I'll have some fruit with it). So, less than $2 for breakfast isn't a bad deal in my book. Especially when you consider the price difference. There are some pretty crappy Greek yogurt brands out there (yea you Shaw's brand, I mean you, you taste like bad sour cream). I like Chobani, but it's 1.69 not on sale, so for an extra .30 in the morning I can make an ethical decision about my food. That's .30 I'm willing to spend. Besides, if you like regular yogurt, they're even cheaper!

So, how to be a cheap Grad student? I got these beauties on sale at Whole Foods the other week for about 1.29 each. I bought a LOT of them. I'm watching the sales to see when they'll come on sale again. Also, Stoneyfield farms has a rewards programs. You enter codes on the lids on their website, and you earn free yogurt! I'm a sucker for rewards programs. But this is one I can feel good (and cheap) about.

Welcome!

My husband and I are graduate students living in Boston. This spring, I read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma in rapid succession, and I was inspired to try to be more conscious about our food choices. We both resolved to try to buy more organic more often, and local products where possible. Why? What we eat matters.Please, read either or both of the books, but it matters for the environment, for the farmers, for the animals that produce the animal products we eat, for our local economies, and for our health. Why wouldn't someone want to eat more ethically?

My response was quick: have you been in a Whole Foods lately? Talk about sticker shock! For a couple on a shoestring student budget, is it possible to eat more ethically while still maintaining some semblance of financial responsibility? We're going to try. I'll share our successes and failures, and hopefully share some helpful ways to think about where your food comes from in the process!

Now, I also enjoy cooking, so I will also share recipes and photos as well. Eating well should mean it tastes good!

I won't always be perfect, or perfectly economical, but I'll be honest about our attempts to eat both responsibly and economically.